HI6008 Semester 1/2018: Advantages & Disadvantages of Cloud Computing

This document provides a literature review of the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing for businesses. It begins with an introduction to cloud computing and its importance in modern business, highlighting its role in providing ubiquitous access to shared system resources. The project objectives are to understand the benefits and drawbacks of cloud adoption. The scope focuses on the impact of cloud computing within a business context. The review covers key areas such as creating new apps, data storage and recovery, website hosting, audio/video streaming, and on-demand software delivery. It also discusses the importance of cloud computing in terms of accessibility, disaster recovery, security, and environmental impact. The advantages detailed include easy implementation and accessibility, while the disadvantages cover security risks, dependency on internet connectivity, and compliance issues. The review concludes by summarizing the key considerations for businesses evaluating cloud computing solutions.

Running head: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING
Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Computing for Businesses
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

1
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING
Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................2
2. Project Objectives..................................................................................................................3
3. Project Scope..........................................................................................................................3
4. Literature Review...................................................................................................................3
Importance of Cloud Computing in Businesses.....................................................................3
Advantages of Cloud Computing in Businesses....................................................................6
Disadvantages of Cloud Computing in Businesses................................................................9
5. Conclusion............................................................................................................................12
6. Reference List......................................................................................................................14
7. Appendix..............................................................................................................................17
Appendix A..........................................................................................................................17
Appendix B..........................................................................................................................17

2
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING
1. Introduction
Cloud computing is the specific part of information technology, which is responsible
for allowing omnipresent accessing to all the shared system resources1. The extremely high
level services are frequently and well provisioned with the least managerial effort and hence
this technology is accepted by all users. In simple words, cloud computing is the easiest mode
of transferring data or information over the connection of Internet from any part of the world
to other. This cloud computing always relies on the resource sharing for achieving economies
of scale or coherence, which is same as public utility2. The third party clouds are responsible
for focusing on the main business processes and not on spending of huge amount of resources
on maintenance or other computer infrastructure. Cloud computing helps the businesses in
avoiding or in minimizing the costs of the infrastructure of information technology. The
applications could be easily run, without any type of complexity and also could be run faster3.
The maintenance is very low and improvises manageability. There are various advantages
and disadvantages of cloud computing.
The following literature review focuses on a brief discussion on the advantages and
disadvantages of cloud computing in businesses. The literature review will highlight the
project objective and project scope by outlining the main processes. Moreover, the
importance of cloud computing in any business will be provided here.
1 Dinh, Hoang T., Chonho Lee, Dusit Niyato, and Ping Wang. "A survey of mobile cloud computing:
architecture, applications, and approaches." Wireless communications and mobile computing 13, no. 18 (2013):
1587-1611.
2 Arora, Rachna, Anshu Parashar, and Cloud Computing Is Transforming. "Secure user data in cloud computing
using encryption algorithms." International journal of engineering research and applications 3, no. 4 (2013):
1922-1926.
3 Fernando, Niroshinie, Seng W. Loke, and Wenny Rahayu. "Mobile cloud computing: A survey." Future
generation computer systems 29, no. 1 (2013): 84-106.

3
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING
2. Project Objectives
The objectives of this project of advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing in
business are as follows:
i) To understand the various advantages of cloud computing that would be useful for
any business.
ii) To understand the several disadvantages of cloud computing that would be harmful
for the business.
3. Project Scope
The scope of this project is finding out the benefits or demerits of cloud computing
within any business or company. Moreover, it will be helpful in knowing the delivery of
services through Internet.
4. Literature Review
Importance of Cloud Computing in Businesses
Cloud computing is the successful delivery of all types of computing services like
servers, databases, software, storage, analytics, networking and many other on the Internet4.
The organizations that are eventually offering all these services are known as the providers of
cloud or simply cloud providers. They charge for providing services of cloud computing on
the basis of their usability5. In today’s world, most of the popular organizations have taken
the technology of cloud computing within their business. The most significant uses of cloud
computing in any particular business are as follows:
4 Garg, Saurabh Kumar, Steve Versteeg, and Rajkumar Buyya. "A framework for ranking of cloud computing
services." Future Generation Computer Systems 29, no. 4 (2013): 1012-1023.
5 Xiao, Zhen, Weijia Song, and Qi Chen. "Dynamic resource allocation using virtual machines for cloud
computing environment." IEEE transactions on parallel and distributed systems 24, no. 6 (2013): 1107-1117.

