As the saying goes: NB's network is no match for a shovel. Before, a treasure stopped serving for 3 hours, and then a cloud was disconnected for 4 hours every year, all of which were related to the unexpected interruption of the optical cable in the computer room. Therefore, the basic network resources of cloud merchants are the primary focus of evaluation.
1) scale and quality of basic network. Rome wasn't built in a day. Similarly, the construction of basic network needs years of accumulation and a lot of investment. If a company established 3-5 years ago says it has its own core network, then 200% is a fool. Whether there are nodes that can cover the main areas and operators of the whole network, whether the network has strong self-healing ability, whether the network delay, jitter and switching time meet the standards, and whether the networks are interoperable and isolated. Every indicator has an endless pit, which is also a hurdle that every reliable cloud merchant can't bypass.
2) Node size. Under the domestic Internet structure, the number of cloud business nodes is directly related to the network coverage capacity. Without the 8- 10 node, they are embarrassed to say that they are doing the cloud. Furthermore, node deployment in developed Internet areas such as South China, East China and North China is definitely indispensable. Interoperability between different nodes in the cloud also directly affects users' comprehensive service provision ability, architecture robustness and cost. At present, some cloud merchants in China have provided free intranet interoperability between cloud nodes, which is the conscience of the industry!
3) Data center. A good horse is equipped with a saddle, and a good cloud must be equipped with a high-level data center. The domestic data center market is chaotic, basically concentrated in the hands of operators, and the construction standards are also uneven. Cloud merchants who can provide data center nodes above T3 level are still the most preferred recommendation. If cloud merchants can also provide self-built high-quality data center node selection, it will be icing on the cake. Because the self-built data center has obvious advantages over the operator's data center: the data center has high construction standards, strong personalized service capabilities, convenient interconnection, high management and service levels, strong refined operation capabilities, and low comprehensive operating costs. Generally speaking, powerful cloud service providers have their own large-scale data centers or bases.
4) Have AS number and IP address reservation. With the rapid development of Internet, there is a serious shortage of global IPv4 addresses, and the price has soared, once exceeding 400W/B. Now it is difficult to buy with money, which is definitely a scarce strategic resource. The demand for IP addresses in cloud products is huge. Without its own IP address reserve, cloud merchants can't talk about network autonomy, and it is easy to have the tragedy of insufficient business expansion or frequent IP replacement. At the same time, cloud merchants with their own AS number and IP address reserves have great advantages in IP cost, which will ultimately benefit consumers. (Bring the IP address to the CNNIC website, which is convenient for finding IP attributes).
5) Multiline BGP resources. Sharp tools can do a good job. Multi-line BGP resources and cloud can be said to be the perfect match, single IP deployment, multi-network coverage, and the sharp weapon of cloud. But for a long time, domestic companies that can provide first-hand BGP are still rare. Although the price of BGP has gradually stepped down from the altar, it must be said that BGP is still a scarce resource that a few cloud merchants can play. What is really fun is definitely the best embodiment of the company's comprehensive strength such as strategic resource reserve, operator relationship, technical ability and financial ability. On the other hand, due to the competition pattern of domestic operators, it is the last possibility for telecom operators to provide multi-line BGP resources, which is one of the main reasons why I have been not optimistic about the cloud made by telecom operators.
Second, the product iteration ability:
Any cloud business, its independent intellectual property rights and the ability to quickly update and iterate products are very important. The author believes that it should be considered as a key factor.
The investment and attention of enterprises in product research and development is closely related to whether they have enough independent intellectual property rights, and the measurement standard is also very simple. Generally speaking, the cloud merchants who have no invention patents or the invention patents are less than 10 belong to the type that despise product research and development and product iteration. The technical iteration ability of such cloud merchants is very limited. Usually they are commercial companies, either acting as agents for other products or taking products from mature manufacturers. (You can easily check the number of intellectual property rights obtained by the target company through the website of China National Intellectual Property Administration or the business card Almighty King APP).
Third, security capabilities:
In recent years, the threat of Internet security is increasing day by day. For cloud merchants, the first is the ability to deal with DDoS attacks. With the reduction of attack cost, the attack traffic from the initial 1G to 10G to 500GB is only 2-3 years, and now it has even been measured by "T" level. Whether you have sufficient DDoS defense capabilities should also be a key factor when choosing a cloud business.
In fact, there is no solution to DDoS to some extent, but there is an essential difference between streaking and having defensive measures. For cloud merchants, they also face many challenges, such as export ability, DDoS traffic cleaning system, situational awareness, meeting users' personalized needs, self-service, flexible billing and so on. Therefore, cloud merchants who can provide self-built data centers, multi-line BGP resources and self-developed DDoS firewalls are the best choice, because companies with self-built data centers generally have strong comprehensive strength and large Internet export capacity, and multi-line BGP exports can also effectively share attack traffic and reduce the impact of attacks, while self-developed DDoS firewalls have great advantages in dealing with new attack threats and personalized services.
Fourth, service level:
Friends often ask me that cloud computing is a highly automated product, just as convenient as water and electricity. Do you still need manual service? Actually, IT is not, especially for traditional IT. Whether it is the reconstruction of IT architecture, the seamless migration of business, the use of products, the details of business processing, information security, etc. In the process of turning to the cloud, the specific service requirements based on the cloud are reflected in the following aspects:
1) Is there a 7×24-hour customer service staff to provide product and technical consultation at any time, collect customers' pain points during use, and promote the continuous iterative update of their products and services?
2) Whether there is a professional pre-sales, in-sales and after-sales service team, and whether it can provide mature vertical industry solutions.
3) Whether there is a strong R&D team to update products rapidly and iteratively.
4) Whether there is a reliable operation team to provide IT service management capabilities based on ITIL and ISO20000 best practices.
5) Whether there is an excellent credit team to ensure the security of user data based on ISO2700 1 and solve the security problems such as user filing and illegal information immediately.
In short, it is a good cloud merchant who can really serve and liberate users with heart, just like the support department of the user company.
Verb (short for verb) Price:
One of the most important value advantages that cloud computing can bring to enterprises is cost optimization. The elasticity of business must match the elasticity of cost, and the inherent high cost performance of cloud computing can really reduce the cost for enterprises. Cloud merchants with high comprehensive cost performance usually have the following characteristics:
1) Real flexible charging. It can be flexibly expanded according to the user's business situation, and the billing can be flexibly selected on demand, by day and by month. , so as to minimize the cost of users. However, there are very few cloud merchants who can really do this at present. Some cloud merchants claim that they can charge by the day or even by the hour, but secretly they are playing tricks and tricks to confuse the audience. Ordinary consumers are easily misled, so they must be more careful and sober.
2) There is no will to bind users. At present, most of the consumption of cloud products is pre-recharge, but there are many chaos in some cloud merchants on the market, such as easy recharge, difficult refund, non-refundable recharge and slow refund.