Today’s business environment requires the resiliency needed to quickly adapt to changing business needs in real time. ERP systems equip growth-conscious businesses with the ability to see into all business operational areas for effective decision-making. Today, cloud computing has expanded the features of traditional ERP systems by giving businesses the ability to host ERP systems in a cloud environment, allowing for data redundancies and the flexibility needed to match the growing mobile workforce.
Choosing a cloud hosting provider for an ERP system or other core business applications involves careful evaluation and research to determine what works best for your business. As a leading ERP cloud-hosting provider, here are our top 5 questions that businesses looking to move their current ERP solution or other business software to the cloud should ask their prospective hosting provider.
Top 5 Questions To Ask When Choosing a Cloud Hosting Provider for Your ERP
- What type of cloud hosting service do you provide?
This simple but sometimes overlooked question can help you uncover the type of cloud hosting environment that your business would be using with your prospective hosting provider. In our blog post on “Not all cloud is created equal: Understanding your cloud hosting options,” we explained in detail the types of cloud environments, differences, benefits and disadvantages. The type of cloud hosting service whether public, private, virtual private or hybrid model should meet your business’ security needs, and have the flexibility to quickly scale your storage space up or down.
Related: Transforming Financial Management with Cloud Computing for a Mobile Workforce
- Where does my data reside?
Knowing where your data resides is of topmost concern because it could affect your data recovery process. In a public cloud environment, determining the physical location of your data maybe elusive due to the number of data centers utilized. With the CompuData Virtual Private Cloud environment, all our data centers are located in the United States, namely, Philadelphia, PA, Denver Colorado, and Las Vegas, Nevada for maximum redundancies needed for recovery.
- What types of data redundancies are in place for disaster recovery?
As mentioned earlier, data recovery and backup services for your data that’s stored in the cloud should be a critical component of your cloud hosting services. Without the right data redundancies and backup, your business could be on the fast track to bankruptcy following a major data loss. In fact over 70% of businesses go out of business after a major data loss.
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- How well do you know my ERP?
The optimal situation when looking for an ERP cloud-hosting provider is to find one that also knows your ERP solution. This key connection allows your hosting provider to troubleshoot software as well as network issues all at the same time, providing you with a higher chance of troubleshooting and fixing issues swiftly. Clients who sometimes decide to go with cloud hosting providers that are not well acquainted with their ERP are sometimes left in the middle of a long standing “finger-pointing-game” between their cloud hosting provider and software support provider. As an ERP and cloud hosting provider, our unique position allows us to easily fix and troubleshoot issues as they arise single handedly.
- What are the types of security layers put in place?
Okay, so we saved the best for last. It goes without saying that security in cloud hosting is imperative, and there should be no compromises made. Asking a question such as, “is your cloud hosting environment secure?” will almost always get you a positive answer. To dive deeper find out what type of security certifications that the company has. If they have two-factor authentication, data encryption, end-point security controls, among others. The more specific you can get with your questions when it comes to security, the greater the chance of uncovering if a cloud hosting provider’s service is a secure as they say it is. Before signing up, it might also be a good idea to have Service Level Agreement (SLA) sent to you so you can read in full detail the type of service and security you may receive.
Read Also: The Promise of Cloud ERP for Your Small Business: What are The Benefits?
When it’s all said and done, cloud computing provides immerse benefits to any business of any size, this includes, the elimination of IT infrastructure costs, and mundane IT maintenance tasks. Doing your homework and asking the right questions can help prevent headaches further down the line.
Looking at choosing a cloud-hosting provider? Download your cloud hosting provider guide: 5 things to Consider Before Selecting a Cloud Hosting Provider.