How does Cloud Computing Change the Strategic Alignment between Business and IT

Abstract

Cloud computing plays an important role in today’s business environment. Because it provides services at a very low cost. Many organizations can utilise servers, hardware, software, database and other applications online themselves. The business people have no maintenance cost. In traditional days the software is purchased and implemented in the business environment to reach the goals of the business. In traditional, there is no strategic alignment between the business and the IT people.

The cloud service providers have to understand the needs of the business environment. They need to understand the needs of changing requirements of the business. Today the user requirements are changing even at the development stage. Today IT services are provided even after the delivery of the product.

Customer satisfaction is the important goal of the business environment. The business and IT departments should work in a cooperative environment. This will help the business to run in an efficient way.

The traditional services in IT companies are to deliver a software product they need to set up new IT services, infrastructure and need to implement all software etc. The organization has to maintain all the software and hardware. The cost will be added to the development of the product. This will lead to low profit from the business.

It also takes time to deliver the product. So the duration of delivering the product from beginning to the end will take more time. So to overcome all these problems there should be a strategic alignment between the business and IT. In this paper, we will discuss the services provided by cloud computing and the impact of services in business and IT.

Cloud computing provides services at a low cost. There are three services that were provided by cloud computing that will help to improve the strategic alignment between IT and stakeholders. By using these three services the strategic alignment is well improved by using the cloud.

1. Introduction and Background

The strategic alignment between the business and IT is researched for many decades. The increase in investment in IT will enhance the business development in high performance. But it is an inconsistent result. Many of them suggested that as the wrong research survey. Increased investment in IT will not improve the business performance.

The IT investment is not correlated with the business goals, objectives and performance. The real value of IT can’t be measured. The cloud is offering the different types of services. The cloud offers all the services at a low cost. There are many reasons for the lack of strategic alignment between the business people and the IT department. The first reason is there is no proper communication between the business people and the IT department.

The second reason is the changing business requirements. The customers are rapid to change even after the execution of the project. The needs of customers are changing rapidly. So many problems arise between the business people and IT department. There is no flexibility in the IT department. Because the IT department is fixed on one layer by another so it is very difficult to change. So there is not enough flexibility if the customer changes his requirements. These are the basic problems that arise between the business people and the IT department.

The cloud offers different types of services and in traditional, the IT department has to buy its own IT  products and they have to buy hardware, software, data centres and other IT devices which are required in developing the software product. But with the advent of cloud technology these IT devices are provided as services to the IT department. They don’t want to buy any devices, software and hardware’s etc.

The IT department has no issues like failure of hardware, software updates etc. The department is free from these problems. The cloud will take care of all these problems. The cloud has the responsibility of providing this service. The software and hardware are provided by cloud services. The cloud also provides efficient security by providing encryption and decryption techniques which helps to provide good security to the data. The data are stored in the data centre where it is the central repository of storage.

2. Aims and Objectives

In this, we are going to see the cloud feature which helps to improve the strategic alignment between the business people and the IT department.  Nowadays the cloud computing is used in many business environments. The internet facility is increased a lot with connectionless and most reliable, flexible etc. These are the reasons for using cloud computing in the entire business environment. It offers all the services at a cheaper price.

The organization has to pay only the service charge. So the cloud computing was attracted by many people and it was used in many environments. The main disadvantage of using cloud computing is the lack of good security. Though the cloud was very cheaper many of them are using that. So the cloud computing has to manage the load efficiently. The organization will require a higher level of service.

The cloud provides this type of service to the users. The internet service should be reliable and flexible. The business and IT departments should communicate in a strategic alignment to improve the business growth.

The internet is boomed because of the advent of using the wireless connection. The internet is used anywhere at any time. Cloud usage is increased only due to the advancement in the internet. Different types of services are provided by the cloud to the organizations. This will help to reduce the problems between the business and IT department. All the devices are provided as a service to the IT department.

The main services of the cloud are divided into three groups

1. Infrastructure as a service
2. Platform as a service
3. Software as a service

3. Literature Review

The author Mengmeng states that the dynamic business alignment has attracted many peoples. He developed the new framework that is called BITA (Business IT Alignment). He proposes one new model that is the author combines enterprise architecture and BITA into one new framework. The dynamic business resource allocation algorithm is proposed. The BITA mainly concentrates on improving organization performance. The BITA is implemented to improve business quality.

