In Part I, we discussed the five reasons that would make you leave your cloud backup vendor. They included:
1/ The lack of all operating systems support, mobile device support;
2/ Too much focus on appliances;
3/ Agreements not being executed as per SLAs;
4/ Confusing pricing structures; and
5/ Treating archived data and active data same way.
Continuing on this list, the remaining five reasons are:
6/ Bandwidth – Does your vendor throttle your bandwitdth connections? Remember that it takes days and weeks to recover data from an online depositories; and your Internet connection should be fast. Your backup vendor needs to optimise their bandwidth using the latest technologies for better data transfer in your network.
7/ Data Centre Location – At least one copy of your data should always be stored far away from your primary source data. It is recommended that your secondary storage to at least be 2,000 miles away from your primary location. Does this vendor have a geo-dispersed secondary data centre?
8/ Vendor Lock – Is there flexibility for your data? Do you have the ability to backup your data in private, public, or hybrid or a combination of two or more? Is it possible to deploy a third party solution as add on, for instance, salesforce.com, Google Apps, etc?
9/ DRaaS – Disaster Recovery as a Service is not offered by this vendor due to the limitations of the software. In case of a disaster, you need to make sure that your data becomes available quickly and that you are covered for disaster recovery and business continuity. Your vendor always talks about backup and avoids discussing recovery. If DRaaS is not provided, how are you going to recover after a disaster hits? You must be able to instantly access critical data within minutes of a disaster.
10/ Periodic Research of the Vendor – Relationship stays healthy if it is monitored. You need to research about your vendor periodically. If too many complaints are published on the web, or at the local better business bureau (BBB) or at the consumer protection agency, it is a clear indication what is happening at the company. Check to see if the vendor is engaged in the industry. Does the vendor issue frequent meaningful press releases? Does it participate in forums and webinars? Does the vendor post educational blogs and articles on a regular intervals? How about case studies and whitepapers? Any social media activities?
Conclusion
Business relationships are critical for both a vendor and a client to be happy and stay in the relationship. Vendors should be responsible to delivering quality services as agreed to in the SLAs. Service providers should be able to deliver the same quality service to all clients no matter how small or big an organisation is; especially, in the case of a disaster or a virus attack. The vendor should try their best to understand the clients business needs, goals and challenges (including the IT competency levels) and work with you efficiently.
