Report on Cloud Computing | HI6008 Assignment

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Proposal
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
2. Project Objective......................................................................................................................3
3. Project Scope............................................................................................................................3
4. Literature Review.....................................................................................................................4
Advantages of cloud computing for business..............................................................................4
Disadvantages of cloud computing in business...........................................................................4
5. Research Questions/Hypothesis...................................................................................................5
- Primary Question.......................................................................................................................5
Secondary question......................................................................................................................5
6. Research Methodology................................................................................................................6
6.1 Qualitative research...............................................................................................................6
6.2 Quantitative research.............................................................................................................7
7. Research Limitations...................................................................................................................9
8. Time Schedule (Research plan)...................................................................................................9
9. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
1. Introduction
Cloud computing is a technology that is used for delivery of information technology
related services in which the resources can be recovered from the internet with the help of web
based tools and applications through the direct connection of a server. Instead of storing the files
as no proprietary and hard drive or local storage device, cloud based storage, the cloud based
storage makes it accessible to the remote database. Until the electronic device is able to access
the web it is required for it to access the data for the software programs to run it ( Rittinghouse &
Ransome, 2016). The reason behind calling it cloud computing because the data and
information that is able in the cloud computing can be found in the “the cloud” and there is no
need for the user to specifically placed in order it is accessible. The companies that specialize in
providing the cloud services let the users to store the files and applications that are on the remote
servers so that later on all the data can be accessed from the web (Oliveira, Thomas &
Espadanal, 2014).
2. Project Objective
 To research and study about cloud computing
 To find out the advantages of application of cloud computing for a business
 To find out the disadvantages of application of cloud computing for a business (Sadiku,
Musa & Momoh, 2014).
3. Project Scope
Cloud computing is a very popular trending these days and many companies. It is
provided by many companies, this research will focus on the concept of cloud computing and
later on benefits and challenges of cloud computing. The readers will get a clear picture about

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
cloud computing after this research paper and will also able to judge to what extent is cloud
computing beneficial or harmful (Juels, Oprea & Bowers, 2017).
4. Literature Review
The literature review will mainly focus on the benefits and risks of cloud computing.
Benefits of cloud computing for business
Cost effective- Cloud computing is one the most cost effective methods for utilizing, sustaining
and upgrade. Traditionally desktop software are too costly for the business. When the licensing
cost is added for many users it proves to be costlier for the business but the clod computing is
slightly cheaper. There is one-time payment option that is available which is very reasonable for
the business to utilize (Avram, 2014).
Security- Although there are so many cases of security breaches of cloud computing, still there
are many arguments that it much more safer than the house computing.
Manageability- The management of cloud computing is very simple with the help of central
administration of the resources, it helps in vendor managed infrastructure and SLA backed
contracts. There is updating of information technology system and the maintenance are
completely this happens because the service provider removes all the resources (Fernando, Loke
& Rahayu, 2013).
Risks of cloud computing in business
Down time- This particular feature is considered as one of the negative features of cloud
computing, there is no such provider of cloud computing who would say that they can resist the
service outages. Since the cloud-computing program is internet based this signifies that

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
accessibility of business depends upon internet connection. The hardware of cloud computing
often fails like all other hardware. Till the time there is no internet connection, it is impossible
for the business to carry out any activities in cloud computing. The robust data plan can solve
this issues but only for some time. The cellular service is viable in absence of internet access and
power cuts (Bera, Misra & Rodrigues, 2015).
Vulnerable to attacks- Each requirement of the cloud computing is designed for the internet. It
is a very well known fact that nothing that is connected to the internet is not secure, even the best
teams fails to manage the security breaches and cyber attacks. The data storage in the cloud
makes the business more likely to the get attacked by hackers and threats. There are always
chances that there is lurking of the stealth of the data that are sensitive (Apostu et al.,2013)
Inflexibility- The cloud computing software is not flexible and this is a very serious issue for the
business. Only few vendors allow easy transfer and conversion of the data in to other methods.
5. Research Questions/Hypothesis
- Primary Question
What is Cloud computing ?
Secondary question
What are the different advantages of the use of cloud computing for a business?
What are the different disadvantages of cloud computing for a business?
Whether business should prefer applications of cloud computing?
How cloud computing can be used?

