Is the cloud meeting your expectations?

Cloud Services, Great Expectations, and the “Now what?” Question

By Beth Burrell

You have moved your applications or some of your systems to the cloud. It isn’t exactly what you expected.   Now what? Working with our newest cloud customers to on-board them to our fully-managed cloud services, “now what” is the basis of the variety of questions I receive on a regular basis.

The cloud is now considered a commodity that helps any CTO/CIO build their strategy for existing and future technology solutions.  Cloud has become an everyday word that can represent multiple models and a wide range of services. The question is no longer “Are you going to the cloud?” but rather “Which cloud are you in?” And with the latter question, the varying cloud models and service offerings mean that there may be a difference in expectations.

“Is my Cloud provider meeting my business needs?”

“Will my cloud be able to grow with my organization’s needs?”

“Is my cloud secure?”

“Do we set it and then forget it?”

Things to ask when evaluating your potential cloud provider

Your cloud provider should be a partner not just a phone number. Key to a successful relationship is at the very beginning when you are choosing the cloud type (public, private, hybrid) and the type of services you require. Your applications may require some migration and technical services to move onto updated platforms, or you may require integration between platforms.

Either way, address your needs in the planning phases of your move to the cloud. And if you are already working with a cloud provider and are unhappy, you should definitely address issues with them. Ask yourself some of the following questions about your current provider

• Are they meeting SLAs and are those SLAs structured to meet my organization’s needs?
• Are there any downtime issues that are impacting the business?
• Do you have a specific person to contact for help with issues or just a toll-free number?
• How do I know no one else can access my data? What are the protocols around a breach, should there be one?
• Changes are coming that will impact our use cases, can my cloud platform adjust?

If the answer to any of the above isn’t satisfactory, it is time to re-examine your cloud services model.

Arming Yourself with the Right Questions

If you are looking at moving to a new cloud provider or restructuring your cloud model, make sure you arm yourself with an understanding of the right questions to ask. Here are a few great resources on commonly less-understood concepts around cloud services:

Cloud Types: Public or Private, Not All Clouds are the Same, Interview with Tony DiBenedetto, CEO

Service Level Agreements: Comparing Service Level Agreements: Stacked SLAs, Reindeer Games and Defining the Cost of an Outage

Data Security and Regulatory Compliance: A Cloud Provider Decision Guide: How to Choose the Right Provider to Reduce Your Risk of a Data Breach

Cloud Support: Cloud Provider Considerations: People Will Always Matter

Just because you are in a cloud, does not mean that there isn’t room for improvement or change. Many of our customers utilize multiple cloud providers and models depending on their needs.

Choosing the right service and model for the application is part of a great IT strategy!!