Cloud Computing in Australia: Security Challenges at Microsoft

The research presents an examination of Microsoft's cloud computing practices within Australia, exploring their strategic deployment and addressing various operational challenges. It delves into the evolution of cloud technology over the past decade, detailing the transformation from traditional data centers to modern, service-oriented architecture. The study identifies major benefits such as cost efficiency, scalability, and enhanced flexibility, but also points out significant issues like security vulnerabilities, privacy concerns, and compliance with local regulations. By analyzing both secondary sources and primary data, including interviews and firsthand observations, this paper offers a nuanced understanding of the opportunities and risks associated with cloud computing in Australia's context.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH
Business research
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Project Objective.........................................................................................................................3
3. Project Scope...............................................................................................................................4
4. Literature Review........................................................................................................................4
Advantages of cloud computing..................................................................................................4
Disadvantages of cloud computing for Microsoft, Australia.......................................................7
Impact of cloud computing usage on Microsoft, Australia..........................................................8
Literature gaps..............................................................................................................................8
5. Research Questions/Hypothesis...................................................................................................9
Primary Question.........................................................................................................................9
Secondary Questions....................................................................................................................9
6. Research Design and Methodology.............................................................................................9
Qualitative research......................................................................................................................9
Quantitative research..................................................................................................................10
7. Research Limitations.................................................................................................................11
8. Time Schedule (Research plan).................................................................................................11
9. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................12
10. Reference List..........................................................................................................................13

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1. Introduction
The research proposal is designed to discuss the various advantages and disadvantages
that have been derived by using cloud-computing technology at Microsoft, Australia. The cloud
computing enables computing technologies based on the internet technology for allowing the
users to run programs that have been downloaded on a computer server. The cloud computing
plays a major role in managing accessibility to different types of applications and programs with
the use of internet technology. The research will illustrate about how the cloud computing can be
used as an effective computing infrastructure by the organization to access computer networks,
hardware and software components along with servers, applications and services efficiently. All
these will be possible with the use of internet technology (Arora, Parashar and Transforming
2013). Other than the benefits, the cloud computing has resulted in various issues too including
essentiality of internet connection, otherwise the accessibility to servers, computer networks,
applications and programs will not be possible. If Microsoft exceeds the actual bandwidth
allowance, then charges can be quite high and without downloading all the services, it can create
cerate severe complexities to modify the files and data through multiple devices (Microsoft.com
2017).
2. Project Objective
 To determine the benefits obtained by Microsoft, Australia through the utilization of
cloud computing.
 To make an evaluation of the negative effects of cloud computing on Microsoft, Australia
 To assess the different ways or approaches by which Microsoft in Australia has
implemented its cloud computing systems

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 To make recommendations for resolving the issues related to cloud computing and ensure
successful business functioning for Microsoft, Australia.
3. Project Scope
There is immense scope for managing this research project because Microsoft, Australia
has managed to provide Azure Cloud region for the Government of Australia to manage the data
and information properly that have been left unprotected and not classified as well. The project
scope helps in determining the various ways by which clouding computing can be implemented
and proper business functioning is possible for Microsoft in Australia. With the identification of
a proper scope, there will be enough opportunities to conduct a detailed market research and
evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of using cloud computing with ease and effectiveness
(Beloglazov, Abawajy and Buyya 2012).
4. Literature Review
Advantages of cloud computing
For the business organization, the cloud provider in Australia could deliver enhanced
cloud services for the management of data and information that would be required to be
protected and kept secure. Cloud computing provides an excellent digital platform to remain
connected with the customers and stay ahead of the rivals within the competitive business
environment, furthermore manage transformation of data to develop smartest applications and
programs. The support by Government of Australia could help in making informed decisions and
improve the engagement of customers. It could drive necessary changes, improvements and

