Case Study: Should Business Move to the Cloud?

1. What business benefits do cloud computing services provide? What problems do they solve?

Cloud computing has many business benefits. They help businesses access business software and application when and where they need them. Cloud computing has decreased operational issues by utilizing standard services on the internet. Cloud solutions are agile, as they make business projects more efficient by decreasing operational issues (WIRED and Benefits).

Cloud computing solve many problems including large data storage, large database management issues and making the information retrieval process quick and efficient. Amazon utilizes the Web Services Division (AWS) to efficiently manage its large online resource pool.

2. What are the disadvantages of cloud computing?

There are many advantages of the cloud computing without a doubt. But we cannot neglect its disadvantages that come with cloud computing. Some of the disadvantages are discussed as follows:

1. Without an internet connections a user of the cloud computing may experience downtime.
2. Security has been a big concern in cloud computing. Cloud computing is part of the internet experience which is prone to online attackers.
3. Cloud computing require a high level of technical support which may not be always available.

1. How do the concepts of capacity planning, scalability, and TCO apply to this case? Apply these concepts both to Amazon and to subscribers of its services.

Each business need to insure capacity planning which ensures the allocation of adequate hardware services at the time of saturation. Amazon has always high level of request for its hardware resource from its current and expected subscribers. They always need to ensure that adequate hard and software resources are allocated to its AWS and its online retail services for smooth running of its operations.

Scalability is another issue that ensures the availability of services to a large amount of online users on the Amazon online retail store. Amazon has organized resources to meet an exponentially increasing amount of customers.

Total Cost Ownership (TCO) is a financial aspect of Amazon which ensures that the standard of the online services is maintained while keeping a healthy profit margin and not letting the customers feel its burden by an unexpected and unwanted increase in sales price.

4. What kinds of businesses are most likely to benefit from using cloud computing? Why?

Many new and old businesses can benefit from cloud computing. In the case study, Zynga is a prime example of a company that takes advantage of the Amazon cloud computing services to help manage its growing customer base. Many such businesses that offer online gaming and other online application operations can benefit from cloud computing by decreasing pressure on its in house storage and information processes resources and diverting them to more efficient and quick cloud resources that are also cost effective.