Toward the Trend of Cloud Computing

ABSTRACT Cloud Computing has recently been recognized as one of the most emerging technology. A considerable amount of research has been carried out to explore different areas in Cloud Computing. Nevertheless, few areas including reliability, security and business value of Cloud Computing are yet to be explored. This paper presents a brief summary on the analysis of current gaps and new trends in cloud computing research based on extant information systems literature, industry reports, and practical experience reflections. Additionally, it highlights the significance of cloud computing and its implications for practitioner and academics. We conclude by outlining the opportunities associated with the development of Cloud Computing and noting future research directions. Keywords: cloud computing, service utilization, cloud services 1. Introduction There is no doubt that Cloud Computing is making a significant impact on Information Technology (IT). It is not merely a technology concept but also a new approach of implementing electronic commerce. An idea that computing is used similarly to the way of utility consumption (e.g., electricity), is to revolutionize the development and delivery of IT services [Brynjolfsson et al. 2010]. Traditionally, companies need to acquire hardware, software to automate and improve their business processes. Additionally, IT teams were required to support the information systems infrastructure. A rapid growth in technology poses huge challenges for companies to keep with the most up to date and current technology. In order to be with the pace of the market, companies continuously spend time and resources in IT to remain competitive [Fruhling & Digman 2000]. This situation has greatly been impacted and may change with the inception of Cloud Computing. It offers valuable and useful benefits for businesses of any size or type. Generally, customers are attracted towards the promises of Cloud Computing that include but not limited to enhancing IT resources with small upfront costs. It is suggested that companies all over the world might be slowly resizing their in-house IT infrastructure and have started using computation services available on the Internet to meet their organization needs [Carr 2008]. Cloud Computing is arguably one of the most important technological shifts within last decade. In recent years, computing has become an inexpensive commodity that is reachable and affordable to many business and individual customers. This appeals to many companies, whether small or large enterprises, because with less upfront cost than the traditional way, no software and hardware to buy, and very few things to manage, they could achieve increased level of robustness and get benefit of built in redundancy of Cloud Computing environment. Extant research suggests that Cloud Computing includes three types of models [Iyer & Henderson 2 Mell & Grance 2011]: Software as a service (SaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Under SaaS, applications (e.g., productivity, accounting or human resource applications) are provided by Cloud service provider over the Internet. Any update or change in the application is solely the responsibility of the provider. Customer pays for the service based on their opted service utilization. Under PaaS, developmental tools that help to build computer applications are managed and provided by cloud service provider over the Internet. In this situation, customers access these tools through web browser and develop new applications without installing the development tool on their local machine. In addition, customers can customize, deploy and test the newly developed applications over the Internet and without any administrative skills of computer servers. Under IaaS, customers utilize a complete set of equipments required to support their business operations. The equipments can include hardware, storage, servers, networking component, and etc. …