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make clarification of the public trends among the workers to make them deliver services
according to their needs and preferences (Chaisiri, Lee and Niyato 2012).
Delivering innovation options
The hybrid cloud has been used by many organizations in Australia to provide innovation
options to the developers of programs and applications in Australia and deliver unmatched value
that can satisfy the customers quite easily. The utilization of cloud computing has not only
facilitated the development of better quality apps but also has led to the delivery of innovation
services for allowing the organizations to achieve the business goals and objectives accurately
(Chen and Zhao 2012).
Decrease in capital investments
Cloud computing allows for making investments for only how much it has been used.
There is no need for greater capital investments to manage the deployment of local systems. The
business organizations need to pay only for any extra users and in any case the members of a
team decrease, the cost of cloud computing applications and programs will also be reduced.
Therefore, the running costs would also be lowered and enhance the capability of the
organizations to deliver better outcomes and productivity (Fernando, Loke and Rahayu 2013).
Advantages of scalability
While upgrading the functions and activities of the local system, there is need for
purchase of hardware components along with management f proper licensing and configuration
of networks and servers. Cloud computing provides better scalability by managing the hardware
and software components and provide necessary support to the local systems whenever

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necessary. It has also enabled automatic upgrades and maintain the cloud services within less
time too (Hamlen et al. 2012).
Scope for mobility is huge
The business organizations have stored the applications and programs in the cloud service
provider with internet connection for accessing the software applications with ease. This would
allow for managing the accessibility of data and information by the organizational staffs and
keep that information stored securely.
Advantage of disaster recovery
Disasters tend to happen and this could result in huge loss of important data and
information, because of which consistent backup should be required. As it is quite time
consuming and costly, cloud computing has overcome these issues by managing safety of data
and ensuring that the services and data are protected and made operational. This could transform
the business as well as enhance the security mechanisms (Hashizume et al. 2013). It is because
the data and information are stored in clouds and it prevents any unauthorized access to the data.
Better collaboration and competitiveness
The cloud computing delivers good cloud based applications that can encourage the staffs
to work as a team and increase their potential to perform efficiently too. With the help of cloud
computing system, small and medium sized organizations could be benefited through
improvement of software systems and infrastructure of the organization, furthermore making the
internet servers, computer networks and database systems function far better than previously
(Lee and Zomaya 2012).

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Disadvantages of cloud computing for Microsoft, Australia
In spite of the benefits drawn from the utilization of cloud computing system, there are
several disadvantages too.
Dependency on internet connection
The cloud computing technology is purely based on internet connection and in case of
any latency issues or lower bandwidth, the organizations suffered and failed to implement the
cloud computing system properly. Depending upon the internet connection entirely was a major
drawback, as without proper internet connection, the organizations would be unable to access the
data and information (Microsoft.com 2017).
Security issues
There were security issues like emergence of NSA snooping scandals and even breach of
data through hacking activities. These kinds of issues hindered the security maintenance and
even exposed passwords and user names of the users within the organizations.
High cost of implementing the cloud computing
Though cloud computing looked like it reduces capital investments and operating costs,
still all the features might not be present in the cloud and this it would need additional
investments to add the features that were found missing. The customization of cloud based
software and programs had greatly increased the cost and thus it had been a major drawback too
(Rittinghouse and Ransome 2016). Though the inbound transfer of large amounts of data is free,
the outbound data transfer incurs huge cost.

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Impact of cloud computing usage on Microsoft, Australia
The cloud computing technology had allowed the business organizations to manage the
servers, computer networks, applications, programs and databases with the use of internet and
even monitor the ways by which customers utilize the big data and analytical information
(Microsoft.com 2017). Cloud computing and provide various benefits for the business
organizations in Australia through effective management of business operations and processes
with convenience. This would evolve the business and boost the production level through
proactive monitoring and management of capital assets properly (Xu 2012). The financial
services would be improved to ensure customer satisfaction. Other advantages include benefiting
the organization by enhancing its capability to attract more customers and generate positive
outcomes with the support of Australian Government. The cloud computing usage by Microsoft
in Australia had improved the customers services and support and even transformed the ways of
keeping data and information secured. The use of SQL server further enhanced its efficiency by
providing exceptional security and enhanced performance within the organization (Zissis and
Lekkas 2012).
Literature gaps
While conducting the research, various websites, articles and documents were reviewed,
among which few of those did not contain relevant data and information. The presence of
inaccurate data and information also hindered the successful accomplishment of research. There
was poor access to the journals and articles because of which the negatives of using cloud
computing were not assessed properly as well.

