Cloud Computing's Impact on Modern Project Management Practices

This report provides a comprehensive overview of cloud computing's impact on project management. It begins by defining cloud computing and its various service models, such as SaaS, and then explores how it enhances project management through virtualization, flexible scaling, improved security, and cost-effectiveness. The report highlights the benefits of cloud computing, including reduced infrastructure costs, enhanced collaboration, and access to the latest software versions. It also discusses the challenges faced by project managers before cloud computing, and how cloud computing has addressed them by improving communication, coordination, and the speed of implementation. The report references several academic sources and concludes by emphasizing the importance of a clear cloud strategy for project success and recommending a lean, digitized approach for effective project management. The report also provides real-world examples of cloud computing implementation in project management, highlighting the benefits and challenges associated with its adoption.

Cloud Computing for
Project Management

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Cloud Computing for Project Management...........................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
Cloud Computing can be defined as delivery of on demand computing services where
applications to storage along with processing power which includes internet (Hayajneh, Hamada
and Aljawarneh, 2020). In other terms cloud computing can be considered as a system which
covers a range of services that may include consumer services like cloud backup of the photos on
the smartphones, storing data of Gmail, helping large or small organisations to host the data or
information which they can run as well on all of the applications within cloud. On the other side,
project management and projects are becoming much more challenging for organisations where
collaborating it with cloud computing has become much more beneficial for them. Present report
is going to be enclosed with scholar’s point of view where they have given the information and
view point towards cloud computing for project management.
Main Body
Cloud Computing for Project Management
The idea of cloud computing came in the year of 1960 and it was originated by John
McCarthy. Including this, the term of cloud computing is considered to be the sense that was
utilised by organisations which was described in the year of 1997 by Ramnath Chellappa (Yan
and et. al., (2020, April). In other words, cloud computing can be defined as computing services
that are specifically being offered by external organisations and is available on demand where
dynamically scaling according to the changing demands. In context with project management, it
has been analysed that cloud computing focuses on five different principles and these are
presented underneath:
 The virtualisation of resources with the objectives of maximising the utilisation of
different equipment.
 Flexible scaling depends over the different needs.
 Focusing on the project management, cloud computing focuses on flexibility along with
the demands of different consumers based on the servers. Including this, it has been
analysed that number of business owners do not focuses on acquisition, estimation,
installation and maintenance and this is because of the strong service of cloud computing.

 Improved security in cloud, where a company works on a project focuses on the
reliability and performance level that helps in advancing the different range of
characteristics of a company which is also offering services in cloud.
 Another principal that came in front at the time of utilising cloud computing as a
Dropbox while managing the project is directly linking with charge only for the used
resources.
According to Sarkar and Jadhav, (2016), use of cloud computing within project management
carries ample number of services which helps an organisation in improving the access related to
environment also enhance the applicability of projects. If it is analysed then the particular
software that has been taken into consideration for software distribution model than that is
software as a service (SaaS), where client carries number of Axis to the software application
which is also placed in the provided server and pays each their use. Away with this, experience
of project management where managers has come up with ample number of difficulties. They
have mentioned that cloud computing has given them an opportunity to improve the overall
efficiency level of projects as it has improved the communication among members of team and
also enhance to the security level of information that are at risk due to malfunctioning by
hackers. As mentioned by Kumar and et. al., (2018), Utilisation of service model can help project
performers to improve the number of benefits with the help of cloud computing for the
organisations and some of these are presented underneath:
 Cloud computing helps in reducing the chances of client organisations to develop their
own server for the project management.
 Another benefit that came in front was the safe storage of information which is directly
linking to the project and also with organisation.
 Including this, another benefit is that ability of utilising latest version of different
applications supporting project management and this is something which an organisation
looks to improve the overall performance level of a particular project.
 Away with this, there is also no requirement of purchasing a special software licence
which reduces the cost and works as a cost effective approach for an organisation that is
working on a project.

 Another benefit that came in front was that it helps in increasing the access towards large
computing power which necessarily enhances the implementation of complex and big
projects (Younas and et. al., 2016).
 Technical assistance is also being provided by cloud computing, which may help project
managers to manage the projects in much effective and efficient manner.
These are said to be some of the crucial benefits of utilising cloud computing within project
management and applying it among different IT management projects, business tools,
development applications, disk resources and so on.
As mentioned by Goldstein, (2020), initially, projects that are specifically being managed by
using cloud computing where involvement of transfer of an ERP system that was performed.
This is where implementation of the project within International form domiciled in the
Netherlands with branches in Asia and Central Europe. The reason behind developing this
particular type of service was to include financial services within different organisational
functions like human resource, consultation, accounting and so on and it was made to stay
connected with areas of outsourcing.In this context, it has been analysed that special web
platform was specifically being developed in order to implement the project which give the
access to communication and information among project participants. Also, Microsoft online
service was also specifically being proposed by the organisation to take into consideration on it
because it will improve the utilisation of application which has already been installed by them
where virtual servers will be keeping data, can be utilised by the client whenever it is required by
them to consider the information and manage it in effective and efficient manner (Wang and et.
al., 2016).
Also, this effective solution has reduced the cost of different elements like purchase of
software licences, burden of keeping big data storage hard disk and so on. Away with this, it also
improved the overall services like cloud computing, has given the advantage to manager to
conduct team meeting in the virtual world and this has also reduce the cost of business travel and
removed telephone charges which were really very expensive in past few decades. According to
McConnon and Chowdhury, (2020), at the time when cloud computing was not specifically
being formulated and launched in the market, there were totally a different environment which
was faced by project managers. This could be understood with good example where, service was
specifically being hosted within the organisation and this was also not a choice for them either on

