as below

A. Introduction to the problem - What are the parameters or limitations of the situation?

Users have been complaining about performance issue with the current computer system. The use of different software solutions in each department have created data silos resulting in poor decision making. Online ordering is not available from the website. The current IT infrastructure is not capable of supporting workloads for online orders and new ERP solution that will improve decision making. The company has to decide whether to upgrade their IT infrastructure or move to the cloud.

B. Background on the company - Where is it, how big, organizational structure, political climate, etc. You should have several paragraphs of written material so that your readers can really get a feel for the organization. Include the main features of the organization that make it unique.

Beta Produce, Inc. is a fresh produce distributor which specializes in fresh fruits and vegetables deliveries servicing grocery stores, restaurants, businesses and schools in Florida. The company has partnered with many organic and conventional local growers in the Southeast region to deliver fresh produce all year long. Beta Produce Inc. prides itself on working with local growers to deliver high quality produce to its customers at a competitive price.

Beta Produce, Inc. was founded by John Smith in 1992. He started the business by delivering fresh produce from one local grower to a small local grocery store in Tampa, FL. The company’s headquarter is located in Tampa, Florida and is currently servicing major cities in the Florida such as: Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville, and Tallahassee. The company now employs about 50 employees, and is composed of six departments: Sales and Marketing, Accounting, Production, Human Resources (HR), Information Technology (IT) and Customer Service.

The sales and marketing department handles the customers’ order. The orders are placed over the phone or by email. The marketing team is charge of finding new customer and growers to partner with. They keep in touch with growers and major customers to ensure their satisfaction. The production department is charge of the produce inventory, and distribution. The produce is either collected from local growers or shipped from the growers to the company processing facility. Once the fresh produce is received, they are processed, and immediately scheduled for delivery. Produce not delivered the same day is stored in a controlled environment to ensure food safety. The customer service department handles any customers’ inquiries or issues. They also provide order status and take orders. The accounting department process payments and invoices to be mailed to the customers.

The senior management is composed of a chief executive officer (CEO), a chief financial officer (CFO), a chief operating officer (COO), and a chief information officer (CIO). Then you have the mid-level management composed the managers of the six departments. Finally, we have the staff operating in each department. John Smith is the owner and CEO of Beta Produce, Inc.

C. Core analysis – Contains information relevant to the decision at hand.

Beta Produce Inc. wants to expand its business to include produce delivery to homes and the neighboring states of Georgia and Alabama. The company would like to partner with new suppliers to add meat, cheese and dairy to the list of products they offer. The company has website but it is mainly used to provide information to the customers about products and services. Each department uses different software solutions for their day to day operations resulting data silos and poor decision making because departments are not interconnected to share data. The current computer system (servers, PCs, network devices, etc.) was implemented over five years ago and is outdated. Users have been complaining about the current computer system running slow and freezing at times. Customers and partners have been requesting access to some information online due to long wait time to speak to customer service.

D. Status report – Describes the organizations actions on the matter; may include statements from managers, employees, vendors on their intentions for resolving the issues

To achieve their new objectives, the company would like to improve its online presence with an online ordering option to reach out to more potential customers, and deliver new services. The website needs to be operational 24/7 to handle customers’ orders. Based on customers and partners requests, the company would like some functionalities added to the website so customers can log online to view orders history, view invoices, track orders, make payment, and chat with a customer service representative. This will reduce the call volume to the customer service department so they can focus on other issues.

To improve decision making and collaboration, the company is also looking into getting an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution for supply chain management (purchasing and distribution), produce management, customer relationship management (CRM), sales order processing, online sales, financials, human resources, and decision support system. Duplicate orders are some time created because the sales team or customer services department is not getting updated information about orders.

The company wants to address the performance issue with the computer system to improve productivity. The performance issue is affecting employee’s productivity. The company is looking into upgrading the IT infrastructure: hardware, software, and network.

E. Case conclusion – 4 to 6 problems that require the reader to analyze or solve a particular question. If you have written a good case, they will have enough information to understand the situation and have a lively class discussion. The case problems can take several forms – Given a situation, ask the reader what they would do next; Establish a task and ask the reader to prepare a report recommending an action to be reviewed by a key stakeholder; Establish a scenario and ask the reader to analyze the errors and how it should have been handled.

The new functionalities to the website, coupled with the computer system’s performance issues and the new ERP will require upgrading to an IT infrastructure capable of handling the workloads because the current infrastructure is outdated. The new infrastructure must also be scalable to handle the company growth for the next 5 years. Senior management is looking for a solution that will improve the current IT infrastructure but at the same time align with their business strategy. Some in the senior management are leaning toward a cloud solution because they heard some many great things about it but others expressed some concerns with having the company data stored in the cloud, especially with the recent data breach on the news. The company is at a crossroad: proceed with a complete upgrade of the current IT infrastructure or move to the cloud.

