Affordability of resources is a big concern for small businesses because of the limited funds with which these businesses operate. Any business owner would try to stretch the dollar to the maximum extent possible by making optimal use of resources at low cost. One of such choices is the selection of a server for operating the business applications and other systems.
Technological advancements have made resources more accessible and affordable for small businesses. They can now do away with hosting dedicated on-premise servers and instead move over to cloud servers. It ensures hassle-free operations resulting from using third-party resources that come with the same benefits of outsourcing.
In this article, we will discuss How to Choose the Best CloudBased Server for Small business.
Know the players
Know the players that provide Cloud service and the costs to have some idea about the monthly expenses that suit your budget. Once you know your limits, select the cloud server by considering the price and the services provided to ensure that it will match your business process and help support the business applications.
From the largest players like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform to other smaller players popular in your industry category, gather as much information to understand which service would suit you best.
Safety and security
Using a Cloud server means sharing valuable and sensitive business information with the service provider, which needs secured handling to prevent any data theft or system breach. Since all your business data will be in the Cloud, its safety and security are paramount.
Therefore, the Cloud service provider should have several security layers to create an impregnable shield and update it regularly to ward off malicious attacks that grow rapidly and become more sophisticated.
In addition, the Cloud service provider must ensure compliance with the government legislation specific to the industry. Finally, check the track record of the company to identify the incidents of security concerns.
Security of the data center and its location
Besides ensuring online data safety, equally important is to check the safety level at the physical location of the data center that holds all your business data. The physical security of the servers at the location must be robust so that there cannot be any chances of vandalism or trespassing.
There should also be adequate protection of the servers from natural calamities like fire, floods, storms, and earthquakes. Check the protections that are in place to prevent physical breach so that you feel confident of entrusting your data to a reliable company.
Downtime history
Check the records of the Cloud service company to ascertain incidences of outage and downtime to ascertain if it is within acceptable limits. If any service provider claims zero downtime, which is rare, be suspicious about the claim as it seems too good and defies the ground realities.
Finally, check the pricing and choose the pay-per-use model so that you pay for only what you use.
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