Cloud Computing Research Paper Samples

Abstract

This paper discusses cloud computing based on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The cloud computing processing system has become one of the fastest growing areas in the field of Information Technology. The prime purpose of cloud computing is to share the available resources so that economies of scale can be achieved rather than completely relying on the local servers to handle the information technology applications. This paper discusses the major milestones achieved by cloud computing with reference to three organizations that have successfully implemented cloud computing and have achieved satisfactory results. There are many drawbacks and benefits associated with cloud-based ERP system which have been discussed further in this paper. When we analyze the importance of cloud computing as compared to traditional ERP system, it is clear that cloud computing helps in achieving economies of scale through reducing operating and total upfront costs of business processes. This technology is of utmost importance because it is a recent evolution in the field of Information Technology.

Introduction

Since the beginning, the wide majority of the Enterprise Resource Planning System has been based on the principles. The traditional ERP systems does provide different benefits such as more customization, mature functionality of the processing system along with a well-integrated system. Since past few decades, various software applications have been converted to cloud computing that has become one of the fastest growing areas in the field of Information Technology. Cloud computing reveals the next generation processing system (Guido, 2014).
Cloud Computing
The cloud computing processing system has become one of the fastest growing areas in the field of Information Technology. The prime purpose of cloud computing is to share the available resources so that economies of scale can be achieved rather than completely relying on the local servers to handle the information technology applications. The name of cloud computing results from “cloud” which is used as an allegory for the Internet. Therefore, the term cloud computing means computing that is internet based. With the help of cloud computing, various applications and storage servers are transferred from one computer to another with the help of an Internet (Guido, 2014).
The resources and applications that are used by cloud computing are used in two major ways. First, they can be relocated as per demand of the user and second they can be shared by multiple users at the same time. This can be understood with an example that a cloud computing system that is used in North America during the business hours and utilizes the services of Outlook, same resources can be used for the European country users during their business hours. The only difference is that in European country the application is changed such as the web server used in cloud computing will be different than the one used earlier for North American clients (Guido, 2014). The application of using same applications not only help in reducing the impact of environmental damage and utilize energy efficient resources but also help the company to reap economies of scale, save costs, reduce rack space and also eliminate repetitive processes. Another benefit of this technology is that multiple users can have access to a same server and update their storage data and information without having to buy licenses to access different applications and online storage facility. When an organization plans to shift to cloud computing it will be transferring its resources from the traditional Capex technology to Opex model that applies the concept of shared resources and applications (Guido, 2014).

Milestones in progress of cloud computing

The concept behind this popular technology was launched in 1960’s and since then cloud computing has progressed in the field of Information Technology that there is no looking back. The evolution of Web 2.0 is the latest development in the field. Cloud computing was launched late for the web developers even though while 1990’s the Internet had started to use major bandwidth (Guido, 2014). The launch of Salesforce.com is considered to be one of the main milestones of cloud computing in late 1990’s era which helped in the development of an enterprise application with a website that was simple to use and user-friendly. This assisted both the software development professionals and the software companies to develop applications that can deliver software online. The next milestone was the launch of Amazon.com with its remarkable and user-friendly web services. This was a major hit in 21st century which provided a successful and integral medium for cloud computing that provided effective storage services, computation and human intelligence (Guido, 2014).
The third main milestone was the development of Elastic Compute Cloud by Amazon.com. This was a business opportunity for small to medium size organizations as well as individuals to rent computers for their personal usage. Another milestone was the launch of Web 2.0 that occurred in 2009 which was extremely successful in the form of Google.com and many other organizations started providing the services of free web browsers. These web browsers supported enterprise resource planning application with the assistance of Google Application. Since then the milestones have been achieved to a greater degree with the most successful one being various applications developed by the Microsoft and Google that are considered to be technology giants in an industry (Ivanus, 2014).

Practical examples of cloud computing

It is important that before discussing the benefits and drawbacks of cloud computing in details as far as Enterprise Resource Planning is concerned, we discuss some of the practical examples of cloud computing and three organizations that have implemented this latest technology. One organization that has implemented cloud computing is Hartford that delivers Information Technology services to its users. With the launch of cloud computing into the company’s technological system, the infrastructure has dominantly changed, and the company also provides personal cloud computing services to its users. Hartford organization focuses on property business, mutual fund, etc. for the implementation of amalgamated model of Information Technology that will definitely help the company to meet customers need and requirements. This will also help to reap economies of scale through cost reduction and improvement in overall performance with support for cloud computing.
The second organization that is practically experiencing cloud computing is Delhaize America. This organization has various grocery chains that are managing a huge amount of data with the support and management of cloud computing. The technology of cloud computing helps in studying the impact of weather on sales and various product category in stores. Since cloud computing is successfully implemented in this company, it has been able to diagnose that when the weather is warm, it will result in reduce sale of meat especially the grilled one and increase the sale of newspapers and different magazines. This insight helps the company to make a right decision regarding what to stock, how to promote products, offer discounts, etc. This organization has implemented SoftLayer cloud computing infrastructure that is well-integrated with the Information Technology system (Babcock, 2011).
The third company that will be discussed in this paper that has implemented cloud computing is Pearson company which is utilizing the services of cloud computing to provide high-quality education across the globe. This technology has enabled Pearson to develop global hybrid infrastructure that helps provide same infrastructure and processes. This will eventually help the company to free up resources that are not required and invest in the new ones and focus on providing online education that will help in improving the concepts and performance of the learners (Babcock, 2011).

