for Kim woods

Cloud Services:

1. Why it aids in designing effective organizations, including its benefits?

        When it comes to pondering over the pivotal benefits of the data storage tools, used by the organizations in order to improve their in-house activities and design, there is definitely a need for acknowledging that the cloud data storage services offer more advantages than disadvantages to their users. The organizations that use the online – cloud – data storage services are constantly sure that their information is properly maintained, archived, managed and backed up by a team of the refined IT professionals. In accordance with the latest statistical data on the issue, more than 800 large companies worldwide have already resorted to the usage of the cloud storage services. Furthermore, by the end of 2017, it is expected that the cloud data storage market will grow to a $244 billion share of the entire IT market (“The Promise & Challenges of Cloud Storage”). Therefore, it should be definitely precluded that opting for the cloud data storage seems to be quite a relevant decision for the business sharks of the 21st century.

        As a matter of fact, the list of the cloud data storage factors which contribute to the designing effective organizations is extremely ample; furthermore, the enumeration of benefits, brought about by the cloud data storage, should also not be underestimated. The IMEX Specialized Research think-tank claim that the most important thing about the cloud data storage option is that it does provide security and comprehensive data availability (“The Promise & Challenges of Cloud Storage”). Indeed, there is not wonder in the fact that the modern organization are extensively dependent upon the level of security of their data, as its leakage would mean a total submersion of the organization into the state of stagnant competitive abilities.   Moreover, the cloud tools provide the organization with the bandwidth limitations that limit the scope of public access to the storage, automatically improving the scope of the organization's security (“The Promise & Challenges of Cloud Storage”). For example, imagine that Apple, Inc. encountered the data leakage, as a result of which, the entire technical characterization and design features of the iPhone 7 have been disclosed to its competitors, such as Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo, and others. Therefore, the data security rates, provided by the cloud data storage variant, represents the first and the foremost contribution of the cloud tools into the design of effective organizations.

        Nonetheless, what deserves to undergo a special scrutiny in the context of the cloud-organization impact, are the in-house HR and managerial processes, which constitute the core of an organization's efficiency. As a matter fact, namely the efficiency of the managerial and HR processes within the organization serve as the pivotal framers of the company's overall fiscal and mental well-being. There is hardly a chance that an organization that experiences HR scarcities, an organization that lacks the presence of efficient management, will prevail in the world of business.

        Therefore, the speed of the spread of information is critical, when it comes to designing and effective organization. In accordance with Albert Greenberg, “When opting for a cloud data storage, an organization makes assures itself of the efficiency of the employees' performance, which is nowadays totally dependent upon the swiftness of information” (Greenberg et al.). Thence, an informed team is an efficient team, what automatically transforms the cloud data storage tool – the presence of which is the main prerequisite for the rapidness and omnipresence of data accessibility – into one of the biggest contributors to the overall rates of an organization's efficiency.  

        Moreover, copious technical and fiscal peculiarities are to be taken into consideration, when trying to define the role of the cloud data storage tools in the process of devising efficient 21st century organizations. Hence, the cloud storage services and tools grant the companies with the latency constraints – the invisible exterminators of the application performance load, what brings significant acceleration toe the work process and boost performance (“The Promise & Challenges of Cloud Storage”). Furthermore, cloud data depositories are extremely manageable, as they do undergo the influence or any changes from a specialized industry standards, and therefore increased the effectiveness of the work environment of the organization.

        Finally, dwelling upon the cloud storage tools niche in the plain of designing effective organizations, the world of management should acknowledge that the cloud data storage tools and services offer the organizations a significant improvement in the form of an automated protocol translation and interoperability. Nowadays, there is a huge problem, regarding the ubiquitous usage of the FC and iSCSi block protocols by the data bases of the organization worldwide, what may eventually lead towards a total block of the organization's activities for an unidentified span of time. Meanwhile, in accordance with the IMEX Specialized Research: “Cloud storage protocols predominantly speak only in the language of file protocols – CIFS and  NFS – the public and private storage clouds that are accessed via the REST HTTP-based, or SOAP APIs (“The Promise & Challenges of Cloud Storage”). Finally, there is definitely a need for stating that the cloud storage tools are quite cost saving, as they are operated solely on the basis of the number of the IOPs performed – that is, the organization pays as much, as it uses, and not a penny more.

