Cloud Computing Leads to Productivity Gains

Executive Summary

Many companies wish to streamline their operations in a quick and cost effective manner and cloud computing can solve this problem. It can allow them to grow substantially and handle a much greater amount of web traffic without the need for large infrastructure investments, which many smaller companies struggling to survive simply cannot afford. It is currently a rapid growing segment with almost 75% of major companies currently using some form of cloud computing. The three main types of cloud computing are: Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS), each of these helping companies streamline their operations and making them significantly more productive almost instantly. There are several benefits to adopting cloud computing such as: eliminating the need for large infrastructure investments, improved accessibility, enhanced collaboration, better scalability, eased communication and even an environmentally friendly aspect. Although, along with these huge benefits come some potential problems, the largest of these being security issues. As companies essentially trust a third party to maintain their servers and information, it puts a lot of responsibility in the hands of these people to make sure that the information is safe and cannot be accessed by anyone but the intended users. This is the main issue slowing the implementation of cloud computing everywhere. Another issue is privacy, with the service provider potentially being able to access the data that is on the cloud at any point in time, they could accidentally or deliberately alter or even delete information. Several large companies such a Netflix, Etsy, and World Wide Importers have used the cloud to drastically transform their companies, allowing them to compete in an ever changing and increasingly competitive world. Many other companies along with the ones aforementioned are adopting some