Choosing Someone to Manage My Cloud Deployments

7 Important Things to Consider When Selecting an MSP for your Cloud-Based Data

Finding the right IT operations for your organization is tricky – between the high cost of having an internal team or manager, and the uncertainty of hiring an external Managed Cloud Service Provider, understanding your specific needs regarding your businesses data can become overwhelming. While you will want any chosen provider to work with you to create a custom plan for your organization, there are a few important things to consider when selecting an MSP for your cloud-based data.

1. They Offer a Custom Migration, Management, and Updates Plan

Your organization is unique, from your team dynamics and product/service offering to your organizational processes and data storage/network requirements. It is important to ensure that your Managed Cloud Service Provider is not using an ‘out-of-the-box’ plan, and that migration, management, and update plans will not negatively affect business operations day-to-day or long-term. Some of these plans should include:

• Network Readiness Testing
• Hardware Requirements
• DNS and Related Records
• Existing (or new) Integrations and Interconnections

Using an in-depth analysis and detailed designs for your network architecture, hardware, records and integrations, Server Cloud Canada’s (SCC) cloud experts work closely with our clients and their MSP’s to ensure that their new or current cloud storage is migrated and maintained using compliant, non-disruptive plans, reducing downtime even during major changeovers.

2. They Prioritize Organizational Accessibility and Provide Training

It is crucial that your staff and clients are not only able to access information that is meant to be available to them, but it is also important to provide a high level of accessibility and training for each user type. Your MSP should offer training on multiple levels, including admin training, user and management training – it is also important to ask them about the steps they use to create secure accessibility to allow online access while keeping within Canadian data privacy laws. On top of this, it is important to ask your incoming MSP about their analytics and reporting processes and systems, whether in the form of an application, a built-in process or as a management dashboard.

Server Cloud Canada partners with many MSP’s that can provide multiple levels of cloud deployment training for staff, contractors, IT teams, administration, management and more. Using custom deployment plans and exceptional data security processes we can also ensure that this accessibility does not impede the security of the data. We can provide custom dashboards and multiple management levels with real-time analytics for reporting and management.

3. Their Data Security Exceeds Best Practices for your Industry

The transition of data from physical files to digital data has created a huge network of malware and malicious attacks from hackers on all levels. Depending on your industry and data, this could open the door to liability from data privacy violations, denial of service or even ransomware issues. Your MSP should not only understand the level of risk that your organizational data holds, but they should also be able to offer processes and security options that meet (and exceed) official standards. This could include:

• Data Encryption
• System/Network Monitoring
• Fraud Detection
• Firewalls and DOS, DDOS Protection
• Anti-Disaster (anti-flood, anti-brute forcing)

At Server Cloud Canada, we work with MSP’s to ensure that your data is highly secure and protected by providing our partners and clients with end-to-end secure encryption, active monitoring, system health monitoring and fraud protection software, network firewalling, and 9 redundant, fully-backed up fail-over points, ensuring your data is always safe and reducing downtime in the event of a disaster.

4. They Understand and Meet/Exceed Canadian Privacy and Data Standards

Canadian legislated privacy laws, whether federal or provincial, can be challenging to navigate, especially with client or organizational data deals in private, personal information that falls under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and Personal Health Protection Acts (PHIPA). Your MSP should not only have an understanding of these laws and how they pertain to your organization, but they should also incorporate industry or data-specific processes to ensure that this data is secure and compliant.

By choosing a Managed Cloud Service Provider partnered with Server Cloud Canada, you can rest easy knowing that your organization’s crucial and private data are secure and compliant, reducing associated liabilities and risks.

5. They Utilize Automated Backups and Redundant Environments

With the transition of many workplaces and offices into remote or on-the-road employees, it has become crucial for teams to not only be able to collaborate on documents, but to do so live and to ensure that the data being used is the most recent version of that file. Ask your MSP about their backup systems and processes, whether files need to be manually saves, and whether this data is stored in a single location or across redundant environments.

Server Cloud Canada designs and implements automated backups to ensure that data is always recent and secure in order to reduce system and network downtime in the event of a natural or man-made disaster affecting one of the backup environments. By creating redundancy in multiple servers across Canada, SCC & our Canadian MSP Partners keeps your data safe.

6. They Provide You with a Dedicated Account Manager and Meet your SLA Requirements

If your organization has specific Service Level Agreements (SLA) for your contracts and providers, it is important to ensure that your chosen Managed Service Provider offers and adheres to these requirements. Whether technical or sales support, after-hours support, communication processes and preferences, your MSP should provide a service package that meets all of your requirements – not just your IT ones.

Server Cloud Canada and our partners ensure that all of our plans and agreements meet or exceed your organizational requirements, including SLAs. SCC clients are provided with a dedicated account manager, 24/7 support from our experienced, dedicated support team, and can provide a service package that will reduce downtime and issues, while providing a high level of service and value.

7. They Offer 24/7 Technical Support from System Engineers

Depending on your organization’s hours, and whether your team or clients require access during off-hours, it is important to have access to technical support for your data and network at all times in case of an interruption or disaster. When talking with your MSP, make sure to ask about their policies for after-hours support, particularly from the engineers.

Server Cloud provides 24/7 support to our MSP partners from our experienced, dedicated support team, and uses active and system health monitoring, and fraud detection, network firewalling, and redundant, fully-backed up fail-over points to proactively reduce downtime and issues.

Many of these important things to consider when selecting an MSP for your cloud-based data, while not specific to any given industry, are universal to Canadian businesses and organizations. By asking your current or potential Managed Service Provider these questions, you can ensure that all of your specific needs regarding your businesses data are addressed. To get connected with one of Server Cloud Canada’s MSP partners that best fits your organization and provide a secure, accessible cloud-based data solution, click here.