Selecting a cloud computing service is not hard if all you want to do is pick the big name brands. But when you want to achieve your business objectives, you must think strategically. Apply these tips to pick cloud computing services that will give genuine cost savings, operational efficiency, and competitive advantage.

1. Review Your Business Objectives

Don’t just move to the cloud to relieve your IT team of data storage and maintenance tasks. If you merely sign up for IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), you will just be changing the location of your corporate network servers.

There’s a lot more to gain from using cloud services. So you should look at your business objectives and see how your new cloud service will help you achieve them. Some of the goals you should pursue include:

• Continuous reduction in IT costs over the next five years
• Use of integrated services to achieve faster communication
• Better sharing of large files through collaborative software
• Reduction of project management costs by eliminating inefficient data management

After you have defined your objectives and goals for cloud computing, you can start evaluating reputable cloud providers who can support your needs.

2. Integrate Your Business Applications

If your business still depends heavily on custom-built applications that run on in-house servers, you need to have a re-think. The best way to reap the rewards of using cloud technology is to use cloud-based applications.

These applications should also integrate so you can easily pull in data from one application to another for analytics and decision support. For example, your accounting, human resource management, ERP, and CRM applications should be cloud-based and integrated.

Moving to the cloud also means that you need to plan a migration from old software applications to cloud-based tools to maximize the benefits of your cloud platform.

3. Integrate your OS platforms and IT Infrastructure

Using multiple cloud providers to run apps on different operating systems and hardware platforms is not always cost-effective. You should use apps, OS platforms, and cloud servers that are integrated as much as possible. For instance, choosing an Office suite, database management system, operating system, web host, and file storage platform from

an integrated cloud service provider will help you reduce costs and manage your accounts and security more efficiently.

4. Focus on Flexibility and Adaptability

Your cloud service provider must have a system that can allow you to increase or reduce your quota on various services as your business needs change. The service must also accommodate your business growth over the next five years or more.

So, do a rough estimate of how you expect to generate data, increase user accounts, and add new applications for your business over the next half-decade. Can the prospective cloud service meet your needs conveniently?

You also need to find out if transiting from one tariff plan to another will be smooth and instant or whether it will disrupt business for a few hours or days.

5. Consult a Cloud Service Partner

Making a comprehensive and integrated move to the cloud is not a trivial project. You need to make many strategic decisions.

Consulting a cloud service expert will enable you to decide what will meet your business goals and give you a substantial advantage over your competitors. Your partner will also provide professional network monitoring service and security for your cloud network.

Connect With a Trusted Partner for Cloud Computing Services Today

To develop an effective strategy for moving your entire business to the cloud, contact Garden State Computing at 973-636-7350 today. You can also reach us through our contact page to book a free consultation.