Implementation of Cloud Services in a Business Environment
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When planning to employ a Software-As-A-Service solution, the company should
specify the functionality requirements in a way just as they would plan to run the
services/programs in-house (Harding, 2011, p. 87).
7.1.1
Backup
Backups usually fulfill two premises: Recover data in the event of a failure, or to fall
back on historical data in case of mistakes. When it comes to cloud services
provision, in most cases it is the task of the provider to take responsibility for backing
up data. In some cases it might also be the consumer’s task to take care of proper
backing-up of files and data – depending on the specified Service Level Agreement.
In both cases back-ups should not interrupt normal business activities (Winkler,
2011,
pp. 126-127) & (Harding, 2011, p. 88).
7.1.2
Bulk Data Transfer
In an era of extensively growing amount of data, a key issue for companies is to
focus on available bandwidth. Depending on the area of business, it might be
necessary to transfer large volumes of files as part of the company’s daily
processes. Hence it should be considered what amount of data is expected to be
transferred and based on this a feasible strategy needs to be formulated. Some
cloud service providers offer the possibility to use physical transfers on physical disk
packs to ease the burden of large volume transfer via electronic means (Laszewski
&
Prakash, 2011, pp. 103-105) & (Harding, 2011, p. 88).
7.1.3
Supplier Choice
Although all cloud service providers share standardized web service formats and
protocols like TCP/IP, the situations regarding configuration and management can
vary substantially between the different providers. Currently there are no commonly
accepted standards for these issues. However some organizations, such as the
Open Grid Forum, the Storage Networking Industry Association or the Distributed
