A

PROJECT REPORT

ON

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON CLOUD COMPUTING

FOR THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE AWARD OF

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUBMITTED

BY

MD ABDUL HAKEEM

HALL TICKET NO: 140221672156

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

DR.Y. VINODHINI
(PROFESSOR)

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

AMJAD ALI KHAN COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

ADMINISTRATION (Affiliated to Osmania University)
Mount Pleasant, 8-2-249 to 267, BANJARA Hills Rd Number 3, Hyderabad.

1
DR. LAKSHMI RAWAT Office: “Mount Pleasant”DIRECTOR#8-2-249, Road No.3, Banjara Hills,
Hyderabad – 500034,
: 040-23280241 / 040-2328024Fax:
040-23280786,
E-mail: amjadalikhancollege@gmail.com
Website:www.amjadalikhancollege.edu.in

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project report titled AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON CLOUD
COMPUTING submitted in partial fulfilment for the award of MBA program of Department
of Business Management, O.U., Hyderabad, was carried out by MD ABDUL HAKEEM
bearing the HT. NO. 140221672156 student of MBA (SYSTEMS). This has not been
submitted to any other university or institution for the award of any degree /diploma / certificate.

DR. LAKSHMI RAWAT DIRECTOR

2
DR.Y. Vinodhini Office: “Mount Pleasant”
PROFESSOR #8-2-249, RoadNo.3, Banjara Hills,
Hyderabad – 500034,
: 040-23280241 / 040-2328024Fax:
040-23280786
Website: www.amjadalikhancollege.edu.in

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project report titled AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON CLOUD
COMPUTING, submitted in partial fulfilment for the award of MBA program of
Department of Business Management, O.U., Hyderabad, was carried out by MD
ABDUL HAKEEM bearing the HT. NO. 140221672156 student of MBA
(SYSTEMS) under my guidance. This has not been submitted to any other university or
institution for the award of any degree / diploma / certificate.

Dr.Y. Vinodhini- PROFESSOR

3
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this project report titled a study on “EMPIRICAL STUDY ON
CLOUD COMPUTING” Submitted by me to the department of MASTER OF BUSINESS
ADMINISTRATION (Osmania University), is a record of bonafide work undertaken by me.

To the best of my knowledge and belief, this project is not submitted to any other

University or Institution for the award of any degree or any diploma/ certificate or

published any time before.

MD ABDUL HAKEEM

HALL TICKET NO: 140221672156

4
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to give special acknowledgement to Dr. LAKSHMI RAWAT

DIRECTOR, AMJAD ALI KHAN COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

ADMINISTRATION (Affiliated to Osmania University)HYDERABAD, for his

consistent support and motivation.

I am grateful to prof. Y. VINODHINI, PROFESSOR, AMJAD ALI KHAN

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (Affiliated to Osmania
university) HYDERABAD, for her technical expertise, advice, and excellent guidance.
she not only gave my project a scrupulous critical reading but added many examples
and ideas to improve it.

I would like to express my appreciation towards my friends for their encouragement and

support throughout this project.

MD ABDUL HAKEEM

HALL TICKET NO: 140221672156

5
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

S.NO DESCRIPTION PAGE NOS

CHAPTER-1 1.1 INTRODUCTION

1.2 NEED OF THE STUDY
1.3 OBJECTIVES
1.4 LIMITATIONS
CHAPTER-2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER-3 LITERATURE REVIEW
CHAPTER-4 COMPANY PROFILE
CHAPTER-5 DATA ANALYSIS AND
INTERPRETATION
CHAPTER-6 CONCLUSION AND
RECOMENDATIONS
CHAPTER-7 REFERENCES-BIBILOGRAPHY

6
 CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

7
INTRODUCTION

In modern world, the competition among business sector is quite high because of the

development of technological sector and evolvement of business markets. Thus, all the

existing skills and products are becoming obsolete in this technological world Such as,

limited availability of resources to small and medium enterprise (Microsoft Azure) makes

them unable to compete in market. Microsoft Azure have less competitive advantage because

they cannot access modern technologies to perform IT operations. On the other hand,

Microsoft Azure is very important for economic development of a country as it increase the

employment rate and decreases the need of imported products. They can produce many

products on lower cost and provide large amount of employment to local people. However,

they can produce more efficient output by implementing a new strategic direction. A new

strategic direction can be decided by focusing on new technology which can provide them

competitive advantage in international market as well .It is important for Microsoft Azure to

response quickly because business market cannot wait six to eight weeks to get their supplies.

