How to choose the right cloud provider?

With the need for cloud computing and cloud-native technologies, many businesses are moving workloads to the cloud. Hence, there will be a need for a cloud service provider. This blog will cover the steps to choosing the perfect cloud provider and how a multi-cloud approach can reduce costs.

In a recent meetup I did alongside Dinesh Majrekar and Saiyam Pathak, we discussed the current state of the cloud industry, why costs are so high, how to reduce your spending, and how Civo can help. You can watch the full "reduce your cloud spend" video here:

3 steps to choose the right cloud provider for your business

1. Assess your needs

A cloud provider catering to your business needs will be the perfect one for you. While choosing a provider, considering the application and workload you want to run in the cloud is essential. This is because the cloud provider that aligns with your application's resource requirements, including the storage, CPU, memory, and network bandwidth, will be the best for your business. Again, security is one of the primary things to be considered in a business. So, a cloud provider that has good security and meets all the compliance requirements will be a perfect fit to handle sensitive data and information.

2. Consider costs

Cost consideration is one of the most important steps to consider while choosing a cloud provider for your business. Our cost of the cloud survey showed that 37% of companies received unexpected billings in the last 12 months, and 65% of people said it was expensive to leave their current cloud providers because of high egress charges.

Different cloud providers have different pricing models, and you should choose the one that can scale the costs as the usage grows over time. Extensive research on different providers can help you identify hidden costs and ensure predictable billing. In addition, providers that will charge you only for the things you use will help if you want to reduce your cloud spending.

You can learn more about cloud costs with these resources:

• The cost of cloud report
• Why the cloud does not have to be a costly venture
• Maximizing cloud savings: Strategies to optimize your cloud costs
• Reduce your cloud spend webinar

3. Looking beyond the hyperscalers

When choosing a cloud provider, most companies want improved performance and less complexity associated with proper predictable billing and low egress costs. Unfortunately, many people select hyperscalers that offer many services, which increases the complexity of choosing and using them. While researching cloud providers, looking beyond hyperscalers and accepting smaller providers can solve many problems for small and medium-sized businesses.

Smaller providers focus on their core services and offer predictable billing with no hidden or egress costs. As a result, there is very little complexity, and the whole process increases efficiency, which leads to a better developer experience. In addition, unlike hyperscalers, smaller providers allow for enterprise support at zero cost with enhanced service level agreements or SLAs in certain areas.

Having a multi-cloud approach

What is a multi-cloud approach?

Multi-cloud is an approach through which you can use multiple cloud service providers to meet your needs. Different cloud service providers in the market have their own pros and cons. Some focus on performance, others on costs, security, and data sovereignty. Combining multiple providers' services helps you achieve high performance with low, predictable costs while maintaining your data and information.

How can I apply a multi-cloud approach?

Using a single cloud provider can bring many risks, including unexpected costs and vendor lock-in. As multiple workloads run in an organization, it's better to think about how those workloads can be best suited with a multi-cloud approach. For example, you can put certain test environments with workloads where you can determine the difference between using a smaller, cost-effective cloud service provider and a hyperscaler. This will help you get a clear picture of which provider can help with providing a better and more efficient service for that particular workload.

Summary

There are several cloud service providers in the market, but choosing the right one for your business is challenging. Before choosing a provider, look into your application and the workloads you want to run in the cloud. The right cloud provider should meet your workload's resource requirements and fulfill the business's needs.

Hyperscalers have a major share of the cloud market, but they are complex in nature, with unpredictable billings and egress costs. Businesses can look into smaller, more performant, efficient cloud providers with predictable billing systems and no egress costs. Those providers reduce complexity, enhance the developer experience, and provide free-of-cost enterprise support.

Furthermore, big and small organizations can utilize a multi-cloud approach involving different cloud providers for multiple workloads or teams. This approach helps increase cost-efficiency, performance, and security, and reduces the risk of vendor lock-in and unpredictable billing.

By signing up here, you can also take advantage of Civo Kubernetes, enjoy predictable billing, and launch a cluster within 90 seconds.