Best Practices for Enterprise Cloud Computing

CIOs considering moving mission-critical applications to the cloud must fully understand the inherent differences between cloud services created for consumer use and those designed to serve the more demanding needs of enterprise businesses. Well-publicized outages point out the need for enterprise-ready cloud services designed from the ground up with the enterprise in mind. These disruptions draw attention to the need for enterprise IT pros to make important decisions about where to locate cloud-based mission-critical infrastructure based on a thorough understanding of the associated selection criteria. To help, Logicalis, an international IT solutions and managed services provider, has created a list of five important best practices IT pros should employ when choosing a cloud provider to serve their enterprise business needs.

“When downtime is simply not an option, it is important that enterprise IT managers choose their cloud partners wisely, based on predefined criteria and industry best practices,” says Kevin Gruneisen, senior director, Cloud and Data Center Solutions for Logicalis. “At the very least, an enterprise organization needs a cloud solution that offers significant performance capabilities, is secure and redundant, managed and monitored 24/7, and is flexible enough to be configured to meet the business’ exact needs. Even in a multi-tenant public cloud environment, each enterprise customer should be isolated and treated by the provider as if the cloud exists solely for them.”

Click through for five important best practices IT pros should employ when choosing a cloud provider to serve their enterprise business needs, as identified by Logicalis.

Select only providers that offer cloud services specifically designed on enterprise-class technology for enterprise organizations that require optimized environments with maximum up-time and a high level of security.

Look for a cloud provider whose resources are fully committed to providing cloud management, remote infrastructure management and service desk support to enterprise clients 24×7, and whose operation centers are staffed with highly skilled, certified engineers able to see the bigger picture and provide recommendations beyond the devices being managed.

The provider should have clear service-level agreements with well-defined response and resolution times spelled out, and they should be able to be customized to each enterprise client’s unique business needs.

All security policies and procedures should be built on industry standards that address a variety of regulations, and they should focus on risk management, audit compliance, and vulnerability analysis.

Less critical, but still important considerations include whether or not the provider has the ability to operate on a global scale, delivering a unified cloud experience for the customer and how often the provider is willing to meet with clients to review service levels and activity.