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
How cloud computing is better than the other software, why it should be preferred by business ?
6. Research Methodology
6.1 Qualitative research
Data Collection Methods:
In this research, mainly primary data will be collected. The researcher will conduct interview
sessions through Skype in order to collect the qualitative data. As stated by Mackey & Gass
(2015), qualitative data are mainly observational data and it cannot be measured. The researcher
is going to interview to senior managers in order to collect the data about cloud computing. The
researcher is going to make 5 open-ended questions to ask senior managers about advantages and
disadvantages of cloud computing in the arena of their business.
Sampling technique:
The population of the qualitative research will be senior managers of IT-based Australian
businesses. The researcher will conduct interviews to 3 senior managers; hence, the sample size
of qualitative research will be 3. The researcher is going to use non-probability sampling
technique in qualitative research. In non-probability sampling, the samples are gathered in a way
that does not provide all the sampling individuals in the population equal opportunity of being
selected (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015). As the sample size is only 3, non-probability
sampling will be best for this research.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Reliability and Validity:
In qualitative research, the data should be valid and credible as the researcher will be
collecting the observational data of the interviewees, the researcher will cross-check the data that
the interviews are going to provide. Credibility is the element of the validity of the data with
natural phenomenon, observations and standards. Qualitative research is mainly involved with
the interviewee's insights, the validity of data should be checked. Transferability is related to the
external validity as the data are mainly generalised and based on assumption.
6.2 Quantitative research
Data Collection Methods:
In order to collect quantitative data, the researcher is going to conduct the survey. Before
conducting the survey, the researcher will prepare 12 close-ended multiple type questions.
According to Flick (2015), quantitative data is mainly numerical data that are collected from the
respondents and these data can be measured. The survey questionnaire will be distributed to the
employees of IT based companies in Australia. The researcher will upload the survey
questionnaire on the Facebook community page. The researcher is aiming to collect quantitative
data from 75 employees of IT-based organisations in Australia. The findings of the quantitative
research will be given in tables. The collected data will be presented through excel bar graph and
pie charts.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Sampling technique:
The researcher aims to collect survey data from 75 employees, hence the sample size will
be 75 for quantitative research. The sample population of the research is the employees of IT-
based organisations in Australia. The researcher will use simple random sampling technique in
conducting the survey. As stated by Silverman (2016), simple random sampling is a subset of the
population in which each individual of the subset can get the equal probability of being chosen.
Reliability and Validity
In the quantitative research, the transferability is subjective and validity of the study is
depended mainly on the collection of the data. The collected data will be reliable as the
researcher will only collect those replies which would be given by the researcher of all 12
questions. Quantitative research needs the features of reliability due to repeatability to become
reliable as same options are given to all. Conformability is the degree to which respondents must
corroborate with the options and they can impact on findings.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
7. Research Limitations
The limitations of the research is that it does not give important technical details about
cloud computing. How cloud computing can be used has not been described by the literature
making it difficult for the readers to understand how is it better than house computing. There is
not much comparison between cloud computing and other software used by the businesses,
which was very much required for the readers.
8. Time Schedule (Research plan)
The total time taken for the research work is
Detail Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5
Project
Proposal
Literature
review
Research
design
Data
collection
Data analysis
Final project
report

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
9. Conclusion
Cloud computing has many benefits, it is cost effective, it management is simple and it is
very much safer than the house computing. Although there are certain disadvantages to the cloud
computing like it is completely dependent on the internet accessibility and power. One cannot
access it when there is no internet connection. It is safer than house computing but this does not
mean that it is not vulnerable to cyber threats and attacks. Clod computing is used by many
businesses because they find it very simple for management. With the help of cloud computing
lot of information can be stored in the internet of the cloud which can be later retrieved. The
following paper will help the readers to understand the concept of cloud computing, they will
also understand its benefits and the risks of cloud computing to a business.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
References
Apostu, A., Puican, F., Ularu, G. E. A. N. I. N. A., Suciu, G., & Todoran, G. (2013). Study on
advantages and disadvantages of Cloud Computing–the advantages of Telemetry
Applications in the Cloud. Recent Advances in Applied Computer Science and Digital
Services. New York: Wseas, 200, 118-123.
Avram, M. G. (2014). Advantages and challenges of adopting cloud computing from an
enterprise perspective. Procedia Technology, 12, 529-534.
Bera, S., Misra, S., & Rodrigues, J. J. (2015). Cloud computing applications for smart grid: A
survey. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 26(5), 1477-1494.
Fernando, N., Loke, S. W., & Rahayu, W. (2013). Mobile cloud computing: A survey. Future
generation computer systems, 29(1), 84-106.
Flick, U. (2015). Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research
project. London: Sage.
Juels, A., Oprea, A., & Bowers, K. D. (2017). Security Issues for Cloud Computing
[3]. Meta, 4(5).
Mackey, A., & Gass, S. M. (2015). Second language research: Methodology and design.
Abingdon: Routledge.
Oliveira, T., Thomas, M., & Espadanal, M. (2014). Assessing the determinants of cloud
computing adoption: An analysis of the manufacturing and services sectors. Information
& Management, 51(5), 497-510.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Rittinghouse, J. W., & Ransome, J. F. (2016). Cloud computing: implementation, management,
and security. CRC press.
Sadiku, M. N., Musa, S. M., & Momoh, O. D. (2014). Cloud computing: opportunities and
challenges. IEEE potentials, 33(1), 34-36.
Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research. London: Sage.
Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A
guidebook and resource. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.