The advent of the cloud has changed many features in the IT industry. The BITA evaluation process model is designed and implemented. In this new applications are added to the existing applications. When new business requirements are introduced to address dynamic business requirements, some of the existing business functions remain to support unchanged business requirements. By using this application dynamic resource allocation is implemented for changing business needs.

The author Peter fuzestells that the requirements are changing in the business environment. The cloud service can provide better service to meet the business requirements. The cloud provides various services at a low cost. It also helps the organization and stakeholders to maintain a good relationship between users. he also states that there are three different types of services that are provided to increase the business turnover.

The author Padma punna states that the use of cloud services helps to increase the turnover of the business. In traditional, the data of one organization can be stored in one server. The business is increased to run in two or more organizations than how the data is downloaded for each organization at one place. The cloud provides these types of services to the businessman.

The cloud provides different types of services to the users and the manager can store all the data in one place called a cloud server. The manager can access the data from anywhere. He can pay the normal usage amount. This service is called demand on service.

The cloud provides different types of services like providing data centres, servers, hardware’s, software etc. These services can be done in different ways to increase the growth of the organization.

The author fotiskitsios states that the new type of services should be provided to the customers to increase the organization turnover. Customer satisfaction is the main motto of today’s business environment. Many people are working in an organization to satisfy customer needs.

The businessman has to implement new techniques and tools to satisfy the customer at a greater level. The changing requirements of the customers should be satisfied by the businessman. Different types of tools are required to satisfy the needs of customers.

4. Problem Statement

The three main problems in this paper are lack of flexibility. The IT systems are not enough to meet the changing needs of the business. There is a lack of understanding between the two departments business and the IT department. The problems should be identified correctly to monitor and they should be processed correctly. There is no proper coordination between the IT department and the Business sector. There are no static requirements. The requirements are always dynamic in today’s business environment.

5. Cloud Computing

Fig 1: Cloud Services

The cloud services that are offered to the organization is depicted in the above diagram. Based on this service we can reduce the strategic alignment between the business and the IT department. The role of the IT department is to install hardware, software and set up the device for the project.

These are the main work of the IT department. The main strategy of cloud computing is visibility, cost, availability, security etc. The business requirements are agility, flexibility, choice and productivity etc.   The cloud is offering now this type of service to the business environment. The IT department will be free from these works. They have enough time to learn the business requirements, customer needs, and they maintain a good relationship between the IT department and business.

They will have enough time to gather business objectives. In this way, the cloud is offering services to the business and the IT department.

Iaas

It is the basic infrastructure of the service which was introduced by the cloud service. The other services basic services like network, platform, applications in which customers can use that services. They are not able to manage them. They can control the operating system, databases etc.

Paas

The consumer is provided with network, servers etc. It is a consumer-created application. It is created by using some programming languages and tools supported by the provider.

Saas

The customer can use the applications provided by the provider. The applications are accessible from any cloud infrastructure. They can access the service by using some interface like a web browser. They have no control or to manage the applications.

6. Methodology

The framework is created to develop the strategic alignment between the IT department and business. It has many benefits. They will help to create an efficient relationship between the IT department and the business stakeholders. The cloud provides various services to the user that helps the IT department free from setting the IT infrastructure and implementation software. They will find some time to discuss business goals and objectives and customer’s needs and expectations.

Fig 2: Different types of services provided by cloud

These three services can be utilised to provide a good relationship between the business and the IT department. The cloud provides services at a cheaper cost. It is very flexible. Cloud services can be utilized anywhere at any time. Cloud services can be used by demand.

It offers the best services to the organization. It should develop the organization with a positive approach. The cloud provides different types of services to the organization. These services will improve the organization growth. The businessman can get all the data from anywhere by using the cloud. The people will get any type of facility from the cloud. The remote services are provided to the consumers. Thus the business will reach its growth very quickly.

