Introduction
The latest advancement of the technology of the internet has led different businesses to utilize the technology to progress with the activities of the business. Different companies from all over the world have mainly put their attention on the use of technology in order to improve the performance of their business activities and thus enhancing the productivity of their organization. With the advancement of internet technology in the business sector, it has been seen that business have made great progress. Medium and small scale industries have understood the necessity of the internet technology. Hence, it is extremely necessary to realize and examine several tools that are mainly related to information technology and their several impacts on the business processes.
The cloud computing is one kind of tool that has made a major impact in information technology. With the help of this technology, businesses have grown tremendously. The importance of cloud computing have been accredited by different organizations and they have also understood their way of enhancing the productivity of the organization. The cloud computing also provides several opportunities in order to gain information, which would be helpful in doing the work efficiently (Fernando, Loke, & Rahayu, 2013). The current research on this field would provide an opportunity in order to examine the main reasons that are concerned about “Integration of cloud computing platform in within the business environment”.
The addition of cloud computing in businesses has seen a rapid growth in the recent past. The business environment has become highly competitive. This would provide a competitive advantage within the current market. After a proper analysis, it could be addressed about the reasons of implementing the technology of cloud computing within business. The main problem, which needs to be addressed is the reason behind the integration of cloud computing within the environment of business (Arora, Parashar & Transforming, 2013). The problem would be addressed by using the preexisting literature, which would describe the various reasons behind the process of integration. After the problem has been addressed, it could help in gathering valuable information related to the issue and thus resolve the topic of research.
Purpose Statement
The main purpose of this research is to examine the feature that is considering the integration of cloud computing technology within a business. This research would mainly explore the various understandings of the main reasons of integration of cloud computing and the benefits of utilizing the technology. After the end of the research, there would be a proper conclusion, which would help in supporting the study on the same topic of research.
The main questions that could be presented for the contemporary research are:
- To assess the significance of cloud computing within a particular business.
- To examine the integration procedure of cloud computing within a particular business.
- To evaluate the certain aspects, which could be helpful in influencing and impacting the cloud computing environment within a business.
- To recommend different strategies for the procedure of cloud computing within the business
The different questions that could be framed for the purpose of the current research are:
- Describe cloud computing
- What is the major importance of integrating the concept of cloud computing within the business?
- Explain the main possible factors that would force different organizations to integrate the cloud computing technology
- What are the different methods in order to implement the cloud computing technology within the business?
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework could be defined as the backbone of a particular area of research. It would be crucial for researchers in order to focus on the proper models and theories in order to support the research study. The current study would be discussing about the research based questions with the help of the related theories and models. The literature review would help in discussing about the models and theories that would be helpful in discussing the questions of research. The existing study would discuss about the significance of cloud computing within an organization and the services that would be provided after the cloud platform would be integrated within the organization (Hashem et al., 2015). The current report would deeply focus on the necessary factors for the implementation of cloud computing.
This research follows a simple hypothesis. This hypothesis tries to measure the relation that is existing among the several variables. With the current study, the autonomous variable that does not depend on other variable is the integration of cloud computing. Hence the presented hypothesis could be initiated on the basis of two kids of variables.
H0: There would be no such substantial effect with the assimilation of cloud computing within business.
H1: The impact of the integration of cloud computing on the business and their performance.
In the current world of business, the concept cloud computing is being recognized as an extremely important tool for the purpose of handling and sharing of the data of the business. The primary implication of the research is that it would help in analyzing about the improvement of the performance of the business and the productivity. This research would further be helpful in contributing in the process of research on the topic of research in the future.
The platform of cloud computing could be described as the core variables of the research and the major terms that are mainly involved with the activities of cloud computing based on the chronological order:
IaaS: The Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS is described as a kind of service of cloud computing. The IaaS are the kind of services that primarily occur when the IT infrastructure of the business or organization would be changed to put up the cloud computing. The IaaS is a kind of self-service model, which can help the organization to gain access, monitor and thus would help in managing the remotely located data centers (Garg, Versteeg & Buyya, 2013).