premises or external premises which was considered to be a task for the companies to perform.
On the other hand, laptops along with client side desktops are also being distributed over
different it departments and even the different offices across States or countries, which were also
being managed by large internal it staff members. Including this, it has also been analysed that,
organisations also had to manageand maintain it systems which was carried out by a large
internal pool of developers.
In today's time, cloud computing has reduced the working of internal team members and has
given a design along with architecture plays an important role where vendor size individuals
remotely manage different possible outcomes like on site meetings whenever it is needed and so
on. On the other hand, coordination has also improved and increased which organisations’ still
have to take care of oversight responsibilities ranging from estimation through testing but with
external vendor personal where many more meetings are needed.speed of implementation and
agility is also considered to be a part of cloud computing which will automatically being
improved by organisations while saving the projects costing and other elements. it will also
enable it related services to focus on what the services are specifically being provided to enhance
them rather than how the services are implemented or hosted.
As mentioned by Branco Jr, de Sá-Soares and Rivero, (2017), project managers need to
take into consideration of how computing while managing the large projects. In the past where
cloud computing was not specifically being introduced it was pretty much difficult for project
managers to effectively manage the project and finishing it right on time and the reasons that
came in front was the limited development on network capacities and no collaboration within the
organisation. Cloud computing has also improved the real-time collaboration with clients,
suppliers and globally dispersed teams. This has resulted into improvement communication
process that helped in allowing rapid staging, take down of a variety of development
environments, setup and many more other elements that will validate or test the application.
Including this, cloud computing has managed to allow project managers to take into
consideration of real time project management software with a wide set of web based tools that
will not only help them in managing the stored data but they can also utilise it whenever it is
needed and required.
According to Chen, Lin and Chuang, (2016), there are many organisations that are dealing at
National or international level where they carry a concern of security while utilising cloud

service although breaches of security has been found is rare. It has been analysed that security
specifically depends on what existing systems are used by organisations that are taking into
consideration of cloud computing. In- house systems are required to be managed by project
managers and the team including many other things in order to reduce the complexity of overall
project. This is where system monitoring can be done by cloud providers engineers who are
dedicated towards protecting the infrastructure.
Conclusion
Based on the above mentioned information, it can easily be said that cloud computing has
given ample number of opportunities to the project managers to effectively manage the projects
in much effective and efficient manner. Including this, it is also summarised that developing a
clear strategy while utilising cloud supporting can effectively reduce the different challenges that
can be faced by managers and it will also reduce the chances of failures and malfunctioning that
is common in cyber market while managing the projects. It is recommended that lean and
digitised method is considered to be an approach that will be beneficial for the organisations to
take into consideration at the time of managing the projects because it will reduce the complexity
of oral process within the organisation and give high security as well to the information that is
stored in external servers.

References
Books and journals
Hayajneh, S., Hamada, M., & Aljawarneh, S. (2020). Project Management Knowledge Areas
and Skills for Managing Software and Cloud Projects: Overcoming Challenges. Recent
Advances in Computer Science and Communications (Formerly: Recent Patents on
Computer Science), 13(3), 454-469.
Yan, Z., Wei, G., Dongdong, L., Lei, N., & Mengran, Y. (2020, April). University Research
Project Management System Based on Cloud Platform. In 2020 International
Conference on Big Data and Informatization Education (ICBDIE) (pp. 453-456). IEEE.
Sarkar, D., & Jadhav, S. B. (2016). Cloud based Project Management Information System
(PMIS) for construction projects. International Journal of Civil & Structural
Engineering, 6(3), 233-243.
Kumar, S. S., Anisha, R., Biniya, A., Poornima, J., & Suganthi, R. (2018). ONLINE PROJECT
MONITORING SYSTEM BASED ON CLOUD COMPUTING
PLATFORM. International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, 119(10), 1657-
1665.
Younas, M., Ghani, I., Jawawi, D. N., & Khan, M. M. (2016). A framework for agile
development in cloud computing environment. Journal of Internet Computing and
Services, 17(5), 67-74.
Goldstein, E. (2020). FASB's New Cloud Computing Standard Reduces Complexity: Outcomes
of Accounting for Cloud Computing Implementation Will Be More Aligned, and
Management Judgment on Service Contracts Is Key. Journal of Accountancy, 230(1),
32.
Wang, C., Wood, L. C., Abdul-Rahman, H., & Lee, Y. T. (2016). When traditional information
technology project managers encounter the cloud: Opportunities and dilemmas in the
transition to cloud services. International Journal of Project Management, 34(3), 371-
388.
McConnon, P. J., & Chowdhury, S. (2020). Agility in the Age of Cloud Computing.
Branco Jr, T., de Sá-Soares, F., & Rivero, A. L. (2017). Key issues for the successful adoption of
cloud computing. Procedia computer science, 121, 115-122.
Chen, Y. S., Lin, C. K., & Chuang, H. M. (2016). Improving Project Risk Management of Cloud
CRM Using DANP Approach. In Frontier Computing (pp. 1023-1031). Springer,
Singapore.