c) Risks and potentials that cloud c) SWOT Analysis
Cloud computingmight imply (for IT in general)
Cloud Computing can both bring risks as well as
opportunities depending on how it is applied and which countermeasures for
the those risks are taken.
Usually a
contract between the provider of the Cloud Computing service and the customer
is concluded. Here the duration, terms and extend of the service is recorded. At this point
problems can occur because the company using the Cloud Computing service is now
dependent on the provider. This dependency exists
because of the duration of the contract and because there can be some technical
constraints concerning development tools. Those are often offered by the
provider to enable the customer to develop custom cloud services. These tools often
only work in the provided architecture and thereby the custom services are tied
to the provider. Due to the dependence on the provider a change of contractor or switching back to in-house operation means that new cloud services have to be developed matching the architecture of the new vendor and the customer has to wait until the contract expires. This procedure can be very time consuming and costly and can lead to a lock-in-effect. This means that ____. Also the possibility that the provider could go broke has to be mentioned. The customer does not know what taken. This chapter will
happen to the servers, computer center and databases - including the own data. Lissen 2014
A suggestion to prevent this dependence is to always have an exit strategy before entering a contract with a cloud provider.
potentials based on following SWOT analysis.
contenteditable="false" class="ltx_tabular ltx_tabular_fullpage">SWOT AnalysisSWOT
Helpful
Harmful
Internal
Strength
· Cost reduction
· Scalable IT resources
· Technology is up to date
· No investment risk
* Server management is ourtsourced
Weaknesses
· Dependent on provider
· Risk of renouncing own IT competence
· Working internet connection needed
* Reliability of the cloud
External
Opportuinities
· Green IT
* Drives innovation
Threats
· Safety and data protection
* Data protection regulations
regulations
Cloud Computing
brings some opportunities for a company with it. Those are presented in the
following chapter.
Nowadays the environment plays a significant role in
the way how people perceive companies and their willingness to enter a business
relationship with them. That also applies to the companies’ IT – green IT is
not a new concept anymore.
Cloud Computing can help with this problem because it
can make traditional datacenters more energy efficient and thereby reduce their
carbon footprint. This is because traditional data centers are often
provisioned to handle sporadic peak loads that can lead to low resource
utilization and thereby a waste of energy. While using Cloud datacenters different
workloads are able to share the same physical host and unused servers can be
shut off. Through these processes it is possible that the consumption of energy
is reduced (Garg 2011).
A research by Accenture shows that small business can
save up to 90% of their emission by using Cloud applications. Mid-size
businesses save 60% to 90% and large corporations save at least between 30% and
60% in carbon emission by using Cloud resources (Accenture 2010).
2.3.2. Drives innovation
One of the biggest drivers of competitiveness in the
market is the ability to be innovative. This goal is easier to achieve in a
cloud environment than in a classical client/server architecture.
This is because if a company is “in the cloud” it is
easier for them to test an innovative idea in a small-scale environment on
additionally booked IT resources. When using traditional data centers the
additionally needed IT resources have to be bought and customized first. This
can slow down the process or even bring it to a halt because the effort is
perceived as too costly and so the innovation is dismissed.
Also if new hardware has to be bought first, those responsible
are often not willing to spend the money if the possibility exists, that the
new idea turns out to be a non-starter. By using Cloud Computing for the new
technologies it is easy and quick to cancel the additional IT resources.
