The trend for the last five years is more and more companies are moving to the cloud. According to the studies by IT World Canada, “over 90 per cent of North American enterprises are already leveraging some form or another of cloud services, with the penetration of cloud services expected to reach almost 100 per cent by 2020.” This fast growth in the last five years is a clear indication of the power of cloud services and the benefits it provides to the businesses around the globe.
With this growth and the adoption of cloud, come the challenges questions and doubts of business leaders. According to Crowd Research Partners report, 45 percent of organizations had security concerns, 41 percent were worried about data loss, 32 percent were reluctant to lose control, and 29 percent cited legal and regulatory compliance issues.
Some of the questions that arises in our conversation with the clients are: uncertain cost, compliance with legislations, is cloud secure enough? We are not ready yet, we do not know how to migrate, and/or we are busy at the moment with other projects. These are some genuine concerns from the business leaders but if moving to the cloud is not your priority, then you are at a risk of running behind your competition, increased cost of IT infrastructure, low productivity and many more. Ask yourself, would you want to take that risk when almost all businesses are planning to migrate to the cloud?
It is important to note that your IT team may not be qualified enough to implement the cloud migration strategies. Generally, your in-house IT team may lack knowledge on government security and compliance, inexperience and inadaptability to the changes in cloud solutions, increased cost of hiring new employees for cloud migration or increased time for migration as your IT team may be busy with other important projects. Hence it is important to use a service provider that can help you at each stage of your cloud migration journey.
Here are five tips to help you chose your Cloud Service Provider in 2019:
1. Technical Expertise: Your Cloud Service Provider should have complete knowledge and expertise in the cloud solution and provide solution as per your business goals. A close relationship with Cloud Computing Platform providers and thorough knowledge of the platform is essential in choosing your service providers. You know if they so not have the answers, they know where to find them.
2. Trust and Reliability: When choosing a Cloud Service Provider, it is important to know that they understand your business goals, your business culture and make your journey easy for migrating to the cloud. Trust and reliability are one of the most important elements in choosing your cloud service provider as your business and it’s future depends upon the migration of the cloud.
3. Great Track Record: Your cloud service provider should have a great track record of providing cloud migration solutions to companies in your industry. Look for service providers that provide you with right solutions, provide you with proof of implementation for other companies and/or have come kind of recognition form the industry. Our business depends on a clear cloud migration strategy and choosing a right partner who understands your business completely is as important as having the right CEO for the company.
4. Flexible: Your business may go through changes through the cloud migration cycle so having a partner that can provide you with flexibility and understand the changes in your business is important. Having flexibility in your cloud migration journey is important and should be important to your cloud service solution provider.
5. Clarity, Planning and Continuous Support: Your cloud service provider should provide with clear path to migration, cost associated with it and lay out a detailed plan for the migration process. A detailed plan is important to know in the beginning, so you understand the process and can allocate your recourses accordingly. Continuous support even when the journey is finished is important as you know you can rely on someone who can help you whenerver you need assistance.
Therefore, it is important to have a partner who can help you in each stage of your migration process and help you easily migrate to the cloud. Year 2019 is going to be vital for the companies who are planning to stay ahead of their competition and improve their business productivity. Chose your service provider carefully.
About Softlanding
Softlanding helps organizations be their best by providing technology solutions and services that make them more productive. We specialize in Microsoft enterprise technology platforms, leveraging a combination of cloud, on-premises, and hybrid configurations to increase productivity from the data center on out to end business users. Areas of specialty include end-to-end Azure and Office 365 services, Microsoft Enterprise Infrastructure and Managed IT Services
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softlanding
Softlanding is a long-established IT services provider of transformation, professional services and managed IT services that helps organizations boost innovation and drive business value. We are a multi-award-winning Microsoft Gold Partner with 13 Gold Competencies and we use our experience and expertise to be a trusted advisor to our clients. Headquartered in Vancouver, BC, we have staff and offices in Toronto, Montreal and Calgary to serve clients across Canada.
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