13 Things To Consider When Choosing The Right Public Cloud Provider For Your Organization

Public cloud providers are becoming increasingly popular as more and more businesses move away from the traditional data center. With a public cloud, businesses can take advantage of on-demand scalability and pay-as-you-go pricing. In this article, we will discuss the factors you need to consider when choosing a public cloud provider. We will review the top public cloud providers and discuss the evaluation criteria you should use to make your decision. The main public cloud providers are; Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, Oracle.

Business need: The first factor you need to consider is your business need. What are you looking to accomplish with the public cloud? Do you need a flexible and scalable infrastructure to support your growing business? Or do you need a robust and secure platform to run your mission-critical applications? Once you have identified your business needs, you can narrow down your choices and select a provider that can best meet those needs. As an example, Azure’s compatibility with the .Net is one of the most vital advantages of Azure, giving Microsoft a distinct advantage over AWS and the rest of the competition. Azure has been designed and optimized to work with both existing and future .NET applications.

Security: Security is always a top concern for businesses, especially when it comes to data. When choosing a public cloud provider, you need to make sure that they offer the security features and controls that you need to protect your data. Some things to look for include; data encryption, identity and access management, and security monitoring.

Compliance: Another important factor to consider is compliance. If your business is subject to regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, or ISO, you need to make sure that your public cloud provider can help you meet those requirements. Look for providers that offer services like compliance audits and data governance.

Certifications and Standards: You also need to make sure that your public cloud provider is certified by the major industry standards organizations. This will give you peace of mind knowing that their services meet the highest levels of quality and security.

Architecture: When it comes to public cloud providers, there are three main types of architecture; IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. IaaS providers offer Infrastructure as a Service, which gives you the ability to provision and manage your infrastructure. PaaS providers offer Platform as a Service, which allows you to develop and deploy applications on their platform. Which type of architecture you need will depend on your specific business needs. You might also go with SaaS and leave the heavy lifting and management of the infrastructure to the cloud provider. This decision is based on your type of business.

Service Level Agreements: Another important factor to consider is Service Level Agreements (SLAs). SLAs are contracts between you and the provider that guarantee a certain level of uptime for their services. Make sure to review the SLAs of any public cloud providers you are considering to make sure they can meet your business needs. Also Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) play a key role in the uptime and service availability you will be offering your customers.

Migration Support: If you are already using a private or hybrid cloud, you will need to migrate your data and applications to the public cloud. Make sure to choose a provider that offers migration services and tools to help make the transition as smooth as possible.

Costs: Of course, one of the main factors you need to consider when choosing a public cloud provider is cost. Public cloud providers typically charge based on a pay-as-you-go model, so you need to make sure that their pricing fits within your budget. Be sure to review the provider's pricing structure and compare it to other providers before making your final decision.

Reliability: Another important factor to consider is reliability. You need to make sure that the public cloud provider you choose can keep your data and applications up and running. Look for providers that offer high uptime SLAs and have a history of meeting those goals. As an example, the recent AWS service outages have caused many businesses to re-evaluate their public cloud provider choices.

Performance: Another key factor to consider is performance. You need to make sure that the public cloud provider you choose can handle the workloads you need without slowing down your applications. Look for providers that offer high-performance computing (HPC) services and have a proven track record of delivering fast and reliable performance.

Vendor lock-in: One of the challenges of the public cloud is vendor lock-in. This happens when you become reliant on a particular provider's services and you find it difficult to switch to another provider. To avoid this, make sure to choose a provider that offers an easy way to migrate your data and applications to another provider.

Data Governance: Another important factor to consider is data governance. This includes things like data security, compliance, and management. Make sure to choose a provider that offers the tools and services you need to help you govern your data. The ultimate objective of Data Governance is to ensure that all data are trustworthy and uniform before they can be utilized for performance evaluations or competitive insights.

Manageability: The last factor to consider is manageability. You need to make sure that the public cloud provider you choose offers the tools and services you need to manage your data and applications. Look for providers that offer a self-service portal, automation capabilities, and a robust API.

Conclusion

These are just some of the factors you need to consider when choosing a public cloud provider. Be sure to do your research and choose the provider that best meets your needs. What other factors would you add to the list? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading!