HI6008 Business Research

Published : 24-Sep,2021 | Views : 10

Question:

Recommend following books as an additional material to develop your research. The following books are available in online:

(a) Qualitative research from start to Finish- Robert k Yin

(b) Approaches to the Analysis of Survey Data- Published from The University of Reading Statistical Service Centre

(d) Analysis of Financial Data by Gary Coop.

Answer:

The proposed research is based on the impact of cloud computing on enterprise in respect with the cost and security. As Cloud computing has been an effective technology for the organizations in any industry, the scholars have raised many questions regarding its advantage as well as disadvantage. It is observed that innovation is significant for every change related to the technology. Many organizations want to minimize the computing cost with the help of virtualization.

Therefore, to minimize the cost of computing, there is a new technology called cloud computing. Existing studies have proved that cloud computing minimize the cost by minimizing the cost of administration and infrastructure. It enhances the utilization. As put forward by Marston et al. (2011) Cloud computing is known as the sum of SAAS and utility. Cloud computing is at the earlier stage remains as the innovative technology; thus, many organizations have issues and doubt regarding the implementation of the technologies. The proposed research focuses on those issues and doubts that organizations have to deal with while adopting the technology in the recent time. The proposed research will be conducted based on the gaps found in the literature. Thus, to address the gaps in the literature, relevant research questions objectives are formed in this section, which will further guide the research accordingly.

As metaphor for the Internet, the term cloud is well-known concept or cliché but when it is combined with the “computing”, the meaning of the term gets bigger and fuzzier. Bharadwaj, and Lal (2012) defined cloud computing as an advanced version of utility computing which provides the virtual servers over the internet. In this context, Berman et al. (2012) commuted that cloud computing remains as the major topic of scholarly research as many studies have talked about its importance and drawbacks comparing with recent trends of corporate sector.

In addition to this, it can also be mentioned that cloud computing is taken into the consideration when one does think about what they always need- a technique of increasing capacity or additional capabilities on the fly without the investment in the new infrastructure, training of new personnel and the licence of new software. Based on the existing literature, it can be ascertained that cloud computing in the initial stage could encompass any subscription-based or pay per-use, in real time over the internet. It increases the capabilities of Information Communication and Technology. The recent scenario indicates that the organizations in the Information Technology industry should plug into cloud-based services; however, the cloud based computing aggregators as well as integrators have started emerging (Erl, Puttini and Mahmood 2013). Even though, Cloud-computing remains as the significant technology for the organizations in any industry, the existing literature has found certain issues related to cloud computing system. Dhar (2012) mentioned that poor application performance causes organizations to lose customers.

These applications have decreased the productivity of employees and reduced the bottom line revenue. Application crashes because of the poor performance cost as well as impact moral. If the applications cannot properly implement because of the increase in traffic, the business could lose customers as well as revenue. Even though, the cloud is projected to provide benefits to the users, many organizations still wary about the use and implementation of Cloud-Computing. The studies have found that security is one of the most significant issues of cloud-computing. As the cloud system is entirely based on Internet, it becomes vulnerable for the users to prevent attack. Nevertheless, all modern IT organizations in the present days are invariably connected to the internet. Hence, the degree of vulnerability remains same as everywhere else. Another significant fact is that as cloud computing is a distributed network, it becomes easier for the organizations to deal with the attack in short period.

Problem Statement

Though the organizations in the recent time have gained several benefits from the cloud computing, there are also some issues remain as the barrier to cloud computing. As cloud computing provides a significant deal of uncertainty regarding how security at all ranges can be accomplished. This uncertainty persistently leads to the information executives to state that security is their numbers a company is concerned with the cloud computing. The capability of cloud computing to deal with the privacy regulations has often been called into question. The companies in the recent time have to deal with different types of requirement for the protecting the privacy of the individual information (Garg, Versteeg and Buyya 2013). Moreover, the studies have claimed that it is not yet clear whether the cloud-computing model provides adequate protection of such information. In addition, it is not also clear whether the companies will be found in violation of regulations due to the implementation of new model.

Furthermore, Oliveira, Thomas and Espadanal (2014) mentioned that enterprise applications have no become extremely critical that they should be reliable as well as available to provide operation 24/7. In the context of failure or outrages, the contingency plan should take effect smoothly. Likewise, the recovery plan should begin with the minimum disruption. However, due to the complexities in the implantation of cloud computing system, the originations have not developed any such solutions. In addition to this, it is also observed that cost could be associated with the required range of reliability; nevertheless, the business could do much by mitigating the risks as well as the cost of failure (Gangwar, Dateand and Ramaswamy 2015). The literature also indicates that portability of information between the public and private clouds remain as critical enablers for wide implementation of cloud computing by the organizations. Several companies have made significant progress towards the standardization of their techniques but the developed technique cannot guarantee the security and fixed amount cost required for the implementation of technology.

The organizations using cloud computing technology requires balance between all costs as well as benefits associated with the cloud computing both in long-term and short term. These barriers are preventing the development of cloud computing in the rapidly growing industries. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct an empirical study to identify the barriers in more way that is specific and develop solutions to deal with the barriers.

Research aim and Objectives

The aim of the research is to evaluate the impact of cloud computing on the organization in respect with cost and security.

