The demand of Cloud storage is on rising since last few years because of its amazing advantages, so as the number of providers. If you are going to shop around for new Cloud storage service or planning to replace the existing one, it becomes inevitable for you to know certain things before entering into the contract. You need to put some questions before the Cloud storage provider as your storage experience will majorly depend on the quality of service your Cloud storage will deliver. We always suggest our readers not to sign the agreement paper until you’re fully satisfied by these crucial questions.

Here’s the list of 5 important questions that must be asked to the Cloud storage provider:

- What sort of data can I store?

This might be the first question in almost every client’s mind looking for Cloud storage service. You should know whether you’ll be allowed to store user as well as application data. Ask them if your application will also run in the Cloud. 

ComputeHost offers its clients to store all sorts of data. Its Cloud storage solution can manage any sorts of data and protocols as well. Before signing the contract, make sure your provider is flexible enough to support all your storage needs. ComputeHost’s enterprise-grade Storage-as-a-Service (STaaS) can be deployed anywhere, be it Cloud, on-premise, or as a hybrid solution; and supports all data types. 

- Do they offer Cloud, On-Premise and Hybrid storage?

The majority of the Cloud storage providers deal in mere Cloud-based storage. But for businesses having issues, such as – compliance, security, or other concerns related to storing corporate data or customer data in the Cloud, you need the on-premises solution and a hybrid solution as well so as to avail the benefits of both the Cloud and on-premises data storage. 

- Ask them if they offer any solution to the “noisy-neighbor” problem.

Although Cloud computing is the most advanced technology in the ecosphere, you actually share the resources with some other clients. In this sharing environment, if data, applications etc. of other customers are exhausting all of the available resources, performance might be adversely affected. Thus it becomes of utmost priority to know if they have any solution to tackle such issues. 

ComputeHost has indeed the solution. It keeps storage of your neighbors away from yours so that performance cannot get affected.

- What security measures do they employ?

Security is the major concerns when you put your precious data with any third-party service provider, especially in a Cloud environment. However most cloud service providers employ several layers of security measures, you need to ask them if they have employed. Security starts with good hiring practices, the higher level of physical security at the facility, and other security measures like – firewalls, antivirus, data encryption, multi-factor authentication, regular security audits, and so on.  ComputeHost has employed all of these security measures making sure your crucial information rest safely with it.

- What is your pricing structure?

Pricing is an important factor that can affect the decision to choose the Cloud storage provider, at least for small and medium enterprises. Some provider lets you guess your budget with their transparent pricing structures, while others may still have vague pictures. Ask the providers their billing structure in details whether they help you guess your consumption or would you need to buy a pre-determined amount and you’ll be paying for that much space, no matter what you end up using.

Have chat with other vendors in order to compare their prices and services, which would help you choose the best Cloud storage provider.

I hope it helped you.