Question:

Select one of the topics below. Write a 5 – 10 full page research paper (excluding the cover page and reference page) on the real world application of the chosen technology. Your paper should a include the type of organization(s) that benefit most from this technology. Assignment will be grade it according to the Rubric, attached above. Elaborate on what business problem the technology solves. Also, how does it help the organization achieve one or more of the following: Achieve operational excellence through higher levels of efficiency and productivity Create new products, services, and business models Raise revenue and profits while lowering costs by increasing customer and supplier intimacy Improve decision making for managers and employees Increase competitive advantages Insure survival caused by business environment changes Choose ONE topic: Autonomic computing Cloud computing Grid computing Nanotechnology N-tier client/server architectures Cybersecurity Project Management Paper Formatting: Written work 5 – 10 full pages Cover Page Margins: 1″ top, bottom, right, and left. Font Times New Roman 12 point. Use a MS Word document file format. Grading: You must follow the assignment instructions above. Standard grading: Content = 60% Organization = 10% Writing = 10% APA format = 15%

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The Application of Cloud Computing in Business

Introduction

Modern business organizations and other enterprises have embraced the dawn of different technologies into their operations primarily for the benefits they provide. Cloud computing has recognized among the various technologies that have stood out for their application in businesses. Currently, cloud computing has become widely adopted across businesses due to the essential advantages such as the provision of high security, enormous capacity, and other services it presents to the business (Aljabre, 2012). The term ‘cloud computing’ has evolved since its inception but most technology analyst consider it as using a third party essentially for storage and computing needs (Zhang, 2010). However, generally, cloud computing is described as a form of technology which enables users to access services that are available on the internet without having to apply previous knowledge. Thus, this technology allows businesses and organizations to access information virtually, thereby developing a flexible way of accessing data irrespective of location or time. The modern business domain has been featured by occurrence of losses, operational inefficiencies, and economic downturns. An affordable technology such as cloud computing, as a result, is needed to deal with such shortcomings. In this context, this paper will discuss how cloud computing is being implemented in businesses.

Scalability as a Solution to Business

First of all, the primary objective of adopting cloud computing in business organizations is scalability. Typically, growth is the ultimate goal of every business. The concept of scalability in cloud computing is interpreted as the ability of a business to show flexibility in regards to changing technology and storage needs. Clearly, the state within a business organization is never fixed as it is bound to have both good and bad times. Therefore, the storage architecture and applications require to be flexible and have the potential for accommodation. Traditionally, the server system has always been a set size. Whereas there is the potential to scale upwards, businesses find the downward scaling difficult to accommodate without the wastage of resources (Ibarra & Igartua, 2018). For instance, if a business downsizes and they do not require some space, they are expected to pay for the maintenance of space that they not need. On the other hand, cloud computing constitutes a flexible architecture providing businesses with the opportunity to utilize space depending on their needs rather than remaining with resource at a set level.

Scalability exists as an encompassing concept in businesses and it can be divided into three major types depending on the business needs namely; vertical scaling, horizontal scaling, and diagonal scaling. Vertical scaling, also known as scaling up, involves incorporating extra cloud-based resources and services to accommodate the business growing needs, and is used to increase the capacity of a business. Horizontal scaling, also referred to as scaling out, entails changes in the infrastructure to manage the business’s shifting needs, and it can include the implementation of new servers. Diagonal scaling, on the other hand, is a blend of horizontal scaling and vertical scaling. Most businesses opt for diagonal scaling as it provides more opportunity. Since the necessity for scaling is paramount to the growth of the business, this aspect of cloud computing has several benefits. First, businesses enjoy more data storage. Storing data is a critical part of daily operations within a business or organization, and therefore, the growth of operations lead to increased storage needs (Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2016). Secondly, scalability helps to increase versatility in a business. This is duly important as there is rapid advancement of technology which renders some technologies obsolete. Cloud computing helps a business to have an easy transition from using one application to another. Also, scalability helps a business to utilize time accordingly.

Cloud Computing Infrastructure and Business Models

Essentially, cloud computing has been taken up by business organizations for the services it offers. The services provided under business requirements are organized under four types of infrastructures namely; public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and community cloud. In a public cloud, the service provider offers storage services to the general or public users. Under this model, applications for processing data are run in an infrastructure made by the service provider for the users. A public cloud infrastructure offers cost efficient solutions and the services on this cloud are normally on the basis of pay-per-use (Chou, 2015). Private cloud infrastructure is developed for a single organization and access to third party is not allowed. This infrastructure is preferred by large businesses whose priority is storage and security of data. For this reason, it is relatively expensive due to expenses and investments related to data processing. A hybrid cloud infrastructure is a combination of private cloud and public cloud. This infrastructure is considerably sensitive as it contains critical applications and secret data which are hosted by private cloud whereas the public cloud is constituted of applications that have less security (Lynn et al., 2017). A community cloud involves an infrastructure that is shared by several businesses who have common cloud needs such as security.