4
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING
i) Creating New Apps or Services: The first and the foremost usability of cloud
computing is while creation of new applications and services in any business.
ii) Storing, Backing up and Recovering of Data: The next important and significant
usability of cloud computing is the operation of data6. The data storage, backing ups of data
and recovering data or information are done with the help of this cloud computing.
iii) Hosting Websites or Blogs: Another important use of this cloud computing within
any specific business is the hosting of websites and blogs. The websites or blogs of any
particular business are extremely important as they are responsible for the successful
advertisement of that business7. Cloud computing helps the business with hosting of the blogs
and websites. Thus, it is extremely vital for that business.
iv) Streaming of Audio or Video: The audio or video is easily streamed with the help
of cloud computing. It is the procedure to deliver as well as obtain audio or video without
downloading it. The end user does not have to download the audio and video. However, with
the process, the end user has the complete file before even listening or watching the file8. The
business can easily stream their audio and video and the customer will be able to obtain it
without much complexities.
v) Delivering Software on Demand: Another significant usability of this cloud
computing is the delivering software as per demand. The software needs to be delivered on
6 Rittinghouse, John W., and James F. Ransome. Cloud computing: implementation, management, and security.
CRC press, 2016.
7 Hashizume, Keiko, David G. Rosado, Eduardo Fernández-Medina, and Eduardo B. Fernandez. "An analysis of
security issues for cloud computing." Journal of internet services and applications 4, no. 1 (2013): 5.
8 Jain, Raj, and Subharthi Paul. "Network virtualization and software defined networking for cloud computing: a
survey." IEEE Communications Magazine 51, no. 11 (2013): 24-31.

5
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING
time and cloud computing does that within less time and with less cost9. It does not incur
huge time and cost and thus the business do not face any type of losses in their business.
vi) Analyzing Data for Patterns as well as Making Predictions: The sixth important
usability of this cloud computing in business is the analysis of data for understanding the
patterns and thus making proper predictions for the betterment of any business10.
The importance of cloud computing or the reasons of cloud computing in any
business are given below:
i) Anytime and Anywhere: The first and the foremost importance of cloud computing
within any specific business is the flexibility to use this service anywhere and anytime11. The
technology allows or enables the business in accessing the information wherever and
whenever there is connection of Internet.
ii) Avoiding Disasters: The second significant reason for utilizing cloud computing in
any business is to avoid all types of disasters. There is always a backup plan for disasters in
cloud computing and thus the organizations opt for this particular technology12. Crashing of
servers is a basic phenomenon in any business with sensitive information. Cloud computing
helps to reduce this chance of disasters to a greater level.
iii) Delivering Services with Higher Security: The next important reason for using
this technology of cloud computing in any business is the successful delivery of any type of
9 Yang, Kan, and Xiaohua Jia. "An efficient and secure dynamic auditing protocol for data storage in cloud
computing." IEEE transactions on parallel and distributed systems 24, no. 9 (2013): 1717-1726.
10 Herbst, Nikolas Roman, Samuel Kounev, and Ralf H. Reussner. "Elasticity in Cloud Computing: What It Is,
and What It Is Not." In ICAC, vol. 13, pp. 23-27. 2013.
11 Wei, Lifei, Haojin Zhu, Zhenfu Cao, Xiaolei Dong, Weiwei Jia, Yunlu Chen, and Athanasios V. Vasilakos.
"Security and privacy for storage and computation in cloud computing." Information Sciences 258 (2014): 371-
386.
12 Rong, Chunming, Son T. Nguyen, and Martin Gilje Jaatun. "Beyond lightning: A survey on security
challenges in cloud computing." Computers & Electrical Engineering 39, no. 1 (2013): 47-54.

