Cloud Computing Adoption Process

TechnFite deals with the production of medical services used in the space program, and they work in close collaboration with NASA. This means that security is the top priority as it also provides proprietary technology allowing humans to work more hours in space. Besides, several needs have to be met. First, the CIO has concerns on the security implications of the current infrastructure which should track, scan and monitor the network traffic passing through their firewalls hence she needs an inexpensive solution due to constraints of low budgets per year. Secondly, the company lacks enough storage space to support the current logs for even a year. Thirdly, the pressure to comply with FISMA requirements and it is facing restrictions by competitors since they are concerned with how data is being handled within international boundaries; hence,  it could not effectively work with other space programs and its subsidiaries it intends to open overseas. Finally, cyber-attackers are the biggest threat thus they need reliable detection and reporting system for potential attacks. 

Emerging Technology Solution

The effective emerging technology I can propose for the company is cloud computing solutions, specifically Platform as a service (PaaS). It allows new users to be added quickly with minimal administration costs, hence reducing the organization’s expenditure which makes it a cost-effective technological solution. Justification: cloud computing significantly saves on costs by availing all computing resources on demand, meaning that the company needs to pay for services they need hence it is an efficient and economical approach [1]. Apparently, enhanced collaboration, flexibility, and stability in cloud computing make this technology the best alternative to address current and future issues within the organization [5]. Besides, cloud computing offers dynamic storage space with resources being accessible globally by its subsidiaries; hence, it can proceed to the expansion plan.

Adoption Process

TechFite can choose PaaS, which provides space and other resources of controlling their data in the cloud which is a protected environment with the service provider’s firewall. Also,  Based on the early risks and benefits, technological strengths of cloud computing include enhancing security, scalability, integrity, and availability of resources such as servers, databases, and applications through internet connectivity [5]. Early risks include data security measures that create the need for IT experts within the organization to scrutinize and regularly manage since the information is stored off-site. This requires frequent maintenance and security upgrade to ensure that client’s data is free from malicious events of undesired personnel. Later collaboration stages will have the benefits of data visualization, network management, and internet connectivity technology. The final step of implementation must involve the signing of service level agreements which establishes the constraints under which the service provider and TechFite must work.

Positive and Negative Impacts of Cloud Computing

The positive impacts cloud computing include the ability to access enterprises from any locations, savings on costs while the company has a wide storage space for its data and resources. On the other hand, negative impacts include the complexity of cloud computing implementations, which affects employees without adequate skills. Secondly, resistance due to habitual inefficiency from workers operates in a static environment. In response to these adverse effects, the organization can mitigate these challenges through offering effective in-house, which the employees will be trained on how to build and maintain the servers. In effect, this will help limit the frequent network slowdowns. Besides, training will change employees focus to existing cloud computing security threats, hence resolving issues by regular monitoring of systems use and training of workers on technical skills [2]. Additionally, the organization can install appropriate software to boost the speed of connection during the technical operations. Furthermore, the organization should ensure that their systems are equipped with security-tight operating systems to avoid cyber threats such as malware and virus that can attack and interfere with the system.

Comparison with Existing Technology

The current infrastructure faces numerous challenges, including the inability to host data accessible from all locations, low storage space while the proposed solution (PaaS) provides reliable, flexible and dynamic space for storing and accessing data. Compared to IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) PaaS provides more space for data management and operating systems that streamline work capacity distribution, it also restricts a business’s elasticity to create the environment that they want. PaaS, therefore, outdoes the pros of the existing IaaS infrastructure, which follows the TechFite mission by availing services like software and controls utilized by the company staff to manage resources [6]. This will cut off extra budget costs imposed when using the current infrastructure system which faces risks of billing for unauthorized.

Adoption Metrics

Measuring adoption is vital in determining the behavior of customers towards the services provided. The adoption metrics include: adoption rate, which measures the percentage of new users on a certain feature calculated by relating new users to current total users, Time to first key action which evaluates the time taken for a new user to navigate and final percentage of users who perform a task for the first time [4]. The success of the technology can be measured mainly by comparison between the current cloud computing technology and the proposed PaaS technology to determine the KPI (key performance index). Customer churn rate and regular income per customer are the crucial aspects that are worth focusing on from a customer viewpoint and economic perception. In addition, calculation of time to daily use also helps to determine the time it takes for a cloud product to reach a customer. Moreover, user satisfaction surveys given to customers enable organizations to get responses for the services offered hence, gauging the competencies achieved [4].

References

1. Brandl, D. (2010). Don’t cloud your compliance data. Control Engineering, 57(1), 23.

2. Buyya, R., Ranjan, R., & Calheiros, R. N. (2010, May). Intercloud: Utility-oriented federation of cloud computing environments for scaling of application services. In International Conference on Algorithms and Architectures for Parallel Processing (pp. 13-31). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

3. Linden, A., & Fenn, J. (2003). Understanding Gartner’s hype cycles. Strategic Analysis Report Nº R-20-1971. Gartner, Inc.

4. Rodden, K., Hutchinson, H., & Fu, X. (2010, April). Measuring the user experience on a large scale: user-centered metrics for web applications. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2395-2398). ACM.

5. Wang, L., Tao, J., Kunze, M., Castellanos, A. C., Kramer, D., & Karl, W. (2008, September). Scientific cloud computing: Early definition and experience. In High Performance Computing and Communications, 2008. HPCC’08. 10th IEEE International Conference on (pp. 825-830). Ieee.

6. Zhang, J., Zhang, J., Ding, H., Wan, J., Ren, Y., & Wang, J. (2013). Designing and applying an education iaas system based on openstack. Appl. Math, 7(1L), 155-160.