Logicalis US: Not All Cloud Providers Offer Enterprise-Level Solutions

The cloud is not magic, and people should not assume their data is secure in there.

This revelation comes courtesy of IT solutions and managed services provider Logicalis US in a press release it issued earlier this week.

The press release talks about how not all cloud providers can accommodate enterprise-level IT needs such as advanced networking, backup or disaster recovery services. And it offers advice on how to protect data in the cloud. That advice comes in the form of the following five steps: define what you need, read the fine print, trust but verify, test a bunch, and back it up.

“Economies of scale among the industry's largest cloud providers can indeed deliver a price break and often times a good value, but the tremendous number of customers they serve can make their offerings somewhat widgetized, perfectly repeatable services that leave little room for customization,” Logicalis US suggests. “When it comes to more complicated services like backup and data retention that aren't as easily productized, IT pros need to read the fine print to know just what they are buying.”

Logicalis US also recommends that companies request documentation about the people, processes and technologies their prospective cloud providers leverage for disaster prevention and recovery. That will help them understand whether, for example, a cloud provider replicates data between the data centers it uses.

The only way to ensure that a provider's disaster recovery plan is viable is to test it, the company adds.

“If a cloud provider tells you they perform routine tests,” Logicalis US advises, “IT pros have to know what questions to ask: How many tests do you perform each year? Do they test your entire system or just a percentage of it? How many times have their tests been 100 percent successful? With regular testing, you find the kinks in the system – and you create solutions to abate them – before disaster actually strikes.”