All Clouds are the same... RIGHT? (Part 2)

Part 2 of a 2-part series

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n the first part of this blog series, I offered my recommendations for five of the “Top 10” questions you should ask of, and expect answers from, solution providers who are vying for you to move your business applications to their cloud.

Below are the final five questions to ask. These recommendations are based on Xand’s history of working with business of all sizes and across multiple verticals to match their requirements with the most appropriate cloud-based solutions.

5 Key questions you should be asking your existing or potential Cloud Provider

1. Do your policies, procedures and implemented technologies allow me to comply with applicable regulations (for example SOX, HIPAA, PCI and others)? Many businesses need to comply with regulatory mandates. Because the ultimate responsibility usually lies with the company that has been entrusted with the customer data, enterprises need to make sure that the cloud provider adheres to the applicable regulations with the same thoroughness and discipline. A common concern is where the data is located and where it can be moved (for example, in case of major disaster), because transferring data out of the country might be a violation of privacy laws in some cases.
2. How easy is it to migrate to another cloud provider? Although cloud standards are emerging, interoperability among various cloud providers is still immature. Businesses need to make sure that, when they decide to terminate the service, they will be able to migrate to another cloud provider easily rather than suffering lock-in with their current provider. Another point to investigate is how the provider guarantees that all data has actually been removed from the systems after a customer has left.
3. What types of monitoring and service management practices are in place? Although most companies have implemented monitoring systems and tools, and adopted ITIL oriented practices to manage their IT shop, little is known about how cloud providers manage their own IT environments. So you should investigate whether the maturity level of the provider is better or worse than your own.
4. How many reference customers do you have? Getting the impressions from other customers who are already running workloads on the provider’s cloud can give valuable insight about the strengths and weaknesses of the provider, and lessons learned in the migration process.
5. What is your financial status and profitability? A cloud provider who makes no profit with the service might be tempted to relax some costly aspects, such as provisioning enough extra capacity to allow for elastic scalability; dedicating enough skilled resources to security and monitoring; providing a comprehensive disaster recovery solution; investing in new functionalities and enhancements; and more. Thus, it is important for companies to evaluate the financial status of the provider and the outlook, even though in some cases this might be challenging because many providers are not releasing this type of information.

I hope the 10 questions and explanations provided in this 2-part blog series offer valuable insight on your journey to the cloud. Because as you look toward the cloud for your business requirements, it is critical to think about not only how your environment will run and be protected but also how you will get it there.

To learn more please contact me. I would be happy to share my experiences with you and your team.