Benefits to Organisations from Cloud Computing

Benefits of Organization From Cloud Computing ————————————————- ABSTRACT In recent years, many organizations benefit from sharp development of cloud computing in terms of scalability, agility, automation and resource sharing. Especially for IT departments, cloud computing afford the most innovative technologies and resources for them to focus on applications development, which are the most beneficial for organization business. On the other hand, the Capital & Operational cost can be reduced accordingly because of cloud platform.Many IT giants such as Microsoft, HP and Dell have invested billions in developing cloud platform and cloud computing research. This paper reviews the concept of cloud computing and its state of the art, and concluded the benefits to organizations in perspectives of software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and datacentre as a service (DaaS). Keywords: cloud computing, software as service, architecture as a service, datacentre as a service Introduction The term â€Å"cloud† is used to represent the computer network of the internet.It depicts a diagram as the computer network is just like the cloud which is linked to every client via internet. With the support of high performance server, each single client is able to access their work files remotely and process them without preinstalling specific applications. Because of the development of virtualisation, end-users can work with their clients such as netbook, smart mobile or laptop in anywhere as the same as work in local as long as the internet is available.This paper work aims to explain the concept of cloud computing in state of the art and to discuss how organizations benefit from cloud computing in perspectives of SaaS, IaaS and DaaS, and future research is concluded in the end. Background In the word of McCarthy: â€Å"computation may someda y be organized as a public utility. † The idea of cloud computing has been first opined in the 1960s. Later then, Douglas Parkhill (1966) has thoroughly explored almost all the modern-day characteristics of cloud computing in areas such as infinite supply, elastic provision, online etc. nd compared them to the electricity industry in his book, The Challenge of the Computer Utility. Meanwhile, other researchers were also proposing their ideas about cloud computing, the scientist Herb Grosch even postulated that in future the entire world communication services would be supported by about 15 huge data centres. Between the sixties and nineties, with the evolution of WEB 2. 0 being developed, the internet has started to offer a significant bandwidth which sharply increases the speed of cloud computing development. The first milestone was the arrival of Salesforce. om in 1999, which is the pioneer of creating a concept of running application over internet. It paved the way for both academia researches and industry professionals to deliver applications via internet which is the fountainhead of cloud computing development. The second milestone was Amazon Web Services in 2002, which offered a set of services such as storage and remotely computation based on the cloud through the Amazon Mechanical Turk. Later then in 2006, a commercial web service called Elastic Compute cloud (EC2) was launched by Amazon to run personal and specific applications for both individual and small and medium size enterprise.In 2009, another milestone came as the WEB 2. 0 hit its stride, pioneers such as Google started to offer browser-based services and applications via internet, so called Google Apps. This is decisive for users running reliable and easy-to-consume applications from leading technology giants such as Microsoft and Google. To date, many experts seem to agree that cloud computing can bring enormous benefits for business organizations and will ultimately transform the comp uting landscape. Even though there are still a lot of issues such as security, data privacy, network performance and economics which need to be concerned.Cloud Computing Cloud computing is a natural evolution of the widespread adoption of virtualisation, service-oriented architecture, autonomic, and utility computing. The term â€Å"in the cloud† indicates that end-users are no longer needed to be expertise, well trained in using computer, and even some of the cases have pointed out that future personal computer can be hard drive-less and web-browser only. To understand this in general, cloud computing is able to deliver services such as computation, software, data access and storage ver internet without requiring end-user information of physical location and configuration. Categories of Cloud Computing Cloud computing is able to offer several services, which can be categorized into different classes. The most prevalent classes are Software as a Service (SaaS), infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Datacentre as a Service (DaaS). Software as a Service (SaaS) Software as a Service provides pre-built application services with none of little customization such as ERP and CRM over the internet to the end user for dealing with complex business missions.As the most important and popular application service in cloud computing, it simplifies IT support and management by eliminating the need to install and run individual applications on PC. Most of the software are available to updated automatically through provision of the service provider, and because of the centrally management, the need