There are so many cloud computing companies to choose from, and selecting the best service for your business is not always a simple task. While you may already be using some public cloud services for your business, you may not be satisfied with the results you are getting.
To enjoy all the benefits of cloud computing, such as cost savings, higher productivity, streamlined communication and collaboration, improved security, and higher customer satisfaction, you need to carefully choose your cloud service provider.
Here the things to consider when choosing a cloud provider.
1. Potential Cost Savings
Moving to a new cloud provider should give your business substantial cost savings. This requires you to be able to make an accurate measurement of your current IT costs.
Then you need to assess your cloud service needs in terms of servers, storage space, networking, and applications.
Work with cloud providers that will allow you to save costs by offering you service plans that are flexible and avoid paying for what you don’t need or use.
2. Uptime
Moving to a new cloud provider should improve system reliability. Your cloud provider takes care of the hardware maintenance, so you don’t have to worry about troubleshooting faults, repairing system units, or fixing corrupted hard drives.
Choose a provider that has delivered 99.9% uptime consistently. Then you and your team will be able to provide uninterrupted services to your customers.
3. Flexibility
To remain competitive in today’s challenging business climate, your cloud provider must be flexible and agile.
Some of the factors that you use to evaluate your provider’s flexibility include:
- Response time to fix product or service defects
- The number of new apps released annually
- Time required to migrate or provide new environments for storage, computing, and networking
- Provision of superior, bleeding-edge technologies.
4. Unique Business Needs
Consider the unique computing needs of your business. Do you use special applications or have unique collaboration or communication needs?
Make sure your cloud provider offers you most of the tools you need, and you don’t have to raise your cost by hopping from one service provider to another.
For instance, if you use Microsoft products like SQL Server, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Teams, Office 365, and Windows Server, you should go with the cloud service offered by Microsoft.
Similarly, you should consider using their cloud service if you use Google Analytics, Docs, Sheets, Presentation, Gmail, and other Google products.
However, before making such choices, look at the provider’s marketplace to see if you can find products that offer solutions to current and future IT needs.
5. Customer Support
Don’t wait till something terrible happens before you assess a provider’s customer support. It may be too late.
Ensure your provider has multiple support channels, including email, live chat, chatbots, a knowledge base, phone, and support tickets. All channels must offer prompt responses to your issues within a few hours.
Test the support channels before you sign up for the service. Also, look out for reviews of the service on popular customer review sites like TrustPilot.
Get More Insight About Cloud Computing Companies
We’ve worked with major cloud computing companies, so we can easily tell you the one that will suit your business. Call Garden State Computing at 973-636-7350 to speak to an IT expert who will give you the information and advice you need.
