Cloud Computing's Impact on Amazon's Competitive Advantage

The assignment content discusses a research project on the implementation of cloud computing systems in established companies like Amazon. The limitations of the research include lack of face-to-face interviews with managers, limited time and funds for the project, and need to keep customer and employee views confidential. A plan is provided for conducting the research, including literature review, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and interpretation of results. The research aims to understand the requirements for successful implementation of cloud computing systems in established companies.

MARKETING COMMUNICATION
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Project Objective.........................................................................................................................3
3. Project Scope...............................................................................................................................3
4. Literature Review........................................................................................................................4
6. Research Design and Methodology.............................................................................................5
7. Research Limitations...................................................................................................................7
8. Time Schedule (Research plan)...................................................................................................7
9. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................8
10. Reference List............................................................................................................................9
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1. Introduction
The cloud computing technologies are a growing trend in the business scenario and the prospects
are high enough for providing considerable benefits to the users who utilize and implement the
technologies into their existing systems. The online sites like Amazon and Flip Kart allows
purchasing the goods and services by the customers, through online portals and in some cases,
paying for the same through the online portals as well. This requires considerable protection
measures to be set up in the portals, to protect the sensitive data from revelation; this is where the
cloud computing systems comes into play. There are many advantages associated with the
technologies; however, there are significant disadvantages as well. Counteracting the
disadvantages would help the companies in performing even better and establish them better in
the market scenario.
2. Project Objective
The objectives of this project are:
 To investigate the impact of cloud computing on a business
 To analyze the ways it helps in gaining a competitive edge in the market, over all the existent
rivals.
 To probe the hindrances and plan for suggestive measures that can be implemented for the
incorporation of the cloud technologies into the working systems of the companies
3. Project Scope
This testimony will provide information about the extent to which the cloud computing systems
would be able to help the companies in gaining a competitive edge over all the existing
companies. The literature review would be focused on studying the impacts of cloud computing
in increasing the efficacy of the business and the employees, while helping the companies to gain
a competitive edge above all others. The hindrances to the implementation of the cloud
computing technologies in the business will also be discussed. Amazon will be taken as the
company for study in this particular project.
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4. Literature Review
Amazon is a company, which deals in variety of products, affecting all walks of life and provides
online services to the customers as well. The purchase and payment of the products are carried
out through online portals and hence, utilization of advanced technologies like cloud computing
is a must, in the systems of amazon. According to Hashem et al., (2015), almost 95% of the
businesses experience an increase in the sales after the implementation of the cloud computing
technologies. According to Ramya, & Ramya, (2013), the cloud computing systems in Amazon
would help to meet the expectations of the customers effectively and deliver their desired
products within shorter spans of time. According to Lewis, (2015), the cloud computing systems
helps in storing the data in BIG data systems, that can be accessed from anywhere in the world,
with the help of online accession keys that are present with the authorized personnel. The details
regarding the information of the customers including their address and their preferences can be
stored on the cloud systems and when new products are launched or offers on the products are
made available then the customers can be effectively communicated. According to Erl, Puttini &
Mahmood, (2013), this would help the company to provide personalized services to the
customers, which would help improve the brand image and reliability of the company, among the
customers. Live tracking of the deliverables and the updation of the number of stocks available
for utilization are also made easier by the cloud computing technologies. This helps the
customers know about the state of their orders and this increases the visibility and the
transparency of the company among the customers. According to Marinescu, (2017), the online
payment portals are also rendered safe and are protected from any unauthorized access, with the
implementation of the cloud computing technologies in the system; this is specially required by
the companies that deal in online services. Amazon would be benefitted from this initiative
immensely and the protection of the sensitive data shared on the online portals, by the company
itself, would increase the faith and confidence of the customers on the company; they would
prefer to purchase products from the sites that are protected from malwares and spywares, which
is ensured by the cloud computing systems. All the benefits combined, the cloud technologies
definitely help the businesses in gaining a competitive advantage. As per Shawish & Salama,
(2014), almost 81% of the managers of renowned business organizations stated that the
implementation of the cloud technologies into the systems of the companies helped in gaining a
significant competitive edge over the rival companies existent in the market. The employees and
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the administrators are allowed to access the required data from any location, at any given point
of time; this increases the productivity and efficiency of the staffs.
