Strategic Business Information Technology: Cloud Computing Report

This report critically analyzes the relationship between organizational competitive advantage and cloud computing, an emerging information technology. It utilizes strategic business analysis tools to evaluate the current macro and micro business environment, formulating future action plans. The report discusses the impact of cloud computing on industries like healthcare, highlighting its benefits such as remote patient monitoring and improved diagnostics. A SWOT analysis is performed, identifying strengths like cost-effectiveness and environmental friendliness, weaknesses like dependency on internet connectivity, opportunities like quick problem-solving, and threats like security concerns. The report concludes that cloud computing offers significant advantages but requires careful consideration of potential risks and challenges.

Running head: STRATEGIC BUSINESS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
STRATEGIC BUSINESS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
About the emerging technology: Cloud Computing..............................................................................2
Impacts of cloud computing on Society and Industries..........................................................................5
Benefits of cloud computing in healthcare sector..............................................................................6
SWOT analysis for Cloud Computing...................................................................................................6
Internal environment analysis................................................................................................................7
External environmental analysis............................................................................................................7
Summary...............................................................................................................................................7
References.............................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The aim of report is to critically analyse the relationship between the organizational
competitive advantage and the information technology. The emerging chosen for performing the
strategic analysis is Cloud computing. The tools used for strategic business analysis will be utilised
and will be evaluated based on the current macro and micro business environment with the aim of
formulating them future action plans. After determining the features and the tools of strategic
business, the report will discuss about the emerging technology and the impact of these technology on
the business and information system (Foster et al. 2014). Cloud computing is a technology that
enables the computer system to share the resources with minimum effort and can share the documents
over the internet. Cloud computing has found a great importance in industry sectors like finance,
retail, healthcare and hospital. Cloud computing is one of the emerging technologies and has found a
great importance in the business world. The report will discuss about impact of cloud computing on
healthcare industry briefly. In case the patient fails to visit hospital they don’t need to spend money on
travelling to hospital they can use new devices that are manufactured by cloud. This allows the device
to transmit the condition to nearby doctors and asks for advice. These helps both patients and medical
professionals to catch dangers early. Thus it has a great importance in the sector of healthcare.
About Cloud Computing and its importance in industries
Cloud computing technology
Cloud computing technology is a shared pool of resources that helps in sharing the resources
with the people over internet. The main concept behind the technology of cloud computing is
virtualization. With the help of virtualization software physical computing device can be divided into
one or more virtual devices. Cloud computing is a computing infrastructure that offers dynamic
computing infrastructure (Dikaiakos et al. 2016). The base for these dynamic infrastructure is a

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scalable, secure, and standardized and each virtual devices are used to perform the computing tasks
separately. The features offered by cloud computing are as follows:
 The cost invested in the cloud model is less than other infrastructure. The service provider
needs to pay for only those service which they are using. Cloud computing offers architecture
that ensures pay according to the organization uses the service.
 The cloud computing enables the user to access the system irrespective of the location and the
device they are using. That is they are allowed to access the service from computer or mobile
phone.
 Easy maintenance is provided to the cloud computing applications.
 Improves the quality of service provided to the customers
 Cloud computing enables resource pooling
 Cloud computing ensures on demand self service
 Offers measured services
There are several service models offered by cloud computing. Three types of cloud models
offered are described below:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
In this infrastructure vendor offers their clients with pay as you go access. The user can
access only the resources they want to use starting from networking, storage, servers and other
computing resources in cloud. The key features offered by IaaS includes save in the cost budget
by developing own hardware.

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Fig1: IaaS infrastructure
Source: (Dikaiakos et al. 2016)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
In this infrastructure the service provider offers access to cloud based environment. The key
features offered by the architecture includes providing a platform that will help in developing ,
testing and hosing an application in the environment, allows the developer to focus on
development rather than focusing on underlying infrastructure and most importantly allows the
collaborative work (Knorr and Gruman 2014).
Fig2: PaaS infrastructure
Source: (Knorr and Gruman 2014)
Software as a Service (SaaS)
The cloud provider offers applications and software over internet. The customer can
subscribe the software and can get access via the web or vendor. The features offered by SaaS
includes: there is no need to worry about the software up gradation, data stored within the cloud
are secured, and no data loss takes place with equipment.

