Cloud Computing: Unlocking Business Potential and Streamlining Operations - Research Paper

Introduction

The world is evolving quite faster, and technology is developing at a faster rate and making life and business operations easier worldwide. Businesses are in constant search of the best ways of operating and which are cost-effective, and this calls for the need for cloud computing which is designed to ease how businesses operate. Cloud computing entails data storage without active and direct management on the user's part. Cloud computing involves the provision of capabilities which are IT related and which are massively scalable by the application of internet technologies to many external customers. Cloud computing has grown to become a booming technology, and it is growing faster and at the same time becoming a dominant method used in delivering computer services. In the current world, moving to cloud computing has both positive and negative consequences hence eliciting the debate on whether to fully embrace the method for computing purposes or not.

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Cloud Computing Technologies

Cloud computing generally takes the form of Infrastructure as a service (IAAS) and the platform as a service (PAAS). The IAAS offers the infrastructural resources in the form of services to the various end users. In this form of technology, server virtualization forms the primary technology the providers use in this service. The providers of cloud in this domain offer access to the data storage of different sizes and quality which adhere to the certain given levels of service agreement. On the other hand, PAAS offer resources which are computational through a platform where all services and applications are hosted and developed. PAAS applies the interfaces for the application platforms to manage and control virtual servers to be allocated to various users (Voorsluys, William, James Broberg, & Rajkumar, 2).

Positive Consequences of Moving to Cloud

Cloud computing has proven to be an enabler to the small and medium size and the startup enterprises. This is mainly due to the technology's ability in helping various entrepreneurs to set up their enterprises and business faster and be able to grow at a quicker rate (Abdollahzadegan, Ab Razak, Marjan, &Mahyar, 67). Compared to the old traditional methods, collaborations level between the various enterprises has increased considerably. Cloud computing also shifts the expenditure involving IT to the model of pay-as-you-go which is beneficial and attractive mainly for the startups. Additionally, there is increased transparency level in utilizing the resources of the information technology in the paradigm of cloud computing. In comparing outputs in regards to the various resources consumed, the concepts 'show backs' and 'chargebacks' are useful.

Moving to the cloud will significantly lead to cost minimization. Higher costs are typically associated with maintenance of the hardware and software or an organization. The various cost associated with the maintenance of hardware and software includes licensing costs, cost of installation, and constant grading up costs. Cloud computing comes in handy to offer solutions to this constant and high costs by offering pay-as-you-go options, one-time-payment and other cheaper options thereby making many organizations to prefer the method for their computations.

Ideally, we all travel and attend to meetings in various parts of the world, and at some point, one might want to access their business information while away without necessarily having to be at their workplaces. Cloud computing comes in place to offer a solution to this by allowing data access through the tablets, mobile phones, and some other applicable devices. Through the usage of internet connection that is reliable one can access the files with a single touch from anywhere around the world. Besides, cloud computing brings about speed when accessing the data which in turn enable quicker decisions to be made (Alzahrani, Nasser, &Sarrab, 2014). It is therefore clear that data centralization at a single place enhances the ease of accessing the information needed without necessarily depending on software and hardware. This has increased the efficiency within which decisions can be made quicker in an organization as one can easily access the data needed to make an informed decision.

Tight documents control is a crucial requirement by many organizations in ensuring that essential documents are safe. There exists collaboration between the partners and the employees on the need for control of documents which is watertight. This saves on the back and forth which are associated with sending attachments. Through the cloud, one can log in and access the documents online without asking each time to be sent to them. This enhances transparency as all the parties involved can see the correct version. Cloud computing also enhances competitiveness on the part of an organization as it grants access to the enterprise-class technology which is required by everyone. Additionally, it allows smaller businesses to react faster than the established competitors, and the pay-as-you-go enables the small business to compete with large enterprises (Alzahrani, Nasser, &Sarrab, 2014).

Many companies struggle to keep up with the growing need for storage spaces due to an endless and considerable number of transactions and large size files. Cloud computing offers virtually unlimited storage space. Traditionally, a company will have to acquire storage devices of limited capacities at high prices hence increasing the costs required to run an organization. Cloud helps in reducing the costs of buying new machines, hardware, and server thereby solving the requirements for data storage. In cloud computing, if a computer which is on the cloud crashes, one can still access the data which was stored on the cloud by using a different device.