Shift from traditional ERP to cloud ERP computing

The cloud computing that is based on Enterprise Resource Planning as mentioned above has become the fastest growing and the most popular area in the field of Information Technology. Hence, the shift from the traditional means of ERP to cloud computing is quite obvious. There are many drawbacks and benefits associated with cloud-based ERP system which will be discussed further in this paper. When we analyze the importance of cloud computing as compared to traditional ERP system, it is clear that cloud computing helps in achieving economies of scale through reducing operating and total upfront costs of business processes. The major reason behind this cost reduction is that organizations do not have to invest heavily in Information Technology upfront with cloud computing. Unlike the traditional Enterprise Resource Planning system the cloud-based ERP can be configured and adjusted according to client demand, can be replicated and maintained at a rapid level, which means it can deliver more and help in better utilization of the infrastructure that is required for computing. This again leads to the main benefit of cloud computing – reduction in total upfront and operating costs. Another advantage of shifting from traditional ERP to cloud-based ERP is that cloud-based computing can be rapidly invested and well-integrated with organization’s infrastructure as compared to traditional ERP system which needs more resources, time and effort (Jonathan, 2012).

Benefits of cloud computing in ERP

This technology is of utmost importance because it is a recent evolution in the field of Information Technology. The resources and applications that are used by cloud computing are used in two major ways. First, they can be relocated as per the demand of the user and second they can be shared by multiple users at the same time. The application of using same applications not only help in reducing the impact of environmental damage and utilize energy efficient resources, but also helps the company to reap economies of scale, save costs, reduce rack space and also eliminate repetitive processes (Ivanus, 2014). Another benefit of this technology is that multiple users can have access to a same server and update their stored data and information without having to buy licenses to access different applications and online storage facility. Even though, the implementation of cloud computing would mean reaping economies of scale, reduction in costs and time-saving it also means transformation of the business. It is not only implemented in small and medium size companies, but also in large organizations and government sector (Ivanus, 2014). Some major benefits of cloud computing are:
The earlier model of IT focused upon the concept that if a software or an application is not performing properly only then it should be fixed. Due to this problem, the businesses had to suffer due to time wastage in downtime of resources and lack of effective skills to handle crisis management situation. The benefit of cloud computing is that it provides timely updates of the issues with equipment so that the problems are handled on time to save time wasted to recover and fix the resources (Srinivisan, 2014).
The application of using same applications not only help in reducing the impact of environmental damage and utilize energy efficient resources, but also helps the company to reap economies of scale, save costs, reduce rack space and also eliminate repetitive processes (Joe, 2013).
It reduces the upfront and operational costs for the business processes as it reduces the overall expenses that are incurred by an organization to implement Enterprise Resource Planning System or to switch to a new cloud-based system based on new technology. This provides more benefit to small to medium sized organizations. Along with lower upfront costs, the overall operational costs are also reduced, which means energy costs, costs of upgrading a system, configuring and maintenance (Srinivisan, 2014).
The cloud-based ERP system can be quickly implemented in an organization as compared to the traditional ERP system. The companies can also change the cloud service providers more quickly and reduce the service type that is required to provide more products and services to different kind of business structures.
The cloud-based ERP system remains focused on utilizing the resources to an extent that the core competence of an organization remains focused upon. In many cases, the cloud based ERP system helps to reduce pressure on internal department of Information Technology that’s major area is to focus on providing core competency in IT services.
Since small medium enterprises have limited resources they cannot invest in advanced technology, but with the help of cloud computing they also have access to specialized technology and latest computing resources.
Cloud ERP computing system provides faster updates and more functions as compared to traditional ERP system. It also provides improved usability and accessibility. Apart from this, the cloud-based ERP system is user-friendly and usable as compared to traditional ERP system (Srinivisan, 2014).
It also provides a convenient integration with different cloud computing services. Once an organization has implemented SaaS cloud computing services it can adopt other cloud ERP computing services at very cheap rates once the cloud service providers have integrated their product with that of the company’s (Benlian, 2011). This also helps in backup, disaster recovery and improved recovery procedures in a better way as compared to traditional ERP system.