PaaS: Platform as a Service or PaaS is a form of service by cloud computing that is a bit different from cloud computing. This kind of service has been implemented in many of the organizations and companies. Hence, the PaaS system has grown rapidly. Hence it could be assumed that PaaS would be a suitable way of the integration of the cloud computing platform within the activities of the business.
SaaS: This kind of service is the mutual way of the addition of the system of cloud computing within the business processes. In the recent times, many of the organizations want to stay connected with the internet platform that would be provided with the SaaS. The businesses would be helped to constantly remain in touch with their consumers and employees that would help them in communicating in an efficient manner. The businesses would gain a competitive advantage within the market.
Ethical considerations
The ethical considerations are a very important aspect for the purpose of the research. It is extremely important for the researchers in order to ensure that the businesses would abide with the ethical considerations in order to focus on the improvement of the outcome of the research. The regulations and norms that are stated for the study should be taken into consideration. There are a number of ethical considerations that have to be taken during the present research (Flick, 2015). At first, the current researcher should follow the Data Protection Act 1998 to ensure that the data should not be used commercially, they are properly managed and it is also important to take the matter of confidentiality and privacy with care. In the current research, the researcher would not use any kind of information that would be commercially received. The information that would be secondarily received would be checked for the purpose of authenticity and the entire research would be cited that would help to intact the ethics of the research.
The delimitations of the current study would include the actions that would be under the control of the researcher. These would also be accomplished by the researcher. They would also be described effectively in order to ensure that the readers would have a proper understanding of the research. In this research, the researcher would not be willing to perform the statistical based analysis of the current research. It would become too difficult to interpret the research and thus the resources of the data would be kept in a simple manner and thus would be effective. Hence the results would be described in an efficient way so as to get a valid and an authentic study of the result.
The primary limitation that would concern the study on the research is the less amount of time that has been received for the research. Secondarily, the finance is another aspect of the research that should be kept into consideration. Thirdly, another major aspect that should be considered for the given case is that there are another set of aspects that are mainly related with the execution of a particular kind of tool used in the business. Thus it could be explained that the various limitations, which are involved with the study of the research have to be managed in an efficient way so as to ensure that the research study would reach a suitable conclusion and that the limitations would not deviate from the objectives of the research (Panneerselvam, 2014).
The current section of the literature review would discuss about the variables based on the research that would help in addressing the questions of the research in an efficient manner. This is the most important section of the research. This section critically analyses the research variables that would help to ensure that the research would move in the appropriate direction. The operationalized variables would be discussed one after another with the help of critical evaluation that would help in the completion of the project.
The concept of cloud computing could be defined as the kind of computing, which could be performed by the remote servers that is not placed on any such physical link but on an entirely virtual location. Cloud computing is one such of the recent technological advancements that is made within the IT industry. These developments have been highly embraced by various organizations that have showed their ever increasing importance in the field of business. The establishment of many services like storage and data recording in an effective way for the management and the recovery and the communication of the similar data that would not be placed on a physical location rather than being on an entirely virtual IP address. The services of information technology has helped different companies to manage their business processes even when the owners of the businesses are not present within the organization and also when they would on a journey. Hence, it can be assumed that cloud computing has made a major change and is the latest invention for many organizations as the technology has helped in the efficient management of the business.
Integration of cloud computing
With the invention and the growing popularity of the technology of cloud computing, it has become quite essential for different companies to understand and apprehend the potential of the advanced form of technology. With the realization of the impact of this kind of technology, many more business organizations have shown their interest in implementing the cloud computing technology. This could be done in three different ways such as: Infrastructure as a Service, Software as a Service and Platform as a Service. The SaaS is the most commonly used method in order to implement the cloud platform within the organizational operations. This software mostly helps the organizations to remain in contact with their employees and their consumers (Wu, Garg & Buyya, 2012). Amazon Web Services that is an integral part of Amazon helps in providing effective and excellent services with the help of the cloud based software. On the contrary, the PaaS is another way in order to add the cloud computing platform within the business organization. This would help the design the platform based on which the software would be able to depend on a remotely located server. This allows an organization to perform on the cloud domain. Lastly, the IaaS is a bit expensive service when compared to the two other form of services. This means that the entire system of information would be based on the cloud platform that would mainly help the organization to develop the system that would be operating within the company in an efficient way. The implementation of cloud computing within business organizations has increased at a rapid pace that clearly depicts that the integration of the cloud would have substantial benefits within the organization.