According to Gnimpieba et al., (2015), the implementation of the cloud computing technologies
in the systems requires training the staffs adequately so that they are able to operate the data
available over the cloud, effectively. Significant costs are also involved with the implementation
of the cloud technologies; however, the companies like Amazon, which possesses considerable
assets and is an established company in the market, the costs to be incurred are not a big burden.
The implementation of the cloud technologies in the systems also requires setting up of effective
firewalls, in order to protect the data (Rahimi et al., (2014).
5. Research Questions/Hypothesis
The primary research question that will be addressed in this project report is:
 How far the implementation of Cloud technologies into the systems of Amazon has helped or
will further help it in gaining a competitive edge over all its existing competitors in the
market?
The secondary questions that will be addressed in this project report are:
 What are the hindrances to the implementation of the cloud technologies in the systems of
Amazon?
 How can the company strategize to effectively overcome the posed hindrances?
6. Research Design and Methodology
The research design is a term that encompasses all the steps that are to be followed for carrying
out effective and efficient researches on the topic stated. The research design helps in
constructing an outline of the research processes, so that the interim research can be carried out
without any hindrance and that all the propositions are effectively met (Sajid & Raza, 2013).
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There are two kinds of research that can be carried out for the effective realization of the
objectives: the primary research and the secondary research. The primary research encompasses
the interviews, surveys and similar such direct methods of data collection while the secondary
research is carried out by consulting journals and published papers that are related to the topic
being researched and then comparing the obtained data and values by the help of CASP tool, in
order to reach valid conclusions (Choy, 2014).
The primary research consists of two effective components: the qualitative and the quantitative
research. The qualitative research is conducted by interviewing the managers of the organization
on the different aspects elated to the topic and comparing their individual views in order to reach
valid conclusions (Silverman, 2016). The quantitative research is carried out by conducting
surveys among the employees and the customers of the organization and requesting them to
express their views on the aspects of the concerned topic. The obtained data are statistically
analyzed for reaching effective conclusions
In this project, only primary research is proposed to be carried out. The qualitative data will be
collected from the managers at Amazon. Prior permissions will be obtained from the managers
for conducting the interview on Skype, so that no loss to the valuable time of the managers is
caused. The questionnaires will also be prepared and forwarded to the managers a day prior to
the interview, so that they can express their views on the questions effectively and decide on
whether or not to answer a particular content. The reliability of the results received from the
qualitative data would depend on the effectiveness of the questions and its relativity in
addressing the topic (the relevance of the question to the scenario). The validity of the results can
be concluded from the fact that the managers themselves are answering the questions and they
are expected to respond to the answers without any bias or so. The main variables that are to be
effectively addressed are the impact of cloud computing is assisting Amazon gain a competitive
edge over its competitors and the effective hindrances to the successful implementation of the
processes.
The quantitative research comprises of surveys to be conducted among the employees and the
customers and a set of questionnaires related to the ways in which the cloud computing
technologies have been able to help Amazon gain a competitive edge in the market will be
prepared. It would also consist of questions regarding how the implementation of the advanced
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technologies have improved the quality of the services provided to the customers will be
prepared. The customers and the employees will be approached at random and their responses
would be requested and recorded. A set of 50 successful replies from the employees and 100
successful replies from the customers will be considered for the data analysis and the
interpretation of the results effectively. The statistical tools and graphical representations of the
data would be used for framing the effective conclusion. The reliability of the statistical data can
be measured with the help of standard deviation techniques and the calculation of the p-values
(Botta et al., 2016). The validity of the data could be ensured from the fact that a group of
unrelated and completely random set of customers would be approached for the survey and
hence, the chances of bias in data received are almost nil.