F. Other sections of the case - Depending on the case you are researching and writing, the sections of the case will need to be organized so that each type of information is in its own section and understandable to the reader. You might not use all the sections described above, but certainly, your case study will need to consider the challenges relating to the Information Systems field.

Public cloud

First, let’s define cloud computing. The term “cloud” in cloud computing came from the representation the Internet as a cloud in network diagrams. Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the Internet (Microsoft, n.d.). The computing services are servers, storage, networking, databases, analytics, software, applications, or anything running workloads. Cloud computing is around us, and we sometime use it without even realizing it: online services like music and movie streaming, email and gaming, online storage service for pictures and files are all example of cloud computing. For an organization, cloud computing is way to outsource its IT resources and infrastructure. Cloud computing services can be divided into three main categories: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). With IaaS, a cloud provider hosts your IT infrastructure such as server, operating systems, storage, and networks (TechTarget, n.d.). Your entire IT infrastructure is virtualized. The IaaS provider provides backup, maintenance and security of your virtualized environment. PaaS is a type of cloud computing service specifically designed for software application developers. It provides an environment where they can develop, test, and deploy applications (Knorr, 2017). SaaS is a cloud computing service that delivers software applications over the Internet through a web browser (Knorr, 2017).

Now that we have an idea of cloud computing and its services, let’s discuss public cloud. Public cloud is one model of cloud computing where computing services are offered by third party service providers over public network like the Internet; “Public cloud services may be free or offered on a pay-per-usage model” (TechTarget, n.d.). Public cloud is a completely virtualized environment built using pooled shared physical resources. Some of the major public cloud providers are: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and IBM Cloud.

Advantages of public cloud

Here are some the reasons why an organization should move to the public cloud:

· Cost Savings: Cost savings is probably one of the main reasons why many organizations are moving to the public cloud. With public cloud, you only pay for the services and resources (storage, CPU, bandwidth, memory, etc.) that you are using. Because public cloud model is a multi-tenant architecture, the service providers offer cloud computing services at fraction of the cost by spreading the cost among the multiple tenants (DoubleHorn Communications LLC, 2017.). The organization can also realize some significant cost savings by eliminating hardware (servers and network devices), support, and maintenance costs. Public cloud reduces operational costs associated with IT operations. The organization can invest the capital from those cost savings in other projects or areas in need of improvement.

· Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: The business entire system and its data storage are running in the public cloud on the cloud providers’ data centers. These data centers including the business system and data are regularly backed up to multiple locations to ensure continuous access to the business data and prevent or minimize any downtime. Because the cloud data centers are regularly backed up and replicated to other locations, you are guarantee constant availability of your infrastructure and resources (Cii Technology Solutions, n.d.). With your infrastructure and resources not running on in-house servers and network, your business data will not be affected if or when your office building or server room is destroyed by a disaster (man-made or natural). You can access your data and infrastructure in the cloud from anywhere; all you need is a computer, smartphone or tablet, and a connection to the Internet. Public cloud offers business continuity and disaster recovery plan in one solution.

· Security: Security of public cloud has been of one the concerns raised by many when exploring the move to public cloud. Progresses have been to improve public cloud security since it first became available. Cloud’s data centers are secure in locations that have multiple layers of security to ensure data integrity. Cloud services providers have the resources to hire the experienced personnel with the skills set necessary to implement the highest level of security in the data centers (DoubleHorn Communications LLC, n.d.).

· Scalability and Flexibility: Public cloud offers a pay-per-usage model; you only pay for what you use. This model makes it easy for businesses to scale up or down their computing services on demand. Such thing will require planning if you were housing your infrastructure. With public cloud, users can access corporate network and resources from anywhere using different devices that can connect to the Internet which increases productivity. Because user can connect from anywhere, public cloud makes it easier for them collaborate efficiently (DoubleHorn Communications LLC, 2017).

Disadvantages of public cloud

Here are some of reasons why a company should not move to public cloud:

· Additional costs: Cost saving is the biggest arguments cloud providers will present when offering their services but one thing to consider is bandwidth. According to Subieta (2015), cloud providers won’t mention bandwidth until after the sale. Your bandwidth will greatly impact your public cloud performance. If you have enough bandwidth you’ll experience great performance but if you don’t you’ll experience poor performance. You must consider the cost of upgrading your bandwidth. If your business is totally dependent on public cloud, you should consider having a redundant internet connection in case your primary connection is down. Redundant internet connection can be very expensive. All these upgrade costs must be included in your return on investment (RIO) calculations.

· Mobility: Mobility is another sales pitch from cloud providers but you can provide remote users with access to the corporate network and resources via remote desktop connection, virtual private network (VPN). The question you should ask yourself is whether moving to public cloud is more beneficial to the business than remote connection (Subieta, 2015). SaaS offers web based application like emails, calendar and customer relationship management (CRM) applications that offer mobility. May be the entire infrastructure doesn’t need to be moved to the cloud.

