The word on Cloud computing is gaining heat. Businesses are now looking to leverage it for obvious advantages such as to little or no hardware maintenance with real low cost of upkeep, higher response time to customers and a high degree of resource scalability.

A Harris Interactive Survey “Cloud computing in the U.S Shows Momentum” shows that only 33% of businesses use Cloud Computing. However, the question is this: how do you find the right Cloud Computing Vendors? What should a business do so as to not go wrong with the vendor selection process?

Flawless, authoritative expertise
Businesses don’t want just vendors; they need experts. Cloud computing vendors handle clients’ data as their own and perform critical business functions with all necessary data being migrated or transferred to the vendor. As a business, you’d want to do business with a vendor who understands that and secures data efficiently.
Expertise from cloud computing vendors rests not only on their technological prowess but also on their willingness to approach clients to help them transfer data, train employees formally on how to mitigate any risks involved while keeping all data secure and safe.

Have a system to let you evaluate their service
Good cloud computing vendors will give you a heads up on the process of evaluation and devise policies and systematized procedures to clearly state the importance of sensitive information being dealt with or being stored in the cloud. They make clear references to what data is considered sensitive or proprietary. They will seek to involve the IT department while adopting the service and even train your employees on your behalf. Further, they help develop tools and systems that identify, classify and sort data by analyzing risks involved.

Diligent about data security and granular data access
How does your cloud vendor store data in the cloud? What steps has your cloud vendor taken to ensure security and protection for your confidential data? Businesses prefer vendors who can provide restricted access only to authorized personnel to avoid unauthorized users to access critical data, successfully isolate a corrupted file/database in the cloud so that it doesn’t spread to the rest of the system, etc.

The Always On promise
Does your Cloud Vendor promise an uptime? The cloud service should breathe when your business needs it the most since Cloud application latency (non-responsiveness) can be expensive – in the form of losing customers, productivity or profits. Does the cloud service you are considering have a back-up through a robust infrastructure with service level agreements in place?

Paranoid Customer Service
Your business actually profits from a vendor with a paranoid level of customer service. You could check to see what does the industry have to say about them? Do they return your calls within a day at least? Is your cloud computing vendor transparent about their pricing, policies and other terms/conditions? Do they answer your questions in full about their infrastructure, data security protocols and disaster recovery plans?

Choosing the right cloud computing service vendor is never easy. However, with a few things in mind and armed with the right information, finding the right cloud service partners for your business shouldn’t be that difficult either.
Did we miss out on any points here? What has been your experience with your cloud service vendors? Have you found your dream vendor yet?