There is nothing more frustrating than signing on the dotted line and then regretting it. Selecting a software or cloud vendor is a major decision for any company and Giva has designed a whitepaper to assist you in becoming more informed and educated by reducing the complexity of the cloud or software vendor selection process.
This whitepaper provides twenty penetrating questions to ask cloud vendors in order to become a more informed buyer. It provides practical "how to" advice to help avoid mistakes that even the most experienced professionals make, ultimately costing them a lot of time and money. Use these questions early in your selection process to poke and prod at your list of cloud vendors.
Some topics covered include:
- Using uptime and support service level agreements to manage our relationship
- How to qualify the reliability and security of a data center; SSAE 16 (formally SAS 70), Trustwave PCI Certification and SysTrust Compliance
- Access to your data and rights in the cloud
- Source code escrow rights and responsibilities
- Termination clauses, contract term commitments, discounts and hidden fees
- What if my company is dissatisfied?
- What if my company finds better technology?
- Deployment "out-of-box" vs. time and cost of customization/configuration
- Preparing and comparing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of all alternatives
- Most overlooked critical fine print in software maintenance agreements
- Vendor product roadmaps and commitment
- What are the costs for post-implementation customization/configuration?
- What qualifies as routine technical support vs. professional services fees?
To view the whitepaper in its entirety, please see Twenty Tough Questions to Better Select, Compare & Evaluate Any Software or Cloud Vendors.