Cloud computing solutions offer service under three main business models. The first one is a SaaS (Software as a Service) model. Under this service model, several users are given access to the application software on the cloud. The users are able to access and interact with application through the internet using web browsers as the main interface without necessarily installing application within an organization. The services in this model are offered through the internet on a pay-per-use basis. Also, users do not monitor the components such as platform, network, storage devices, and operating systems. They are only authorized to modify the structure settings within the application. The second model is PaaS (platform as a service) model. In this service model, the provider offers a platform where the users are able to create and run their application using software databases, programming languages, tools and services offered by the service provider. The users are also not authorized to manage or control the servers, storage spaces, operating systems, and other elements that constitute the infrastructure of the platform. The authority of the users is limited to modification associated to the software transferred to the cloud and platform’s configuration settings of the software. The third service model in business organization through cloud computing is the IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) model and is also referred as HaaS (Hardware as a Service) model. The users in this service model have the ability to organize storage, processing, networks, and other essential computing resources necessary for running applications. Users also have the capacity to install the required applications and operating system. They are, however, not fully approved to control and manage the cloud physical infrastructure. Nonetheless, they can manage the system at a specific storage level as well as other components of a network.

Reduction of Costs

The adoption of cloud computing has helped increase revenue and profits through reduction of costs. To begin with, the implementation of cloud solutions causes a significant decrease in maintenance and labor costs. This results from storing data in off-site location and reducing hardware which creates reduced demand for employees within a business organization. If the servers require upgrade or repairs, it does not cost the business. Through cloud solutions, routine maintenance is eradicated to enable the business to focus on other important areas such as research and development. In regards to saving labor, implementing cloud solutions helps businesses to reduce the number of employees. Secondly, cloud computing has been found to be cost effective in terms of increasing productivity. Adopting cloud software into the business processes is considered faster and effective compared to conventional installation (Chou, 2015). For instance, a standard installation of software within the organization takes a period of weeks or months whereas the deployment of cloud software occurs within hours. As a result, less time is wasted and work hours are utilized. Moreover, Majority of cloud storage and application are highly available and accessible on the Internet. Also, in relation to cost reduction, cloud solutions also play a significant part reducing the cost of hardware. Rapidly growing businesses require new hardware for its operations which can be expensive. Such issues are alleviated through cloud computing as resources can accessed easily and quickly. Additionally, the breakdown of hardware also accompanies the cost of replacement and repairing.

Enhancing Competitive Advantage

The implementation of cloud solutions in business operations has contributed to enhance competitive advantage of a business. The ability of analyze big data in cloud based systems creates competitive edge through affordability and access of complex software. By tradition, the analytics of big data requires the procurement of expensive software and hardware platforms that are cost efficient for businesses (Luo et al., 2018). Additionally, current cloud systems do not need technical expertise for the execution of calculations.  Enhancement of competitive advantage from collaborating cloud computing systems stems from the fast exchange of relevant information. In a cloud based platform, decision information is shared in ranging types and formats, enabling an increased level of collaboration and value through the speed, accuracy, analysis of decisions. Furthermore, the competitive advantage brought about by cloud solutions have been beneficial in terms of business intelligence and increased security. Through business intelligence, organizations and businesses are able to use data to have an understanding of customers as well as facilitating decision-making. Research has found out that 45% of small business enterprises realize an increase in sales (Lynn et al., 2017). On the other hand, adopting cloud solutions has been described safer as research studies have indicated that businesses with cloud systems were less likely to encounter security. Businesses with increased security are bound to have increased trust from its customers as they are assured of safe data storage.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, the wide ranging benefits of cloud computing to firms and organizations will render cloud computing as an indispensable technology to businesses. This is in accordance to providing scaling solutions depending on the needs of a business. As discussed, some of the functions that cloud computing helps to solve include reduction of labor and operational cost, enhancing competitive advantage, and improving productivity in businesses. The outlook of cloud solution in business remains clear as its adoption continue to rise, particularly with the existing issues and problems that affect business operations.

References

Aljabre, A. (2012). Cloud computing for increased business value. International Journal of            Business and social science, 3(1).

Chou, D. C. (2015). Cloud computing: A value creation model. Computer Standards &     Interfaces, 38, 72-77.

Ibarra, D., Ganzarain, J., & Igartua, J. I. (2018). Business model innovation through Industry 4.0:             A review. Procedia Manufacturing, 22, 4-10.

Luo, X., Zhang, W., Bose, R., Li, H., & Chung, Q. B. (2018). Producing competitive advantage   from an infrastructure technology: The case of cloud computing. Information Systems         Management, 35(2), 147-160.

Lynn, T., Rosati, P., Lejeune, A., & Emeakaroha, V. (2017). A preliminary review of         enterprise serverless cloud computing (function-as-a-service) platforms. In 2017 IEEE    International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science (CloudCom) (pp.           162-169). IEEE.

Rittinghouse, J. W., & Ransome, J. F. (2016). Cloud computing: implementation, management,     and security. CRC press.

Zhang, Q., Cheng, L., & Boutaba, R. (2010). Cloud computing: state-of-the-art and research             challenges. Journal of internet services and applications, 1(1), 7-18.

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