Drawbacks of cloud computing in ERP

There are two sides of a coin and this technology also comes with various drawbacks that will be discussed below:
An overt fact of cloud computing based on ERP is that additional subscription fees are charged for the product that do not reduce or remain fixed over time, in fact, this fees increases with time as compared to the overall capital investment that is involved in traditional ERP software system.
One major drawback of this application is that it has serious confidentiality and security risks as compared to traditional ERP software. This risk is also controversial as some persist that confidentiality and security risks are well taken care of by application developers. Hence, these risks are relatively more prominent and significant when large organizations adopt cloud computing as compared to small-to-medium organizations (Jonathan, 2012).
There is a certain amount of performance risk associated with cloud-based computing in ERP software as compared to traditional ERP system, but this performance risk prevails with every software. The performance risk associated with cloud based computing is related to reliability of the network, computing speed, certain limitations of the data transfer facility and other risks involved.
Even though an integration process with another cloud computing services is easy and possible as compared to other software applications, but there are certain limitations involve that overcome the beauty of the product. There have been certain constraints that have been noticed regarding interoperability of cloud computing with its home-based applications and integration of its services with existing portfolios and Information Technology platforms. Unlike the traditional ERP processes, cloud computing at times does not support the detail customization and integration with third-party services which becomes difficult for the user to handle (Jonathan, 2012).
Since usually the Information Technology departments are outsourced in various organizations, they may lose some of their core competence in IT as well as might experience resistance towards changes in the organization. These issues become more prominent in large organizations as compared to medium to small companies.
Since the cloud ERP system is new and is not mature like the traditional ERP system they may have some hitches in the system and may not function as maturely as to satisfy all the office needs of an organization to compete in an industry.
There are certain limitations involved in the use of hybrid deployment strategy that may be needed to integrate Enterprise Resource Planning with the local office processes, retain its legacy system if required and third overcome any deficiency that exists within public networks of government sectors (Jonathan, 2012).
Many a times it gets to difficult to define the service agreements between corporate clients and cloud computing as these service agreements do not cover security risks and confidentiality concerns that may damage the liability of organizations later on.

Future of cloud computing

The future of cloud computing is extremely promising and successful. Various researches have predicted that till the year 2020, more than half of all the web services, applications and software will be transferred to cloud computing systems. If we estimate currently, around 55 percent of organizations consider that cloud computing technology differentiates them from their competitors and provide them with competitive advantage, whereas more than 55 percent of organizations spend their annual budget of 10 percent on transforming their applications to cloud computing services (Winfrey, 2013). According to different researches that till 2020 more than 7.5 billion mobile devices will follow the latest trend of cloud computing. The software that will be used in cloud computing will be easily accessible with one tap as this technological advancement will help to deploy applications and softwares quickly. This will not only lead to technological advancement but also provide quick response time to different applications (Winfrey, 2013).

Conclusion

The cloud computing processing system has become one of the fastest growing areas in the field of Information Technology. The prime purpose of cloud computing is to share the available resources so that economies of scale can be achieved rather than completely relying on the local servers to handle the information technology applications. The cloud computing that is based on Enterprise Resource Planning as mentioned above has become the fastest growing and the most popular area in the field of Information Technology. Hence, the shift from the traditional means of ERP to cloud computing is quite obvious.
Unlike the traditional Enterprise Resource Planning system the cloud-based ERP can be configured and adjusted according to client demand, can be replicated and maintained at a rapid level, which means it can deliver more and help in better utilization of the infrastructure that is required for computing. There are many drawbacks and benefits associated with cloud computing. This technology is of utmost importance because it is a recent evolution in the field of Information Technology.
 

References

Babcock C. (2011) 4 Companies Getting Real Results From Cloud Computing, Information Week http://www.informationweek.com/4-companies-getting-real-results-from-cloud-computing/d/d-id/1095455.
Benlian A. & Hess T. (2011) Opportunities and risks of SaaS. Findings from a survey of IT executives. Decision Support Systems, Vol. 52: p.232.
Guido P. (2014) A More Connected World: How The Cloud Is Boosting Global Travel And Trade, Forbes.com http://www.forbes.com/sites/ibm/2014/10/30/a-more-connected-world-how-the-cloud-is-boosting-global-travel-and-trade/
Ivanus et al. (2014) Cloud Computing Technology Trends, Fiability & Durability, Issue 1, p.26.
Joe M. (2013) 5 Benefits Of Cloud Computing You Aren't Likely To See In A Sales Brochure, Forbes.com, http://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2013/07/21/5-benefits-of-cloud-computing-you-arent-likely-to-see-in-a-sales-brochure/
Jonathan. G. (2012) To Cloud Or Not To Cloud: That Is The Question For ERP, MHD Supply Chain Solutions; Vol. 42 Issue 1: pp.36-37
Srinivisan (2014) Cloud Computing Basics, Springer.
Winfrey G. (2013) How the Cloud Will Transform Business by 2020, Inc.com.