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TIPS FOR SELECTING YOUR CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDER

Making the decision to incorporate cloud computing into your IT strategy is easy. Building the infrastructure to support it, on the other hand, is not. Fortunately, you don’t have to. Cloud service providers make it possible to quickly reap the benefits of cloud computing without the time and costs of deploying physical infrastructure.

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TIPS FOR SELECTING YOUR CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERPAG E 2

With the right cloud service provider, IT becomes cheaper, administration simpler, and business more agile. Just remem-ber, not all cloud services are created equally. Follow the tips outlined herein to select the provider best positioned to help you realize the full potential of cloud computing.

1 Choose a Provider with a Track Record of Stability and Success

The cloud service provider you choose will play a key role in supporting your long term IT and business objectives. You’ll be entrusting them with applications and sensitive data criti-cal to your business success. To determine whether they’re up to the task, carefully consider their client history, partnerships and fi nancial health.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

SOLID REPUTATION

Check references and ask for real client examples to demon-strate the provider’s success in cloud computing implemen-tations. How many years of experience do their cloud experts have? Do they have experience in your industry, and are they familiar with its data management rules and regulations?

BEST OF BREED TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIPS

Successful cloud services depend upon a solid infrastructure and a broad mix of technologies. Well-established cloud service providers will have strong relationships with a num-ber of best-of-breed technology providers (such as VMware, NetApp, Cisco and Brocade). Look for a provider whose technology is compatible with your applications and that will integrate seamlessly into your existing IT framework.

FINANCIAL STABILITY AND GROWTH

Make sure your service provider has the fi nancial viability to support your long term cloud computing objectives. Are they willing to talk about their fi nancial condition? Do they have access to capital for large equipment refreshes? Can they demonstrate a history of fi nancial stability and growth?

2 Choose a Provider with Infrastructure that Surpasses your Requirements

Scalability is the key to business agility. Choose a service provider with the infrastructure in place to support your cloud business needs today and in the future, no matter how your requirements may change along the way.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

ENTERPRISE-GRADE DATA CENTERS AND STATE OF THE ART EQUIPMENT

Look under the hood. Be sure the infrastructure that will sup-port your critical cloud business applications is built specifi -cally for cloud computing with state of the art equipment, not hobbled together with spare parts.

REPUTATION C H E C K R E F E R E N C E S A N D A S K F O R R E A L C L I E N T S A M P L E S

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AVAILABILITY AND PERFORMANCE

Whatever the requirements of your cloud applications, make sure the cloud infrastructure will have the capacity to scale with your business. Does the provider off er a meaningful ser-vice level agreement to ensure the performance of your appli-cations? What is the provider’s backup and recovery plan?

COMPLIANCE

Ask for the results of a 3rd party compliance audit to make sure the service provider can live up to the promises

they’re making.

3 Choose a Provider that Sells on IT Value, Not Just Cost

Some providers sell cloud in a t-shirt sizing approach (small, medium or large). Their prices sound cheap, but they leave out many of the true cost factors. Don’t let cost be the pri-mary driving factor; IT control and fl exibility provide the true path to cost savings.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

INDUSTRY-STANDARDS TO EXTEND IT INVESTMENTS

Look for providers with hypervisors and APIs already accessi-ble in your existing environment. For example: if your organi-zation is like most, you’ve already implemented VMware for IT virtualization. With the right cloud partner, you can extend that investment to easily move workloads between your phys-ical premise environment and your virtual cloud environment.

PROCESS CONTROL PROCEDURES

A trustworthy cloud services provider will have well defi ned, vigilantly applied and practiced process control procedures in place.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT ROI CALCULATOR

A well-informed cloud service provider should have com-prehensive knowledge of IT and migration costs, and help customers build a strong argument for switching to cloud. ROI calculations should incorporate both operational and capital cost savings (eliminated hardware, eliminated technology refreshes) as well as business benefi ts, such as faster speed to market, improved productivity, and richer management information.¹

VALUE-ADD SERVICES

Cloud management and related services are best left to cloud experts. Your cloud service provider should off er a range of managed and professional services in order to streamline integration, simplify management, and support your cloud business as it expands and evolves. There is value in the cloud. With the right expertise, technology and services in place, you can achieve it.

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About Faction

Faction is an enterprise-class IaaS cloud service provider offer-ing private, public, & hybrid cloud solutions through channel partners. At Faction we supply cloud the way you want it with extreme performance, deep control, and broad customization capabilities. When you join the Faction fold, you take back the keys to your kingdom. Reign as supreme commander in chief of your cloud. No compromises. No exceptions.

Faction is the only cloud that offers patented plug-and-play direct connections (via layer 2) into its cloud resulting in huge time savings (no time spent re-configuring everything)! With Type II SSAE 16 and SOC 1 & 2 compliant cloud nodes in eight geographies across the United States and in Europe (Seattle, Santa Clara, Denver, Chicago, Atlanta, New Jersey, New York, and the United Kingdom), Faction offers both Cisco UCS and Open Compute platforms, is a Platinum-level NetApp Service Provider, and is VMware vCloud® Powered. For more informa-tion, visit www.factioninc.com or call (855) 532-4734.

“FACTION IS A VERY, VERY INTERESTING COMPANY. THEY ARE A PROVIDER’S PROVIDER RUNNING TIER 1 KINDS OF ENVIRONMENTS. WITH THEIR FORWARD THINKING APPROACH YOU CAN IMAGINE WHY LUKE’S THE KIND OF GUY WE WANT TO WORK WITH.”DAVE HITZ CO-FOUNDER OF NETAPP VMWORLD SUPER SESSION, 2012

Mr. Hitz was so impressed with Faction’s business model that he invited Faction’s CEO and Founder Luke Norris to co-present with him as keynote sFactioners of VMWorld 2012 San Francisco and VMWorld International in Barce-lona, Spain. The two presented to an audience of 10,000+ technology industry peers.

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