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Strategic Importance of Cloud Computing in the Business Organizations

Information System Infrastructure

Ramesh Ramanathan Neelathangam

University of Campbellsville

(BA63370)

Dr. Quiana Bradshaw

Abstract

Cloud computing is became a very important aspect of the business world with the tremendous increase in usage of the databases that are enabled to be available with the internet. Usage of social media, mobile commerce and e-commerce, which are public services, increased when they are linked to cloud. A $31 billion dollar growth is identified in the past five years (C. Lakshmi Devasena, 2014). Not depending on the size of the business, cloud computing has been adopted in all business types right from small to large. The importance of cloud computing and the impact of it on the business are discussed below.

Introduction: For any kind of organization to run and operate, it has to depend on various technologies and cloud computing is one amongst them which has more sophisticated features that helps the organization’s functioning much smoother. Before the cloud emerged, the organizations were depending on the traditional methods of running the applications on LAN or a computer. Cloud computing is enabled to run multiple application on a shared multi-tenant, which gave easier access to the platform. Each organization, now days, started using the cloud technology as it proved to reduce the operational costs. Being a self-service based technology, cloud computing has given easier access to the applications by logging in and to customize them to the choices of the customers and his needs (Velte, A. T., Velte, T. J., & Elsenpeter, R. C 2010).

Why did Cloud Technology Emerge: The major reason for the cloud technology to emerge is on the technical side and those reasons are explained below.

1. Rapid growth of computers and communication technologies: The growing demand in computing for technology, data communications and the computing devices were the key reasons for the cloud technology to grow and evolve.

2. Management Methodology changed: The data was stored manually on the premises, LAN or on computer by the organizations a decade ago. But when these organizations have to meet the global competency, they had to invest so much time for the improvement and development of the business and this caused the organizations to start outsourcing the IT projects, so that they get that time required to think about the business enhancements.

3. Computing capacities availability exceeded: The giant companies like Amazon and google started providing the needs of computing, and this has become the major reason for the demand of cloud computing.

Advantages of Cloud Computing in the world of business:

1. Cost effective: The services provided by the cloud computing work in pay-as-you-go style, which is a very sophisticated model, giving the option for organizations to pay only for the services they use. No additional costs incurs to the company expect the service they use and as the whole information will be on the cloud, cost towards infrastructure has completely wiped off.

2. Flexible and Reliable: The organizations demands and needs were met with a rapid pace with various services that are offered by the cloud technology.

3. Increased Collaboration: The real time updates feature of the cloud technology has got the employees of the organization to stand on the same page, which is a good sign of collaboration. The information such as documents can be shared simultaneously in the employees who are working remotely. The information can be updated within no time using cloud.

4. Software updates are automatic: As the cloud service provider takes care of the maintenance of the server, the software and security updates are also in his basket, which can save time for the consumers.

5. Security: Cloud technology has enabled the organizations to store the information on the cloud and to access it any time. Even in the situations of disaster where if the computer is not working or physically damaged there will be no loss of data.

6. Documents control: The organizations were using the traditional method of passing the information through emails, which can give access only to a single user to open it and work on the file that was sent. Cloud technology changed the game completely giving access to multiple users at the same time enabling them to work on the file together.

7. Employees can work remotely: This feature of cloud technology made the work of employees easier as they do not have to be physically present to get the work done. They have ease to work from anywhere, which in return increased their productivity.

8. Disaster Recovery: As the cloud service provider takes care of the cloud maintenance, software updates and security issues, organizations does not have to worry about developing and designing plans for disaster recovery.

Cloud Technology Limitations:

Like any other technology, even cloud technology has its own limitations for which the organizations have to be aware about what type of technology they need to choose. Few of those limitations are as below.

1. Services will be cut off incase on communication failure.

2. As the information is accessible publicly, the chances of someone intruding into the information is high, which leads to data compromise or loss.

3. Many complex legal issues can arise if the cloud service provider is a resident of the foreign country, if there are situations of data theft and corruption.

4. If the cloud service provider is consistently giving poor quality of service, they may go into bankruptcy and they might cease services (Carstensen, J., Golden, B., & Morgenthal, J. 2012).

The reasons behind organizations choosing the cloud technologies are quite imperative and those are:

1. It offers services, which are not dependent on device or location

2. The availability of information is virtualized

3. Storage management can be happen being offline

4. Organizations can just pay only for the services they use

5. Business operations using cloud are more sustainable and reliable

6. Cost incurred when compared to the individual network, cloud is much cheaper

7. Cloud enables multitasking facility

8. Faster in disaster recovery

9. Automatic backups

Cloud Computing in Business Operations: The factors that organization or a business depends are the infrastructure and the functional capabilities of the cloud service provider, both internal and external processes, which saves time and the large investments towards maintenance of high capacity storages on the devices.

