The Role of Cloud Computing in the Development of Information Systems for SMEs - Article Analysis - Assignment Help

Introduction

The selected article for discussion in this research report is “The role of cloud computing in the development of information systems for SMEs” carried out by (Cunha et al., 2017). The purpose of the following research report is to critique and analyse the content of the selected article. In this report, the discussion will be focused on research methods used, highlighted issues and the conclusion made by the authors. The selected research article discusses the role of cloud computing in the development of an information system, characteristics of cloud computing and how it is being implemented in the SMEs. Cloud Computing (CC) is a significant development in the field of software engineering. Most of the IT firms highly rely on CC in its regular routine.  

Discussion

Cloud Computing (CC) has become a commonly used platform for the development of technological/computational solutions [1]. According to “The National Institute of Standards and Technology” (NIST), CC is defined as a model which allows convenience in accessing or retrieving the shared and stored data to reduce the chances of mismanagement [2]. Cloud Computing is an innovative approach revealing numerous advantages along with a few challenges [3]. CC became increasingly popular in serving areas like sharing, retrieving and handling a large amount of information. CC has been regarded as the most advanced platform for computing unlimited resources. Furthermore, CC has an advantage of easy installation and access to the internet. 

CC is an innovative platform, that enables organizations to focus on business scalability in terms of infrastructure and services. Previously, organisations believed to give importance to information confidentiality. However, CC has introduced the most transparent approach that involves third-parties to access the company information at any time. CC is an approach that can be used by any type of business, other than ICT. It means, by adopting CC technology, businesses can solely focus on its core operations rather than managing its IT infrastructure individually. 

With these advantages, CC technology impose certain challenges to its users. Firstly, CC results in changing the organisational culture regarding the way how business used to manage its IT previously. Secondly, since CC technology emphasises on the transparency of information, it reduces the sense of ownership, security, and legal issues to an organisation [4]. 

This research article discussed the distinctive features of CC. CC has offered a variety of features and characteristics which were unavailable in past decades. Few of these characteristics are resource virtualisation, scalability and elasticity, location independence, monitoring and measuring service and the location of resources. Each of these characteristics offers businesses the ease to access, increased storage capacity, and monitoring quality and the dynamic dimensions of business activities [5].