GPU CLOUD ADVISORS | PROVIDER QUOTE & EVIDENCE BRIEF

Use the same brief with each shortlisted provider. Mark unknowns "needs confirmation".
Record the source, date and owner of each answer.

PROJECT
Business outcome and workload:
Pilot date, launch deadline and duration:
Technical owner and deployment help needed:
Software, model, dataset size and current storage location:
Required output quality, completion time, latency or throughput:

CAPACITY SCENARIOS
Initial GPU model/variant and count (or sizing help needed):
Likely growth range and possible demand surge:
How quickly added capacity would be needed:
Acceptable regions, alternatives and data-residency requirements:
Required GPU/server networking, storage and transfer volumes:

ASK EACH PROVIDER

01. THE CAPACITY MISSES YOUR LAUNCH DATE
What is ready today, what still needs to happen, and what happens to our payment and commitment if delivery slips?
Evidence: Ask whether the proposed GPUs are installed, powered, commissioned and allocated to your project. Request the site, GPU count, acceptance milestones and dependencies. Hardware elsewhere in the fleet does not establish your allocation.
Test: Validate access to the proposed environment before the production deadline. Keep a fallback plan for a smaller allocation, another region or another provider.
Terms to discuss: Discuss a firm acceptance date, staged payments and remedies for missed delivery, including termination or refund rights where agreed. Credits cannot restore a missed launch window.
Response / source / date / owner / unresolved items:

02. THE PROVIDER CANNOT SUSTAIN THE SERVICE
If this service stops or changes hands, how do we recover the workload and how much prepaid money remains exposed?
Evidence: Identify the contracting entity and infrastructure operator. Request available financial information, ownership and financing context, relevant customer references and a business-continuity plan. Public information may not resolve the exposure.
Test: Keep recoverable copies of critical data and deployment materials outside the service where appropriate. Test an export and estimate how long a transition would take.
Terms to discuss: Evaluate prepayment exposure, milestone billing, termination triggers and transition assistance with your procurement and legal teams. Contract rights do not guarantee recovery of prepaid funds.
Response / source / date / owner / unresolved items:

03. THE CLUSTER DOES NOT PERFORM AS EXPECTED
What must our workload demonstrate before we accept the allocation, and who resolves a failed test?
Evidence: Request GPU topology, inter-node networking, storage throughput assumptions, failure handling and node-replacement targets for the actual configuration being quoted.
Test: Agree a representative proof of concept on the proposed cluster. Measure successful output, elapsed time, throughput, recovery and the complete bill using your software and data.
Terms to discuss: Define acceptance criteria and discuss measurable performance and replacement commitments. Read exclusions, claim procedures and remedies: an uptime SLA may provide service credits without promising your job outcome.
Response / source / date / owner / unresolved items:

04. THE COMMITMENT OUTLASTS THE NEED
What can we change if demand is half the forecast, twice the forecast, or delayed by six months?
Evidence: Model a baseline, a likely growth range and a downside scenario. Show total committed spend in each, including minimum allocations and paid idle time.
Test: Use the pilot to refine utilization and capacity needs before choosing a longer term. Compare flexibility and capacity assurance separately from a discount.
Terms to discuss: Discuss shorter initial terms, phased ramps, resize or step-down rights, transfer rights and price-review mechanisms. Record which are accepted; do not assume they are standard or available.
Response / source / date / owner / unresolved items:

05. THE FULL BILL EXCEEDS THE HEADLINE QUOTE
Show the full bill for our expected workload and our demand-surge scenario, including the cost to leave.
Evidence: Request an itemized estimate using real storage volumes, transfer directions, checkpoint frequency, runtime and support needs. Separate GPU, whole-node, serverless and managed-service billing.
Test: Reconcile the pilot invoice with the estimate. Include setup, idle periods, failed work and shutdown behavior. Check which storage charges continue after compute stops.
Terms to discuss: Record the unit prices, included allowances, billing increments, overages, taxes, price-validity period and any agreed pricing protections.
Response / source / date / owner / unresolved items:

06. SECURITY ASSUMPTIONS LEAVE A GAP
Which controls apply to our exact deployment, and which must our team implement?
Evidence: Have your security team review the relevant reports and their scope, physical data location, isolation model, access controls, encryption, subprocessors and incident process. A logo or broad compliance claim is not the complete review.
Test: Map who configures and monitors each control before uploading sensitive data. For HIPAA workloads, determine whether the selected service and required business associate agreement support your obligations.
Terms to discuss: Document the service scope, permitted locations, shared responsibilities, incident notification and required data agreements with your security and legal teams.
Response / source / date / owner / unresolved items:

07. YOUR ALLOCATION OR EXPANSION HAS LOWER PRIORITY
What additional capacity can you commit to, by when, in which region, and on what terms?
Evidence: Separate the GPUs committed for launch from an option to request additional capacity. Ask for location, maximum concurrent allocation, notice periods, allocation priority and any reallocation or interruption rights.
Test: Walk through a demand spike with the provider: the request process, approval steps, expected lead time, migration needs and fallback if the region is full.
Terms to discuss: Discuss dedicated capacity or a defined equivalent allocation, substitution rules, expansion commitments and remedies. Naming hardware should not prevent timely replacement of a failed node.
Response / source / date / owner / unresolved items:

08. RENEWAL BECOMES DIFFICULT TO WALK AWAY FROM
How long would leaving take, what would it cost, and can we demonstrate that the workload still runs?
Evidence: Inventory data volumes, export formats, container images, orchestration, identity, storage APIs and other dependencies. Kubernetes or Slurm can help standardize parts of a deployment, but they do not prove portability.
Test: Restore a representative workload elsewhere. Measure transfer time and cost, validate checkpoints and record which components must change.
Terms to discuss: Discuss renewal notice, agreed pricing limits, export access, transition assistance, retention and deletion timing. Maintain an appropriate independent recovery copy.
Response / source / date / owner / unresolved items:

09. A FACILITY INTERRUPTION STOPS THE WORKLOAD
If this site is unavailable, where can we resume, how soon, and from which recoverable checkpoint?
Evidence: Request the proposed site's power, cooling and connectivity design, maintenance approach, recovery dependencies and incident escalation process. Confirm whether alternate capacity is actually reserved.
Test: Test checkpoint creation and restoration, including recovery outside the failed allocation where required. Measure the amount of work that can be lost and the time to resume.
Terms to discuss: Agree recovery responsibilities and discuss restoration targets, alternate capacity and remedies. Have counsel review outage exclusions and force-majeure language against the proposed recovery plan.
Response / source / date / owner / unresolved items:

ACCEPTANCE
Representative test, configuration and software versions:
Maximum pilot and production budget:
Successful output, performance and recovery targets:
Deployment, monitoring, security and incident responsibilities:

Contract terms must be agreed; suggested protections are not guarantees.
Guide: https://gpucloudadvisors.com/gpu-cloud-buying-guide/
Providers: https://gpucloudadvisors.com/gpu-cloud-providers/
Project review: https://gpucloudadvisors.com/gpu-cloud-buying-guide/#consultation