Finding the best cloud consultant company for your business

Running your IT operations in the cloud is the right investment for your business. But how to find the best cloud consultant company for your needs?

Running your IT operations in the cloud is the right investment for your business. But how to find the best cloud consultant company for your needs?

One of the consequences of the global COVID-19 outbreak was that it showed us the ever-growing importance of cloud computing as the way to stay connected to your friends and relatives (and work productively for those able to do so remotely) during the quarantine. Therefore, using cloud computing is the key to ensuring business continuity and the uninterrupted customer experience in any contingency.

However, most businesses lack the DevOps expertise required to configure seamless cloud operations or ensure a smooth and cost-efficient transition to some cloud platform from legacy infrastructure. More importantly, while cloud vendors and multiple “cloud experts” praise various benefits of cloud computing, they omit the fact that in-depth knowledge and thorough understanding of cloud architecture and best practices are needed to achieve these results.

This is why many businesses plunge deep into the cloud and configure their own systems to the extent of their understanding only to find themselves paying quite a lot instead of saving costs on cloud computing. Thus there is a dire need in reliable cloud consulting able to ensure your company achieves the business goals set. Luckily, there are multiple cloud consultant companies providing infrastructure planning and process implementation services. Today we explain how to choose the best cloud consultant company for your business and list 10 reliable cloud consultants from Ukraine.

How to know a good cloud consultant company

Let’s take a look at what a cloud consultant company is, what services such businesses can provide and how to know what cloud computing consultancy is a good one.

Keep in mind the importance of factors listed above (perceived simplicity of using the cloud computing services combined with the actual complexity of configuring all the components and their dependencies correctly). Therefore, the best way to avoid overspending is to gain access to trustworthy cloud computing design and implementation expertise from the start.

There are three approaches to dealing with this challenge:

• hiring such a professional in-house
• gaining support from a cloud vendor
• outsourcing to a reliable cloud computing service provider

1. Hiring a DevOps engineer with cloud computing expertise in-house is a great solution, as you obtain direct control over the specialist’s workload and can keep the hand on the pulse of all processes. This ensures cloud computing adoption and management goes just as you wanted it and you have a say in the selection of modules and services to be used in your future system.
2. However, this approach has multiple ramifications and downsides. First of all, not all companies are located in huge IT hubs and are able to quickly find relevant talent locally — and not all cloud engineers are willing to relocate, regardless of the salary that you can pay them. In addition, hiring any specialist in-house is a time-consuming process, implying the costs of hiring a recruiter and HR manager to make a newcomer a part of your team, costs of office space, furniture, appliances and costs of various consumables (tea, coffee. cookies) which amount to quite a sum every month.
3. Besides, hiring a single specialist means all the related tasks are put on pause if the employee takes sick leave, vacation or day off, or quits your employ altogether.
   The pitfalls above are the reason many businesses prefer to get their cloud consulting from cloud vendors directly.
4. Every company aiming for stability and predictability of its operations can go for long-term technical support from a cloud computing provider of its choice, or its certified partners. This ensures instant access to trained professional teams with deep knowledge of corresponding cloud platform’s services and products, who are able to accomplish your project on time. You are covered by SLA and receive a safety of mind in return for monthly subscription fees.
5. The downsides of this approach are the reverse of its benefits. SLA is great, but it allows up to 4 hours before response ins come cases — and you would not be pleased to wait for 4 hours with your service down. The reason for this situation is that your requests are processed on the “first come, first served” basis along with requests from thousands of other customers.
6. You are served by professionals, yes, yet you have to agree to their vision of the “best” architecture for your infrastructure and processes and their selection of tools. Unfortunately, all cloud services are paid for, so building your systems entirely from vendor-specific components means vendor lock-in. Therefore, once your business grows, you will end up paying quite a fortune monthly without an ability to move out — or having to rebuild your infrastructure from scratch if you decide to do that.
7. The shortcomings above lead to the demand in independent cloud consultant companies and most businesses go down that route from the start.
8. Independent cloud consulting companies specialize in delivering a full range of cloud infrastructure design, implementation, optimization and management services. Just like when working with cloud platforms directly, you gain instant access to teams of skilled engineers, well acquainted with all ins and outs of cloud system components and dependencies between them. However, as IT outsourcing companies work with a smaller number but a wider range of projects, they must know AWS, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean and open-space alternatives for every tool o platform.
9. Thus said, an independent cloud consultant company will be able to propose several variants of achieving your project goals and use a selection of open-source tools to minimize the OPEX of the resulting system. Therefore, you avoid vendor lock-in and overpayment, not to mention IT services providers respond to inquiries — and resolve issues — much faster than in 4 hours…
10. The last, yet not the least important argument here is that your remote cloud infrastructure management team will integrate with your business workflows and will effectively become your remote full-time employees. They will use Slack or Telegram, GitHub or any other VCS, JIRA, Trello or any other issue tracking system to communicate and collaborate with your team. They will provide daily reports on their work, allowing you to stay informed without excessive micromanagement.