Therefore, Microsoft Azure should adopt a new strategy involving a technological solution

which may increase innovation, reduce cost and enhance implementation speed. A massive

computing power and business insights can be used to generate competitive advantage in this

era of globalization information technology. There are many barriers for Microsoft Azure in

global market which can be removed with an advanced IT infrastructure. It also offers a

degree of flexibility to Microsoft Azure and allows them to become more competitive and

efficient. Cloud computing is a way to address all these inefficiencies by making a

contribution in the growth of an organization specifically Microsoft Azure. In information

technology services, cloud computing is a paradigm shift which has potential to provide

flexibility, efficiency and agility to meet exceptionally growing demand. In last few years, a

8
development in cloud computing has been noticed worldwide and it provide different

facilities to organizations.

NEED OF THE STUDY

The research study discusses the major advantages and disadvantages associated with cloud

Computing technology. So, it provides an opportunity for major Microsoft Azure to assess

their requirements and implement cloud computing to get recognized benefits. It also helps

organization to reduce their cost by informing them about investment in cloud technology.

The amount of complexity can be reduced and organizational agility can be enhanced with

effective adoption of cloud computing. Various risks associated with cloud computing are

also discussed in this research study, which inform current users about its difficulties and how

to overcome those difficulties. Therefore, this study is beneficial for target area (Microsoft

Azure) and also for the general readers who want to gain some information about this

particular topic. Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the Internet, and

it offers many potential benefits to small and medium-sized enterprises (Microsoft Azure).

9
SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Business market is growing rapidly which has also increased competition among different

Organizations. Therefore, every organization needs to have upgrade abilities and innovation

for delivering advanced products and services suitable to market requirements. Microsoft

Azure have less competitive advantage to deliver improved products and services because of

limited recourses and limited access to modern IT services. Cloud computing provides a

solution to all these issues by offering a wide range of services which can remove

technological barriers for Microsoft Azure in global market. Previous research studies have

focused on cloud computing by relating it to innovation and business agility. However, there

are many advantages of cloud computing which are not discussed in detail, as it can enhance

competitiveness of Microsoft Azure in global market.

10
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The major purpose of the thesis is to carry out research on the cloud computing in relation

with small businesses and analyze its potential benefits to businesses. The main aim is further

divided in to following sub objectives.

1. To study feasibility report for Microsoft Azure

2. To analyze Microsoft Azure can be benefited by using cloud computing for their

businesses.

3. To discuss that can be used by business of all sizes and types, from startups to large

enterprises, to accelerate their digital transformation journey and innovate at scale.

4.To suggest strategies to build, deploy , manage their applications and services on the Azure

platform.

11
 CHAPTER-2

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

12
Research methodology is considered an important part of research study as it explains the

most suitable research approach which can be used by researcher, the Research methodology

around Microsoft azure would be centered around understanding the platform’s technical

capabilities, customer needs and market dynamics to evaluate its potential impact and

effectiveness in helping business achieve their digital transformations goals.

In the research study, the methodology includes discussion of data collection and data

analysis.

Data Collection

The process of gathering and storing data in the Microsoft azure cloud platform, this can be

done through various azure services such as Azure event hubs, azure lot hub, azure data

factory and others. The collected can be used for various purposes such as analysis, reporting

and Machine learning. Azure provide tools and services to help management processing and

analysis making it a powerful platform for collecting and utilizing large amount of data

Data Analysis

The collected data is summarized and discussed by focusing on major formats. It further

emphasized on reason which leads these Microsoft Azure towards adopting. The discussion is

linked with existing literature in order to support the research findings. Azure Data Analysis

services provide Scalability, reliability and security, allowing users to derive insights from

their data and make better- informed decisions.

