Choosing Cloud Vendors - Find a Cloud Evangelist

Choosing cloud vendors is like finding a white bird in the picture, it needs skill, knowledge and passion to find the best solution.\You need to be sure the vendor has the ability to provide a solution that blends with your business needs.
Cloud computing without value does not add value to the business or to the technology leader.
Irrespective of what you want to do in the cloud, you need ot remember it is a shared service and you will have to compromise.
Using cloud services is like riding a Tandem cycle, all riders need to balance to get the tandem cycle moving and remember you will reach your destination based on the ability and needs of all the riders.
In dedicated data centers you rode your own bicycle and you called the shots, but in the cloud you need to be malleable and ductile and ever amorphous when needed and metamorphise into a tandem rider :-).
This is a qualatative change in handling vendors, it is first important for you to understand what the vendors cloud services can do for your business before even short listing probable vendors.
A cloud evangelist will be useful to help you in your journey, the evangelist is able to assist you in choosing the right vendor for your cloud needs and thus your time to market is faster and the risk of failure is minimized.
All vendors will advise you, but the vendors will always evangilize their cloud services and solution.
Wherea an evangelist's first love is cloud computing the second your business needs and hence the best friend and advisor for your journey into- the cloud.
So make sure you have a cloud evangelist working with you when you choose your cloud vendor and do post your experience in this blog .
All the best for change of gear into your journey into the cloud; may you be blessed with benign thunder and energizing lightening and an awesome Cloud Messiah (evangelist) to hold your hands through the journey in choosing the cloud vendor.