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Fig3: SaaS infrastructure
Source: (Cusumano 2017)
Role of Cloud computing in several industries
Cloud computing plays a major role in industries. The most effected industries includes
hospital, healthcare sector, insurance, financial sector, education sector and automotive. The industry
of automotive relies completely on the data available to them. With the implementation of cloud in the
sector of automotive the data can be collected easily and can be transmitted to the customers. This
helps the industry to improve the service provided to the customers. Moreover cloud computing has
found a great importance in education sector so that every student can cope up with the trending
technology. Teacher can share the study materials online and can store all the information in cloud
server. The reasons to implement cloud computing in hospital and healthcare sector are many. These
includes providing better diagnostic support with implementation of new technology , with the
implementation of image handling services the health care service provided to the patient will also
increase. Apart from these patient connectivity can be improved with providing Cerner and eClicincal
works (Cusumano 2017). This helps the patient to connect with the health service providers. The main
reason behind deploying to cloud computing service is that it enables better security and influences
appropriate selection of deployment model. Apart from these financial industry has also implemented
cloud computing in order to gain good competitive advantage as cloud service offers a great security
and helps in billing and exploring the data facts related to customer.

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Impacts of cloud computing on Society and Industries
Cloud computing offers a reliable and flexible structure for organization and for the society.
With the implementation of cloud computing, the cost needed to manage and maintain the IT system
will get reduced. It is a better option for business to shift t cloud server rather than buying expensive
systems and equipment’s. There are several types of organization that has shifted to cloud computing
this includes finance sector, retails section, construction, hospital and healthcare unit and the
education system. Each industry sector has implemented cloud computing in a great way and are
benefited with the use of thee technology. This also helps in reducing the energy consumption cost.
Moreover cloud computing increases the efficiency and helps the organization to improve the cash
flow and flexibility (Cusumano 2017). The reason people and organizations are moving to cloud
server are plenty, this basically includes easy data recovery option in time of disaster, and the
software gets updates automatically. This is important for every organization to manage their data
properly so that they can back up at any time whenever they want to. In time of disaster it gets very
difficult to recover the data and start up the business again (Zissis and Lekkas 2014). This are
beneficial for small business and an ideal process of dealing the problems in real. Moreover it has
become easier to collaborate and access any data shared over the internet.
The cloud based file sharing apps helps in making a real time support. The people associated
with clod server can access the system and work from anywhere. Moreover with the features provided
by the cloud server, there is no need to worry about the devices (Armbrust et al. 2015). The
employees and the staffs associated with the organization has the full access on document and can
access at any time. But the cloud allows access to authorized persons only. Moreover the reason for
business to adopt cloud server is that it is a server that it is environmental friendly. As the users uses
limited energy to fulfil their needs, thus it will protect the environment. Apart from these factors cloud
computing offers a good competitive edge. For smaller business it turns to be beneficial as the
business gets knowledge about the large enterprise and can strategies market accordingly.
Apart from the benefits there are several risks that are needed to be taken care of while
adopting to cloud computing. Unauthorized access of data includes threat from the hackers. With the

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implementation of cloud computing every organizations data is transferred to cloud server thus it gets
more viable to risks. The small business faces the threat at a maximum level. Once the data related to
the organization gets leaked it becomes very difficult to regain the position in the market. The threats
are not always from outsiders sometimes the risk can be generated by some intruders (Avram 2014).
Apart from these risks cloud servers may face problem with vendor as not every time vendors
associated with the organization are good. In case of any problem like DDoS attacks or bad weather
the vendors turns out to be unresponsive.
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is done to determine the organizations external opportunities and threats and
internal strengths and internal weakness. These part of the report will perform he SWOT analysis for
Cloud computing. The factors of swot analysis are divided into two parts internal environment
analysis and external environment analysis.
Internal environment analysis is divided into two parts strengths and weakness. The strengths
identified with the use of cloud computing includes: flexible, cost effective, environmental friendly,
saves energy, protects the environment, expandability, offers a secured infrastructure, innovative
technology with simplified models and better way of consuming energy (Kumar, Lu and Y.H. 2017).
Weakness that are associated with the implementation of cloud computing includes there is a
need to have post training session so that the people using cloud computing can learn about the
features, dependency increases, the server lacks in having control over data physically, in order to
work properly with cloud computing it becomes important to have a better internet connection with
high speed (Marston et al. 2017).
This includes the threats and opportunities that are likely to come along with the use of this
technology. The opportunities related to cloud computing includes: providing quick solution to the