13
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

1. You’ll need to manage Azure to make it effect.

2. You must have platform expertise available.

3. Speed can be an issue for some businesses

4. Azure almost forces you to put all your eggs into one basket

5. The ease of access may be problematic for some businesses

TOOLS

1. Azure SDKs

2. Azure Powershell

3. Azure CLI Commands and ARM Templates

4. Visual Studio and Docker

5. Azure Load Testing

14
 CHAPTER-3

LITERATURE REVIEW

2. Literature Review
Reference Objective/scope/Results Year Journal/ Countr InputParameter
conference y s
Wanietal. Providing 2019 Advances India 3DES;
[27] Symmetric
performancecomparisono inIntelligentSyste
fsevenpopularsymmetrica msand keycryptograp
lgorithms:AES,DES,3DE Computing hyTEA
S,Blowfish,RC4,IDEA,a
ndTEA.
Basuet al. CoveringCloudsecurity,V 2018 IEEE 8th India Cloud
[28] irtualizationissuesandsolu computing;Vir
tions while other deal AnnualComputin tualization
withthe access control g

15
 mechanismswith a proper
interconnectionbetweenth andCommunicati
emandfinallydiscussingas onWorkshop
etofopenproblemsinthisd
omain. andConferenceC
CWC2018
Kauraet al. Presenting the cloud 2018 Proceedingsof201 India Hybridcloud;I
[29] services,riskassociatedwi 7InternationalCon nfrastructure
thitandsecuritymeasuresi ference on as
ncloudcomputing. Innovations aservice(IaaS);
Platformasaser
inInformationEm vice(PaaS).
bedded [5]; Private
cloud;Publiccl
andCommunicati oud;Softwarea
onSystems saservice(SaaS
)
ICIIECS2017
Shanmugasu Presentingareviewonsecu 2018 Proceedingsof201 India Cloning;
ndaramet al. rityissues in security 7InternationalCon
[30] standards ference on Cloudcomputi
forthecloud,infrastructure Innovations ng;Infrastructu
,accesscontrol,thirdpartyp re;Serviceprov
rivacy, inInformationEm ider
bedded
confidentiality,reliability
andintegrityofdata.Itportr andCommunicati
aysthetechniquesemploye onSystems
d in addressing
cloudsecurityissuesandits ICIIECS2017
challenges.
KaushikS.eta Presenting the various 2018 InternationalJour India Attacks;Risks;

16
l[31] possibleattacks,threats,ris nalofNetworkinga SaaSSecurityS
ksandsecurityconcernswit ndVirtualOrganiz oftwareasaserv
hthepossible ations iceThreats
countermeasures
thatneed to be understood
relatedtothecloud.Thecur
rentresearch also
investigates
thathowdifferentcloudfra
meworksareaffectedbywh
ichnetworkattacks.
MehraN.etal. Discussessecurityissues,li 2018 Advances India Cloud
[32] mitationsofexistingappro computing;Sec
aches,andpossiblesolutio inIntelligentSyste urityissues;Ser
nsassociatedwithcloudco msand vicesoverInter
mputingapproach. Computing net

17
Manoj Identifyingvariousdesign 2018 Smart India Cloud
debtcausesinacloudcomp computingsec
Kumar utingsystemfromvariousd Innovation urity;Designd
M.etal.[33] imensionsofdesigndebt.E Systems ebt;
venthoughimmature,un-
ripen coded service andTechnologie Designrefacto
accessibleovertheInternet s ring;Design
usingthecloudcomputing
paradigmmay work fine smells;Multil
and be ateral
whollytolerabletothe cloudsecurity
patron architecture;T
echnical debt
TimothyD.P. Designinganewsecuritym 2017 InternationalCo India RSA; SHA-
etal. [34] ethodbyusingahybridcryp nference 2;
tosystem, for data blowfish;clou
securityinthe cloud. onMicroelectron d-
highsecurityondatatransm icDevicesCircuit computing;cry
ission over the s andSystems ptosystem
internetand proper
network access ICMDCS2017
ondemandtoasharedtanko
fconstructive

computingresources,
mainly net, server,and
storageapplication.
BaronaR.etal. Presentingcloudcomputin 2017 Proceedings of India Cloud
[35] g,differentcloudmodelsan IEEEInternation computing;Da
dprimarysecuritythreatsa alConference tabreach;Secu
nddatabreachissuesthatar rity

18
 erightnowexploringinthec onCircuitPower services;Servi
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endeavorsplantoinfluence
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economicscenario.
SahilSood CloudComputingofferssc 2017 Proceeding- India GeneticEngin
S.K.etal. [36] alablevirtualcomputingre IEEEInternation eering
sources in the form of alConference IDEsOne-
web-servicesonpay-as- timeownershi
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DhingraA.K. Presentingpotentialofclou 2016 2016 India Cloud
etal. [37] dcomputingwithreference computing;Cl
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19
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20
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Gandhi K.et Emphasizingontheareaof 2016 Proceedingsofthe India
al.[38] cloudcomputing,identifyi 10thINDIACom
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BalajiV.etal. Dealing with a survey of 2016 International India Bigdata;Bigd
[39] bigdatawithcloudcomputi JournalofContro ataprivacy;Cl
ngsecurityandthemechani lTheoryand oudcomputing
smsthatareusedtoprotecta Applications ;
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26
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27
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[54] analysisof the cloud e2012
security problem.It CloudComput
investigates the problem WorldCongress ing;Cloud
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28
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aspects.

