5 Questions to Ask Before Transitioning to a Software Vendor’s Cloud Platform

Introduction

While software vendors typically provide a dose of value-add service to your business, it’s important to spend the time up front to understand their cloud offerings and weigh the Pros and Cons before you sign a long term agreement.

It’s highly likely you’re already on a well vetted cloud platform already — such as Office 365 or G Suite for email.  For your business applications, however, these are becoming more common and you’ve likely considered switching over to one (I.e. Quickbooks Desktop vs. Quickbooks Online).  

To cut a long story short, cloud means “someone else’s server”.  You’re a renter and aren’t worried about how the house is built or is maintained — just that it’s sufficient for your needs.  The key is do basic due diligence to ensure the roof won’t collapse and kill your business because you trusted the wrong provider.  

When looking at using a software vendor’s cloud platform, you should vet your decision with these 5 basic questions to protect your business.

5 Key Questions to Ask Before Transitioning to a Software Vendor’s Cloud Platform:

1. What’s the backup policy?
   1. How often?
   2. How long do you keep it?
   3. What’s the restore process and turnaround time?
   4. Can I receive copies of data on request?
2. Will I be locked into you forever?
   1. What’s the process if I decide to leave them?
   2. Is the data format proprietary to the vendor or open?
3. What is the disaster recovery plan?
   1. If hosted at one data center, what happens if it goes down?
   2. If replicated to another data center, how recent is that copy of the data and what’s the estimated time to restore?
4. Are you compliant with the regulations subject to my company?
   1. Are you compliant with HIPAA, PCI, SOX, FISMA, GDPR, etc.,?
5. What’s the expected reliability of this service?
   1. Do you have an SLA?
   2. Do you have a financial penalty for missing your SLA?
   3. Do you have historic uptime information on how you’ve performed over the last year?

Whether you are a seasoned cloud user, avoid the cloud when possible, or fall somewhere in between, there’s no need to go it alone.

Cloud platforms can be rock solid additions for most businesses when vetted properly.  Our goal at PK Tech is to help our customers make technology decisions that protect and benefit their business. Do you still have questions about choosing a cloud platform? Feel free to call us at (602) 639-9900 or email [email protected] and we’ll be happy to answer your questions. 

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