Moving data to the cloud can bring an array of benefits to any business – cloud hosting packages have become hugely popular assets over recent years. The ability to store and control everything from a remote virtual resource can save a business extraordinary amounts of time and money, while at the same time enjoying any of the other perks that might be offered by those providing the cloud solution.
However, like all things in such areas of business there are points to consider before diving in and migrating a whole business-worth of data to the cloud. It’s a case of assessing what you have against what you need and any other important matters to address before going ahead, which include the following examples:
Security
Unsurprisingly, the most pressing concern of all is of course that of security. Once you put your data in the hands of an external provider using something of a virtual storage system, it’s somewhat out of your control and totally in theirs. Will they be able to look after it safely? What kind of encryption will they use? Can they themselves be trusted? All real and valid questions to address before going forward. 
Consistency
One of the other supremely important points to consider is that of reliability and consistency – as in will you be able to access what it is you need to access at any time and with no delays or lockouts? Most cloud service providers and hosting companies these days will promise an uptime guarantee that’s as close to 100% as makes no difference. As such, those that are not willing to make such promises and back them with guarantees are probably not advertising their true performance for a reason.
Supervision and Maintenance
There’s a big difference between a cloud hosting provider that keeps a careful watch over your data and its performance and another that just leaves it to its own devices. Unless they actually tell you how, when and why they will keep close tabs on your data, you have to assume that they might not do so at all. Don’t just assume it will all be fine – make sure they lay out exactly what they will be doing for you.
Contingency Management
You never know when something might happen that could see your servers and thus the data they hold being wiped off the face of the Earth. It doesn’t happen often, but as you cannot predict disasters, you need to make sure your cloud hosting provider can provide strong contingency management as and when needed. You don’t want to be left high and dry following any kind of disaster and with the right kind of backup you need not be.
Flexibility
Last but not least, be sure to look into how flexible the cloud solution is as there’s a strong chance you will need to extent, alter or maybe even reduce the service package you need at a later date. After all, the whole point of cloud solutions is that they are 100% scalable.