5 Mistakes When Choosing a Cloud Provider That Can Cost You a Lot
Mistakes in choosing a cloud provider can threaten a company with financial losses and a number of other related problems. How to avoid common mistakes when choosing a cloud provider? How to evaluate its reliability and security, what questions should you ask the provider before signing a contract? Rostislav Ternovsky, product manager of Cloud Edge Center, will talk about this in the material.
Cloud technologies have become an integral part of our lives. Thanks to them, companies implement innovations faster and work effectively with their audience. Choosing a cloud provider is an important step for any enterprise, so it is necessary to avoid common mistakes when searching for a service provider. We will highlight five main mistakes and suggest a solution.
1. Ignoring SLA
Companies do not spend enough time analyzing the conditions of service availability and the methods of their calculations at different providers. This can lead to unjustified expectations of availability or to additional costs.
Solution: Check SLA conditions when choosing a provider - pay attention to availability time, SLA calculation, and incident resolution procedure.
2. Poor compatibility with provider technology and legacy systems
When migrating a system to the cloud without checking compatibility, unexpected problems may arise. These may include problems with operability - downtime, data loss, etc., as well as additional financial losses - increased costs due to non-adapted architecture.
Solution: Before migrating a system to the cloud, it is worth checking the system for compatibility and adapting the architecture for the most optimal use with the specific services of the selected cloud provider.
Read more materials on this topic in Compass CIO
3. Ignoring security and reliability certificates
Companies may not pay attention to the availability of certificates and compliance with standards of cloud providers. This can lead to problems when launching products - the inability to enter the market due to lack of compliance with regulatory requirements, the risk of data leaks and violation of availability conditions.
Solution: Check for certificates that may be required for the future system/product. These may be ISO, FSTEC, GOST, PCI and other certificates.
4. Ignoring compatible systems and integrations with the cloud platform
When choosing a provider, the possibility of quick integration with systems of other vendors, such as CRM, ERM, BI and payment systems, is not taken into account. This may lead to the loss of some functionality or an increase in the costs of system development and maintenance.
Solution: Check for ready-made integrations and API accessibility.
5. Lack of a migration and management plan
Companies sometimes begin cloud migration without a clear plan. This includes a lack of strategy for migrating data and applications, as well as a lack of resources to manage the cloud infrastructure after migration. This can lead to delays, disruptions, and additional costs.
Solution: Develop a data migration plan, discuss it with the service provider. Also, pay attention to the availability of migration tools from the cloud provider, this will help save effort, time and money.
When choosing a cloud provider, it is critical for a business to not only evaluate its technical capabilities and cost of services, but also to consider factors that can directly affect the long-term stability and security of operations. It is important to view a cloud provider not just as a service provider, but as a partner who can support in difficult times and offer solutions when unforeseen situations arise.