Logicalis: Things to Keep in Mind When Adopting Cloud Providers

Logicalis (News - Alert), the international IT solutions and managed services provider, believes that it has formulated the best approach companies should take when considering cloud service adoptions. Most businesses don’t necessarily succeed by having better technology; they succeed by using technology better. This includes using these important questions when evaluating whether a potential provider can assure optimal in-house operations.

For example, if your data center is the victim of a virus attack or server outage, a strong agreement will dictate how quickly you can be back up and running. And it can make the difference between your company successfully competing or losing out to the competition. By asking these six important questions, a company is essentially framing its agreement with a cloud provider to adequately handle outsourcing expectations, backup support, security and implementation goals.

As a binding agreement between management and the IT department, an internal SLA generally covers data protection services. It specifies the time required for total data restoration (RTO) to get your company back up and running. Finally, a good SLA is about meeting the needs of your business, for uptime and availability. These questions include considerations about ensuring uptime. For example, it’s important to ask specific questions about 99.9 percent uptime assurances and coverage. If there is an inordinate amount of downtime after a disaster, will the provider offer financial compensation for not meeting expected recovery times?

In terms of adequate processing power, it’s important to assure that a provider has in place an adequate schedule for maintenance, software upgrades, and security patching. A company should also ask the provider about the types of charges the SLA includes, or does not include. For example, are there additional charges for services such as backup, OS License, security patch deployment and system management/monitoring? In relation to security features, your company should be adequately protected.

In order to assure this, it’s important to ask about the types of security that are used and the monitoring process that is maintained. For example, if your data center is the victim of a virus attack or server outage, having pre-established the security expectations can dictate how quickly your organization can be back up and running.

Scalability is another critical area that requires explicit assurances from a provider regarding customer expectations. It’s good to inquire about whether the provider allows for easy scalability and addition of resources, including CPU, memory, storage and bandwidth. Finally, when it comes to disaster recovery (DR), it’s important to clarify exactly what kind of DR services the provider offers. Once a disaster does occur, the time it takes for your firm to recover (RTO) has the potential to adversely impact your profits, productivity, reputation, and customer satisfaction. The critical question for you to consider is this: How much downtime can your company afford to get back on its feet?

According to Tom Roberts, solution architect for Logicalis, “The client trusts the cloud provider with what oftentimes amounts to mission-critical data and information and relies on that provider to keep that information secure and available in sometimes heavily regulated environments.  Therefore, choosing the right provider is a serious decision that has to be made with the utmost care and concern.”

Using these six important questions, Logicalis offers a framework with which you can evaluate a potential cloud partner. It’s important to keep in mind that selecting the right cloud provider is a critical first step in assuring your company’s viability in today’s competitive marketplace.