Top tips for choosing the right cloud provider

This can be a lot to think about, which is why we've come up with our five top tips businesses to look out for when selecting a cloud provider.

1. Prioritise flexibility
Selecting a service that has the flexibility to adapt to your evolving requirements is a must. Companies should just need to focus on what technology solutions will be best suited to their needs now, not how they will change in the future.
Flexible pricing models will be essential to many firms. It's impossible to predict what your business will look like two, five or ten years down the line, so you need to have confidence that your cloud solution will be able to offer you exactly what you require without charging you for resources you'll never use.

2. Know where your data is
Data governance and protection is a principal concern for businesses at the current time, particularly as organisations falling victim to breaches never seem to be out of the news. You'll need to know the physical location of any external data centre your information will be stored on - as it might be subject to different regulatory requirements from your home market. You should also ask questions about the security of data centres that are not under your direct control in order to get peace of mind your confidential information is protected.

3. Examine what they offer
As well as the core services to move your IT operations into the cloud, look at what additional offerings are available. For instance, business continuity and disaster recovery plans may be an essential consideration, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses.
Many of these firms may never recover from a serious issue if they do not have these provisions in place, so selecting providers who can help support these areas could be an invaluable safeguard for the company.

4. Do they emphasise automation?
One of the key benefits of selecting the right supplier is the amount of time and resources it can save by automating many manual processes, which can often be tedious and lead to IT projects taking longer than expected to implement. With a cloud provider that has automation as a priority running through all its activities, you can greatly streamline your operations and save time and money for use on more important things.

5. Consider multiple vendors
A big benefit brought about by cloud computing is the ease and flexibility organisations now have in working with multiple providers to use the best-fit solution for each individual requirement. As opposed to the existing, and more common, practice of compromise and trying to work with a single provider for all requirements.
This isn’t just about using multiple SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions as often quoted, instead organisations should also look to use multiple infrastructure hosting providers as well; selecting based on workload, security and other considerations pertinent to each requirement. This flexible approach means IT departments are able to solely focus on meeting the needs of the business whilst reducing the need to prioritise departments and application functionality.
Moving to the cloud can be a complex venture. It is therefore essential to work with a trusted advisor with proven experience and expertise in delivering business systems in the cloud.