The first and the most important factor that would be influencing the impact of cloud computing within the business is the growing competition within the market which forces change within the companies. The cloud platform helps in providing an effective connection even when a person would not be present within the premises of the office. This suggests that the accessibility to the information has been in a fast and in an effective manner that mainly helps the employees to perform their responsibilities in an effective manner. The services of the cloud is affordable and is smooth, which helps in reducing the costs of IT and the administrative costs. The technology is also eco-friendly in nature that would help in the effective functioning of the organization in order to perform the prescribed duties without causing any harm to the environment. This would also provide quick and easy access to data that would be majorly important for the contemporary environment of the business within the organization. Another major factor that would help in influencing cloud computing platform is the easy approach of the storage of information and the retrieval of data that would help in the making of decisions. The services of the cloud are also eco-friendly that would effectively be helpful for the organization in order to execute the duties without causing any kind of harm to the environment and also provide quick and ease of access to the data. Apart from all these factors that majorly influences the integration of cloud computing is that they utilize the use of big data in an efficient way and thus distribute them effectively for the best result of the organization.
Effect of cloud computing integration on business
Cloud computing is also helpful for the businesses as the technology help them to take decisions of their business processes. This could be achieved by providing an effective access to every employee of the organization that would help them to provide suggestions on a certain matter. This would be effective in managing the business and thus make appropriate decisions for the business. The reductions in the costs within the business would help the organization to utilize the finance of the business in a possible manner. Cloud computing provides the facility to their employees to perform their work activities outside the office premises. They should be practical within the market and thus would have to collect data and also communicate with the thinking tank of the organization. This helps the organization in order to support the operations of the business in an effective manner. Thus a positive impact on the operation of the organization would help in getting the best result from within the organization. The cloud computing platform helps in providing a major opportunity in order to manage the efficiency of the business and thus gain competitiveness within the market by revealing them to a big pool of data and thus utilize them in order to get the best appropriate results within the business (Chang, Walters & Wills, 2013).
The philosophy is an important segment within the research. It is extremely important for the researcher to choose the topic of the research. There are several choices such as constructionist, pragmatism, advocacy and post positivism. In the current study, it is extremely necessary to examine the available data and hence after the post positivism process, it would be suitable for the following purpose. This would make use of common sense and scientific based reasoning in order to address the hypothesis that would be extremely important to answer the questions of the research. The philosophy of post positivism would be helpful in effectively digging the scientific data, which would support the description of the theoretical data that allows the completion of the research (Glesne, 2015).
Research Design
The design of the research is an essential and an important component of the methodology. It is highly considered as the blueprint of the entire research. This would be helpful in indicating about the facts of the collection of the data. There are various ways to help in the design of the research such as qualitative, quantitative and the method of mixed approach. The current research would be following the design of qualitative research. This would help to gather appropriate qualitative data that can be easily interpreted in a descriptive manner and thus this approach has been chosen for conducting the research.
The strategy of the research mainly describes the way in which the research could be proceeded. There are many strategies of the investigation of the research that are used in the various studies of the research that would be mainly based on the merit. In the current research, the research strategy that is used is in the form of participatory research. The participation of the research would mainly come from the different executives of IT. They would have a major amount of information about the subject and hence would be able to provide an effective result from the study.
