If Your Cloud Provider’s Not Delivering, Do Some Comparison Shopping

online shoppingYou’ve probably heard it all before: Not all cloud computing services are equal and you need to tread carefully. By now, you’ve treaded as carefully as possible and now you’re finding that your cloud provider isn’t exactly providing on the level you expected. Since the cloud’s mainstream acceptance a few years ago, the industry has exploded. Everyone and their mother has a cloud service that will transform your company into an efficiency powerhouse. Even services as simple as cloud storage can be overwhelming.

Some analysts are suggesting — and rightfully so — that we bring the world of cost analysis and comparison-shopping to the cloud. There are dedicated tools that allow you to compare the costs of cloud services. Before you use a third party service to tell you all about cloud services, you need to understand how the industry is shifting and how you can best compare and contrast these services on your own.

Understanding key shifts in the cloud computing industry

It’s imperative to understand the cloud industry before adopting another cloud solution. Things are shifting in major ways to meet the current and future needs of businesses and data. Security issues have forced cloud developers into a corner where they have to start developing community- and industry-specific cloud solutions. Many enterprise organizations are opting for private clouds, privately managed cloud deployments at offsite or third-party locations. Cloud hosts are becoming more specialized, which makes comparison shopping for cloud providers even more challenging.

Comparison shopping in the cloud

There are extensive ways to compare and contrast cloud providers against one another. If we’re being completely honest, the biggest determining factor is cost. The big idea is to go through each provider to ensure you’re getting the best ROI for the service provided to your organization. While there is some criticism facing these new companies in how they help you compare cloud service providers, hypothetical comparison shopping is the best way to go about it.

Think about the reason you even migrated to the cloud in the first place. Chances are you migrated to the cloud for the boasted cost effectiveness and the agility it offered your organization. The same idea applies to cost analysis and service comparisons when using services like Cloudability or Cloud Express. While you may have an idea of what your computing needs are at this very moment, you may not know how that will change in the future. Comparing cloud services in this way requires you to look at the hypothetical scenarios that can influence cloud service costs within your organization.

There’s no magic bullet to cloud-computing shopping

Shopping for a new cloud computing provider is an arduous task. Contrary to what some consultants may sell you, there’s no magic bullet, but there is data and data is your best friend in this situation. Look at data carefully and you’ll be in much better shape to pick your new cloud provider.

Originally posted on July 11, 2013 @ 11:40 pm

Business

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