When you have made up your mind to shift your data and operations to the cloud, you need to ask some pertinent questions to your prospective cloud server provider. These questions will help you understand whether the solutions which the vendor is capable of offering will work for you or not.
Key questions to ask your cloud server provider:
- Perhaps the first thing which you must ask your cloud server provider is location of its data centers. Cloud vendors are likely to keep data spread across many servers that are distributed geographically. So, you need to know where these locations are to see if there can be any privacy constraints and also to make sure these align with your business objectives.
- You must also ask your cloud provider about ways in which you can access the data you are storing in their servers. Your cloud service provider or CSP must be open to working with you on an Access Control Policy. This will decide how you can access the data as and when you need to. You will also learn how you may add authorized users, how such users may be authenticated, whether the provider’s turnaround time can satisfy your business needs etc.
- You should also ask your cloud server provider about ways in which your data will be maintained and monitored. There should ideally be a comprehensive collection of monitoring tools which become important as your apps will be online always and will need continuous patches to eliminate risks of security breaches. This monitoring system should be responsible for alerting the provider when your system requires supports. So, it will monitor the hardware and software, security patches and updates, anti-virus measures etc.
- When you choose a cheap dedicated server, there are risks of security breaches as the quality of services may be compromised when you settle for very low-cost plans. The risks are almost the same when you buy cloud hosting. You need to make sure the provider makes way for stringent security protocols and procedures like dual-factor authentication. The provider must show you all the measures it has deployed to preserve data integrity like firewalls, anti-virus systems, encryption techniques etc. Besides these, you may also need two-factor authentication which demands both a secure code and a password to grant access. This is known to eliminate data breach risks and hackers are unable to gain entry as the secure code will always be sent to your smartphone.
- Before you sign up with any cloud server provider, you must find out about their disaster recovery plans in place. You should find out if the vendor has multi-location redundancy so that even if a single server fails, there will be standby servers to take over. You must also know where the data will be in case there is a natural calamity in any of the provider’s server locations.
- Your cloud provider must also be able to tell you how routine backups will be conducted by them. You need to ask your vendor how frequently the data will be backed up, because the more often the data is backed up, the higher is the redundancy. During backups, you must ensure that the data gets encrypted so that there is no unauthorized access to it.
- Finally, you need to find out what will happen to the data once you decide to discontinue the services of your cloud server provider. Partnerships will cloud vendors may or may not work out always to your advantage. Whatever the reason for cancellation, you should know the policies long before you sign up. You must ask the vendor about cancellation of services and the kind of supports they will extend if you intend to switch providers.
