Legal Issues In The Cloud: An IEEE Cloud Computing Essay.

Describe about the Legal Issues in the Cloud for IEEE Cloud Computing?

Every organization is trying to cope up with the modern world to meet their client expectations which increase their enthusiasm to look for solutions to work in a competitive environment. Information technology equipmentand services are essential for efficient functioning of enterprise. Significant capabilities from IT attract both the customers and providers of the solution. Though to attract new business opportunities the company has to invest in innovative direction to conduct business. The invention of cloud computing is a revolutionary change in IT system and IT implementation. This technology completely changes the way in which an IT companyscale, deploy, , develop, , update,invent and maintain. This service will provide the company with many added benefits like on demand, efficiency, broad network access,self-service, elasticity, measured service and also business agility.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a model which enableseasy on demand network access to the shared pool of customizable computer resources like, service, storage,networks, application and services which can be provided instantly and developed without the requirement of a large number of resources. In cloud computing the enterprises outsource their information to cloud storage providers at a very minimalistic rate rather than maintaining own servers which are an expensive liability to the companies and hence saves a lot of financial investment(Tari, 2014). Depending upon the service they provide cloud computing has three different broad categories

Software-as-a-service provides single application to the clients through the web browser and hence the requirement to invest in software license or servers is reduced and from provider side only one application is required. Therefore a lot of money is saved in the investments.

Platform-as-a-service provides the providers with a cloud environment where the customers develop application which runs on the providers’ environment and then delivered to the user via the internet.

Infrastructure-as-a-service provides the organization to outsource the hardware equipment’s used to construct a support operation including storage devices, servers processors, coolers and networking components. The service provider who owns the equipment and is responsible for the maintenance of it. The clients just pay as per the usage(Sill, 2014).

There are different types of model of cloud computing depends upon their usage the user and the service provider shares over the IT resources used. In the traditional model the user had almost total control over the service but in the other models it is shared limitedly due to the dependency of internet connection providers(Ranjan, 2014).

There are mainly four deployment models of cloud computing

Private cloud- this is for exclusive use by a single organization consisting of a multiple number of consumers. Services are available within the organization via intranet. It is safest but also the most expensive one.

Community cloud- this cloud is shared by a group of communities of the same organization.

Public cloud- it is provisioned for open use to the general public.

Hybrid cloud- it consists multiple cloud establishment that are kept as separate entities but are bound and connected by technology that enables data and application portability(Rana, 2014).

Cloud Computing

The choice of deployment model is largely based on the technological and monetary holdings of the investor and the might for risk. If the company has a setup already it can manage to build its own cloud. If the company does not have the setup but it has the financial means then also the hybrid model is suitable. But if the company doesn’t have the setup as well the financial means then it should go for the public model(Martin-Flatin, 2014).

Traditional Model

In traditional model when any company decided to operate on its own IT infrastructure. It was forced to bear all the expenses of servers, networking, software etc. the model may not even be used up to its full capacity in the cases of companies starting in a new business venture and starting to setup clients, so the company had to bear all the expenses throughout this period.

Studies have shown that companies who adapt to fast changing conditions in short time will always be more successful than its competitors. Sometimes due to traditional models requiring more time for up gradation it is not able to suffice the increasing business needs of the enterprise due to development and growth and hence it depreciates the demand factor of the companies(Khan, 2014).

In the cloud based model the organization does not has to invest in the expensive infrastructure at the beginning of their venture which in turn is cheaper and saves a lot of investments for the company.

During the increasing demand of clients the servers are highly flexible and provide allocation of assistance whenever required and hence further investment of time and money is saved from up gradation of infrastructure. Therefore investment in cloud computing reduces the risk of losing money on development of additional revenues and loss of customers(IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing Call for Papers, 2014).

The main reasons for companies to shift from traditional techniques to cloud computing is the economic advantage. The main advantage is that one can use only what is required and pay for that itself. Building one’s own IT infrastructure is very expensive and time consumable project and hence it is unbearable by most companies. For a small company to invest so much money at once is huge risk as it also decreases the financial liquidity of the company. The application of cloud computing decreases such chances by paying for only the services you need and depreciates the chances of high amount of monetary outflow during initial stages of development of the company(IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, 2013).

The absence of up-front capital allows capital to be re-directed to core business investment.

The absence of incurred CapEx means that there will be no increase in balance sheet and therefore no decrease in return on investments.

The companies can determine the total cost of a new product or system by the help of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). It involves the total cost of acquisition, installation, operation, maintenance, and disposal of the assets of a company.

To present the application of TCO application we can undertake a case study where a fashion store retailer with 12 stores spread across New Zealand. They used to host their own server infrastructure to provide retail environment and point to point business which required a private network, which created problems in keeping the stores in sync. Then they decided to migrate to a cloud based solution and moved point to point sale to an online application sale backed by a cloud provider, thus gaining cost saving and no requirement of an IT infrastructure. Before using the cloud service their investment per annum excluding the hardware was about 30k $. The cloud provider would also provide them with a number of business activities like to manage email, calendar and contacts by google apps. Circulating and sharing documents by drop box. Accounting entrusted to zero. All sales platform, including back office and distribution office production is carried by platform provided by Vend(Collins, 2014).

Business agility is the ability of a business to get used to rapidly and cost efficient manner according to the business ventures. Business agility is the greatest cloud benefit. Self service provisioning, workload mobility management and automation are all results of cloud computing.

Though there are certain things which have to be kept in mind before investing in cloud computing like reducing operational risk, cloud management is moving the business from own management to a third party management and quality and safety is crucial. There has to be precise terms of contract made with the service provider as customers give up some control to the vendors (Choo, 2014).

Conclusion

This paper depicts that cloud computing idea of IT implementation has number of benefits. The model is a viable alternative to traditional management techniques. One should also go through the pros and cons of cloud computing before investing as it also has some negativities of data security and relinquishing part of operations to vendors. Cloud computing means increased economic efficiency and less control means greater economic benefits and vice versa. Still cloud computing technology should be widely investigated and based on risk analysis.

References

Choo, K. (2014). Legal Issues in the Cloud. IEEE Cloud Computing, 1(1), pp.94-96.

Collins, E. (2014). Intersection of the Cloud and Big Data. IEEE Cloud Computing, 1(1), pp.84-85.

IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing Call for Papers. (2014). IEEE Cloud Computing, 1(4), pp.87-87.

IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing. (2013). IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, 1(2), pp.229-229.

Khan, S. (2014). Elements of Cloud Adoption. IEEE Cloud Computing, 1(1), pp.71-73.

Martin-Flatin, J. (2014). Challenges in Cloud Management. IEEE Cloud Computing, 1(1), pp.66-70.

Rana, O. (2014). The Costs of Cloud Migration. IEEE Cloud Computing, 1(1), pp.62-65.

Ranjan, R. (2014). The Cloud Interoperability Challenge. IEEE Cloud Computing, 1(2), pp.20-24.

Sill, A. (2014). Cloud Standards and the Spectrum of Development. IEEE Cloud Computing, 1(3), pp.15-19.

Tari, Z. (2014). Security and Privacy in Cloud Computing. IEEE Cloud Computing, 1(1), pp.54-57.