6
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING
service with high security and privacy13. The information is safe and secured with this
technology.
iv) Makes Business Environment Friendly: The fourth importance reason for
utilizing cloud computing within any business is to make the business from traditional means
to extremely environment as well as user friendly14. Cloud computing is responsible for
eliminating the in house servers and thus there is no requirement of controlling climate for
maintenance of servers.
Advantages of Cloud Computing in Businesses
Cloud computing can be simply defined as the paradigm of computing, where the
larger systems pool is solely linked within the private as well as public networks for
successfully providing dynamically scalable and flexible infrastructure for the purposes of
storing files, maintaining data and applications15. The advancement and enhancement of this
particular technology leads to the reduction of delivery cost, computation costs, hosting of
application and content storage explicitly and significantly16. The technology of cloud
computing is the specific practical approach for experiencing the benefits of direct cost and
thus has the perfect potential for successfully transforming any data centre from the set up of
capital intensive to any particular variable costly environment. It can also be defined as the
significant principal of reusing all the capabilities of information technology17. The most
13 Botta, Alessio, Walter De Donato, Valerio Persico, and Antonio Pescapé. "Integration of cloud computing and
internet of things: a survey." Future Generation Computer Systems 56 (2016): 684-700.
14 Pearson, Siani. "Privacy, security and trust in cloud computing." In Privacy and Security for Cloud
Computing, pp. 3-42. Springer, London, 2013.
15 Gupta, Prashant, Arumugam Seetharaman, and John Rudolph Raj. "The usage and adoption of cloud
computing by small and medium businesses." International Journal of Information Management 33, no. 5
(2013): 861-874.
16 Almorsy, Mohamed, John Grundy, and Ingo Müller. "An analysis of the cloud computing security
problem." arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01107 (2016).
17 Gao, Yongqiang, Haibing Guan, Zhengwei Qi, Yang Hou, and Liang Liu. "A multi-objective ant colony
system algorithm for virtual machine placement in cloud computing." Journal of Computer and System

7
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING
significant difference between cloud computing and other traditional concepts like distributed
computing, grid computing, autonomic computing and utility computing is to widen the
horizon within the boundaries of organization. Cloud computing is responsible for
streamlining all the processes and procedures of information technology, thus making the
regular computing absolutely easier18. There are various other advantages of this particular
technology that are helpful for any company or organization. The most significant advantages
of cloud computing for any business are as follows:
i) Easy Implementation: The first and the most important advantage of cloud
computing in any business is the easy implementation process. The entire procedure of
implementing this particular technology is extremely easier and thus does not incur huge
complexities19. Thus, the business can easily retain the similar applications and the processes
of the business do not have to deal with any type of backend technicalities. The processes are
easily managed by the connection of Internet and the infrastructure of cloud could be
accessed by the businesses quickly and rapidly.
ii) Easy Accessibility: The second important and significant advantage or benefit of
cloud computing for any specific business is the easy accessibility. The data could be
accessed from anywhere irrespective of the time and location20. The cloud infrastructure helps
in maximizing the productivity of the business and also increases the efficiencies by simply
Sciences 79, no. 8 (2013): 1230-1242.
18 Xiao, Zhifeng, and Yang Xiao. "Security and privacy in cloud computing." IEEE Communications Surveys &
Tutorials 15, no. 2 (2013): 843-859.
19 Whaiduzzaman, Md, Mehdi Sookhak, Abdullah Gani, and Rajkumar Buyya. "A survey on vehicular cloud
computing." Journal of Network and Computer Applications 40 (2014): 325-344.
20 Sanaei, Zohreh, Saeid Abolfazli, Abdullah Gani, and Rajkumar Buyya. "Heterogeneity in mobile cloud
computing: taxonomy and open challenges." IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials 16, no. 1 (2014): 369-
392.

