Cloud Computing Advantages and Disadvantages

As per DaSilva, Trkman, Desouza, and Lindic (2013), the Cloud is progressively becoming the fastest emerging technology in the Information Technology (IT) field and a viable market for businesses and corporations to use in serving their IT needs. Cloud services and its uses are increasingly becoming popular in IT due to the numerous advantages that are associated with the adoption of cloud-based solutions. Cloud solutions provide a unique IT infrastructure that includes on-demand and pay-as-you-go services that are unique and dependent on the client's intended use, preference and budget (Venters & Whitley, 2012). TechFite presents a viable organization that would benefit from cloud computing services that would provide affordable and sustainable solutions to address its IT department problems. Adopting cloud-computing services will assist TechFite in managing its uptime activities, increase its logs storage capacity, improve its analytics, and improve its networking communications with its partners and remote operations with its subsidiaries.

            TechFite has a strict operational annual budget that it needs to work with despite the several technological problems it needs to address. The TechFite system has to accommodate a lot of traffic due to increased activity in its operation and needs to put up with the increasing logs that need to be stored. The storage space for the records is becoming lesser each day due to the increased activity thus the need for alternative storage solutions to accommodate the increasing logs accumulating because of the increased activity. Additionally, there is the need to have storage for logs for the honeypots that the company plans to install to attract hackers. As the company intends to extend its business by collaborating with other key players, the opening of subsidiaries will also increase its activities and the need for information sharing with its parent company. Monitoring of operations and activities needs to be possible to ensure the affiliates are working optimally and within the scope of the business despite being in remote locales.

            Cloud-computing services are dependent on the internet and the presence of a cloud provider who charges for the computing services on their platform based on the usage of its services including but not limited to; servers, database, storage, software, networking, and analytics (Demirkan & Delen, 2013). First, TechFite should find a cloud provider who will be able to provide the required services to the IT department at a favorable fee as per the needs of the company at the time. TechFite will then have to channel all its operations to the cloud and utilize the Software as a service (SaaS) provision to run their distant computing needs, and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provision that will provide computing resources including storage, networking, servers and data center space. These provisions will assist TechFite to improve its operations and eliminate the need for purchase of IT equipment to have in their facilities while utilizing its limited budget resourcefully. Early adoption of the cloud-computing services will be beneficial in providing storage solutions for the logs and reducing traffic to its firewalls. Late adoption of the cloud services exposes TechFite to the risk of congestion of traffic and filling up of its storage, which will affect its day-to-day operations.

            Cloud-computing will benefit TechFite in the storage of data for processing and backup, which will prevent the loss of data at any instance since it is all backed up in the cloud platform. According to Zissis and Lekkas (2012), the use of the cloud enables applications and data to be accessible from any computer, which helps in improving the traffic of users. Moreover, the services provided by cloud-computing are flexible and allow for dynamic scaling dependent on the needs of the user, and TechFite will be able to downsize or upscale depending on the factors at hand. However, the concern lies with the reducing budget for TechFite and if it will sustain the expenditure of the cloud-based services if implemented. Finding new business partners and areas of business will provide additional funding to support cloud services expenses. Zissis and Lekkas (2012) point out that the threat of data security is more concerning with the use of cloud services since it is susceptible to breaches and TechFite prioritizes data security the most. However, with appropriate measures to control users’ access of the data stored in cloud systems will safeguard TechFite against any threats.

            Cloud services provide TechFite with a reasonable expenditure on its IT needs compared to the purchase of the equipment such as servers, storage devices, and databases, required to manage its activities in situ. In addition, cloud computing reduces the risk of data loss since the data is stored remotely and reduces vulnerabilities compared to the equipment found in the operations location, which is exposed to corruption, deletion, and manipulation. Cloud services provide flexibility to scale infrastructure depending on the demands of the workload without necessarily having to invest in expensive new hardware, unlike the traditional systems that require massive investments for the purchase of additional equipment. Assuncao et al. (2015) note that private cloud services provide sophisticated security and governance options that are designed for a company's specific needs from storage, middleware, and analytics, and will assist TechFite in all its IT activities. The cloud services will provide TechFite with the operational capacity to regulate and increase its user traffic capabilities, expand its storage potential and create a networking platform to aid in its expansion of its operations to subsidiaries in other locations.

            To sum up, the cloud services provide the best bet for addressing the needs of TechFite’s IT department in managing its operational activities. The improvements in uptime in the access of data will justify the adoption of the cloud services, which will also ensure the congestion in user traffic reduces considerably. Additionally, the increased capacity for storage will provide more abundant storage for the logs that keep track of the user operations in TechFite's systems. The advantage of collecting analytics that is possible within the cloud services platform will provide TechFite with the data to determine the success of its operations in correlation to its investment on cloud technology. Not only will cloud services technology improve the operations of TechFite, and ease its access by its users and partners but also assist the company work within its budget.

References

Assunção, M. D., Calheiros, R. N., Bianchi, S., Netto, M. A., & Buyya, R. (2015). Big Data    computing and clouds: Trends and future directions. Journal of Parallel and Distributed      Computing, 79, 3-15.

DaSilva, C. M., Trkman, P., Desouza, K., & Lindič, J. (2013). Disruptive technologies: a          business model perspective on cloud computing. Technology Analysis & Strategic          Management, 25(10), 1161-1173.

Demirkan, H., & Delen, D. (2013). Leveraging the capabilities of service-oriented decision           support systems: Putting analytics and big data in cloud. Decision Support Systems,         55(1), 412-421.

Venters, W., & Whitley, E. A. (2012). A critical review of cloud computing: researching desires     and realities. Journal of Information Technology, 27(3), 179-197.

Zissis, D., & Lekkas, D. (2012). Addressing cloud computing security issues. Future Generation      computer systems, 28(3), 583-592.