The Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing
The Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing
A Tale of a Salesman that Convinced a CIO to Switch to Cloud Computing
1 – Introduction and Definition P.2
2 – Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing, from a CIO – Salesman Point of View P.4
3 – Conclusion P.8
4 – References P.9
1.1 Introduction
“Cloud” computing is the fanciest buzzword in the computer industry, currently surpassing the last big term “web 2.0”. Every big player in the computer industry launched a cloud service last year. Notable examples are iCloud by Apple, (Apple 2012) or Microsoft Cloud Services (Microsoft 2011), copying various innovators like Google or Dropbox, who offer similar services since much longer. The latter is the most successful company in the private usage of a file-cloud, since 2007 it has acquired over 50 million users (Dropbox 2012). The success of Dropbox lies more in its simplicity rather than its functionality, the company never uses words like sync or cloud, it simply works for the user (Carr 2011).
But would business also use cloud services? If we take Dropbox as an example, would a firm use a similar service and upload files on a foreign server, hence give away files to a different company? Even when functionality is easy, what about legal or safety concerns? The question here is a different one than for private usage. In this essay we will examine the pros and cons of the functionality of cloud computing (CC) possibilities in regards of the delivery of information system (IS) to the client by slipping into the role of a CIO on the receiving side and a sales person on the giving side respectively.
“Cloud” is more a term than a definition, much like “web 2.0”, which describes a conglomerate of modern, dynamic and social web services. CC refers to a concept where the user gets computing and storage capacity without owning it, everything happens beyond his senses, in the “cloud”. The concept dates back to the 60s where the ideas of global computing
A Tale of a Salesman that Convinced a CIO to Switch to Cloud Computing
1 – Introduction and Definition P.2
2 – Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing, from a CIO – Salesman Point of View P.4
3 – Conclusion P.8
4 – References P.9
1.1 Introduction
“Cloud” computing is the fanciest buzzword in the computer industry, currently surpassing the last big term “web 2.0”. Every big player in the computer industry launched a cloud service last year. Notable examples are iCloud by Apple, (Apple 2012) or Microsoft Cloud Services (Microsoft 2011), copying various innovators like Google or Dropbox, who offer similar services since much longer. The latter is the most successful company in the private usage of a file-cloud, since 2007 it has acquired over 50 million users (Dropbox 2012). The success of Dropbox lies more in its simplicity rather than its functionality, the company never uses words like sync or cloud, it simply works for the user (Carr 2011).
But would business also use cloud services? If we take Dropbox as an example, would a firm use a similar service and upload files on a foreign server, hence give away files to a different company? Even when functionality is easy, what about legal or safety concerns? The question here is a different one than for private usage. In this essay we will examine the pros and cons of the functionality of cloud computing (CC) possibilities in regards of the delivery of information system (IS) to the client by slipping into the role of a CIO on the receiving side and a sales person on the giving side respectively.
“Cloud” is more a term than a definition, much like “web 2.0”, which describes a conglomerate of modern, dynamic and social web services. CC refers to a concept where the user gets computing and storage capacity without owning it, everything happens beyond his senses, in the “cloud”. The concept dates back to the 60s where the ideas of global computing
References: Businesses can “outsource” the different services to other firms, by engaging into a business client relationship. This has three important implications from a hardware point of view: (Armbrust 2009).