8
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING
ensuring that the application is accessible. The advantage of accessibility enables for easy and
simple collaboration and thus sharing within the users located in various locations.
iii) Requirement of No Hardware: The third significant advantage of the technology
of cloud computing is the need or requirement of no hardware. As all the services are hosted
on the cloud itself, the physical storage centre is not required any more21. However, the
backing up of data is required for any type of disaster within the database thus making the
productivity of the organization stagnant (See Appendix A).
iv) Costs Per Head: Another significant advantage of cloud computing is the cost per
head22. The costs of overhead technology are solely kept at the lowest with all the services of
cloud computing, hence enabling the organizations in utilizing excess resources and time for
the improvement of infrastructure of the company.
v) High Scalability and Flexibility: This is again one of the most significant
advantages of cloud computing. This technology could be easily scalable as well as flexible
for allowing the businesses in adding up or subtracting the resources that are completely
based according to their requirements23. When the organizations flourish, the system also
flourished with them due to this flexibility and scalability.
vi) Efficient Recovery Plan: The sixth important advantage of cloud computing in
any particular business is the presence of the plan of efficient recovery. This technology is
responsible for delivering the services extremely faster and with absolute accuracy24. The data
21 Avram, Maricela-Georgiana. "Advantages and challenges of adopting cloud computing from an enterprise
perspective." Procedia Technology 12 (2014): 529-534.
22 Khan, Abdul Nasir, ML Mat Kiah, Samee U. Khan, and Sajjad A. Madani. "Towards secure mobile cloud
computing: A survey." Future Generation Computer Systems 29, no. 5 (2013): 1278-1299.
23 Pearson, Siani. "Privacy, security and trust in cloud computing." In Privacy and Security for Cloud
Computing, pp. 3-42. Springer, London, 2013.
24 Rong, Chunming, Son T. Nguyen, and Martin Gilje Jaatun. "Beyond lightning: A survey on security
challenges in cloud computing." Computers & Electrical Engineering 39, no. 1 (2013): 47-54.

9
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING
or the applications could be easily retrieved with this. The downtime is extremely less and
thus it is claimed as the most efficient as well as effective recovery plan.
vii) Data Recovery or Availability: The business that are dealing with bulk amount of
data always have the chance of losing the data. Various problems can occur due to this. The
operational teams of cloud computing thus support and provide perfect clustering and failing
over25. Moreover, it helps to replicate the data and monitor the system properly like
transactions, logs and many more. It helps to provide data recovery and disaster recovery for
any type of disasters within the data or information. The performance and capacity of the data
or applications are solely managed by cloud computing in any organization (See Appendix
A).
viii) Increased Storage: The next important advantage of cloud computing is the
increment of storage26. The cloud providers provide massive infrastructure for the users and
thus the users could easily store and maintain bulk amount of data.
Disadvantages of Cloud Computing in Businesses
In spite of having such vast and significant advantages, cloud computing does
comprise of various disadvantages that are extremely vulnerable and threatening for any
particular business27. The most significant disadvantages of cloud computing in any business
are given below:
i) Protection of Data: The first and the foremost disadvantage of cloud computing in
a business is the lack of security or protection to the confidential data. The organizations are
25 Rittinghouse, John W., and James F. Ransome. Cloud computing: implementation, management, and security.
CRC press, 2016.
26 Dinh, Hoang T., Chonho Lee, Dusit Niyato, and Ping Wang. "A survey of mobile cloud computing:
architecture, applications, and approaches." Wireless communications and mobile computing 13, no. 18 (2013):
1587-1611.
27 Fernando, Niroshinie, Seng W. Loke, and Wenny Rahayu. "Mobile cloud computing: A survey." Future
generation computer systems 29, no. 1 (2013): 84-106.

