Good infrastructure sits at the heart of every successful deployment of apps and web services. After investing resources—and time—into developing a turnkey solution that provides real answers to market problems, you want that solution to run smoothly and deliver the best user experience. Choosing the right infrastructure, particularly cloud infrastructure, to support the new solution is the next challenge to overcome. A managed cloud service is an infrastructure solution worth considering if your primary objective is efficiency. You can stay lean and benefit from a reliable infrastructure without investing in clusters of servers or an in-house team of server administrators. Choosing the right managed service provider is also perhaps easier than you think. You simply need to look into the following aspects which we are going to discuss in this article.
The first two things you want to check when looking into managed IT service providers are availability and reliability. Your new app needs to be accessible 24/7 to really cater to the needs of your users, so you want a cloud service that offers high availability from the beginning.Availability is something that can be tweaked depending on the service provider you work with. When targeting users in different parts of the world, for instance, a global IT service provider can integrate redundancies, a comprehensive CDN, and additional nodes to support your app.Reliability, on the other hand, touches on how capable each node is when handling a heavy load. Even when the servers are available, reliability isn’t always guaranteed. A good way to measure reliability is by seeing the experience of past clients.
Security is the next big factor to tackle. After the GDPR rulings—and with the increasing number of cyber attacks targeting cloud services—security and privacy have become mission-critical elements to focus on. You want a managed service provider with good track records in keeping their infrastructure secure.While you are at it, look into the different security and privacy measures the service provider has put in place. The ability to set your own encryption key is always a huge plus since you can keep sensitive information on lock-down without jumping through hoops.Compliance, on the other hand, is related to specific industry needs. There are service providers that focus more on specific industries or user segments. If you are catering to the healthcare industry, a good healthcare IT service provider will help you comply with HIPAA and other regulations easily. For more on the role managed service providers play in software development, click here.
After covering the basics, it is time to measure the service level of the providers you are looking into. You want a service provider that is willing to respond quickly at any time, especially when it comes to problems with the cloud infrastructure or specific needs that must be addressed quickly.You also want to check the available support lines and how quickly you can get the support you need through those lines. Offering live chat and phone support while maintaining quick response time, all the time is the mark of a capable service provider.To complete the set, see how your pre-sales questions are handled. Are you getting the answers you need quickly? Do the answers address your concerns properly? How well do the support and sales team communicate with you as a potential client? There is a lot to learn from the answers to these questions.
There are still a lot of things to consider before settling for one service provider. You need to look into the partnerships that the service provider has with other vendors. This will help you better understand the kind of infrastructure and capacity to expect.Reviews and references from past (and existing) clients are also invaluable in your search for the right managed service provider to work with. Don’t hesitate to contact past clients directly so you can get a better idea of the SLA to expect (and whether that SLA is met).You can even go deep into the details of the infrastructure such as backup routines and available cloud services. A service provider may offer support for multi-cloud deployment, while others prefer focusing on one or two cloud environments for better mastery of their service lineups.Lastly, measure your comfort level before making your decision. At the end of the day, how well you can work with the managed service provider depends highly on how much you can trust (and count on) the service provider. Your comfort level says a lot about how you see the service provider too.After looking into all of the factors, there is one more step you want to take: Setup a trial run. See if your app can run smoothly in the environment provided by the cloud company before making any long-term commitment. With insights from the previous steps and your own experience during a trial run, choosing a service provider that suits the needs and requirements of your organization will not be difficult.To leverage the Certified AWS expertise at Ibexlabs on your behalf as a top Managed Services Provider, contact us here today.Ibexlabs is an experienced DevOps & Managed Services provider and an AWS consulting partner. Our AWS Certified DevOps consultancy team evaluates your infrastructure and make recommendations based on your individual business or personal requirements. Contact us today and set up a free consultation to discuss a custom-built solution tailored just for you.
Kiran is a Lead DevOps Engineer at Ibexlabs. With extensive knowledge in managing AWS services like EC2, VPC, Route53, S3, SES, RDS, ELB, Cloudwatch, and IAM he has been an integral part of client projects.
