You hear a lot about “the cloud”, what is your business Cloud Readiness strategy?
You have seen a lot of marketing and advertising from top providers such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Salesforce.com. There are multiple service models including Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS), Software as a service (SaaS) and Unified Communications as a Service in addition to multiple deployment models including Private cloud, Public cloud and Hybrid cloud.
So what is your business Cloud Readiness strategy?
Cloud is a hot trend that many companies are taking advantage of, but is the cloud right for your organization?
365 iT SOLUTIONS is one of Toronto’s leading Cloud consulting services. We have put together 5 questions all business should ask themselves prior to migrating mission critical business systems and/or applications over to the cloud.
What information should I know about Cloud Computing?
If you’re the one responsible for making this decision, then you should be able to fully grasp and communicate to others what cloud computing is before making the move. Moving your organization’s sensitive information to a third party hosting service is a big deal. You do not have to understand the technicalities of virtualization but you do have to have a basic understanding of where your data is stored, what security measures are in place, and what will happen to your data in case there’s an emergency like a power outage or a natural disaster.
What are All the Costs of Cloud Computing?
When in the market for a Cloud partner, you should check references and reputation of the organization prior to committing. You should look at multiple items such as where are they located? Where is the information stored? What experience do they have? You want to look closely at this monthly bill and compare it with your company’s data needs and budget but you must also be aware of other expenses that come with signing up for cloud computing such as your company’s dependency upon accessing the cloud so you will want to upgrade your Internet service.
What are the Details of Your Cloud Computing Service Contract?
Cloud is not cloud. Not every cloud hosting company is the same. When you are in the market for a cloud partner, you will find various different prices, different business processes and different levels of service. Prior to engaging a cloud provider, you will first want to understand your company’s data needs and growth projections. Put together a list of your business needs and then compare them to the cloud provider’s specifications like uptime, response time, performance, etc. Be very selective when choosing a Cloud partner as this will be a long-term relationship and switching providers can be very expensive in cancelled contracts and technical service fees.
How efficient is Cloud Implementation?
When shopping for a cloud partner, ask for a detailed technical proposal. Reputable cloud service companies should be able to provide how much time and resources it will take to transition your applications over to the cloud. You will want to consider this, along with how much time it will take to train your staff to use the cloud; this way, you can understand how quickly you will see a return on your investment (ROI).
Will You Have to Convince Others about the Value of Cloud Computing?
You may be sold on the benefits of cloud computing, but not everyone in your organization may see the value of the cloud and share your enthusiasm. When it comes to transitioning a company’s sensitive information to the cloud, you may find holdouts from the proponents of traditional IT that equates ownership with data security. If you find yourself to be a lone proponent of the cloud in an organization that doesn’t trust a third party to host their data, then you will want to first convince your coworkers of the cloud’s value before implementing it.
365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT Services, IT Support Services, IT Outsourcing Services, Tech Support Services and Cloud Services.
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