Listen to this articleUsing cloud technologies has become a common thing for businesses. But before starting with that, the need is to find the right cloud platform for your business app. The process to select a cloud platform is complicated by the fact that there’s no common scheme that’s suitable for all businesses and you need to find what’s suitable for your business.
In our article, we want to discuss the basic considerations that can help you choose a cloud platform that fits your business needs and objectives.
As you determine which cloud platform for your business app will be the right fit, you will want to evaluate the options based on several factors.
Here are some of the main elements you should consider before choosing a cloud platform for your business app.
You should be aware of your security goals, the security measures offered by any cloud platform, and the mechanisms it uses to ensure data security. In addition, you should be able to completely understand the specific areas for which each party is responsible.
Make sure you know what security features are offered free and out-of-the-box, and which ones are additional paid services available from the providers. Security is a top concern for any company, so it’s critical to ask detailed questions related to unique business use cases, industry, regulatory requirements, and any other concerns.
When choosing a cloud, think about how the architecture will be used by your workflows now and in the future. Make sure you consider cloud storage architectures before deciding on the cloud platform.
When it comes to storage, there can be platforms that have similar architectures but offer different storage capacities according to the business need. You need to understand the differences between them so you could choose the one that’s suitable for your business.
Next, you need to be sure that the cloud platform you choose should compliant with the standards that apply to your industry and organization. You might be beholden to GDPR, SOC 2, PCI DSS, HIPAA, or any other frameworks; you should know what it will take to be compliant once your applications and data are living in a public cloud infrastructure.
An organization needs to understand where its responsibilities lie and which aspects of compliance the cloud platform and service provider will help you stand by it.
Support is another parameter that you need to carefully consider before you finally decide on a cloud platform for your business app. You need a cloud platform that is active with support whether through a chat service or call center.
You might get the needed support, but there’s a good chance there will be constraints on time and access. So, along with the cloud platform, you can also consider hiring a consulting service for additional support. So whether it is about choosing a cloud platform or a consulting service for it, ask questions upfront about what level and form of support you will have access to.
It is important to consider service levels when businesses have strict needs in terms of availability, response time, capacity, and support. You should consider Cloud Service Level Agreements (Cloud SLAs) when choosing a cloud platform to establish a clear contractual relationship between your business and the cloud service.
You should give needed attention to legal requirements for the security of data hosted in the cloud service, focusing on the GDPR.
While these considerations won’t give you all the information you need, they will help you build a solid analytical framework that you can use while choosing a cloud platform. You can perform a thorough analysis of your business requirements to discover additional factors to consider.
If you’re already operating in the cloud or are planning to transition your workloads by choosing a reliable cloud platform, learn how Salesforce can be your best choice. Contact us to get started with Salesforce implementation and get the benefits of working with the best CRM.
