Digital Scrapz Blogging For Knowledge
The digital transformation happening across the industry has paved way for innovative solutions that are redefining businesses. One of these is the cloud-a key enabler helping enterprises revamp their business models and workloads. The current trend is towards cloud migration. While the popular migration approach is to move to the public cloud, private and hybrid clouds are also rising in adoption.
That said, migration can be daunting, particularly if you have a large investment in conventional, on-premises infrastructure. If you are considering migrating your workloads to the cloud, it’s essential that you factor in several different aspects related to people, processes, and technology. In order to help you steer through the process, we have compiled a list of questions that you must ask your cloud migration services partner.
So, let’s begin.
- Which security best practices do you follow?
Security is a vital aspect of every computing infrastructure and the cloud stands as no exception. So, when moving to the cloud, make sure your prospective service provider has appropriate cloud security measures and policies in place to safeguard your data and applications from unauthorized access.
Here are some practices your vendor should be adhering to:
- Stringent user identity management protocols
- Well-guarded data center facilities with 24*7 monitoring
- Cloud compliance and governance through NIST
- Cryptographic encryption
- Regular data backups with robust DR practices
- HTTPS & AES-256 encryption
- General security protocols including remote-user authentication, file transfer protocol, etc.
- Where will my data be stored?
The cloud may be virtualized but it doesn’t mean there is no physical location. Where your data gets stored has a bearing on the quality of your service, so that’s an obvious first question to ask your vendor. First of all, you have to ensure your data is secure, wherever it may be stored.
In addition, the proximity of your data centers plays a big role in how quickly you can access and work with data. If the distance between the place where your data is stored and where you access it from is less, you’re less likely to face latency issues.
Your service provider should ideally store data in more than one location-this way if servers in one location fail on account of some reason, others will keep your data and applications functioning.
- Who owns my data and will have access to it?
When you are entrusting your data with a third-party, you have to ensure who owns it and has control over it. Some cloud migration vendors include, in their fine print, that they’ll have the ownership of the data once you sign the contract. Read the SLA carefully and watch out for any such red flags.
Equally important is to find out who all will have access to your data. While the cloud service provider needs to have some degree of access, you should certainly try to find who will be working on your data on behalf of the vendor. Question your vendor on their hiring practices and the process they follow to grant an individual access to your data.
- What is your downtime history?
Outages can be disruptive and expensive for your business, so choose a vendor with as few outages as possible. An outage simply means your service will remain inaccessible to users for a significant duration of time. While some vendors post their downtime logs online, others don’t. If yours falls in the latter category, you need to interrogate him on this aspect.
Remember-even the most reliable cloud vendors face occasional downtime. If your vendor says they haven’t faced incidents of significant downtime in the last years, consider it a red flag.
- What kind of maintenance and support do you offer?
With no exception, customer support should be provided round-the-clock every single day, including holidays. If you are dealing with a critical issue, you would require quick resolution. You won’t wait for the customer service line to open in the morning to resolve it.
Inquire about your vendor’s average response time and ensure that you will be interacting with knowledgeable engineers when you call the customer help line.
- What compliance standards do they have in place?
To begin with, make a list of all the industry standards you need to comply with and ensure your service provider also complies with them. If you operate in an industry that’s heavily regulated, seek a cloud migration services partner who understands your line of business and has arrangement to ensure you meet those standards.
Reliable cloud vendors audit their facilities and operations on a regular basis. Make sure your service provider shares their audit reports with you.
- What is your migration strategy for the cloud?
The success of your migration will depend largely on the efficiency of your cloud migration strategy. Your cloud managed services partner should have a well-planned strategy for moving your data and applications to the cloud. Only by understanding their migration plan thoroughly, you’ll be able to keep the operations transparent.
Cloud migration is inherently complex; with a well-thought-out plan, you can tackle the issues that typically arise during migration.
- What happens when you decide to cancel the subscription?
There is always a possibility that things don’t work the way you wanted them to and you decide to switch to a different service provider. Many cloud partners use a subscription model that you can cancel at any point in time. It’s essential to figure out how easy or difficult it is to terminate the contract. If the cancellation procedure is time-consuming or expensive or both, you may end up being stuck with your service provider.
Also, find out what happens to your data when you decide to move elsewhere. It is vital to ascertain if they get rid of the data completely, so your data doesn’t, by any means, falls in the hands of unscrupulous parties. Need reliable AWS cloud migration services to ease the burden off your shoulders? If so, get in touch with our migration experts NOW.
