There are a few best practices to observe when choosing a cloud service for business infrastructure.
Cloud hosting has taken over many business functions as a platform for applications, file storage and better collaboration among employees. Many organizations have already taken many of their processes to the cloud, but there are others that are still skeptical of the technology. However, as more offerings emerge, each may contain advancements in security and functionality that will better benefit the business and improve productivity. Here are a few best practices to observe when choosing the right cloud solution:
1. Evaluate risks
One of the biggest factors holding buyers back is concern over security. Many organizations want complete control over the data in order to protect it from being compromised. However, employees have consistently raised the demand for being able to access their resources from anywhere, allowing them to have more remote work opportunities. Assessing the potential risks will help decision makers understand how the information can be managed and drive for data loss prevention, according to Information Management contributor Joel Jacob. Having adequate backups and ensuring that cloud providers can meet with any legal or regulatory issues will allow the organization to use the cloud but still fulfill all of the requirements.
“In parallel, IT support should have a clear plan for how the new systems will be maintained and managed, as well as any policies and procedures that will be impacted,” Jacob wrote. “Testing and conducting a proof of concept on work procedures is paramount in ironing out any problems before the implementation is complete and permanent.”
2. Provision appropriately
Another question to consider is how easily it will be to roll out applications and features like cloud storage to all users. Provisioning users with certain capabilities is necessary to consolidate access to resources, but with software as a service models, the ability to manage permissions isn’t as easy, according to InfoWorld writer Phil Rhodes. Although there is work being done to fix this issue, the process started a few years ago and hasn’t yielded a universally accepted solution.
“Technical specifications alone are not the solution to managing provisioning issues,” Rhodes wrote. “Few customers want to be in the business of writing code to perform custom integrations with cloud apps, even if every SaaS provider in existence supported both SPML and SCIM.”
3. Understand cloud types
With the cloud, there are many different options to choose from. Private, public and hybrid clouds are the overarching platforms that will be a home for the services that are picked. Infrastructure, database and software are among the offerings that can be used as a service. The DaaS is significantly different from the SaaS as the DaaS manages new applications like risk management, ecommerce, game-session management and fraud detection, according to GigaOM. SaaS offers more traditional enterprise apps like HR and CRM. Knowing all of the different options and what they do will help organizations pick the best one to meet their needs.
Through assessing the potential risks and doing research about the various cloud platforms, organizations can pick the best cloud solution that will fit their needs.
About the Author: Brain Brafton loves and lives technology. A big data geek and an information retrieval junkie he consumes, analyses, interprets and process data like he was a machine. On a continual learning iteration his believe life is a journey not a destination. To keep in contact with Brain find him on Google+ or on Twitter
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