This document provides information to help businesses choose the right cloud provider. It discusses the benefits of cloud computing such as scalability and cost savings. The main types of cloud environments - public, private, and hybrid - are explained. Key considerations for choosing a provider are discussed, such as integration capabilities, pricing models, reliability, and exit capabilities. Popular cloud providers Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and VMWare are briefly described. The document stresses the importance of understanding a business's needs and goals when selecting a provider.

1. Choosing the Right
CLOUD PROVIDER

2. Is the Cloud in
Your Cards?
SMB Group surveyed
decision-makers and
learned that:
They don’t have the IT resources to take advantage of technology innovation.
Moving assets such as their infrastructure and business-critical applications to
the cloud allows them to utilize technologies that they once thought were too
complex for their business.
Choosing the right cloud provider is a challenge.

3. The Cloud: A Primer
Cloud computing is the delivery of on-demand computing services. Start by understanding what the
cloud can do for your business. Then, determine which vendor can provide the services you need.
The largest benefit of cloud computing is its scalability: You use resources as you need them. In
high-usage situations, your cloud environment will stretch to meet these
demands. In low-usage situations, fewer resources are consumed.

4. Types of Cloud Environments
Public Private
(Remote and On-Premises)
Hybrid

5. Public Cloud
Hosted on your provider’s infrastructure
Depending upon the terms of your agreement, you
may not be responsible for maintaining or managing
all the hardware
High security
Low control

6. Private Cloud
Resources reside on your company’s intranet
and data center.
You are responsible for managing your
environment.
If you host your data center on your premises,
then you will have to replace servers and hard-
ware as needed.
There is a high level of security and control.

7. Hybrid Cloud
There are on-premises cloud services and public cloud
services that are interconnected.
Businesses may choose to host sensitive data or critical
applications on their private cloud.
Businesses can rely on the public cloud for all other
computing resources.

8. Skills for Cloud Management and
Optimization
The traditional IT skill set differs when it comes to managing a
cloud environment. For a cloud project to be a success, a team
needs to have people who understand:
DevOps, a method of software development
that encompasses the entire
software lifecycle to include planning,
prototyping, development, deployment,
and maintenance
Systems automation to help companies
automate processes and tasks related to
the business and IT
Security to protect the cloud infrastructure, the
applications that run in it, and the data it stores
Database skills to help utilize data collected and
stored in the cloud so that it doesn't remain dark
Cloud migration skills so that when a company
moves to the cloud, or changes providers,
downtime is reduced, and no data is lost

9. Emerging Cloud
Technologies
As more businesses turn to the cloud,
certain technologies have been
developed and applied to it to help
businesses manage their “X as a service”
even better.
Identity and access management (IAM) tools
help manage security around who has access
to what and what level of access they have.
Single-sign-on solutions simplify the log-in
process for the end user but also work with
IAM solutions to carry permissions across
applications and environments.
Automation tools alleviate the need to
manually deploy software in the cloud.

10. Containers, like Docker, contain everything
needed to run an application in an isolated unit.
Unlike virtual machines, containers do not require
a full operating system and run from your cloud
environment.
Unikernels are a collection of lightweight
operating systems and can support a large
number of virtual machines running different
applications.

11. Which is best?
The answer to this depends on your business goals
and needs.
Private and hybrid clouds give you more control and are
more expensive.
Public cloud environments are common among smaller busi-
nesses that don’t have the staff to manage a public or hybrid
cloud but do require optimization for maximum effectiveness.
If data security regulations require you to store data on premises,
then you may need to look at a private or hybrid offering.

12. What Can the Cloud Do
for Your Business?
You may be expecting a cloud solution to provide you
with benefits that include:
Agility
Cost savings
Capacity needs
Security
Resource needs
Reduced complexity
Support to meet
business goals

13. What are your end goals?
The answer to this question will help determine the best provider for you.

14. Agility
All businesses need to adapt quickly. For
businesses that don’t have the budget or staff
to make pivots in their IT resources, the cloud
helps by allowing them to pick and choose
what they need for a particular project, almost
like a smorgasbord of IT solutions.

15. Software as a service – you pay for the users and storage
you need.
Infrastructure as a service – only the data
storage, bandwidth, or computing resources in use cost
you money. There are no wasted resources sitting unused.
Public cloud – you also don’t have to pay for servers,
hardware, networking equipment, etc. that you would have
to buy and replace if you bought them outright.
Ensure your applications are optimized for the cloud to
realize the full cost savings.
Cost Savings
In a cloud environment, you get what you pay for:

16. Capacity needs
In a fast-growing business, servers and
software solutions need to be spun up quickly.
If you can’t wait for your team to order hardware,
set it up, configure the operating system and
software, etc., then you will certainly benefit
from cloud computing. In a cloud environment,
you just tell your provider what you need and it
is ready for you—on demand.

