The cloud market is growing every day with cloud technologies becoming a must-have for businesses regardless of the size. Numerous providers have sprung to offer cloud services to meet the increasing demand. However, with so many cloud providers in the market, it can be daunting and challenging especially for new businesses to choose the best cloud platform for their company’s strategy. The challenge is further complicated by the fact that there’s no common scheme for vetting providers and their offerings. This article purposes to discuss the importance of choosing the right platform, factors to consider when choosing one, and compare a list of platforms worth paying attention to in 2019.   

Why Choose the Right Cloud Platform

A cloud platform can build or harm your enterprise. When you choose the right platform, you meet your business needs and benefit from it. On the other hand, when you choose the wrong platform, you spend excessive time and money addressing the many problems it emits. Below are the benefits of choosing the right cloud platform.

• Lower costs: on many platforms, you pay for what you use. Also, you get additional cost savings from using remote resources as opposed to buying servers and other equipment.
• Unlimited access: you can access data and applications stored in a cloud platform anywhere anytime.
• Greater security: storing data in a cloud platform is safer as compared to storing it in your machines where it is vulnerable to loss and unauthorized access.
• Strategic value: when a business chooses the right cloud platform, it gets a competitive advantage by using innovative technology.
• Greater collaboration: A cloud platform allows a team to share documents and applications resulting in teamwork, interdependence and increased productivity.

Factors to Consider When Choosing the Right Cloud Platform

Below are three main factors to consider when choosing a cloud platform.

1. Business’s Needs

Businesses have different needs and hence require a platform that meets their needs fully. When choosing a cloud platform, you should determine your business needs first. The following points will help you determine your business needs.

• Type of data to store: you must determine the type of data you will store on the cloud platform. The type of data you will store at the cloud will define the platform you will use. Sensitive data and non-sensitive data cannot use the same platform.
• Devices to connect to the platform: ask yourself how many devices you intend to connect to the platform. This will depend on the size of your company and the scalability of the service.
• Budget: how much do you intend to spend on the platform? There are numerous cloud platforms in the market. While some are free others are not and have different security levels.

2. Cloud Types

There are several cloud types in the industry. Your choice of cloud type should rely on your business needs.

• Public clouds: these types of clouds have shared infrastructure and many users. There are free public clouds and pay-per-use clouds. Public clouds are ideal for storing data that is not sensitive. They are advantageous because of their scalability and reasonable pricing. Among the disadvantages of public clouds are security concerns –including cyber-attacks- and compliance issues in industries like finance.
• Private clouds: this option uses proprietary infrastructure and serves a single user and hence is fit for storing sensitive data. The pros of private clouds include a high level of security and scalability. Private clouds are suitable for data storage in industries such as healthcare that handle sensitive patient information. Although private clouds are safe, they are not devoid of shortcomings. They are costly because they come with additional expenses for personnel, maintenance, and cloud software.
• Hybrid clouds: these clouds combine the better of the two worlds mentioned above; private and public clouds. In this option, you use both private and public clouds to store sensitive and non-sensitive data respectively. The merits of hybrid clouds are flexibility and improved agility. The demerits include higher cost, complex management, and security concerns –particularly in public clouds.
• Multi-clouds: this type of cloud is gradually gaining prominence. This cloud is based on the argument that one cloud may not be enough to fully meet the needs of an organization. Thus, the firm can use several platforms for different purposes as a coherent system.

3. Cloud Features

Cloud platforms are not created equally and have different features and functionalities. When choosing a cloud platform, you have to assess its features and ensure they meet your business needs.