· Security: The cloud providers’ pitch is that they have the available resources to ensure the security and integrity of your data. But having the resources does not guarantee the data will always be secured especially with the recent data breach. A small business may not need that high level security, and implementing a low cost firewall may provide the same level of security for your business (Subieta, 2015). According to Subieta (2015), some of the questions you should ask are: Where is my data? Is my data backed up? Where, when and how often is the data backed up? How long to restore data if needed? What happened if my data is lost or stolen?

· Availability and Control: With public cloud, the cloud providers are responsible for maintaining the environment. They will perform the software, operating systems patches/updates and upgrade installs. Those installs keep the system secure and up to date, and you don’t have to spend the time resources perform those tasks. However, you have no control over the updates and patches installs, and if there is a compatibly issue with an update and software, this could cause some downtime (Subieta, 2015). If the cloud providers are experiencing any downtime, you may not be able to access your infrastructure and resources.

Hybrid Cloud

Many organizations have started to blend both private and public cloud offerings to create a hybrid cloud infrastructure. These hybrid clouds exploit the control and security of a private cloud, along with the flexibility and low cost of public cloud offerings. Together they form a powerful solution to meet the increased demands on IT from the rest of the organization.

What is a hybrid cloud?

The hybrid cloud is a combination of a public cloud provider, such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure, with a private cloud platform — one that’s designed for use by a single organization .

The public and private cloud infrastructures, which operate independently of each other, communicate over an encrypted connection using technology that allows for the portability of data and applications.

Advantages of hybrid cloud :

There are numerous benefits to using a hybrid cloud instead of a more singular approach, whether that is using only a public cloud or a private cloud.

· Fit for purpose: Finding a one-size-fits-all solution for every use case is practically impossible. Businesses have different sets of requirements for different types of applications. The solution is found in the hybrid cloud. Hybrid Cloud is a holistic approach to the consumption of IT. It is about matching the right solution to the right job. Public cloud, private cloud and dedicated servers are combined and work together seamlessly as one platform. Hybrid cloud minimizes trade-offs and breaks down technical barriers so that you get maximum benefit and improved performance from each component.

· Cost Benefits: Hybrid cloud benefits are easily quantifiable. By leveraging the benefits of hybrid cloud, your business can reduce overall total cost of ownership and improve cost efficiency. Hybrid cloud allows you to more closely match your cost pattern to your revenue/demand pattern, and in the process, move your business from a capital-intensive cost model to an Opex-based model.

· Improved Security : The security of customer transactions and personal information is always of prime importance for any business. By combining dedicated and cloud resources, you can address many security and compliance concerns.

· Greater accessibility : By leveraging the public cloud in times of heavy usage, the organization can experience fewer outages and less downtime. For developing and testing new applications, the hybrid cloud also offers an attractive option for hosting them–buying time until a decision is eventually made as to where to host it permanently.

· Stability and availability: Downtime is bound to happen sometime. But when you run applications in and outside of your company network, you can better protect yourself from an outage, whether it occurs in the public cloud or within your own network. Not being pushed through the public internet. This greatly reduces access time and latency in comparison to public cloud services.

· Existing infrastructure: If you have already invested in an IT infrastructure, the hybrid cloud lets you take full advantage of that investment while enabling you to transition other applications to the public cloud. Using a hybrid model is a valuable approach to architecture, considering you can mix and match the resources between local infrastructure, which is typically a sunk cost but difficult to scale, with infrastructure that's scalable and provisioned on demand. You place the applications and data on the best.

Disadvantages of hybrid cloud:

Like all approaches to cloud storage and data analytics, hybrid computing has a number of disadvantages. Here are some of the challenges that may arise when using a hybrid cloud model :

· Cost : While the public cloud can offer an attractive option for its flexibility and relatively low cost to operate, building a private enterprise cloud requires significant expenditure and can become expensive very quickly with all the physical hardware necessary.

· Security: Cloud computing is not inherently any less secure than traditional computing, and in fact faces fewer attacks, but there are still considerations to take into account when building out a hybrid cloud. The proper precautions must be taken to ensure data is properly protected and that control is maintained by the right people. Additionally, depending on the industry, there may be certain regulatory requirements that prohibit data from being stored off-site, which would prevent the use of a public cloud entirely.

· Data and application integration: Applications and data exist in a symbiotic relationship, with each one being useless without the other. Oftentimes they’re chained together. So when considering where to store each of them, it’s essential to ask whether the infrastructure they’re placed on matters. For example, if an application lives in a private cloud and its data lives in an on premise data center, is the application built in order to access the data remotely? Technologies like copy data virtualization can decouple data from infrastructure and make this problem less of a headache.

· Compatibility: Compatibility across infrastructure can prove itself to be a major issue when building a hybrid cloud. With dual levels of infrastructure, a private cloud the company controls and a public one that it doesn’t, the chances are that they will be running different stacks.

· Networking: Will very active applications be living in the cloud? It’s necessary to consider the bandwidth usage they could take up on the network and whether or not it could cause problems in bottlenecking other applications.

References