for maintenance and support can be removed as well. Infrastructure as a Service Infrastructure as a Service renders a service over the internet for orienting computing resources such as hardware, networking components, data storage and servers.It is parallel to the Software as a Service in simplifying the management of computing components, the need of in-house datacentre ca n be removed, and the networking equipment can be eliminated as well. Form perspective of organizations, Infrastructure as a service is able to offer great elasticity and flexibility for scaling computing equipment whenever they are needed. Datacentre as a Service Datacentre as a Service, as a cousin of Software as a Service, can provide needs to the end-users regardless of geographic or organizational separation of provider and consumer.Those needs can be classified into both software and data. Traditionally, enterprises require self-contained repository for storing and organizing data of business, meanwhile there are certain specific software should be available for them accessing the data. Therefore, the concept of datacentre as a service is created for bundling both the needed data and software to interpret into a single package which can be offered to the enterprises at once. The most benefits of this paradigm to organizations are effective reducing of the data cost and usage o f the specific software. Benefits to organisationCloud computing offers a set of advantages to business organizations in many aspects. Traditionally, organizations require enormous budget for the procurement of hardware capacity with great cost potential and the recruitment of a big quantity of staff for managing equipment and running applications in order to deliver big project. Cloud computing revealing is significantly contributing on solving the existing issues, it allows end-users to access the hardware and software facility wherever and whenever without pre-built applications, local administration and hardware capacity.The costs can be sharply reduced because of the centrally management of the provider. The most significant benefits are: * Cost. The expense is always one of concerns while investing and developing an in-house infrastructure, especially for large business organizations. Cloud computing is able to remove the most of cost which spent on purchasing IT equipment, so ftware and maintenance, and organization can therefore pay as they consume. * Reliability. In cloud computing, virtual servers as provided services for organizations instead of physical servers, and this solution is beneficial for the organizations in reliability.If the server or any hardware component is not able to perform their duty properly, the transition can sassily be deployed to any other available server. It creates a significant flexibility for server maintenance. * Manageability. The hardware and other IT facilities can be centrally management by provider, and this renders a great comfort for organization IT department in supporting and implementing. Maintenance is removed because the end-users can simply access their data and applications via user interface without pre-installation.Therefore, IT resources and capacity can be relocated and leveraged for focusing on innovation and core competencies. Nevertheless, besides those main advantages of cloud computing, there are many specific benefits to organizations in perspectives of software as a service, infrastructure as a service and database as a service. In perspective of software as a service As described in previous chapter, Software as a Service provides pre-built application services with none of little customization such as ERP and CRM over the internet to the end user for dealing with complex business missions.Its benefits to organizations can be discussed form both aspects of consumer and provider. For the consumer * Time of development is reduced. As opposed to a phased implementation which may takes months, the time can be decreased as potentially minutes. * No software installation and maintenance. The software application will be cutting edge and updated automatically by provider. * Global availability. Traditionally, software functions are available on-premise based on organization’s IT capacity. Now they are functional outside of premise and anywhere on the internet natively. * Service level agreement (SLA) adherence.Once the software incurs any bugs or errors while running applications, the provider will be noticed immediately and able to fix them in minutes with limited expense. * Constant, smaller and upgrades. With SaaS provider can constantly maintain performance of application and provide continuously application experiences. * Redistribute IT budget. Organization can focus on core competencies by outsourcing software functionality to a provider. This strategy can flat out save the cost of infrastructure requirements and IT personnel knowledge demands. For the provider * Aggregate operating environment.As a provider, the highest authority of domain management is decisive for accessing data and fixing problems. Therefore, provider is no longer required to send technicians to customize software or applications based on demands of clients, the configuration can be remotely set up in central management. Hereby the effects such as financial savings, time savings and labour savings are beneficial to the provider. * Predictable revenue stream. The provider is able to easily calculate the usage of clients for predictably