Last week, we explored seven questions to ask your prospective cloud providers as you’re doing your due diligence for your leadership team.
This week, we’re going to explore seven more questions. Ensuring you ask the right questions will help ensure your project is a success. Next week, watch for our blog on red flags to watch for in your cloud provider search.
1. How can we minimize disruptions to our firm as our applications are migrated to your platform?
It’s important to know that the transition to a cloud provider will go smoothly. Make sure the cloud provider has experience migrating firms like yours and can perform the migration with minimal disruption to your practice. Discuss the migration experience with references, if possible.A successful migration involves a knowledgeable, experienced cloud provider and a well-prepared firm. When the cloud provider and firm understand the overarching business objectives of the project, they can operate from the same playbook and communicate effectively throughout the process.
2. How do you calculate your fees? What costs are outside the scope of your cloud services?
Costs are calculated differently for cloud providers, but it’s important to understand how you will be charged. Is it based on number of users, applications, storage, or server resources?You will also want to understand what costs fall outside of the scope of your cloud services so you can budget accordingly. Some providers consider events like emergency support, software upgrades, or local network support as out-of-scope while other providers provide these services within their cloud offering.
3. Describe your company’s approach to support. Will we have a dedicated support team that is familiar with our applications and environment?
Businesses need quick, easy access to support when issues arise. Your cloud provider should keep your users productive and focused on their primary duty of serving clients. Support hours and levels of service should be outlined in the SLA so you understand what’s in-scope.It’s ideal for your cloud provider to offer a dedicated support team for your organization. This may mean that there are focused support teams dedicated to specific clients based on what vertical they’re in. Dedicated support teams allow your firm to experience more personal connections with the support staff, more specialized service, and shorter wait times.
4. Do you have a Service Level Agreement (SLA) designed to meet your unique needs?
Data availability is vital to law firms. A hosting provider’s Service Level Agreement (SLA) should detail the organization’s availability standards, response times, and support services. What is the average response time? Is any financial credit offered if availability drops below the threshold outlined? When are the provider’s maintenance windows and can these be customized for my firm? Be sure to carefully read the SLA and ask questions in any areas needing additional clarification.Negotiating an SLA is possible with the right cloud provider and should be one of the first terms discussed during your cloud evaluation process. Small details in your SLA can mean a better experience for your users, more value for your practice’s budget, and a cloud environment that is customized for your practice’s unique needs.
5. Will our data be stored in a private cloud environment? Do you use any public cloud partners to deliver your cloud services?
Take the time to understand where your data will be stored – a private or public cloud.The public cloud shares infrastructure resources across many types of clients, industries, and workloads. Some cloud providers partner with hyper-scale clouds like Amazon Web Services or Azure. If the provider uses the public cloud, ask questions about the public services to determine and assess the security of your data.
Providers delivering a private cloud, where the IT infrastructure is dedicated to one organization, deliver benefits including enhanced security and performance as well as a high degree of flexibility and customization. These benefits lead organizations to choose private cloud platforms over the cookie-cutter nature of the public cloud.
6. What kind of user training or orientation do you provide post-migration?
Once your environment has migrated, users need to understand how to access the applications they use. Ask the cloud provider what training will be provided and what training is out of scope.
7. Can you provide references from 2-3 practices of similar size or specialty to my organization?
Speaking with references is the most effective way to understand how the cloud provider is performing. Are they keeping other organizations’ data secure? Are they providing the support they expected? Do they have knowledgeable staff? References offer valuable, candid feedback. If there is a specific application that you plan to host with the cloud provider, ask to speak to references running the same application.
If you have questions about evaluating cloud partners or what your organization could be like in a cloud environment, feel free to schedule a consultation with our team of cloud experts.