10
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING
often extremely reluctant in buying the assurance of data security of a business from the
respective vendors28. They are afraid of the loss of data in competition and the confidentiality
of data of the clients. In several instances, the main location of storage of data is not
disclosed, thus adding excess security to the data. Within the existing models of cloud
computing, there are firewalls present in the data centres for protection of the sensitive
information and data29. The service providers of cloud are eventually responsible to maintain
the security of data and the organizations have to rely on these providers (See Appendix B).
ii) Management Capabilities: The second important disadvantage of cloud computing
is that lack of managing capabilities30. Although, there are several providers of cloud, the
platform or the infrastructure of cloud could be easily managed. The auto scaling feature is
the most important need in any business and there is thus a greater potential in improving the
scalability and flexibility.
iii) Lack of Control: The next important disadvantage of cloud computing is the lack
of control within the cloud. When the services are being moved to the specific cloud, the
business is handing over their confidential data and information to the cloud provider31. This
becomes a major problem for the IT businesses as they do not have any control over the data
any more.
iv) Dependency on Internet: The fourth significant disadvantage of cloud computing
involves he dependency on the connection of Internet. Any cloud service could not be
28 Arora, Rachna, Anshu Parashar, and Cloud Computing Is Transforming. "Secure user data in cloud computing
using encryption algorithms." International journal of engineering research and applications 3, no. 4 (2013):
1922-1926.
29 Xiao, Zhen, Weijia Song, and Qi Chen. "Dynamic resource allocation using virtual machines for cloud
computing environment." IEEE transactions on parallel and distributed systems 24, no. 6 (2013): 1107-1117.
30 Hashizume, Keiko, David G. Rosado, Eduardo Fernández-Medina, and Eduardo B. Fernandez. "An analysis
of security issues for cloud computing." Journal of internet services and applications 4, no. 1 (2013): 5.
31Almorsy, Mohamed, John Grundy, and Ingo Müller. "An analysis of the cloud computing security
problem." arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01107 (2016).

11
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING
utilized without the help or connection of Internet. They are solely dependent on the Internet
connectivity and the data could be retrieved or stored only when there is data connection32.
This Internet dependency becomes extremely difficult for the businesses and thus the
organizations do not want to opt this cloud (See Appendix B).
v) Regulatory Restrictions: The regulatory restrictions are dangerous for the
organizations and thus they are dangerous for them. The government regulations never allow
the sensitive information or personal information of the customers in physically located or
stored within any country or state33. For meeting all the requirements, the providers of cloud
required to be setting up of the data centre or the site of storage explicitly or exclusively in
the country for complying with all the regulations. This type of infrastructure is not at all
feasible and hence it is a major challenge for the providers of cloud34.
vi) Lack of Redundancy: The sixth disadvantage of cloud computing is the lack of
redundancy. The server of cloud is neither redundant nor it could be backed up35. Since the
technology could be failed, the business always has to purchase a redundancy plan. It is an
extra cost for the businesses.
vii) Issues in Bandwidth: The final disadvantage of cloud computing is the issues
within bandwidth36. These issues become major problems for the business who are utilizing
32 Pearson, Siani. "Privacy, security and trust in cloud computing." In Privacy and Security for Cloud
Computing, pp. 3-42. Springer, London, 2013.
33 Sanaei, Zohreh, Saeid Abolfazli, Abdullah Gani, and Rajkumar Buyya. "Heterogeneity in mobile cloud
computing: taxonomy and open challenges." IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials 16, no. 1 (2014): 369-
392.
34 Fernando, Niroshinie, Seng W. Loke, and Wenny Rahayu. "Mobile cloud computing: A survey." Future
generation computer systems 29, no. 1 (2013): 84-106.
35 Herbst, Nikolas Roman, Samuel Kounev, and Ralf H. Reussner. "Elasticity in Cloud Computing: What It Is,
and What It Is Not." In ICAC, vol. 13, pp. 23-27. 2013.
36 Botta, Alessio, Walter De Donato, Valerio Persico, and Antonio Pescapé. "Integration of cloud computing and
internet of things: a survey." Future Generation Computer Systems 56 (2016): 684-700.