Choosing a cloud marketplace can feel intimidating. There’s no single “right” answer, but focusing on your specific needs and priorities makes the decision more manageable. Rather than trying to analyze every tiny detail of each provider all at once, break the process down step-by-step.
Start with high-level considerations like your current skillsets, scalability goals, and workload types. This helps narrow down which platforms are realistic options off the bat. From there, dig deeper into just those shortlisted options. Model costs for realistic usage scenarios rather than extreme what-ifs. Pay attention to integration paths for your existing tools. Look for patterns between marketplace strengths and your organizational abilities.
In this blog post, we’ll walk through the key factors to consider and steps to take when evaluating cloud marketplaces.
Consider Pricing Models
Cloud marketplaces vary in the flexibility and complexity of their pricing models, as well as their total costs. Some charge for virtual machines and data transfers separately, while others bundle related services. Pay-as-you-go options are simpler but may be more expensive at scale, while reserved capacity lowers costs with long-term commitments. Carefully model typical usage to compare “effective hourly rates” across different sizes, regions, and commitment lengths.
Check Growth Potential
Where do you expect your usage to be in a year or two? Will it grow significantly or remain steady? Consider each cloud marketplace’s ability to scale up resources smoothly as your needs change. Their relative presence in different countries and regions worldwide also matters for expanding internationally. Look for flexible sizing, auto-scaling capabilities, and strategic investment roadmaps for the long haul.
Evaluate Integration Options
How much work will it take to migrate existing infrastructure or connect new tools? Look for open APIs, code/template repositories, and developer support for the programming languages and frameworks you use. Major platforms integrate widely but may vary for niche tools. Enterprise partnerships can simplify adoption too. Test sample applications to get a feel for the integration experience.
Consider Supporting Quality
Compare support coverage, response times, and methods for each cloud marketplace service. Document quality, forums, and chat assistance matter for self-help. Paid support contracts provide SLAs for production incidents. Community support through online forums can augment formal channels. See if preferred languages and regional coverage align with your company’s needs.
Do Your Research
Do your research on the major cloud marketplaces like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Spend some time getting to know their key offerings, pricing models, and capabilities. Read case studies, watch demo videos, and check third-party reviews to get a sense of each platform’s strengths and weaknesses. Make a list of the features and services that are most important to your business so you can compare how the different marketplaces stack up.
Consider Your Workloads
Think about the types of applications and workloads you need to run. Are they compute-intensive or storage-heavy? Do they require analytics, databases, networking, or other specialized services? Different marketplaces may be better suited for certain workload types. Matching workloads to cloud marketplace specialties will help ensure a smooth experience.
Determine Your Technical Skills
The ease of use and learning curve also depend on your technical skills and resources. AWS has the most extensive suite of services but can be more complex to set up and manage. Azure and GCP simplify common tasks but still require programming knowledge. Consider which platform best matches your team’s abilities, whether you need a simple infrastructure-as-code setup or prefer a more hands-on administration approach. Training options can close gaps.
Check the Security Posture
When it comes to security, it’s important to carefully review more than just the technical controls and certifications. You’ll also want to assess the security culture and processes of each marketplace.
Check for Detailed Reports
Start by checking how transparent each cloud marketplace is about security incidents. The most trusted companies regularly publish detailed reports on breaches or vulnerabilities discovered, what they did to respond, and steps taken to prevent future issues. Lack of transparency raises red flags.
Training Process
Look into how employees are trained on security best practices and whether a risk-based approach is used. Companies with embedded security awareness programs tend to face fewer issues in the long run. Cultural traits like prioritizing privacy, responsibility, and vigilance help too.
Consider each provider’s change management processes as well. Procedures for testing, approving, and deploying critical updates and patches impact the “mean time to repair” security flaws. Formal policies and oversight help prevent human errors.
Client Access Controls
Also important is the cloud marketplace approach to client access controls and encryption key management. The ability to completely segregate customer environments while also supporting fine-grained permissions eases compliance needs.
Evaluate source code auditing and bug bounty programs too. Openly seeking scrutiny from ethical hackers demonstrates a commitment to external evaluation and underscores seriousness about remediation.
Try Free Tiers
Take advantage of the generous free tiers to do hands-on testing before fully committing. Provision test environments, containers and notebooks to run sample code. Track costs to validate pricing claims. Fix pain points before production. Leverage free credits toward the initial project phases too. This lowers the risk of lock-in if another platform better fits the discovered needs.
Consider Partner Ecosystems
A lively partner ecosystem streamlines additional resources when needed. Check the varieties of compatible services, tools, extensions and even recruitment partners to help your team grow. The strength of this surrounding community ensures continued innovation and support for the platform.
Ask for Trials and Advice
Finally, don’t hesitate to request platform trials, workshops or consulting help from vendor sales teams. Seeking guidance at the outset, even just to clarify understandings, removes uncertainties from the comparison process. Taking advantage of these support channels leads to an optimal pairing of provider capabilities with project goals.
In Summary
By thoroughly considering these factors and not rushing decisions, you can feel confident in choosing the cloud marketplace right for powering your workloads and digital transformation journey for the long term. Evaluate options carefully and allow requirements to lead choices. The perfect solution awaits discovery through diligent research.