7 Keys To Select A Cloud Managed Service Provider

Cloud computing has forever changed the game of digitally-enabled businesses. According to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc, worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services has grown 23.1% in 2021 to total $332.3 billion, up from $270 billion in 2020.

Sid Nag, research vice president at Gartner said, “Emerging technologies such as containerization, virtualization and edge computing are becoming more mainstream and driving additional cloud spending. Simply put, the pandemic served as a multiplier for CIOs’ interest in the cloud.” 

Major public cloud services providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, and more are leading the market. But organizations still need expert advice while implementing the cloud infrastructure in their business environment.

As organizations make strides to the public cloud, they seek specialized support with digital transformation. Thus, managed cloud services like consulting and advisory services, agile application development, migration, automation, and managed services are also high in demand.

In this blog, we will talk about the key factors that should be considered while executing cloud transformation using the professional managed services built on public cloud platforms.

1. Technology Capability

Technology is a great enabler to execute a cloud-enabled strategy. Your cloud managed services provider should be well-versed with all the technological acumen necessary for cloud managed service implementation. You must analyze your service provider’s cloud architectures, standards, and policies to get a real sense of how well they fit into your business.
Along with that, you must make sure your provider’s platform and preferred technologies align with your current environment and/or support your cloud objectives.

2. Right Credentials

Certifications and standards are a must while choosing a cloud service provider. Well-recognized credentials and quality standards validate adherence to industry best practices and principles. Check their relationships with top service providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google. It further proves that your data is in safe-hand and you do not have to be concerned during times of critical situation. In a crunch situation, a cloud managed service provider gives you timely guidance and advisory on what to do and what not to do.
This will also help you in implementing a structured workflow, effective data management strategy, and greater visibility on the overall process. Along with that, the service provider also helps in timely upgrades and getting a deeper understanding of resource management and support aligned with industry standards.

3. Service Level Agreement

Service levels and their related agreements are crucial instruments for every organization to measure and analyze managed cloud services. When you use service-level agreements (SLAs) correctly, you can improve business results, customers satisfaction rate, competitive advantage, and overall business growth.
You should analyze the what, why, how, and when of measuring cloud managed services provider’ performance and how to develop the correct service-level agreement that suits your business requirement. This will help you create a better working relationship between the different parts of the organization and maintain a clear understanding of critical services, business priorities, and team responsibilities.

4. Security and Policies

As reliance upon the cloud continues to grow, so does concern around data security and breaches are rising. Organizations must plan better to avoid unnecessary security failure and ensure regulatory compliance should develop security policies that address the potential risks. You must ensure that your existing organizational policies, and the associated enforcement practices, are updated and well-aligned to address the unique risks and practices of the cloud infrastructure. It will also help in minimizing unnecessary security incidents, regulatory compliance failures, and needless splurge.

5. Reliability for Global Delivery

The adoption of public cloud services has encouraged a professional and managed services market to grow fast. Along with the need for expertise, skills and capability augmentation, reliability of the services is another factor that organizations must factor. You must ask for the capacity to scale to migrate and manage your cloud infrastructure at the global level.
Cloud service and solution providers must implement a comprehensive trust and risk management program. The ideal way to establish dedicated risk management practices to work across organizational lines, such as legal, compliance, privacy, security, data and analytics, business functions, and further development. This will help build greater trust inside and outside the organization.

6. Support Services

The ability for organizations to receive effective and timely support in critical situations will continue to be a critical factor that governs the increased adoption of cloud-enabled technologies. While selecting the managed cloud services provider, you must get in-depth clarity on the level of support that comes with the package. Moreover, you must also be aware of the expected time required to resolve any critical issue so that your business continuity must not suffer.
Today, most services providers offer custom support services at all as technology advances to the point where problem diagnosis and repair happens transparently, both virtually and physically.

7. Analyze Cost

Sometimes, the overall cost can be the deciding factor in choosing the right cloud managed services provider. You must analyze how much extra burden your cloud initiative will put on your annual budget. Ideally, you must also keep your ROI equation in check while implementing the solution.

Mostly, the budget tends to increase with the size of the organization, but even the large organizations display expenditure that encompasses the predefined brackets. Thus, all cost factors must be considered before making the final call.

All in all, you should evaluate the effectiveness of cloud managed services based on the criteria of business objectives and performance standards, then make the final call on where improvements will add business value and boost business growth. Have questions about cloud managed services, we are happy to address them.

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