Cloud Computing Services and Infrastructures - Essay Example

? Short Report on Current Information Technology (MIS) Table of Contents 3 Discussion of Key Points in the Two Articles, Comparison and Contrast 3 Reasons for Choices of Articles, Comments 6 References 8 Abstract This paper compares and contrasts two articles on the cloud computing services offered by Amazon. The two articles focus on the technological and business aspects of the cloud computing services, and offers compelling insights into the superiority of Amazon cloud offerings vis a vis the business and technological needs of companies in this space (Sleit et al., 2013; Oursler, 2013). Discussion of Key Points in the Two Articles, Comparison and Contrast The two articles both make good exposition of the business and technical promises and challenges of cloud computing both for the providers of cloud computing services and infrastructures, such as the Amazon cloud computing offerings, and those of Microsoft. The first article makes a point about the business promise of Amazon cloud services in the long term, pointing out that although the services rack relatively lower sales compared to the more mainstream businesses of Amazon, cloud computing services benefit from having higher profit margins as compared to Amazon’s other offerings. This translates to higher profitability for Amazon and an area that the company can exploit, given that there are few companies with the scale and the customer base, and the necessary long-term vision to execute on a cloud computing strategy and infrastructure, as Amazon does (Oursler, 2013). The second article on the other hand complements the discussion on the more business aspects of cloud computing that the first article focused on, to undertake a more technical discussion on what the components of a cloud computing architecture are, and what the key issues and challenges are relating to the way customers make use and leverage cloud computing for their own particular purposes (Sleit et al., 2013, pp. 35-44). It is noteworthy that these issues give us insight into the forthcoming challenges that will face most businesses who migrate to the cloud, including scalability, cost, the ability to move to different cloud computing platforms and the problem of so-called “data lock in”, and other related issues. While the first article is more oriented towards finance and business types, the second article focuses on the more technical and CIO-type issues relating to cloud computing (Oursler, 2013; Sleit et al., 2013). Going into the details, the first article notes that in reality, of the $61 billion dollars in business that Amazon generates as a whole from all of its businesses, cloud computing revenues is a small part, about five percent of the total revenues of the firm. This means that in all there is a small importance placed right now on the weighting given to the cloud business of the company relative to its other businesses when it comes to putting valuations on the Amazon stock price. These are financial considerations to be sure, but underneath these figures is a vote for Amazon’s technological prowess in the cloud. The article notes too that in a sector that is poised for dramatic growth in the coming years, from a base of $131 billion dollars this year. Amazon has a leading position in this growing sector, with a number of notable accounts that have come to include the CIA. The CIA account for Amazon, in particular, is a vote for the technological capacity of the Amazon cloud services to take on the most complex and the most security-intensive activities. Moreover, given the leading position of Amazon, the article notes that it is in a position to capitalize on its growing technological capabilities to continue to lead the industry in the middle of sustained competition from the likes of Oracle and Hewlett-Packard. To be sure, at present, Amazon’s market share in cloud computing services is said to dwarf the combined shares of the next 14 competitors in the space by a factor of 5. Beyond the numbers, this overwhelming early lead and the quality of the customer base of Amazon all point to a good future in cloud computing for Amazon. The short of it is that Amazon is doing well on the business side of the cloud, able to attract the discriminating and highly demanding customer base that it has at present, including the CIA and some of the largest businesses on the planet. This is a vote of confidence too on the technological capabilities and the sophistication and reliability of Amazon’s cloud computing offerings (Oursler, 2013). To contrast, the second study focuses on the nuts and bolts of Amazon’s offerings in comparison with Microsoft’s Azure, and in the process also touches on the key business issues tied to the use of the cloud computing services. These business issues are tied to specific technological and use aspects of the cloud offerings of Amazon and Microsoft. It starts with an overview of the architecture and technological components of a cloud computing service, and then ties that to a discussion of the existing business models that capitalize on the cloud computing capabilities and the growing demand for cloud computing services to launch a new growth industry in IT. Similar to the way utilities such as power companies offer infrastructure-based services on demand, the business models for cloud computing all leverage scale in the provision of computing services to enable the companies offering them to realize profits from scale economies. The flipside is that the investments in such cloud computing infrastructures are huge and on-going, and so do are the investments in technological advancements in the various components of the cloud computing architecture. From here the paper goes into a discussion of the various technical and business challenges tied to the procurement of cloud computing services from Amazon, Microsoft, and a host of other emerging vendors, with a focus on the first two. Amazon comes out ahead on several key metrics identified by the article as being important to companies considering cloud computing services, including reliability and the provision of free scaling of resources, as well as the ability to move data among cloud services and the ability for users to undertake encryption as a security feature. The second article in other words provides some technical and business insights as to why it is coming out ahead of other vendors in the cloud computing space (Sleit et al., 2013). Reasons for Choices of Articles, Comments It is not hard to choose Amazon-related articles when one is trying to explore the topic of cloud computing as a new and emerging information technology, first because Amazon is a very popular brand, but also because the word from the trade and from the media coverage of the technology has it that Amazon is one of the early leaders in cloud computing. The two articles, one from the finance and banking community and the other from an academic exercise with good reputation and rigor, are easy choices to make too, given that they are very recent, and complement and contrast each other. It can be seen from the previous discussion that the two are complementary and explain each other. To be more exact, the academic article gives reasons for the superiority of the Amazon offerings relative to competitors such as Microsoft. The technological nuts and bolts are developed and evolved, and they do translate to business propositions and features that address the real needs of customers. Data lock in and security are very important considerations, together with openness and price, and in these areas the second article notes that Amazon is ahead of rivals (Sleit et al., 2013; Oursler, 2013). References Oursler, A. (2013). 3 Reasons the Cloud is Huge for AMZN Stock. Investor Place. Retrieved from http://investorplace.com/2013/10/aws-cloud-computing-amzn-stock/ Sleit, A. et al. (2013). Cloud Computing Challenges With Emphasis on Amazon EC2 and Windows Azure. International Journal of Computer Networks & Communications 5 (5). Retrieved from http://airccse.org/journal/cnc/5513cnc03.pdf Read More