17. Security
A private cloud environment gives you greater
control over security. However, if you don’t
have the personnel resources to properly
secure your hardware and applications, then
you will find greater security with a reputable
cloud provider that will manage a great deal of
the security for you.

18. Resource needs
A public cloud will provide you with the
resources you need on demand, whether they
are infrastructure, software, or other cloud
options. Resources are updated for you by the
provider, making management easier.

19. Reduced
complexity
Your business can utilize the most recent,
innovative technologies without having a
dedicated team for each solution. The right
vendor will have specialized personnel to
eliminate any complexities that are common
during configuration and management.

20. Meeting business goals
Moving to the right cloud solution helps you meet business goals such as increased security,
faster deployment of technology, cost savings, and supporting a mobile workforce.

21. What to Look for in
a Cloud Provider
Not all cloud solutions are created equal. What works for a large enterprise may not work for a
smaller business. There are also needs across industries that differ, and each company has distinct
needs that its vendor has to address.

22. Integration
Capabilities
The applications you run on the cloud
are not the only ones your business
relies on. Your cloud provider should
be able to not only assist you with
integrating business-critical applications
across your environment, but it should
be able to tell you:

23. How long
integrations will take
How the provider will
handle integrations
with legacy applications
If the provider uses APIs or an
integration server
If the provider allows
you to maintain, or build, custom
integrations on its environment

24. Compatibility Across
Various Platforms
If all of your computers run the same operating system
and internet browser, this isn’t a concern. But most
companies support a variety of operating systems for
different business functions. The same goes for internet
browsers required to access your cloud applications. If
your provider does not support what you use, you can
either move to its standards or look elsewhere.

25. Pricing your cloud solution can become rather complicated. If you are only using the cloud to host
servers and you take care of the rest, you are looking at one type of pricing model. If you are
counting on your provider for applications like Office, you are going to pay per seat.
Pricing Model
Traffic
Storage space used
Server CPU time
Software licenses
Common pricing elements in the cloud are based on:

26. You also need to
understand
all of the actions that will incur charges and
tools that your provider makes available to
reduce costs.

27. Reliability
Service-level agreements (SLAs) are in place for a
reason: to show you just how much you can trust that
your cloud service will be available when you need it.
However, no service level is 100 percent, and not all
providers meet their SLAs. Check with possible vendors
to see how well they performed against their SLAs
over the past year. They should provide this information
to you.

28. Exit Capabilities
No business wants to be locked into a provider it’s
not happy with. If a provider uses proprietary
technologies, it may impact your ability to move to
another provider if you are not happy. Likewise,
pricing models may be tied into long-term contracts,
making it hard for you to leave the vendor.

29. Product/Service
Roadmap
New technologies are always on the horizon. Any
provider you are looking at should be able to provide
you with a high-level roadmap for its offering. Look for a
provider that is continually innovating and harnessing
emerging technologies to help keep your business on
the cutting edge.

30. Whatever service you choose to utilize, the cloud can make a difference on what provider you choose
to go with just as much as the type of cloud environment you need. Three providers that many
businesses rely on are:
Choosing the Right Cloud Provider
Amazon Web
Services (AWS)
Microsoft Azure VMWare

31. AWS
Amazon was an early leader in the cloud space and offers a
solid computing service, Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) that
allows for easy, scalable, on-demand computing. For
software deployment, AWS relies on Docker containers
through its EC2 Container Service.
Storage and cold storage are both priced by gigabytes used
per month. AWS also provides big data solutions and machine
learning offerings. Amazon also offers the most worldwide
data locations for regulatory and service-level needs.

32. Microsoft Azure
Like AWS, Azure provides on-demand computing
through virtual machines and uses Docker’s container
service for the easy deployment of software. Adding to
its offering is the Remote App service that makes the
deployment of Windows client applications easy.
Azure’s storage options, Data Lake Store and Storage,
are priced per gigabyte per month, and Azure has its
own big data and machine learning options as well.
While Azure doesn’t have as many locations as AWS,
it provides a great deal of coverage, especially in
North America, Europe, and the Asia–Pacific region.

33. VMWare
VMWare made its name in virtual machines and has
leveraged that into a cloud offering. Unlike the others, it does
not host its own data centers. Instead, it rents space and
provides its services on top of these servers.
Like the others, it makes the deployment of computing
resources easy and provides the services for data storage
with similar pricing plans. It also offers a private cloud capability
hosted on the public cloud.

34. How to Choose?
Only by having your business objectives and needs laid out will you know where to start. With
these in mind, begin talking to the different providers to see which of their offerings will best help
you meet your goals while also making deployment and migration easy for you.

35. Bringing in Help
Choosing the wrong cloud provider can set you back.
To avoid this strain on their budget, businesses
without the experience of working with cloud providers
often rely on a third-party partner to help navigate
their options and collaboratively choose the best
provider for them.

36. These partners not only help with the decision-
making but can also ensure migration to the
cloud and subsequent optimization occur
without disrupting core business processes
or creating downtime.

37. Learn More