Scientific-Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering
Abstract
Cloud computing has been described as a technological change brought about by the convergence of a number of new and existing technologies. It enables all businesses to get the best of technology at extremely economical costs. Both perspectives of the Cloud are important to be reviewed, of the provider’s side as well as the consumers of the technology. While a lot of research is currently taking place in the technology itself, there is an equally urgent need for understanding the business-related issues surrounding cloud computing. In this paper, we identify the strengths and weaknesses for the Cloud computing. First of all, the Cloud computing has much to offer to the small and medium enterprises. It allows them to run applications that are traditionally too complex or expensive (either because of prohibitive licensing costs or impractical hardware requirements), to outsource the commodity aspects of providing IT services, thus reducing the need for them to maintain the overheads of a dedicated computing facility, such as: small to no capital required, smaller IT staff necessary, increased security and compliance certifications handled outside of the company, access to the right level of compute power (as fast as is needed, and only what is needed), etc. It reduces the need for long start-up times for implementing new services and capabilities as well as the ongoing need for operator training
