should business move to the cloud

Should Business Move To The Cloud CASE 2.3

CASE STUDY 2.3

SHOULD BUSINESS MOVE TO THE CLOUD

a) What business benefits do cloud computing services provide? What problems do

they solve?

In the case they give us an example which uses cloud computing at the marketplace that is

Amazon. For Amazon they use the Web services division (AWS) to get flexible computing

power and data storage. This cloud application helps Amazon get a large amount of

computing resources. According to the customer provided information, the AWS can help

Amazon separate, allocate and arrange these resources. The AWS also can help Amazon’s

computing resources. On the one hand, Cloud computing has brought a lot of convenience for

Amazon, making them save costs and increase profits; on the other hand, cloud computing let

Amazon spend more time on other work which had more value (Laudon 234). Because of

that using cloud computing can store large amounts of data and information, more and more

companies are using cloud computing. Cloud computing helps us build a large database, and

can help us to quickly find the desired information. This improves the work efficiency. “Big

Data analytical techniques are being used to deliver more detailed data – and deliver it

quicker”(Top 10 business reasons to move to the cloud). Another example for using the cloud

is that it can help the company save cost, like the Outback company who used the cloud “to

avoid taxing in-house system unnecessarily” (Laudon 234). In the case, the Zynga Company

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uses cloud computing to store data and transmit data. “Storing information in the cloud gives

you almost unlimited storage capacity”(Cloud Computing – Is it Really All That Beneficial?).

When a new game is in the test phase and the company is not sure how many customers, they

use the Amazon cloud. “Then once game traffic stabilizes and reaches a steady number, they

would move the game on to their private zcloud” (Laudon 234). This cloud transfer can help

the Zynga Company solve the space storage problems, and only pay for the resources it ends

up using. Using the cloud to transfer one game’s large data, is easier than using other old

applications. In the case, the InterContinental company use the cloud to provide customers

with more convenient services. According to use the cloud, the InterContinental company lets

their customers receive data faster if the data ias located on a server that is physically close to

them (Laudon 234). With the development of society, more and more multinational

companies are using the cloud, not only because of cost savings, but because people

worldwide can access the cloud, provided they have an Internet connection(10 benefit of the

cloud computing).

b) What are the disadvantages of cloud computing?

Using the cloud computing, the two major

disadvantages are security and reliability.

In this case study, Amazon's cloud service

has shown significant outages in 2011 and

2012, causing serious consequences. There

are many large sites are using Amazon's

cloud computing, so Amazon's cloud

computing failure will not only affect

Amazon, but also spread to many other companies and have a great impact on them. (Laudon

235). According to the Paris International Group of a report, after investigation they found

that each year there are about ten hours or more the server fails. Even this small amount of

downtime can lead to large revenue losses for firms that need 24/7 availability. Another

important issue is security. “By leveraging a remote cloud based infrastructure, a company

essentially gives away private data and information, things that might be sensitive and

confidential. It is then up to the cloud service provider to manage, protect and retain them,

thus the provider’s reliability is very critical.”(Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud

Computing – Cloud computing pros and cons) In addition to these two major drawbacks,

another drawback is that cloud computing is prone to attack. “Store information in the cloud

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could make your company vulnerable to external hack attacks and threats.” As we know, the

Internet is virtual, so we do not know what is safe. (Cloud Computing – Is it Really All That

Beneficial?)

c) How do the concepts of capacity planning, scalability, and TCO apply to this

case? Apply these concepts both to Amazon and to subscribers of its services.

Amazon must provide hardware capacity planning and scalability. With the development of

information technology, Amazon will have more and more customers. Not just Amazon, but

Amazon's customer requires a large database to store a variety of data and information. This

will help the company grow. Amazon must bear the total TCO of its services, while Amazon

is also needed to maintain the profitability of the company. However, the services'

subscribers benefit from not having to worry about these issues.

d) What kinds of businesses are most likely to benefit from using cloud Computing?

Why?

As information technology and social development, there have been more and more

companies need cloud services. Online business is the biggest user cloud computing, at first

online business need to process too much data and information online.

First, the information Internet companies need to use cloud services, such as Facebook,

Google, Ebay, etc. Because the cloud computing can store large information, and share the

information.

Second, large multinational corporations, one of the advantages about the cloud computing is

that people from around the world can get a faster connection. Cloud services can help

employees of multinational corporations to establish good communication channels and share

the company's resources. This saves the cost of the work to help multinational companies,

improve work efficiency.

Logistics business needs to use cloud computing to support the services that logistics

business offers.

In addition by switching to cloud services, business could reduce their Total cost of

ownership (TCO) through greater centralization and standardization of their hardware and

software resources.

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