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Tim Van Derlike,
Management Information Systems
Cloud Computing
November 24, 2017
Cloud computing is having a dramatic impact on the way businesses handle their
corporate data. Traditionally businesses would handle all data in-house, meaning they would
have a network of computer hardware and software along with IT staff to support operations.
This capital investment in hardware, operating licenses, software applications, along with
investment in labor is a major financial barrier to small startup businesses. Cloud computing is
breaking down this barrier to market entry for small business. This essay will describe the term
“cloud computing”, and will investigate the benefits and pitfalls of this technological change to
information management. I will discuss the types of cloud computing available, the factors
affecting cloud computing, and I will offer recommendations for small and startup businesses.
Cloud computing is essentially a data sharing service where information is stored at an
offsite facility on servers hosted by a third party. Storing information in the cloud allows the
data users to access the information anywhere, anytime, from any device that is connected to
the Internet. This ability increases a company’s mobility. Applications such as Salesforce allow
businesses to collaborate with staff and run the full range of business operations from a cell
phone.
Cloud computing is very popular with startup businesses. It is a way to share resources
and achieve an economy of scale at a reasonable, if not inexpensive, costs. By utilizing cloud
services a company is accessing a service in which it only has to pay for the service it uses. This
is different from the traditional process of purchasing a suite of products, for example
MicroSoft Office. This would require the outright purchase of the product, and then you would
have to continue to pay for a yearly operating license. By utilizing features of the cloud, these
services can be free, or obtained for little expense. In direct competition with Microsoft, Google
offers the Google Drive. This allows users to store files up to 5TB each for anything created with
Google’s Docs’, sheets, or slides (direct competition with Microsoft Word, Excel, and Power
Point). Google Drive also includes Gmail, all attachments in an email either sent or received will
be stored. Google photo’s allows the user to store photos’ as well. Google drive will allow users
to store 15GB of data for free. I recently looked at my personal google storage. I have 3,000
emails in my gmail inbox, and it only takes up .43% of the allowable data storage. If businesses
need more storage, they can buy 100GB for $20 a year, or 1TB for $100.