The various type of requirements from the client can be met with the implementation of the cloud technology, for the range of cloud-hosted services, the service provider offers, which is a major advantage by itself.

Types of Cloud Technologies: The requirements of the organizations and the types of available cloud computing deployment models have various factors that can influence them.

1. Public networks: These networks are hosted by a particular organization and are provisioned to be used only by the public.

2. Private Networks: These networks are hosted internally or can be given or outsourcing to a third party or external service provider. This means they were done in that way for increased security and for operational purposes.

3. Community networks: These are the shared networks within the organizations, which have same motives and objectives towards the business and are hosted externally (Marinescu, Dan C, 2013).

4. Hybrid Networks: These networks can be hosted internally and externally. This can happen when the external and internal networks remain ad independent bodies but works together in a closed network while dong multiple deployments.

Identifying the best cloud service for the organization:

Organizations should have complete idea on the objectives and goals it has in regards to the software, hardware, resource management, network capacity, and data security etc., the objectives are very similar for all the organizations, in terms of having a better control of these processes, which stood up to be the major reason for getting beneficial from the cloud technology. Different types of cloud computing technology are as below.

Software-As-A-Service (SAAS): The operating system, infrastructure capacities and services all of these are provides on a hosted platform as a software application. Ease of access is what I majorly considered in this type of technology where in flexibility and control were given very little importance.

Platform-As-A-Service (PAAS): The data and applications are hosted on the server and will be accessible to the consumers. The service providers not only provides the operating system software and infrastructure but also will manage them, which includes the software and security updates. The requirements are supported with the scalability of the application and updates, which makes not to worry about the requirements of the cloud.

Infrastructure-As-A-Service: Organizations has a choice to rent the infrastructure so that it can reduce the cost that incurs for its maintenance, but can own the operating system that should be installed. The network elements, hardware can be provided by a single cloud service provider or multiple.

Business-Process-As-A-Service (BPAAS): This type of cloud technology is a mixture of both horizontal and vertical business processes. The configuration relies on APIs and the application’s design for easier connectivity.

As the previous decade has the increased number of web-based devices, it contributed towards the acceleration of the customer operations. Depending on the requirements, needs and demands of the network users, Cloud technology has grown to the next level of providing and expanding the types of services which now has reached the mode of virtualization of the transactions. The information that is taken from these are stored and are being used for better planning of the business.

Conclusion:

If the Cloud technology is used in an efficient way, it could help the organizations in smoother operations, increased performance and collaboration and in growth of the organization. It is the best alternative for expensive hardware and hardware equipment and gives more reliability due to the integration. The cost for operations and infrastructure will have a considerable decline by implementing cloud technology. For the organizations that are aiming for a long-term competitive advantage to serve its customers, cloud technology is a better way to go for. Regardless of what type of an organization it is cloud technology has spread out its wings to provide all the services that are required to make the functioning of the business smother and hassle free. Disaster recovery is one more major aspect that an organization should consider, as there is no other better one than cloud to store the information and gives easier retrieval of it in the situations of data theft and data loss. Finally if the cloud technology can be a better solution for all the needs and requirements of the business and its operations and it has been proven to be cost effective solution for having a physical environment to protect the data and to maintain it which again requires human efforts to fulfill the needs.

References:

1. Carstensen, J., Golden, B., & Morgenthal, J. (2012). Cloud Computing : Assessing the Risks. Ely: IT Governance Publishing. Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.acaweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cpid,url&custid=s4338230&db=nlebk&AN=571554

2. Marinescu, D. C. (2013). Cloud Computing : Theory and Practice (Vol. 1st ed). Boston: Morgan Kaufmann. Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.acaweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cpid,url&custid=s4338230&db=nlebk&AN=486501

3. Velte, A. T., Velte, T. J., & Elsenpeter, R. C. (2010). Cloud Computing : A Practical Approach. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.acaweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cpid,url&custid=s4338230&db=nlebk&AN=291254

4. Kathuria, A., Mann, A., Khuntia, J., Saldanha, T. J. V., & Kauffman, R. J. (2018). A Strategic Value Appropriation Path for Cloud Computing. Journal of Management Information Systems, 35(3), 740–775. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2018.1481635

5. Longbottom, C. (2017). The Evolution of Cloud Computing : How to Plan for Change. Swindon: BCS. The Chartered Institute for IT. Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.acaweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cpid,url&custid=s4338230&db=nlebk&AN=1610296

6. Carminati, F., Betev, L., & Grigoras, A. (2016). Grid and Cloud Computing: Concepts and Practical Applications. Amsterdam, Netherlands: IOS Press. Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.acaweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cpid,url&custid=s4338230&db=nlebk&AN=1238936

7. Darker, B., Chui, M. in addition, Manzika, J. (2011). Is it exact to state that you are Ready for the Era of Big Data?. McKinsey Quarterly, 4(1), pp. 24-35.