The method of the collection of data should be a tremendously important aspect. This is due to the fact that the entire research would be depending on the actual collection of relevant data. Hence it is extremely important for the researcher to choose an appropriate method of data collection for the purpose of the completion of the data. An efficient method of the collection of data would prove to be efficient in order to examine the entire working of the new system. There are several methods for collecting data after the implementation of any project. They are mainly done by using survey, questionnaire, groups of focus, panels, combination of different focus groups and interview. For the current study, the collection of the data would be mainly done by conducting interview within the IT executives as they would be able to understand the various aspects that would concern the concept of cloud computing and their effect on the situation of the business of the organization. The conduction of interview with some people is an important aspect as with the interview the main decision would rest on the hands of the people. They would be able to explain the every minute details of the work that is being conducted. The IT executives who have the entire knowledge of the working of the cloud based environment within the organization would be able to explain about the details of the cloud based environment within the organization. The IT executives would be working on the cloud based systems. They would checks the advantages and disadvantages of working on the cloud based environment within the business systems. They would recognize the flaws within the existing systems and the positive or negative impacts of the implementation of the cloud based environment within the business. The cloud platform has provided immense possibilities for the future of work within an organization. The data that would be needed to be collected would be entirely based on the interview questions.
The analysis of the data would be done based on a descriptive format. A basic descriptive analysis of data analysis would involve the calculation of some basic measures of composition and the wide distribution of variables. Based on the type of data, the measures would be based on proportions, averages or ratios, rates and many other methodologies. The descriptive statistics are mainly used in order to explain the basic features of the data collected from the research. They deliver simple outlines about the sample of the research and the effective measures that should be implemented. The descriptive analysis would be extremely helpful in describing and understanding the basic features of a specific set of data.
Firstly the data would be collected by conducting an interview. The interview would be conducted on the IT executives who would be responsible for using the cloud platform within the business of the organization. They would be able to explain the minute details of each and every function within the work of the organization. They would be mainly responsible for performing their tasks of accessing the operations of cloud computing within the systems of the organization. They would examine the functioning of the entire systems. Any problem that would be detected within the systems, would be reported during the analysis and interview. The collected data would be coded efficiently in order to be sent for the analysis of the data. This could be performed with the help of a vivid analysis based on the themes. The collected data would be analyzed by the higher level of authorities who would be responsible for the later course of actions. The entire process would be efficient for an efficient working of the implementation of the cloud based systems within the business organizations.
The sample population that would be chosen for the current research would be possible with the help of the purpose of purposive sampling. This would help in getting appropriate respondents for the purpose of the completion of the research that would be helpful for the researcher in order to receive actual response for the completion of the study. The population would be mainly possible by the IT executives who would properly understand the importance of cloud computing and thus assess the effect that would concern the topic of cloud computing (Smith, 2015).
The sample that has been selected for the qualitative study should is small but the response that has been received is extremely effective in order to interpret the subject of the research. The size of the sample for the current research is mainly kept at 25.
Expected Results
The expected result that would be obtained from the current study would be able to provide an insight on the integration of cloud computing and their various effects on the business of the organization. This would be helpful in providing a major support for the purpose of future studies. It would also be beneficial by educating people about the importance of cloud computing and their integration within the system. This would help in addressing the future of the exact future in an effective way.
References
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Chang, V., Walters, R. J., & Wills, G. (2013). The development that leads to the Cloud Computing Business Framework. International Journal of Information Management, 33(3), 524-538.
Fernando, N., Loke, S. W., & Rahayu, W. (2013). Mobile cloud computing: A survey. Future generation computer systems, 29(1), 84-106.
Flick, U. (2015). Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project. Sage.
Garg, S. K., Versteeg, S., & Buyya, R. (2013). A framework for ranking of cloud computing services. Future Generation Computer Systems, 29(4), 1012-1023.
Glesne, C. (2015). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction. Pearson.
Hashem, I. A. T., Yaqoob, I., Anuar, N. B., Mokhtar, S., Gani, A., & Khan, S. U. (2015). The rise of “big data” on cloud computing: Review and open research issues. Information Systems, 47, 98-115.
Panneerselvam, R. (2014). Research methodology. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
Smith, J. A. (Ed.). (2015). Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. Sage.
Wu, L., Garg, S. K., & Buyya, R. (2012). SLA-based admission control for a Software-as-a-Service provider in Cloud computing environments. Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 78(5), 1280-1299.