As a dedicated server reseller, it is crucial to find a reliable cloud provider to partner with. With 85% of software being built for the Cloud, it is important to stand out as a reliable, high-quality cloud reseller.
This is why you should look out for specific features when analyzing cloud reseller offerings. In this article, we have prepared a checklist of features to look for as well as some red flags that might indicate that you need to do business elsewhere. Especially if you offer dedicated cloud services through your cloud provider, expectations are high in terms of performance and reliability.
What to look for in a Cloud Partner:
- Does your cloud provider accommodate their infrastructure on Tier-3 or Tier-4 Data Centers?
– You want to keep availability high, especially if you take under consideration that this is the availability you start with. Services that you add increase system entropy. This could lead to additional potential for failures and downtime. Tier-3 and Tier-4 data centers guarantee redundant power and network configurations. You will have to check if your potential cloud partner also provides High-Availability hardware configurations as well.
– Aim for a guaranteed uptime record around 99.99% and 99.9999%. This way, you wouldn’t have to worry about uptime too much, since you will start with only a few seconds of downtime per month.
- Is your partner global or local, depending on your business model?
– As a dedicated server reseller, you need to figure out where you will sell. If you want to focus on a specific, high-growth cloud market, such as Singapore, for example, then you want your partner to offer relevant cloud services in a Singapore-based data center. Many industries, such us FOREX, require near-zero latency to even be functional. You don’t want to make the speed of light your enemy on this one.
– If you want to have global reach, you need a global cloud partner with deployed cloud infrastructure in numerous data centers around the world.
- Does your cloud partner have a hardware roadmap?
– Technology, and especially IT, moves fast. Systems that are top-notch today, might be useless in five years. As a serious businessman, you should be focusing on long-term sustainability of your business and partnership. You need to make sure that in your partnership agreement the hardware hot potato will be tackled. Will your partner guarantee hardware upgrades on specified time periods? What is the current state of your partner’s hardware? - Does your cloud partner have a concrete Support Department in place?
– Let’s face the truth. Failures happen. Even an infrastructure with a highly available configuration has a slight chance of failing. Of course, numerous components would have to fail at once for this to happen. While this can happen, statistics show that it won’t happen frequently enough to disrupt your business, if you work with a real High-Availability cloud hosting provider. However, when it happens you want to know that your partner’s Support Department will be present, proactive and communicative. This will guarantee minimum service disruption for your clients and minimum brand turbulence for you.
Red flags to avoid
By browsing a cloud provider’s website you can very quickly identify red flags such as:
• No information on data center locations
• No information on hardware (eg. CPU type)
• No 24/7 sales support. If Sales is not 24/7, what makes you thing Support will be?
• No evident physical address
These are indications that your provider is either not professional enough or it might even be another reseller. And you don’t want to resell for a reseller.
Ready to become a dedicated server Reseller?
Hopefully the above information will help you create an engagement plan that will help you acquire crucial details for your potential partnership with cloud providers.
MassiveGRID provides a great Cloud Reseller program for both IaaS and PaaS.