Nowadays IT systems are not flexible enough to handle all hardware setup, software reinstallation etc. Likewise, many problems will occur. To overcome these problems all of them will move towards the cloud. The businessman will pay only usage costs. The business mans not need to set up any hardware and software. The business objectives should be clearly explained. All the installation time is not wasted and it will be useful in the growth of the organization.

7. Project Milestones and deliverables

The project has to plan effectively and it should be completed successfully within time. Time is the most important factor that decides the success of the project. The project team leader should allocate the team members and for each task, the specified time should be given to complete the task.

Then with each stage, the developed project should be tested. While developing the project risk may occur. Safety measures should be taken to rectify the risk of loss. The different types of stages involved in the project are depicted below.

Gantt chart

In every project, the risk might occur. If any risk occurred in the organization then the risk has to be monitored and risk should be analysed and executed. No project is without risk. There may be a lack of proper devices, lack of coordination between the IT department and the business people. Thus the cloud provides so many types of services to the business.

The use of the cloud will definitely help to improve business growth. The services provided by the cloud are highly upgraded. The customer can utilise the services provided by the client. The cloud offers many services like hardware, data centres, software, databases, network etc. These services can be utilised by the consumers but they have no control and they are not having permission to manage the business.

The cloud plays a major role in all business environments and it also offers a high level of services. The user can specify requirements at any time. The businessman has to develop a business environment to help consumers. The cloud provides different types of services to consumers. It provides services at a low cost and offers better flexibility. The service can be provided on demand. The service is the main thing of cloud computing.

The risk will occur at any time in the project development. The certain risk should be analysed and processed correctly to get a good result. Every project is prone to risk. There are different types of procedures to process the risk. With the advent of the internet, people will use only cloud computing. In this modern world, all organizations are moved towards a cloud environment due to its cheaper cost and greater flexibility.

To manage risk effectively the risk should be identified correctly and it should be processed correctly to remove the risk. The cloud services provide effectively to increase the relationship between the IT department and the business. The business goals should be clearly defined. The IT department should explain clearly to the service providers of the cloud.

Major Contingencies

The contingency is the execution of the backup plan. In the project execution when the expected risk occurs really, then the contingency that is backup plan is executed. The risk occurs unexpectedly. If the project manager has to analyse from all points of view to identify the risk.

The risk may occur anytime. So risk should be categorized according to its nature. In this project, if the internet fails the whole plan will be collapsed. So the businessman has to be ready with the contingency plan because we using cloud services thereby it creates the strategic alignment between the IT department and the business

The risk analysis is a very big process that helps to rectify the problems initially. The risk management is implemented in this project properly to identify the risk and execute the risk.

 Data Security

Data security is a very important thing in using cloud services. So far we have used different types of cloud services the data are stored centrally. The proper security should be used to secure the data. There are different types of encryption and decryption techniques.

The files should be stored in the cloud using some cryptographic algorithms which help to give security. The key should be generated to the receiver and the sender. There are two types of keys are used. One is the private key and another one is the public key. The private key is with the receiver and the public key is with the sender and is known to all.

The cloud will increase the relationship between the IT department and the business. The works of the IT department are fully managed by a cloud by providing different types of services.

The cloud also uses different types of load balancing algorithms because many business environments will require high throughput and higher response. So by using these facilities the cloud provides an excellent environment between the IT department and the business. So the business can easily achieve its objectives by using the cloud environment.

Conclusion

The author suggested that the cloud service can improve the relationship between businessmen and the IT department. The services are provided at a low cost. People are explicitly sharing their expectations. The consumer’s expectations are fulfilled greatly in using the cloud services. The clouds are the most important technology using nowadays.

The services like paas, iaas, saas are very important services which help to improve the business activities. Without cloud technology, not even a single organization will run. This will improve the customer’s expectations. The cloud offers greater flexibility and they can get more services what they are expected.

Any type of service can be provided to the customers. The businessman has to communicate with all stakeholders about business objectives. They should generate some new plans. The IT department will have no work in the setup and installing the hardware.

These works are done by the IT department. So enough time will be there to increase the communication between them. So there will be a good relationship in the organization. The requirements of the customers are dynamic. The organization should develop certain criteria to satisfy customer needs. The customer requirements are always dynamic in nature.

References

Bibliography

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