If you are a CIO or anybody negotiating a cloud contract, it would do you good to prepare yourself and keep the following points in mind:
- Minimize Hidden Cost: Cloud definitely cuts down your cost but look out for hidden expenses or any similar issues that might hit your wallet in the end. Read the fine print carefully and revisit the contract several times before signing the dotted lines, and hence minimize the hidden costs.
- Determine the approximate Length of service: Get with you core team and decide for what length of time your need the service. Analyze and see whether going to the public cloud or creating a private cloud make more business sense to your budgetary as well as business requirements, and then do accordingly.
- Define the roles and responsibilities: Define the roles and responsibilities clearly so that you do not run around in confusion when the actual cloud implementation happens.
- Search and settle on the best licensing options: Cloud vendors offer you with different licensing and pricing options. Determine and decide what you or your organization exactly require, and go for the best option available.
- Do the penalty negotiation well: The cloud is still at its nascent stage and you might not know everything about it which will definitely put you on a back foot. Nevertheless equip yourself with data and inputs on cloud, and do the penalty negotiations smartly.
Do remember that Cloud negotiation is not much different from the normal technology/applications negotiation, but of course if you are not equipped with right data and information you might end up losing more and winning less!
