The choice of a cloud service provider (CSP) is a thorough and challenging decision. Considering the numerous factors involved, as well as the time and effort needed to migrate to a new platform and set up all processes, this decision is made—if not permanently, then certainly for a considerable period.

 

While many enterprises today adopt a multi-cloud strategy to avoid vendor lock-in and reduce costs, Gartner suggests it is impractical for most IT teams to fully manage more than one or two cloud platforms. This makes choosing a cloud provider a highly strategic decision that will significantly influence a company’s operations for years to come. 

 

In this article, we’ll highlight the key factors to consider when choosing the right cloud service provider.

 

Identify things to influence your choice

Today, choosing a cloud provider goes beyond evaluating their technical capabilities. It’s about selecting a long-term partner who can effectively support your company’s goals on its cloud journey. Before moving forward, it’s crucial to identify key questions that will guide your decision. A clear understanding of these factors will help you make the right choice.

 

  • What is your strategic business goal? First and foremost, it’s essential to understand why you’re moving to the cloud. What will this step bring to your organization, and what challenges will it help resolve? Perhaps you aim to expand your business, but technical limitations of your current infrastructure are holding you back. Or maybe you want to ensure uninterrupted services and improve response times.

 

  • What data do you plan to store in the cloud, and how frequently will it be accessed? This information is critical for selecting the right storage class. Depending on your data usage and workload, a hybrid model – keeping some data on-premises – might be more suitable. Consider the type of data you’ll store: could migrating it affect compliance?

 

  • What functions are you planning to delegate to a provider? You may want to shift from self-hosted to managed services to relieve your team from tasks like updating and patching, freeing them to focus on core priorities.

 

  • What budget have you allocated for cloud services? Cloud billing can be complex, with some services dependent on others for proper function. This setup often leads to unintended cloud sprawl, driving up costs. Knowing your budget and understanding the billing model is essential to avoid surprises.

 

Key factors to consider when choosing the right CSP

Technology Base and Service Offerings

According to Gartner, one of the primary reasons companies move to the cloud is to upgrade their technology base. So, ensure that your chosen CSP offers an innovative technological platform with a range of services that align with your business needs. Leveraging specialized cloud services to perform specific tasks can greatly improve your application efficiency. For instance, serverless computing is ideal for applications that handle periodic events without needing constant uptime, like processing transactions after purchases or verifying user identities when accessing the platform.

 

A key consideration here is whether your applications are compatible with the provider’s technologies. Older legacy systems may need substantial rearchitecting before migration to ensure smooth integration. This may require refactoring your application to fit its new environment—or even replacing it with commercial software delivered as a service (SaaS).

 

Ensure your CSP can support you through the migration, as it’s a technically complex process that may exceed your team’s expertise.

 

Security

Security is a critical factor when choosing a cloud provider. Look closely at the provider’s data and system security measures, and assess the maturity of their Cloud Security and Compliance Management processes. Be sure to review the provider’s certifications to ensure they meet industry standards and are up-to-date.

 

Remember that cloud security is always a shared responsibility between the provider and the customer. The division of responsibility depends on the cloud service model in use:

 

  • IaaS environments: The CSP manages the underlying hardware – servers and storage – ensuring security patches and updates are applied. Customers are responsible for managing the OS, runtime, scaling, and all data.
  • PaaS environments: The CSP covers runtime, server management, scaling, operating systems, and virtualization. Customers remain responsible for securing their own code and its deployment.
  • SaaS environments: Fully managed applications are maintained and secured by the cloud provider, while customers are responsible for securing their own data.

 

Major cloud providers like Azure, AWS, and Google offer a range of essential security tools as part of their service offerings, and it’s highly recommended to make full use of them if you’re in the cloud. For instance, in AWS, you can leverage tools like WAF and Shield to protect against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, CloudTrail for auditing activities, and GuardDuty to gain visibility into anomalies across different parts of your account.

 

Availability & SLA

A core expectation for any CSP is their ability to deliver uninterrupted service. A provider’s commitments to your applications’ availability are defined in the Service Level Agreement (SLA). Essentially, an SLA represents the provider’s guarantee of your application’s uptime, even in the event of an outage on their end. For example, an SLA of 99.97% availability implies that potential downtime due to provider-related issues is limited to 0.03%, which translates to roughly 2 hours and 37 minutes per year. Leading cloud providers typically offer SLAs of no less than 99.9%.

 

The greater the provider’s geographic reach, the closer data storage can be to end-users, reducing latency and enhancing response times—an essential factor for critical services.

 

Hyperscalers compete heavily on regional coverage, with Azure leading at over 60 announced regions and 140 availability zones, followed by AWS with 108 zones across 34 regions, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offering more than 40 regions and 121 zones globally.

 

Scalability

Scalability is a key cloud feature that ensures your application’s business logic runs smoothly, even during peak traffic hours. A reliable cloud provider should be able to scale alongside your business, allowing you to add new cloud resources whenever needed.

 

While each cloud provider has its own scaling mechanisms and configurations, the main goal remains the same: to ensure stable, predictable application performance, even as traffic grows. This is achieved by organizing resources into scaling groups, allowing them to be managed as a single unit. Tools like AWS Auto Scaling in AWS or Compute Engine in GCP monitor resource usage and automatically adjust capacity in real-time as demand shifts. Autoscaling can be configured based on factors like CPU utilization, load balancing capacity, monitoring metrics, or pre-set schedules.

 

Certification

Certifications confirm the level of data security and confidentiality that a CSP guarantees to customers. They also reflect the provider’s commitment to industry best practices, service quality, and reputation. While certifications alone may not be the deciding factor, they help narrow down providers that meet your company’s regulatory requirements and industry-specific needs.

 

There are both international and region-specific standards, such as HDS Certification in France, required for CSPs hosting health data, or the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, which sets rules for handling personal information of EU citizens.

 

Some well-known international standards include:

 

  • ISO 27001 – Sets requirements for information security management systems, focusing on handling sensitive data.
  • ISO 27017 – Verifies the provider’s commitments to technical, legal, and organizational security measures.
  • ISO/IEC 27018:2019 – A code of practice for protecting personally identifiable information (PII) in public clouds.
  • HIPAA – Similar to HDS Certification, regulates the confidentiality and security of patient data.

 

Resilience

There are several ways to evaluate a service provider’s reliability.

 

Start by reviewing the provider’s SLA performance for the past 6–12 months. Some providers publish this information, while others can provide it upon request.

 

Remember that occasional downtime is unavoidable for any cloud provider. What matters most is how they handle these incidents. Make sure their monitoring and reporting tools are sufficient and compatible with your overall management and reporting systems.

 

Check that the provider has well-documented and proven processes in place to handle both planned and unplanned downtime. They should have clear communication protocols for keeping customers informed during disruptions, including how they prioritize issues, assess severity, and communicate timely updates.

 

Finally, understand the remedies and liability limits that the provider offers in case of service disruptions.

 

Conclusion

Choosing a cloud service provider is a complex decision that extends beyond simply comparing pricing quotes. Given its significant impact on business operations, this choice should be made after a thorough technical evaluation and in close collaboration with your technical team.

 

If your IT team needs additional support, consult with professionals. SHALB certified cloud architects can recommend the infrastructure and services best suited to your project needs. We work with leading cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, DigitalOcean, and IBM Cloud. Contact us to get the most out of cloud computing with SHALB cloud infrastructure design services.