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5. Research Questions/Hypothesis
H0: The utilization of cloud computing cannot create any such positive effects related to data
security and storage for Microsoft, Australia
H1: By utilizing cloud computing, Microsoft has gained various benefits like enhanced data
security, better scalability and reduction in capital investments and operating costs.
Primary Question
What are the various benefits and issues that have been faced by Microsoft, Australia by utilizing
the cloud computing technology?
Secondary Questions
How can Microsoft, Australia implement its cloud computing technology to provide betters
security to data and information stored in databases?
Why does the cloud computing technology incurs such a huge cost and expertise that is needed
to be possessed by the workers of Microsoft in Australia?
What kinds of measures are recommended for Microsoft, Australia to overcome the issues
related to data security and higher capital investments?
6. Research Design and Methodology
Qualitative research
The main steps involved in the qualitative research include identifying the questions
prepared based on the objectives, determine ways of collecting data and generate validated
findings to prepare the final report. The qualitative data is obtained by interviewing the managers

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of the organization and obtaining their responses and opinions for the questions related to the use
of cloud computing. Among the various sampling techniques, the non-probability sampling
technique is the most suitable for obtaining their opinions by selecting a proper time when they
can be available to become part of the interview session (Arora, Parashar and Transforming
2013).
The sampling size is chosen as 10 managers of the organization from whom qualitative
data has been obtained in the form of their views, opinions and responses. The managers
provided their answers without any bias, so the data is valid and reliable and thus it can be used
for conducting research on the same topic afterwards as well. The variables specified are cloud
computing, advantages and disadvantages (Chen and Zhao 2012).
Quantitative research
Quantitative research allowed for obtaining the responses of customers and managed
generalization of data for the development of a research hypothesis and identify the aims and
objectives that are needed to be achieved properly. The sampling techniques used here are
random sampling and purposive sampling techniques. This had helped in selecting a particular
group of people from a huge population and then survey questionnaires were provided to them
regarding the benefits and drawbacks of cloud computing. The questions present there were
subjective, which helped in maintaining the validity of the research. The reliability of data was
achieved because the customers provide their responses that were considered as data and
information collected without bias and these could be used for further researches in the future as
well (Fernando, Loke and Rahayu 2013). The sample size has been chosen as 55 customers for
collecting quantitative data.

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7. Research Limitations
Due to language barriers, many of the respondents could not understand the survey
questions properly and this even wasted a lot of time during the research completion. They could
not understand certain questions properly, because of which certain responses were not provided.
The lack of time was another limitation, because though the research had been completed within
the assigned time period, there was need of some extra time to accomplish the research
conduction in much details (Hamlen et al. 2012).
8. Time Schedule (Research plan)
Main activities/ stages Month
February
Month
March
Month
April
Month
May
Month
June
Month
July
Selection of topic 
Collecting data from
secondary sources
 
Constructing the research
layout

Literature review   
Development of research
Plan
 
Selection of Appropriate
Research Techniques
 
Primary data collection  

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Analysis & Interpretation of
Data which are collected
 
Conclusion 
Development of Draft 
Final Work submission 
9. Conclusion
The research was conducted to identify the major strengths and issues related to the use
of cloud computing at Microsoft, Australia. The objectives, questions and collection of data
procedures had been included here to show how the research was conducted. The literature
review section provided an insight about how the cloud computing technology had created a
positive impact on the organization and transformed the business entirely though betterment of
services and products delivered to the customers.