Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing and its Application in Supply Chain Management

Pushkal Verma

ID: 4012343

Abstract

Since the early 90s, the use of computers in all walks of life, be it for education, profession, entertainment or education, has become an integral part of one’s life. Because of this explosion of the need of computers, the resources needed to make the computers perform have also gone up. Whilst it is known that investing in these resources is quite easy for big companies, it is not so for individuals or small/medium sized enterprises. When the size of the infrastructure increases, so do the problems associated with the upkeep of the said infrastructure. These problems can be system failures, hard-disk failures, virus attacks, bugs, etc. To overcome these infrastructure issues, Cloud Computing offers the best viable solution. The “Cloud” actually refers to the Internet.

In the following pages, I’ll explain the following:

* The Architecture

* The Service Models

* The Deployment Models

* The Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing

* The Applications of Cloud Computing in Supply Chain Management

An Overview

Cloud computing is a subscription-based service where you can obtain networked storage space and computer resources. In other words, we can say that ‘Cloud’ is basically a virtualized pool of servers which can meet the many requirements of its clients. An easy to relate and relatively simple example is the way we use and access our emails. Just like we are able to send, receive and access our emails from anywhere across the world, the concept of Cloud Computing is quite similar. Our emails are stored on the massive servers of our services provider like Yahoo!, Gmail or Hotmail. These service providers ensure that have all the necessary hardware and software in place to support the email account. As long as we have a device that can connect to these servers, we are able to access or emails – from anywhere in the world.

In a similar fashion,...