2. What is involved in implementing this subject tool?

        Having defined the pivotal factors of the cloud data storage contribution to the design of effective organizations, it now seems to be possible to dwell upon the process of involving the scrutinized tool into the system of the organization's operational activities. In fact, cloud computing, which is the general domain for the cloud data depositories, boils down to the provision of the online data storage services. That is, the process of establishing one may be classified as a bilateral one, as involves the consumer and the provider, each of which has to embark upon setting the right amount of technological capabilities, needed for the adequate running of the cloud data storage services.

        As a matter of fact, the aforementioned capabilities may be broken down into three basic groups, each of which may not be omitted, when it comes to involving the cloud data storage practices into the operational hierarchies of the effective companies. Albert Greenberg claims that these are: “Owning and operating computer hardware (IaaS); Owning and operating computer hardware and systems software (PaaS); Owning and operating computer hardware, systems software, and software applications (SaaS)” (Greenberg et al.) That is, the process of involving the cloud data storage tools into the companies consists of three stages, each of which adds to the progress of the organization, with the only differences between them being found in the scope of their contribution, and the technical requirements for the organization.

        Therefore, in order to start an organization needs to embark upon the initial purchase of the IaaS option, which envisages the need for the operating computing hardware, which is the basis for the establishment of the cloud data storage tools within the organization. Meanwhile, if the organization wants to proceed further, there would be a need looming on the horizon of urgency to buy the PaaS package, which would let the company run the cloud software itself, paying no additional fees for it to the cloud provider. However, it should be clearly understood that: “When a company buys IaaS or PaaS from a cloud provider and runs a software application on top of it, this is obviously the case, when the cloud service consumer develops the added service and provides it for the benefit of end users” (Greenberg et al.). The same happens when a company purchases the SaaS.

        Hence, it may be precluded that any type of the cloud computing hardware and software, purchased from the cloud provider, ends up in the improved consumers experience, what is of the utmost importance to the organizations that deem themselves to be effective. Of course, there is first of all a financial difference between the three aforementioned options, as the variety of the resources needed finds a direct manifestation in the final price of the chosen option. Greenberg states that: “The resources may include processors, data stores, system programs, application programs, and networks, and may be owned or leased by the provider and be on the provider’s premises, or the provider may have control of them through a contract with another cloud service provider” (Greenberg et al.). Hereafter, the it may be claimed that the two factors the shape the process of involving the cloud data storage tools into the framework of an organization's operatiional activities are the need for choosing between the IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, and the solvency of the organization itself.  

3. How will the organization be changed/restructured as a result of implementing this topic?

        Finally, there is definitely a need for ruminating upon the changes and organization is subject to once it introduces the practice of cloud data storage into the system of its operational activities. First of all, the organization will become more wisely operated in the sense of economic and fiscal operations, as the fees, paid for the cloud servers are fixed and expected. Greenberg claims that: “Given the steep fixed costs for a server installed in a data center and the server’s three year lifetime, it is always better for the server to be on and engaged in revenue producing activity — that is what optimizes work per investment dollar” (Greenberg). That is, once a company signs a contract with the service provider, it may be almost assured of its lucrativeness for the next three or four years with only question left to the scrutiny of the managerial layer of the organization being the need for agility.

        Nonetheless, namely an improved agility may be classified as the second alternation, the organization would undergo. As it has been already mentioned, the essence and successfulness of the modern business are totally dependent upon the speed and value of the data received. Therefore, the quality of the cloud serves can be classified as one of the most crucial factors of the organization's success. As a matter of fact, “The agility inside a single data center means that any server can be dynamically assigned to any service anywhere in the data center, while maintaining proper security and performance isolation between the services” (Greenberg et al.). Thus, this is namely the benefits, brought about by the cloud data storage tools, that foster the development of the organization's informational development, automatically advancing the overall picture of the company's performance.

        Moreover, the organizations will become subject to the increased level of inner resilience to the outer factors of the modern world business. In accordance with the IMEX Specialized Research: “The modern infrastructure costs are high largely because each data center is designed so that it will never fail, while the costs may be reduced dramatically by an organization's decision of a total transcendence towards the cloud data storage, what shall decrease the levels of redundancy inside the date centers” (“The Promise & Challenges of Cloud Storage”). There are three layers for developing the organization's agility, fiscal stability and business resilience with a help of the cloud data

the conducted research showcases the fact that the implementation of the cloud storage tools and services into the organization shall bring significant alternations to the organization's inner and outer activities. Of course, it may lead towards a partial reduction of the staff, as the state-of-the-art nature of the modern cloud computing lets the companies have the same amount of job performed, hiring less specialists. The organization would earn agility, resilience, and improved experience of data processing, what may cannot fail to find an eventual expression in the increased performance and incomes rates.