Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has become an integral component of organizations today and are supported by numerous companies including Microsoft, Google, and IBM. Lesser known companies include Citrix, Symantec, and Flexiant. Each of these companies is a service oriented E-Business and each specializes in one or more cloud services. These services are Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

The first cloud service, Software as a Service (SaaS), is arguably the most well-known. SaaS allows the use of an application or app by countless users in any location in the world. The benefit to this technology is that when a user needs access to a particular software program they do not have to be at any one location (Microsoft, 2012).

Microsoft 365 is an example of SaaS and is subscription based. Users login to the program from any device with an internet connect and are able to save documents and files on the cloud network rather than or along with their device’s hard drive. Another type of SaaS is Symantec backup services. Symantec offers complete back up services so that other businesses do not need to invest in expense hardware. This is vital to small businesses who cannot afford the expensive infrastructure. Symantec’s service backs up on a set schedule ensuring consistency (Symantec, 2013).

SaaS has numerous benefits, one of the most important being lower expenses. SaaS allows businesses to save files as well as run programs on a host’s server. This lowers expenses for businesses as they do not have to invest as much in costly hardware. They also are able to reduce energy consumption as they are not running their own hardware and cooling systems. Another financial benefit is companies utilizing SaaS can refocus their manpower to higher priority projects (Salesforce, 2013).

The high adoption rate of SaaS applications is also a major benefit. Since SaaS applications are available on most devices connected to the internet the number of potential customers is exponential. Applications often have high adoption rates with a lower learning curve, which leads to even further use. Lastly, SaaS offers painless upgrades to customers. The provider manages software updates and upgrades as well as assumes the costs of physical hardware upgrades. In addition the customer does not have to download and install software patches saving time and resources (Salesforce, 2013).

The second cloud service is Platform as a Service (PaaS). In PaaS the customer creates the software and applications using software created by a provider. The customer controls the development and deployment of the program, while the provider ensures access to networks, servers and storage. PaaS is considered an open source cloud platform and allows users to use community contributions to launch their own cloud service (SalesForce, 2013).

One company offering PaaS is Flexiant, a premier cloud