Positive Cloud Experience

Cloud computing offers tremendous value to Enterprise businesses and even allows small and medium businesses to compete by providing solutions that were previously out of reach because of the cost.

Here are five ways to help you find the best cloud solutions for your business.

• Security is one of the biggest concerns in cloud computing because you have no handle on your data. This includes the physical security of the infrastructure that holds your data. Does the vendor have contingency plans for natural disasters or even terrorist attacks? Find out how often they back up and how you can recover your data and how quickly.

• Find out which aspect of cloud computing is best for your business. Infrastructure-as-a-service or utility computing is best if your business needs infrastructure like databases and file servers. Platform-as-a-service serves organizations that also provide some IT services to smaller clients or runs certain computing platforms in order to carry out their business processes. Software-as-a-service is best suited for small businesses that may not be able to afford all the licenses that they may need if they bought individual software packages.

• Do an extensive audit of your business processes and determine which aspects of it are in dire need of change. Not everything needs to be changed, some things already work best in the way they already are and changing that may even be bad for productivity. So you must first find out which aspect needs to be placed on the cloud. If you are a small business without a dedicated IT department and with no resources to grow such a department, then it really makes sense to outsource your IT needs on the cloud.

• Availability is the next question that should be asked when you have determined the computing need and are considering vendors. Will the service be available especially when you need it the most? What is their track record when it comes to availability and downtime?

• Performance should not be left to “okay” at best. Performance has always been an issue even when using in-house services, so why settle for less when going on the cloud? Make user that your provider is able to provide performance on top of affordability.

Below is an excellent infographic courtesy of RapidValue which highlights some interesting points for Enterprise Cloud adoption.

 

By Abdul Salam