Questions to Ask Potential Cloud Providers
As your organization looks to a cloud solution provider for services, there are key areas that need to be reviewed. Use this checklist as a guide to help you evaluate any potential cloud solution providers.
For additional insights, Read Expedient’s “Not all Clouds are Created Equal” whitepaper
Evaluating technical support
Your cloud is only as strong as the level of support it receives. The cloud provider’s support staff needs to have a full understanding of the platforms and applications being run, and there needs to be a defined set of engagement rules for any trouble, regardless of whether it is cloud-related. Support questions to cover include: • Who can you call on with issues? What is their level of technical competence? • What support is provided if you feel an issue may be cloud related?
Evaluating audit support
As information technology environments continue to contain more personal, private and sensitive data, there is going to be a growing need to meet certain regulatory standards. Audit support questions to cover include: • What compliance requirements will the Cloud support? • What are the audits that the provider has completed in the last year? • What was the outcome of those audits and are those records available for review?
Measuring cloud performance
In order to safeguard against poor performance, it is important to set up a detailed set of performance and criteria metrics. Performance questions to cover include:
- Does the provider offer a monitoring solution that includes an overview for Network Capacity (Mbps), Memory Capacity (GB), Disk Capacity (GB), Disk IO (IOPS) and Compute (Varies)?
- What performance metrics are monitored by the cloud provider?
- What happens when the client or other clients in the environment need more CPU or Disk IO?
While the above is just a sampling of the questions you should ask your cloud provider, Expedient is always ready to answer any question you have. Contact us today to learn more about our nationwide network of data centers.
Follow him on_ Twitter.
