How do you improve user satisfaction with cloud computing?

In my opinion you need to make the cloud platform user-friendly and intuitive by providing a well-designed user interface and clear documentation. Simplify complex processes and workflows to reduce the learning curve for users. Regularly gather user feedback to identify pain points and address them promptly.

In understanding your users needs its critical to understand the how and why. How are they using the service, what are they using it for (use cases), and most importantly why. Why do they need it, why are they using yours, what would happen if they didnt use it and why? Understanding the exact use case and what happens if it doesnt work as advertised? Listen, listen and listen some more. If your customers are willing to give you feedback, offer suggestions or engage in customer advisory activities than by all means sharpen that pencil and listen up! Engaging your customer in the roadmap and development of your offering develops a customer for life. Listening to your customer is never something you will regret! Two ears, one mouth!

From a Cloud service provider point of view, understanding user/customer expectations is one part of it, but on the other side validating how realistic those expectations are before selling a solution is also equally important. Users should be willing to accept that the requirements are at times highly ambitious and implementations may be needed to be taken in smaller strides. There will/should be a common junction where CSP's, implementation partners/Consulting firms, Customers should arrive at and decide on what's highly performant and yet fit enough to start giving returns on investment. That is the best way to figure out what to compromise on and what to consider for a trade-off while agreeing on user needs.

Learn the users' pain points with the on-premise infrastructure and don't forget to clearly state what problem will cloud computing solve.

Improving user satisfaction with cloud computing involves several strategies: 1. **Reliability and Availability:** Minimise downtime to avoid disrupting user operations. 2. **Performance Optimization:** Faster response times and low latency contribute to user satisfaction. 3. **Security Measures:** Regularly update security protocols to address emerging threats. 4. **Scalability:** This prevents performance degradation during traffic spikes. 5. **User-Friendly Interfaces:** Simplify user experiences to reduce frustration. 6. **Transparent Billing:** Monitor resource usage and offer cost optimization recommendations. 7. **24/7 Support:** A helpdesk or chat support can be valuable.

If the solution isnt reliable and available than its worthless. Access to the service needs to be fast and reliable. Ask your customers how much is lost per minute of downtime - this puts a value on reliability which then can be associated to a worth and price-point for every level of availability. Its one thing to SAY you can meet the advertised numbers but another thing to back it up - you MUST have a solid failover and recovery plan. And you MUST test it. Conduct failover, replication, and recovery tests often. Lastly, measure and reward your teams on the success of those plans. What gets measured gets done!

Offer scalable resources that can meet user demands effectively. Ensure that users can easily scale up or down their cloud resources based on their requirements, without any disruptions in service. Provide flexible subscription plans to cater to diverse user needs.

Cloud solutions should be well architected which ensures availability and resiliency. Robust monitoring highlights and documents trends and key indicators which then turn into action items. Service disruptions aren't confidence builders!

In my experience, a lot of users who implement or migrate their tech stack to cloud are not fully aware of security on cloud. They are still driven by some of the old fashioned and stringent security and privacy principles. Cloud service providers can take an initiative during solution design decisioning phase to educate users on what is on offer from a 'Trusted infrastructure' point of view and why is the tech stack secure on cloud and how does the data on cloud adheres to almost every privacy principle that exists. It will improve the credibility and also helps in simplifying the secops.

In addition to these points is to also prove it. Customers want to know they are safe and secure and listing out the ways is great but you need to prove it with documented penetration tests and vulnerability assessments. Just like any security system - you dont just install it and trust it works, you test it and test it again and again - document the testing process and the results.

Some of my thoughts when it comes to cloud security. Users prioritize the security of their data on the cloud. Implement stringent security measures, such as encryption, access controls, and regular security audits, to safeguard user data from unauthorized access and potential breaches. Communicate your security protocols and certifications to build trust with users.

The Flexible options should be based on users needs. Its not a one size fits all. Depending on the size of company, the type of industry, the type of users or customers they have and many factors will determine the different. However - too many options will make your own management of the backend operations more complex so be careful with the menu of options and customized nature of those offerings. An exception based offering is not operationally efficient so do your homework on the menu to offer and how you can differentiate yourself from the competition. Is it hourly based storage consumption down to the Mb? Is it flat-fee all you can consume based pricing? Customers arent shy to tell you what they need!

Please ensure the cloud infrastructure is reliable, highly available, and can scale to meet user demands. This includes having redundant systems, load balancing, and efficient resource allocation.

Scalability & Flexibility are the foundational pillars of any Cloud platform. What's more important is transparency in discussing the pricing model when a user seeks highly scalable platform. Most of the times, users get sold on the terms like scalable, reliable, flexible, durable etc, but that comes with a cost. In my opinion, there is a possibility of users being highly satisfied if they are forced to implement a less flexible solution with known costs rather than implementing a solution with hidden costs which will only prick harder at a later point in time.

Document, Document, Document! It is imperative that your documentation is concise and ACCURATE. The majority of support tickets are derived from inaccurate or missing documentation. Majority of users want to be self sufficient which means your methods or educating and enabling them is critical! Bite size videos, Deep dive FAQs, AI-driven Q/A. But regardless of your documentation or any self-service it is also imperative that users have the ability to speak to a human and get the help they need and are paying for. This is also a way to right-size the support or knowledge base offering based on the needs of the customer.

In my experience, the biggest challenge is converting the reference architecture that's provided in documentation into a solution that runs in a production environment. There will be loads of conversations with cloud service providers throughout this process beginning from solution design, POCs, performance tuning, implementation & post implementation support + monitoring. What matters is agreeing with cloud service providers on training needs & support model which should be a continuous process rather than a one-off engagement and the conversations should be transparent. Welcoming each other's feedback and a path to accommodate the same into the final implementation is an essential part of the engagement. Engagement model is key!

The transparency of service level agreements (SLAs) needs to be clearly defined, such as uptime guarantees, performance metrics, and customer support expectations. Be transparent about the SLAs and regularly communicate any updates or changes. I also firmly believe in collecting customer feedback and analyzing customer satisfaction, and surveys, conducting usability testing, and iterating on the service based on user feedback.

I think there has been a lot of valuable perspectives shared. I would only add that in terms of reaching desired end state, or achieving positive business outcomes, it’s really crucial for leaders and individual contributors in organizations to critically think where they want to be. Working backwards from that point will enable a better perspective on what the end-state looks like, and coupled with an evaluation or current state, organizations can plot a path on how to reach those outcomes. A working backwards process is highly beneficial to clearly defining what the present and future look like; the path in between will comprise the people and processes needed to move an organization forward.

Facilidad de Uso: Las interfaces deben ser intuitivas y fáciles de usar con la finalidad de ayudar a los usuarios a aprovechar al máximo las capacidades y beneficios que otorga la computación en la nube