The Benefits of Cloud Computing

Abstract

Cloud computing is gaining ground in the global ICT market and day by day a significant number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are adopting cloud services with sole purpose to improve their business environment and become more efficient, competitive and productive. Migrating a business IT infrastructure to the cloud offers reduction on server and storage costs, software maintenance expenditures, network and energy expenses as well as costs associated with disaster recovery. Since the cloud computing model works on a “pay-as-you-go” basis, it provides the option to pay for what is used. Thus, its adoption can offer slow start-up or expansion costs, creating an environment for rapid innovation and development. Into that context, this article presents the Greek side of cloud evolution through two representative case studies, the migration of an IT system of a Greek industry, from an in-house data center to Google Cloud and a study of the “in-house” IT infrastructure of the National Confederation of Hellenic Commerce. Findings from the Greek industry, indicate that the cloud proposal could cost 50%, or 24% less per month (depending on the solution). As far as the National Confederation of Hellenic Commerce is concerned, the article proposes only a new measure of security using Cloud services for reasons that will be discussed at the case study. Both case studies take into account the present costs of the IT system (energy consumption, third party contracts and maintenance) and propose alternatives through cloud migration. Results indicate that cloud computing offers benefits and significant cost savings for both studied cases, showing promising ways for the successful adoption of the cloud.

Unleashing the Power of Cloud Computing for Big Data Management: Advantages, Challenges, and Future Prospects

“…Cost-Effectiveness: Highlighting the economic benefits, Georgios Chatzithanasis and C. Michalakelis argue that cloud computing provides significant cost savings [6]. By transitioning to cloud platforms, businesses can manage and analyze big data in a more cost-effective manner, optimizing their return on investment.…”

Cloud Service Model’s Role in Provider and User Security Investment Incentives

“…Multiple users share cloud resources such as hardware and software (Metz and Perlroth 2018). However, the benefits from cloud computing also generally result from sharing computing resources and the economy of scale advantages (Otava 2010). Thus, management of information security has become a key concern for firms that are shifting to the e-business model, that is, cloud computing, to meet their IT needs.…”