How to Choose a Cloud Provider

If you look up the phrase “boiling the ocean,” it’s defined as writing a piece on choosing a cloud provider—there are so many different facets and use cases, and each variable complicates your choice. The key is to narrow the field to your specific situation and needs. In this article, I share some of the early questions and decisions I use when working with a team to choose a cloud provider.

Simple Pass/Fails

I recently worked with a large financial organization that was considering a move to the cloud. When I started the engagement, we began with quick pass/fail decisions to see if a cloud move was feasible. These pass/fail choices allowed the team to make an initial go-forward decision before they went too deep down the rabbit hole. The following considerations helped mitigate their risk.

Can We Use the Cloud?

This might sound like an easy one, but some teams actually forget this step. There may be an outright prohibition on using the cloud at your organization, or the political climate may be so terrible that you decide not to fight that battle.

Will the Technologies Work for Your Use Case?

Can the cloud technologies do what you need them to do? With small data problems, this isn’t usually an issue: they can handle almost anything. With big data problems, however, capability can be a sticky issue—there are bigger tradeoffs that the technology designers have to make.

I’ve written some in-depth posts covering some of these tradeoffs and comparisons. ...