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problem faced, developed technology is adaptive to future needs. Cloud server offers pay as you use,
scalable and provides a high tech work environment. The possible threats associated with the
technology of cloud computing includes: the use faces problem while they aim at migrating from one
platform to another. There are some hidden costs that are likely to get visible after the subscription
only, major security concerns are there with the use of these technology (Rittinghouse and Ransome
2016). The technology also faces problem with data protection, that is it becomes difficult to track the
data shared with the use of cloud computing.
Summary
From the developed report it can be said that cloud computing is one of the best emerging
technologies. This technology has found a great importance in the market and among the users. Every
industry has shifted to cloud server for storing the data efficiently. There are several industries that
has implemented cloud computing and has earned a hue competitive advantages, these includes:
finance, retail industry, construction sector, education field and hospitals and healthcare centres. For
each and every sector mentioned data are important concepts and it is important to safely store them
without getting tampered or breached. The finance sector has adopted cloud computing by putting
their sales and email department and marketing tools with the cloud. This helps the sector to manage
their data and mails properly and also allows the sector to easy backup in case of disasters. Cloud
computing is user friendly and does not depends on platform and thus with the help of these features it
is helpful for managing the education for students. It is observed that more than 87% user’s uses cloud
for email purposes. The technology has found a great importance in hospital and healthcare.
Everything gets synchronised with the cloud server. From wearable device to patients app and digital
medical records. Over half of the people associated with hospitals uses cloud storage for storing their
urgent documents and mails. Cloud associated with healthcare sector offers great benefits this
includes better collaboration. This allows professionals to access data whenever they want. Moreover
a healthcare professional throughout the world can has the capability to access patient data. This also
provides better storage with lower cost. With the implementation of cloud computing in hospital
patients can be treated well and it offers a better way of managing big data for treating the patients. In

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the retail section for managing the share market and organizing the stock cloud server is used.
Moreover 70% of retail companies has adopted cloud mail apps and around 64% has brought on
social apps. Thus from the report and examples given it can be said that cloud computing has a great
importance in making everyone’s life better.

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References
Almorsy, M., Grundy, J. and Müller, I., 2016. An analysis of the cloud computing security
problem. arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01107.
Armbrust, M., Fox, A., Griffith, R., Joseph, A.D., Katz, R., Konwinski, A., Lee, G., Patterson, D.,
Rabkin, A., Stoica, I. and Zaharia, M., 2015. A view of cloud computing. Communications of the
ACM, 53(4), pp.50-58.
Avram, M.G., 2014. Advantages and challenges of adopting cloud computing from an enterprise
perspective. Procedia Technology, 12, pp.529-534.
Cusumano, M., 2017. Cloud computing and SaaS as new computing platforms. Communications of
the ACM, 53(4), pp.27-29.
Dikaiakos, M.D., Katsaros, D., Mehra, P., Pallis, G. and Vakali, A., 20016. Cloud computing:
Distributed internet computing for IT and scientific research. IEEE Internet computing, 13(5).
Foster, I., Zhao, Y., Raicu, I. and Lu, S., 2014, November. Cloud computing and grid computing 360-
degree compared. In Grid Computing Environments Workshop, 2008. GCE'08(pp. 1-10). Ieee.
Knorr, E. and Gruman, G., 2014. What cloud computing really means. InfoWorld, 7, pp.20-20.
Kumar, K. and Lu, Y.H., 2017. Cloud computing for mobile users: Can offloading computation save
energy?. Computer, 43(4), pp.51-56.
Marston, S., Li, Z., Bandyopadhyay, S., Zhang, J. and Ghalsasi, A., 2017. Cloud computing—The
business perspective. Decision support systems, 51(1), pp.176-189.
Rittinghouse, J.W. and Ransome, J.F., 2016. Cloud computing: implementation, management, and
security. CRC press.
Sen, J., 2015. Security and privacy issues in cloud computing. In Cloud Technology: Concepts,
Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 1585-1630). IGI Global.

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Zissis, D. and Lekkas, D., 2014. Addressing cloud computing security issues. Future Generation
computer systems, 28(3), pp.583-592.