As you see, working with IT services providers is the best approach to obtaining top-notch cloud consulting services. The only possible downside here is the complexity of finding the best cloud consultant company for your business, as all of them vary in terms of their technology stack used, team size, number of completed projects and certifications, minimal project budget, etc.

We list 10 popular cloud consultant companies in Ukraine to help you select the best for your business. These companies were selected based on their customer reviews, ratings on independent platforms, numbers of completed projects and a variety of other factors. The teams are listed in no particular order, as it is impossible to select a single best team — all of them are good.

1. SoftServe
2. Intellias
3. Infopulse
4. IT Svit
5. ELEKS
6. SpacePort
7. Sombra
8. The App Solutions
9. HireUkraine
10. RomexSoft

Below is a brief overview of these companies in terms of their cloud consulting services..

SoftServe

SoftServe is one of the leading IT service providers in Ukraine, offering a huge variety of services. Cloud consulting from SoftServe involves assessment of the existing systems and services, design of cloud solutions fitting your project needs from a variety of cloud services. Should you need cloud migration or transition to the cloud, optimization of the existing infrastructure or redesign of your cloud-based operations — Softserve is a good choice.

Intellias

Intellias provides DevOps and cloud consulting services since the mid-2000s and uses the latest tools and best practices to ensure their solutions meet all the customer’s project objectives. A preliminary analysis is performed to identify any potential performance inhibitors as well as room for growth for customer’s processes — and the team provides consulting and support along the way to ensure smooth solution adoption and gentle learning curve for the customer’s team.

Infopulse

As one of the oldest players of the IT outsourcing market in Ukraine, Infopulse is among the leaders in providing cloud consulting and implementation. With thousands of software engineers working in R&D centers across the globe, Infopulse can engage in a wide variety of projects. Using best practices to build innovative cloud-based solutions and processes ensures Infopulse helps its customers reach the expected results.

IT Svit

IT SVIT are providing DevOps services for 5+ years, this team has accomplished more than 800 projects and has ample experience with GCP and AWS cloud consulting. From moving to the cloud from the legacy infrastructure or migrating between the cloud platforms to optimizing the existing workflows or providing long-term support for your ongoing operations — IT Svit can handle any task.

ELEKS

ELEKS operates from Lviv, Ukraine, since 1991 and currently fields more than 1500 software engineers in 6 offices across the EU and US. Being a technology partner for multiple global organizations and companies, ELEKS helps optimize the workflows, minimize the spending and ensure maximum scalability and security of your operations in the cloud. Optimization of the existing systems, design and building of new infrastructures for your projects, support and incident management — ELEKS has you covered.

Spaceport

One of the more recent additions to the pool of leading cloud consultant companies, Spaceport was founded in 2010 and currently fields 60+ software engineers and cloud architects specializing in AWS cloud management and Big Data projects. From assessing your current infrastructure, tools and workflows in place to delivering fully functional cloud systems or consulting on the most cost-efficient ways of moving your applications and data between the clouds — Spaceport is ready to assist!

Sombra

Sombra provides dedicated software development and cloud management teams since 2013. Located in Lviv, this Ukrainian company helps businesses of all sizes and from multiple industries accomplish their business goals through outsourcing and working with reliable remote cloud consultants. With ample expertise in custom software development and supporting it in operations, Sombra can become a reliable technology provider.

The App Solutions

Founded in 2013, this Kyiv-based team specializes in building cloud infrastructure and delivering Big Data, AI/ML and other innovative technologies to build products people love.

Working with AdTech, Logistics, and other industries and accomplishing more than 300 projects of varying scope helped this team gain the experience needed for handling cloud transition, optimization and ongoing support for any products.

HireUkraine

Since 2012, HireUkraine provides access to dedicated teams from Ukraine that handle a variety of tasks, from software development to cloud infrastructure operations. By concentrating on outstaffing, this nearshoring company was able to gain in-depth expertise with ample aspects of software delivery and currently fields 20 teams of 3 to 10+ software engineers capable of dealing with any task.

RomexSoft

RomexSoft is a provider of managed IT services and cloud consulting for more than 15 years. This team has made a name for itself by delivering more than 100 enterprise-scope projects in Healthcare, Fintech and Telecom industries. AWS-certified professionals from RomexSoft will help your business select the most appropriate architecture and composition of your future cloud systems, or optimize the ones you already run.

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All of the cloud consultant companies listed above are located in Ukraine and provide services globally, helping enterprises and startups get the most out of their cloud investments. Selecting the best approach to cloud migrations, using the latest AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and other cloud services and products ensures you will get your cloud systems built according to best practices, monitored closely and working like a charm!

Originally published at https://itsvit.com on April 17, 2020.