As enterprises are externalizing IT systems, choosing an appropriate Cloud Service Provider (CSP) that delivers high-quality services at a reasonable price is essential for long-term success.

Selecting a CSP is a challenging aspect of the entire Cloud transformation process, as the performance stability of the company is influenced by the CSP they choose. Here are a few crucial elements enterprises need to consider while selecting a CSP.

Standards and Certifications

A critical step for enterprises to choose an appropriate CSP is to check whether they comply with recognized certifications and standards. Standards may not entirely influence the organization’s decision to select a CSP, but it is helpful in shortlisting potential suppliers. Businesses must look for CSPs that offer structured processes, effective data management, and transparent service status visibility. At the same time, it is vital to understand how the provider strategizes plans to support adherence to these standards.

Also Read: The Added Potential of CSPs for Enterprise Edge

Adequate Technology

Enterprises need to ensure that the CSPs platform and preferred technologies align with current and efficiently support the cloud objectives. Assessment of the amount of recoding and customization has to be done to make the workload suitable for cloud platforms has to be performed. Service providers offer significant migration services and assistance in the planning and assessment phases. Businesses need to ensure that they gain a solid understanding of the support on offer. This helps map the request against projected tasks. CSP’s technical staff fills in the gaps in the migration teams. Large CSPs offer limited support. Hence, businesses may use third parties to support skills gaps. Companies can also ask for third-party recommendations from the platform provider to procure professional and extensive knowledge of the target platform.

Efficient Service Roadmap

An efficient service and integration roadmap are highly desirable. Enterprises need to gain insights into how the CSPs plan to continue to innovate and grow to understand whether their roadmaps fit the needs in the long term. At the same time, commitments to specific technologies or vendors and their interoperability support are vital factors to consider. Businesses also need to evaluate the overall portfolio of services that CSPs offer. However, if companies plan to utilize multiple services from a broad mix of CSPs, it is crucial to ensure that these providers offer a full range of compatible services.

Data Management and Security

Enterprises may already have data classification schemes that define numerous data as per sensitivity on data residency. Awareness of regulatory and data privacy rules that carry personal data is essential. In addition to these factors, the location where the data resides and the subsequent local laws it is subject to are crucial factors in the selection process.

At the same time, businesses need to set specific requirements and obligations and look for CSPs that grant control of the location where the data is stored, controlled, and managed. They must be transparent about their data storage locations and data transiting through encryption within the cloud.

Additionally, enterprises need to assess the cloud provider’s data and system security levels, the maturity of security operations, and security governance processes. The security controls must be demonstrably risk-based and support the security policies and procedures. To procure security roles and responsibilities, transparency, user access, and activity must be auditable via all routes as laid out in the policies documentation.

Furthermore, suppose CSPs comply with standards like the ISO 27000 series or have recognized certifications. In that case, companies need to check that they are valid and obtain assurances of resource allocation to maintain compliance with these frameworks.

At the same time, internal audit reports and evidence of remedial actions must be collected.

Pricing and Reliability

To find a relevant CSP at a decent cost, businesses need to gain information about the pricing structure to determine which CSP complements the business objectives and cloud needs. To determine which performs best at the lowest price, businesses can gauge the cost of cloud services between multiple providers to test the applications in every environment. Firms need to take care that extra charges are avoided upfront and should be paid as per the services utilized.

Additionally, reliability is one of the most crucial elements businesses must look for in a CSP. A vendor should be stroked out if it fails to prove its customers’ maintenance capabilities and performance levels. One of the best ways to determine a CSP’s reliability is by comparing the recent performance with its service-level agreements (SLAs). However, only some vendors can guarantee efficient uptime. Hence, the CSPs must be chosen that can put mitigation measures in place to handle the downtime.

Reputation

Businesses must look for the reputation of the CSP irrespective of its popularity. This can be achieved by reaching out to a handful of the provider’s existing customers to gain insights about the vendor’s services.

It’s also necessary to monitor how long they have been clients of the CSP and proven their ability to retain customers. Evaluation methods like examining each CSP’s track record of success give information on their reputation for customer service and support. If a company works in a specific industry, it is essential to determine how successfully the vendors have served a similar organization in the past.

Also Read: Top 4 CSPM Mistakes to Avoid to Enhance Cloud Security Posture

Vendor Relations, Subcontractors, and Service Dependencies

Service providers have numerous vendor relationships that are important to understand. Businesses must assess the provider’s relationship with key vendors, accreditation levels, technical capabilities, and staff certifications. Knowing service dependencies and partnerships involved in cloud services is also essential.

Additionally, a network of connected components and subcontractors plays a part in delivering a cloud service. Therefore, it is vital to ensure the provider discloses these relationships and can guarantee the primary SLAs stated across all aspects of the service. Lastly, companies need a better understanding of the limitations of these liability and service disruption policies related to these subcomponents.

Businesses need to incorporate hard and soft factors of the CSPs to validate and recognize the standards they adhere to. Customer testimonials and case studies need to be analyzed as well. To avoid lock-in, proprietary technologies, and a clearly defined exit strategy are vital.

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