CLOUD COMPUTING

Cloud Computing

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Discussion4

Some Working Definitions of Cloud Computing4

Cloud Computing Has Three Component Layers6

Implications of the Transition to Cloud Computing8

Cloud Performance and Security Concerns9

Cloud Computing Drives Creation of New Businesses10

Using the Cloud for Business Advantage11

Business Applications with the Greatest Potential13

Cloud Risk Considerations14

Cloud Cost Considerations15

Case Study: Selling “Designer Chocolates”17

The Cloud is a Platform for Managing Business Processes21

Conclusion23

References24

Cloud Computing

Introduction

Internet-based technology is driving economic change at a level not seen since the spread of industrial technology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. What became known as “Web 2.0” and the business and consumer applications it brought about have continued to evolve, and what has emerged is now known as cloud computing, software-as-a-service, and social media. There is as yet only a short history of using these technologies and they continue to evolve. So we have much to learn, but it is quite clear that they are leading to disruptive changes in the way we communicate with each other and in the IT infrastructures that companies use to support their business operations. (Sedayao, 2008)

The spread of cloud computing is an excellent example of the phenomenon known as “creative destruction,” which was popularized by the economist Joseph Schumpeter. Schumpeter pointed out that in capitalist economies, there are waves of change where the introduction of a new technology or new process for doing things upsets and replaces the previously dominant technology and the people and companies who used that technology. Cloud computing is having this effect on vendors who sell traditional versions of computing technology, and on the people who make their living operating this technology.

Companies that have large investments in traditional in-house computing technology will not abandon those investments immediately, nor should they. The transition of companies to cloud-based technology will be quicker for some and slower for others, depending on their individual circumstances. But the change will happen. History shows over and over again that resistance to the spread of new technologies is almost always futile (and often fatal). People and companies that resist are finally forced out of business and replaced by others that do adopt new technology. Clearly the best strategy for people and companies is to actively explore the opportunities for cloud computing, begin appropriate projects to gain experience in its use, and understand its strengths and weaknesses.

Discussion

Since the turn of this century, several different but related kinds of information technology have been evolving rapidly, and they are now being combined to make it possible to deliver computing resources on demand to companies almost anywhere in the world. The combination of technologies, such as the Internet, Web browsers, server virtualization, parallel computing, and open source software, produces a whole new set of possibilities for delivering computing resources. The term “cloud computing” is now used to describe the result of combining these technologies. IT vendors are offering combinations of these technologies to companies that want to outsource some or all of their traditional IT operations such as running data centers and operating traditional application packages, like enterprise resource ...