Another vital aspect addressed by cloud computing is the recovery of data. Through the cloud, an organization does not have to worry a lot about taking backups or restoration of the lost data. The various vendors of cloud computing ensure that the information is kept safe at any given time and data backups are done automatically in the cloud. This is crucial for businesses in saving on resources deployed to do so and the time taken to manage and recover data making the IT personnel focus more on their essential tasks. Additionally, upgrading and tracking the software of the underlying server tend to be time-consuming and at the same time are essential processes that need periodic upgrades. In most cases, cloud providers take care of this automatically, and there exist some computing models within the clouds which can similarly handle administration tasks like the database backups, periodic maintenance and the software upgrades (Marston, Sean, et al., 176)

Cloud services are elastic and plays a pivotal role in a successful adoption in a firm. It allows the clients to have control when it comes to their operational expenditure since as the demand decreases in times of the off-peak season, the servers can be freed and taken back to the service providers by cutting them down. New hardware procurement responsibility no longer rests with the client since metered services which are provided by the vendors will address them (Diaz, Martin, & Rubio, 2016).

Negative Consequences of Moving to Cloud

Despite the numerous benefits that come with moving to the cloud, there are several negative impacts brought by the decision to do so. Cloud computing comes handy with higher possibilities of a security breach. Currently, cloud vendors are working harder and doing their best to convince business to move to the platform and convince their customers on their data security. It is of great necessity to understand that with technological advances comes the high risk of hackers who devices better and newer ways of breaching the cloud security and steal information which is confidential and only privy to the company. It is therefore clear that storage of information on the cloud makes companies and individuals prone and vulnerable to attacks (Zissis, & Dimitrios, 583).

Cloud computing relies on internet connectivity, and the absence of it indicates that one cannot access the services and resources in the cloud. Cloud computing requires high internet connectivity and high bandwidth. Downtime occurrences even for a few hours can result in significant losses on the company that entirely relies on the cloud. A good example was the debacle of Amazon in 2017 and when the server crashes, and there is service outages connectivity becomes a problem (Zissis, & Dimitrios, 584). Additionally, organizations tend to lose much transparency and the control over the cloud when debugging some performance issues as this is controlled by the third party and not the organization entirely.

Another disadvantage that comes with cloud computing is inefficient customer support. The response of the support to urgent requirements of the business is still below par despite the numerous complaints raised. The higher level of support is ideally needed to help various businesses that have low outage thresholds and needs a rapid response, and this means that the extra support offered by the support team could cost the company extra. Also choosing vendors for cloud computing is also a challenge. Many of the vendors have data formats which do not permit smooth data transfer from their systems to different systems (Mirashe, & Kalyankar, 2010). This calls for the need to examine whether the vendor abides by the required standards and this might be difficult for some individuals making them get stuck with the same provider over a more extended period.

Adoption of cloud solutions on a small scale and in projects which are short termed can be seen as being expensive. The most significant benefit brought by cloud computing is in terms of cost saving on IT. More flexibility can be provided through pay-as-you-go services and still the price overall could end being higher than the expected. This calls for the need to experiment with various offerings.

Conclusion

Cloud computing is of great importance and contributor to the effective management of data, and it plays a more significant role in enhancing efficiency in the operations of the business as the information can be centrally accessed by various personnel. Cloud computing brings about positive consequences which improve the business environment and at the same time there exist adverse effects. However the benefits derived from the cloud computing tend to outweigh its shortfalls, and for this reason, many organizations should adopt the method over the traditional computing method.

Works Cited

Diaz, Manuel, Cristian Martin, and Bartolome Rubio. "State-of-the-art, challenges, and open issues in the integration of Internet of things and cloud computing." Journal of Network and Computer Applications 67 (2016): 99-117. Accessed from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S108480451600028X

Marston, Sean, et al. "Cloud computing-the business perspective." Decision support systems 51.1 (2011): 176-189. Accessed from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167923610002393

Zissis, Dimitrios, and Dimitrios Lekkas. "Addressing cloud computing security issues." Future Generation computer systems 28.3 (2012): 583-592. Accessed from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167739X10002554

Alzahrani, Ahmed, Nasser Alalwan, and Mohamed Sarrab. "Mobile cloud computing: advantage, disadvantage, and open challenge." Proceedings of the 7th Euro American Conference on Telematics and Information Systems. ACM, 2014. Accessed from https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2590670

Abdollahzadegan, Ab Razak, Marjan, &Mahyar. "The organizational critical success factors for adopting cloud computing in SMEs." Journal of Inf...