• Security: security is a top concern in the cloud and it should be for your provider. Examine the cloud platform’s data and system security and security policy and processes. Also, check whether the provider complies with security standards and certifications.
• Compliance: the platform’s provider must comply with stipulated standards and quality requirements. For example, if you are in the healthcare sector, does the cloud platform adhere to HIPAA?
• Architecture: the platform’s technologies and architecture should align with your workflow now and in future.
• Service roadmap: enquire from the provider their plans for service development and determine whether they meet your long-term goals.
• Support: does the provider offer adequate assistance when using the platform or will you incur additional costs on 3rd party support? If you need help with the platform, will you get it promptly? While some providers help with migration to the platform, others do not. Hence, ensure you enquire from the provider for planning purposes. In addition, clarify the distribution of roles and responsibilities between the provider and the client.
• Cost: Although the cost should not be the primary determinant of the platform you choose, it will affect your decision. Different platforms charge different costs for their services depending on the period of usage. Ensure you assess both the sticker price and associated costs.

4. Provider

After assessing the cloud types and features, you narrow down to the provider.

• Business health and company profile: choose a cloud provider with sound business and a good fit for the long-term. The provider should have a healthy financial position and a track record of stability. Ask the provider for any past legal issues they had, competitive position, and any planned corporate changes. This will provide useful insights into the provider’s company and business health.     

Common Cloud Platforms

Although there are numerous cloud platforms in the market, Amazon web services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google are the undisputed top leaders worldwide.  However, there are other providers such as IBM Cloud, Rackspace, and CloudSigma you can consider. Synergy Research report contends that AWS has the largest market share of 33%, followed by Microsoft with 13% and Google with 6%. An enterprise should assess its cloud needs and match them to the cloud platforms to identify the ones that best fit their needs. The three giants have their strengths and cons that make them a good option for certain projects.     

1. AWS

It leads the cloud pack with a 33% market share and an operating profit of $3.1 billion in 2016. It has unmatched capabilities with a large toolset and focuses on the public cloud. Among the main reasons for AWS popularity is its massive scope of operations and an extensive range of offerings.   

Strengths

• It regarded as a mature and safe choice for using the cloud.
• Comprehensive network of data centers across the globe making it a good option for many businesses.
• Has an easy-to-use functionality
• Global reach
• Its pay-as-you-go pricing model is advantageous for short-term computing needs.
• Offer application hosting that is effective for all business sizes.
• Has verified system management tools such as Amazon CloudWatch for tracking your infrastructure resource use and AWS Cloudtrail for monitoring user activity.

Shortcomings

• Many firms do not understand AWS cost structure and hence cannot manage their costs effectively.
• Its finicky service-level agreements that come with an additional cost.
• AWS commits to constant innovation that although are a good thing, make it difficult for clients to keep up.
• Many overwhelming options

2. Microsoft Azure

Although Microsoft came late to the cloud industry, it has managed to catch up with the rest becoming the second largest provider. However, Microsoft’s cloud platform’s offerings are close to AWS.

Pros

• Focuses on the hybrid cloud giving it an advantage over competitors
• Broad range of compute offerings including Windows and Linux virtual machines, functions serve-less platform, data management tools, storage offerings, and database offerings.
• Ideal for running Microsoft-based workloads and applications; integrates well with Microsoft tools and software.
• Offers discounts for Microsoft’s existing customers.

Cons

• Difficulty backing workloads across regions and finding third-party platforms and experts working on Azure.
• Azure’s service experience feels less enterprise ready with many issues of documentation, technical support, and training.

3. Google Cloud Platform

It started as a Platform as a Service (PaaS) and grew to Infrastructure as a service (IaaS).  The Google cloud platform excels in high compute offerings such as big data management, machine learning, and application containers.

Strengths

• Good machine learning and AI capabilities differentiate it from the competition.
• Strong offerings in containers.
• Flexible networking and fast boot times.
• Offers discounts and flexible contracts

Shortcomings

• Has fewer enterprise features available in competitors. It has only 70% of the needed enterprise features in the cloud.
• Lags behind competitors in global data centers.
• Late entry in LaaS market.

Choosing the right cloud platform may be daunting and overwhelming with the market saturated with cloud platforms and providers. This article provides a guideline to help you build a solid analytical framework for choosing the right cloud platform for your business. This way, you will choose a cloud platform that meets your organizational needs and provides features and resources that will support your business goals. Contact the experts at Applied Innovations for cloud IT services.