management of the rest resources based on subscription model (Pay as they go). Focus on smaller improvements instead of monster patch rollouts. As providers, the concerns such as rollout logistics across all their clients’ sites and duplication of issues fixing or configurations can be removed. Providers can focus on fixing core application functionality and enhancing features in smaller incremental rollouts. In perspective of infrastructure as a service Infrastructure as a service is one of the main categories of cloud computing service. Its benefits to organization can be concluded below: * Allows IT to shift focus.Because of the quick availability provided by infrastructure as a service, organization hereby can leverage and emphasis on core competencies in bringing innovations in solutions. * Flexibility infr astructure. Each component in architecture can play a role as a service such as hardware as a service, storage as a service, server as a service etc. * Utility service. The service model running by Infrastructure as a service is pre-paid/pay as go subscription based model. This model allows provider effectively manage resources and capacity for leasing. Multiple tenets. Infrastructure as a service allows multiple users to access the same infrastructure. * Investment cap. Small and medium size companies with limited capital for investing in IT equipment can take advantage of the resource from provider. * Measureable cost. Infrastructure as a service usage can be measured and priced based on what have been used and when they have been used. * Green IT. Centrally management and outsourcing can reduce environment effect with IT resources and systems. In perspective of datacentre as a serviceDatacentre as a Service, as a cousin of Software as a Service, can provide needs to the end-users regardless of geographic or organizational separation of provider and consumer. Those needs can be classified into both software and data. Its benefits to organization can be listed below: * Fast execution. Due to centrally management offered by database, end-users are no longer requiring to purchase, install, maintain or upgrade software applications locally. The on-demand model of data as a service is not only used to remove the demands on IT department, but also enabling business analysts to access their data and analysis.This allows IT department can leverage resources to focus on core competencies. * Emphasis on innovation, not infrastructure. For big enterprises, data as a service can be used for cutting their cost of keeping their existing data warehouse or database up and running, and enterprises therefore will be able to focus on innovation rather than organizational infrastructure. The saved cost of originally maintain and upgrading system can be invested on developing an d executing business decisions. * Low cost. As the same as the service provided by IaaS, the on-demand model is applied in data as a service as well.Organizations can consume data functionality based on their usage (pay as they go), and the time when resources have been used is measureable for pricing. * World-class security. The security of the data has been discussed as one of main concerns for many years since the service of outsourcing data is provided. For cloud computing, data as a service ensures organizations’ data is protected with first class despite in terms of physical security, data encryption, user authentication or application security. ConclusionAs discussed in this paper, cloud computing as a cutting edge concept which is proposed and developed in this era, and certainly offers a set of significant benefits to business organizations. It is not only a leading technology for optimizing existing organization IT performance, but also a future development of organ ization movements. Form the perspectives of cost saving, resources relocating and distributing, and labour productivity improving, organization can be enormously beneficial by adopting cloud computing as one of the decisive role in IT development.This paper has reviewed the concept of cloud computing and produced a state of the art understanding in terms of software as a service, infrastructure as a service and data as a service. Those three main categories of cloud computing services have been articulated deeply as well. The core purpose of this paper is to analyse the benefits to organizations from cloud computing, specifically in aspects of software as a service, infrastructure as a service, and data as a service. These main advantages offered by cloud computing have been discussed from both technological and business point of view.The trend of cloud computing has been concluded in the end. Nevertheless, cloud computing is continually developing and it will indeed bring more magn ificent benefits not only to organizations but also in other aspects. The services provided by cloud computing such as Software-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service and database-as-a-service are just the pioneers in cloud computing development. Based on requirements of end-users and business organizations in data processing, there will be more services unveiled in cloud computing to meet those demands and provide more comprehensive supports for both providers and end-users.Even in other areas such as building construction, manufacturing, education, and entertainment, cloud computing is also playing a vital role of productivity role. 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