Are you ready to move your Sage to the Cloud? If so, how do you choose which Sage Hosting Provider to go with? With the abundance of Sage cloud environments out there, it is important to understand the right questions to ask to make the best decision for your organization. After all, not all clouds are created equal. So, how do you know you are choosing the right Sage cloud hosting provider? From a dedicated private firewall, a managed Sage cloud environment, and more; there are many questions you should be asking before you choose a sage cloud provider.
Does the Cloud Provider Offer Security Designed to Protect Critical Data?
Many organizations still fear that their data will not be secure in a cloud environment. But in general, most cloud providers offer more security than any individual company can do on its own. But even then, there are differences between Sage Cloud providers. It’s important to ask the right questions to identify the most secure cloud environment for your Sage ERP data.
Firewalls
They are a part of most cloud architectures. They protect the perimeter of your cloud infrastructure and create a virtual barrier for your end-users in the cloud. Firewalls are set up to safeguard traffic between different applications being hosted in the cloud.
But it is vital to ask “Will I have a dedicated private firewall in my cloud environment?”
Cloud architecture is inherently a shared service. You share resources with others that also host in the cloud. But not all resources should be shared.
You want to ensure your cloud hosting provider offers a dedicated private firewall, so it creates a protective barrier between your environment and the other hosted environments. You don’t want an employee of another company to have the ability to inadvertently load a virus into their environment and have that virus pass to your environment. A dedicated private firewall prevents vulnerabilities from crossing into other instances. CompuData Cloud is one of only a few Sage hosting providers that offers a dedicated private firewall.
Back Up vs Disaster Recovery
Back Up & Recovery is an important feature in any cloud environment. Every cloud provider offers Backup services as part of their cloud hosting contract. The most important question to ask here is; “How far back in time can I go to retrieve files?”
Standard cloud environments have a default of 2 weeks to 30 days and then for an upgraded fee you may be able to go back longer. When looking for a Sage cloud hosting provider, you will want to make sure you have the ability to go back as long as you want.
But backup is not the same as disaster recovery.
Many Sage Hosting providers will only offer backup services and try to minimize the importance of disaster recovery because they do not offer it. Data is the most important asset in an organization. You risk losing everything if your Sage cloud provider does not include disaster recovery in their cloud solution. Ideally in the event of a disaster, your Sage hosting provider can bring all your data back in a separate secure location with no data loss.
Ask your Sage hosting provider the following questions:
- Do you offer full disaster recovery or only backups?
- Do you keep my data in multiple locations?
- If a failure does occur, how quickly can I be up and running?
Having multi location data centers with full disaster recovery and a quick recovery time will not only give you peace of mind but it ensures that in the event something catastrophic happens, your business will continue to operate smoothly. CompuData offers fully disaster recovery with bi-coastal data centers on every Sage hosting contract.
“When migrating your Sage system to the cloud, security is one of the most crucial areas to research when choosing your cloud hosting provider. A lot of cloud providers state they have a firewall, backup, and disaster recovery – but security is so much more than that. It’s important to know the right questions to ask to better prepare yourself to make the best decision in regards to security with cloud providers.”
– Ed Guarrieri, VP Technology
CompuData Inc
Is it a Managed Sage Cloud Environment?
Not all clouds are supported equally. If you have a team of technical experts on your staff, you might elect to rent space in a data center, build and support your own Sage cloud environment. This is called IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service. An IaaS cloud provider will give you the tools to build a cloud environment and support yourself. This is in sharp contrast to a Managed Cloud Provider.
A Managed Sage Cloud provider both builds your Sage cloud architecture and manages it for you. A good managed cloud will give you your own segmented network and private domain. The Managed Sage Cloud Environment will have minimal, if any, downtime due to the replicated nature of the design and the proactive monitoring by the provider. Performance is monitored and resources are adjusted in an optimally managed Sage cloud environment.
It’s important to ask:
- What type of infrastructure management and support is provided?
- Is performance monitored proactively?
- What is your uptime percentage?
- Do I get my own segmented network?
- Do I get my own private domain?
Does the Cloud Hosting Provider Have Sage Experience You Can Trust?
There are application cloud hosting providers and then there are Sage cloud hosting providers that have years of experience with Sage systems. As a buyer the question you need to ask here is: “What Sage certifications or experience does your staff have?”
It is important that your cloud hosting provider has certified Sage Consultants and Developers on staff to be able to perform upgrades, make necessary changes and understand the system as it gives them a better understanding of your business needs.
“Our Sage Cloud customers trusted us from day one due to our 30 year partnership with Sage and ability to deliver unique services and expertise from our team of Sage Certified cloud consultants and developers. It is important to choose a cloud provider that understands not only the cloud but your applications and your business.”
-Tony Ufolla, VP Professional Services
CompuData Inc
As you choose your Sage Cloud Hosting provider, ask the key questions around security, cloud infrastructure and Sage experience to identity the best fit for your organization.
To learn more about CompuData Cloud and see how it was designed for Sage ERP software visit: https://www.compudata.com/solutions/cloud/sage-cloud-hosting/ With over 5000 daily cloud users and 100% uptime over the past year, our cloud environment excels on performance, security and expertise.