7. Research Limitations
The limitations to this research are:
 The inability to interview the managers face-to-face, which might result in the revelation of
biased results
 The limited time available for the research made it impossible to interview more numbers of
employees and customers; increasing the sample size could have helped in decreasing the
bias of the results and made it practically more reliable
 The limited funds for the research were another handicap to the project
 The views of the customers and the employees had to be kept a secret and protected from
revelation; this required precautionary measures to be followed at every step of the research
8. Time Schedule (Research plan)
Sl.no. Activities Time
1 Proper allocation of all the available resources and securing
the permissions for the necessary surveys and interviews
1 week
2 Preparation of the questionnaires 1 week
3 Literature review 4 weeks
4 Conducting the qualitative research 1 week
5 Conducting the quantitative research 2 weeks
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6 Analysis of the qualitative data 1 week
7 Comparison and analysis of the quantitative data 1 week
8 Interpretation of the results 1 week
9 Preparing the final draft for the report 2 weeks
Table 1: Implementation plan (created by author)
Gantt Chart for the plan of the research activities
Sl.
No.
of
activi
ties
1st
week
2nd
week
3rd
week
4th
week
5th
week
6th
week
7th
week
8th
week
9th
week
10th
week
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
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Fig 1: Action Plan
9. Conclusion
This research project helped in gaining an insight into the requirements that are to be effectively
met for the successful implementation of the cloud computing systems into the working systems
of established companies like Amazon. The cloud computing technologies helps in protecting the
data from unauthorized access and hence, the online payment portals and the portals for storing
and saving the data regarding the customers are kept safe. The effective storage of the customer-
related information helps the companies cater to the requirements of the customers in a more
effective way. For example, storing the information about the preferences of the customers over
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the company portal would help the companies to contact the customers and deliver information
regarding the offers that are being given out on their commonly preferred products; this would
help in increasing the sales of the companies like Amazon. Training the staffs effectively at
Amazon would help in counteracting the hindrances in operating the cloud systems and
accessing the data from the cloud, effectively.
10. References
Botta, A., De Donato, W., Persico, V., & Pescapé, A. (2016). Integration of cloud computing and
internet of things: a survey. Future Generation Computer Systems, 56, 684-700.
Choy, L. T. (2014). The strengths and weaknesses of research methodology: Comparison and
complimentary between qualitative and quantitative approaches. IOSR Journal of Humanities
and Social Science, 19(4), 99-104.
Erl, T., Puttini, R., & Mahmood, Z. (2013). Cloud computing: concepts, technology &
architecture. Pearson Education.
Gnimpieba, Z. D. R., Nait-Sidi-Moh, A., Durand, D., & Fortin, J. (2015). Using Internet of
Things technologies for a collaborative supply chain: Application to tracking of pallets and
containers. Procedia Computer Science, 56, 550-557.
Hashem, I. A. T., Yaqoob, I., Anuar, N. B., Mokhtar, S., Gani, A., & Khan, S. U. (2015). The
rise of “big data” on cloud computing: Review and open research issues. Information
Systems, 47, 98-115.
Lewis, S. (2015). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five
approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), 473-475.
Marinescu, D. C. (2017). Cloud computing: theory and practice. Morgan Kaufmann.
Rahimi, M. R., Ren, J., Liu, C. H., Vasilakos, A. V., & Venkatasubramanian, N. (2014). Mobile
cloud computing: A survey, state of art and future directions. Mobile Networks and
Applications, 19(2), 133-143.
Ramya, R., & Ramya, K. (2013). Cloud computing.
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Sajid, M., & Raza, Z. (2013, November). Cloud computing: Issues & challenges.
In International Conference on Cloud, Big Data and Trust (Vol. 20, No. 13, pp. 13-15).
Shawish, A., & Salama, M. (2014). Cloud computing: paradigms and technologies. In Inter-
cooperative collective intelligence: Techniques and applications (pp. 39-67). Springer, Berlin,
Heidelberg.
Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research. Sage.
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