Find news and information for the executive corporate security director, CSO, facility manager and assets protection manager on issues of policy, products, incidents, risk management, threat assessments and preparedness.
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July 2016 www.SecurityInfoWatch.com / Security Dealer & Integrator 61 Qualifying a Cloud-Based Service In qualifying a cloud-based service key areas to focus on include: • company reputation; • service offering; • pricing; • value to customers; • terms of service; • cyber security and business continuity; • ease of adoption/ implementation; and • ease of transition to a different offering. While there are also business factors such as reseller and partner- ship considerations, this article will explore each of these areas. Note that as you evaluate each cloud service, you should document your findings. ese evaluations will speed up future assessments, facili- tate discussing the evaluation points with customer stakeholders, and will add more depth to the understand- ing of your sales and support staff. Traditionally, as a risk mitiga- tion measure, major security system RFPs have imposed the requirement that any technology being proposed must have been operating success- fully in several similar customer environments for at least five years. Today, in some cases, that amounts to saying, be sure to specify obsolete technology. It is worth consider- ing how we can replace traditional technology risk mitigation measures with those that are appropriate for the rate of technology advancement in the 21 st century. A two-pass approach with each step can help keep you from wast- ing too much time on unqualified offerings. e purpose of the first pass is to identify show-stopper issues so as to quickly rule out an offering. e order of the evalua- tion factors listed above provides a good sequence for the first pass eval- uation, based on the time it takes to perform a typical show-stopper review for each factor, going from shortest to longest time to eval- uate. e order also constitutes a sequence in which the knowledge gained in each step will be useful in addressing the next evaluation factor. It is usually best for a sin- gle individual to perform the first pass, and ideally that same person will oversee or lead the second pass evaluation. e purpose of the second pass is to fully qualify the offering with regard to each evaluation fac- tor. is is a "divide and conquer" opportunity, as your stakeholders — and also your customer's stake- holders — will have different stakes in the matter and different knowl- edge sets to apply to evaluating each factor. For example, a salesperson or account manager is likely to be highly aware of what features would be of value to your customer base. Someone with at least a basic famil- iarity with system and cyber security should address the cyber security and business continuity evaluation. Your personnel should be prepared to discuss the evaluation points with their corresponding customer stakeholders, should that become important at any point in the sales and deployment processes. Vetting the Company ere are two aspects to company evaluation: the company and its key people. As always, for both aspects history can be important, and usu- ally the surface picture doesn't con- vey all of the relevant facts. Company evaluation: ere are many facets to evaluating a com- pany, and company evaluation is not something new for integrators; how- ever, in this age of rapid technology advancements, there are some new dimensions to consider, and those Camera Poles Classic 4" www.strongpoles.com Full line of aĴachments available for multiple security cameras, lighting, and other devices. 844-669-3537 HD NEW HEAVY DUTY 5" Poles for & & lights cams The strongest, most stable Camera Lighting & Poles in the world! New Security Platform mounts anywhere on the pole www.SecurityInfoWatch.com/11625080