Choosing a cloud provider: what you need to know about backup and recovery

Choosing a cloud service provider is a big decision. Even today, when 84% of organisations in the UK have already adopted at least one cloud service and we consider the market to be fairly mature, choosing the right provider is still a big decision.

We're not in the business of scaremongering – we want trust in cloud services – but all too often we see organisations making the move to the cloud with assumptions like "my cloud provider is too big to fail" or "at least I'm in good company with all those other big names on their website" – but they do little or nothing in the way of due diligence. If the 'built-in' backups a cloud service provider offers aren't sufficient for you, you can do more. We actually wrote the book on "Disaster Recovery in the Cloud" outlining the options you have for recovering from different kinds of cloud.

Choosing the right cloud service provider is vital, and there are so many risks that should be considered during the selection process.

A provider could offer unbeatable SLAs which on the surface seem ideal, but without asking the right questions you don't know what's going on behind the curtains. Too many organisations just assume that everything they can't see inside that fluffy looking cloud is solid.

There are a few questions you should ask potential providers to assess whether they are right for you:

• Are my backups in a geographically diverse location from the production cloud platform? Is the infrastructure completely independent? If the primary infrastructure is in an area that is flooded, for example, you want to be sure your backups are far enough away to be safe.

• Do I have control over retention periods and numbers of generations? SLAs are irrelevant if your retention policy means you can't get back the file you deleted 2 weeks ago, so it's important to find out how much control you have over these settings from the get-go. Work with your provider to find the right setup for your needs.

• What are the SLAs? SLAs are the most important part of a contract because they outline the exact uptime or recovery times the service provider is prepared to commit to. But for SLAs to have real value, it's important that they are realistic. You need to work together with your cloud service provider (CSP) and be very clear about what you require from the service, and find out what the CSP can realistically offer.

This is just a starting point – the questions you need to ask will very much depend your individual needs as an organisation – but doing this due diligence before selecting your new cloud provider will help you to really get the most out of the relationship.