Research Objectives

To critically evaluate the impact of the cloud computing on the organizations
To assess the barriers associated with the cost and security in the cloud computing
To provide suitable recommendation to deal with the barriers associated with the cloud computing

Research Questions

What is the impact of cloud computing on the enterprises?
What are the challenges associated with the cloud computing that prevent the firms from gaining technology-based advantage?
How can the challenges in cloud computing be avoided?

Research methodology

There are two main different types of data sources for the research study namely secondary as well as primary. To collect the data for the study, both primary and secondary data sources will be used. One of the significant rules in data collection is to exhaust all secondary data sources before implementing a primary research. In order to gain the positive result from the study, both primary and secondary data, at first, the articles that are related to the research objectives and appear in the literature will be reviewed. The major journals and proceeding will be systematically be scanned for each article related to the research topic. Moreover, the search for the key words in the peer-reviewed journals will be undertaken. The current study leads to the articles in other related journals. In order to implement an evidence-based investigation, a survey will be conducted with the help of a questionnaire.

To gain the data empirical data, the organization Atlassian will be considered in the study. The survey will be conducted among the employees of Atlassian. At first, the items should be included in the questionnaire and next, the survey will be carried out to collect the data. After, the collection of data, the analysis as well as interpretation of data will be conducted to respond to the research objectives. In addition, the questionnaire will be developed based on the findings of the literature and deriving the issues pertinent to the study objectives. Before implementing the questionnaire, it will be pre-tested in pilot study to judge the efficiency the questionnaire. In addition to this, the pilot research will be conducted among a convenience sample of 50 employees working at Atlassian. On the basis of the pilot study and the feedback collected from the participants, some particular aspects associated with the survey and empirical study will be reworded to enhance the clarity.

Research philosophy

In order to conduct the proposed research, the positivism research philosophy will be selected as this research will help to conduct the analysis of cloud computing with factual data and evidences. In addition, the positivism research philosophy will be used in the proposed study, as the there is no limitation in developing the observation.

Research Design

As positivism research philosophy will be selected for the proposed study, the researcher will have the opportunity to make repeatable observation. Thus, as observation will be made based on the real facts regarding cloud computing, it is essential to conduct the research in a descriptive way.

Research Scope

The proposed research will only include the primary analysis. However, the proposed study does not intend to include a secondary analysis. In addition, the study does not have scope for a comparative study, where two different firms who use cloud-based technology can be involved.

Sample design and sample size

In order to conduct the survey, non-probability sampling will be conducted as to gain the authentic data, it is necessary to engage the people who have genuinely knowledge regarding cloud computing. Thus, based on this criterion, non-probability sampling will be applied in the study. The sample size of study includes 60 people.

Reliability and Validity

The proposed study will have the degree of research reliability to which the research techniques produces stable as well as consistent outcome. The researcher makes sure that application of the research techniques will provide the same outcome every time.

Research limitation

The study includes both primary and secondary analysis but the findings of the study will be restricted to the information technology sector. In order to learn the impact of the cloud based technology, the study only focuses on the organization of Information Technology. However, many organizations are there in other sectors that have used Cloud based system but the study will not focus on those areas. In addition to this, even though a survey will be conducted among the employees of Atlassian, the sample size for the survey is very small. The organization has several internal departments staffed with the employees. Nevertheless, as the sample size of the study is small, employees of all departments will not be engaged in the survey.

References

Berman, S.J., Kesterson-Townes, L., Marshall, A. and Srivathsa, R., 2012. How cloud computing enables process and business model innovation. Strategy & Leadership, 40(4), pp.27-35.

Cheng, F.C. and Lai, W.H., 2012. The impact of cloud computing technology on legal infrastructure within internet—focusing on the protection of information privacy. Procedia Engineering, 29, pp.241-251.

Dhar, S., 2012. From outsourcing to Cloud computing: evolution of IT services. Management Research Review, 35(8), pp.664-675.

Erl, T., Puttini, R. and Mahmood, Z., 2013. Cloud computing: concepts, technology & architecture. Pearson Education.

Gangwar, H., Date, H. and Ramaswamy, R., 2015. Understanding determinants of cloud computing adoption using an integrated TAM-TOE model. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 28(1), pp.107-130.

Garg, S.K., Versteeg, S. and Buyya, R., 2013. A framework for ranking of cloud computing services. Future Generation Computer Systems, 29(4), pp.1012-1023.

Marston, S., Li, Z., Bandyopadhyay, S., Zhang, J. and Ghalsasi, A., 2011. Cloud computing—The business perspective. Decision support systems, 51(1), pp.176-189.

Morgan, L. and Conboy, K., 2013. Factors affecting the adoption of cloud computing: an exploratory study.

Oliveira, T., Thomas, M. and Espadanal, M., 2014. Assessing the determinants of cloud computing adoption: An analysis of the manufacturing and services sectors. Information & Management, 51(5), pp.497-510.

Pearson, S., 2013. Privacy, security and trust in cloud computing. In Privacy and Security for Cloud Computing (pp. 3-42). Springer London.

Chen, D. and Zhao, H., 2012, March. Data security and privacy protection issues in cloud computing. In Computer Science and Electronics Engineering (ICCSEE), 2012 International Conference on (Vol. 1, pp. 647-651). IEEE.

Bharadwaj, S.S. and Lal, P., 2012, December. Exploring the impact of Cloud Computing adoption on organizational flexibility: A client perspective. In Cloud Computing Technologies, Applications and Management (ICCCTAM), 2012 International Conference on (pp. 121-131). IEEE.