This chapter reviews literature relating to cloud computing concepts and services in order to
discuss its implementation in SMEs. Basically, the literature review has been organized in
three sections. First section covers the important concepts and characteristics of types of
cloud computing. The second section covers the use of cloud computing in SMEs and
explains its different types. Whereas in third section empirical evidence on subject matter are
discussed briefly.

29
 THEORATICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 Concept of Cloud Computing

Many organizations use cloud computing models to deliver different IT services with the
help of internet or interacted IT environment. In simple way, cloud computing can be
characterized as the storing and retrieving information for business purpose over the internet
rather than using hard drive of computer. The term cloud is only used as a metaphor to
represent internet, as it also focuses on an enormous pool of operational resources, for
instance, software and hardware which can be accessed by using internet. Different
computing services are offered by cloud computing in a commoditized way, and these
services are used similar to basic utilities such as water, gas, electricity, etc. Therefore, some
research studies perceived cloud computing as a basic utility which is used by organizations
on a daily basis to fulfill their basic computing requirements.
Cloud computing does not have a single definition as this concept has changed over time
with the advancement of internet. In literature, no standard and approved cloud computing
definition issued as most of the time it is considered as the computing services provided by
third party via internet. However, cloud computing by focusing on its key advantages from
both technological and business perspective, cloud computing is an IT service model which
provides both software and hardware computing services on-demand to its consumers. The
network system used in cloud computing itself-serviced, independent of location and device.
The remote servers are used to store, process and manage data which are accommodated on
the internet without the involvement of personal computers or local servers. It enables the
organizations to use computing resources whenever needed without building and maintaining
any infrastructure physically.

Cloud computing is a wide-ranging and quickly advancing idea, therefore SMEs should
understand cloud computing comprehensively to adopt better approaches towards the
utilization of cloud computing services. Basically, the idea of cloud computing depends on
the pre-existing concepts such as virtualization, grid computing and distributed computing.
Although it is not relatively new field of study but it can be differentiated based on the
novelty of idea to deliver computing services to general consumer as utility.

30
The broadly accepted definition of cloud computing is provided by the National institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) United States, as cloud computing is model for
empowering expedient, on-demand system access to a shared pool of configurable
computing resources which can be quickly provisioned and discharged with slight effort of
administration or interaction of service provider.

2.1.1 Basic Model of Cloud Computing

A shift in the utilization and delivery of IT services is characterized as cloud which enables
the organization to simplify technological development and manage this process more
efficiently. The introduction of cloud models industrialized the IT supported services in the
market, as it provides the cost effective and flexible access to technology. In this way,
businesses can get information on demand at lowest expense which enables them to work
smarter. The Figure 1 is showing a basic model of cloud computing which specify the
simplest process of accessing application and storage with a common network or main
server. These services are shared among different business organizations, and retrieved by
service users. The service users of cloud computing can be customers, remote workers,
members of the organization working on premise or general public.
The cloud computing services can be utilized by any of them at minimal service cost.

Figure 1: Basic Cloud Computing Model

http://www.opengroup.org/cloud/cloud_sme/p3.htm

Cloud computing provides an opportunity for end users to control the resources of their

31
interest. It also permits them to make changes and flexibilities in resource consumption in
order to manage workload effectively. Moreover, these resources can also be stored by users
for further use. It also minimizes the organization’s effort and time towards marketing
management and smooth the innovation process and speed.

2.1.2 Characteristics of Cloud Computing

It is important for any organization and particularly SMEs to understand the basic
characteristics of cloud computing in order to implement its services efficiently.
Fundamentally, cloud enables the users to expand their capacity by offering self-services
entrances in remote servers. The following are some important characteristics of cloud
computing identified by National Institute of Standards and Technology.
1. On-demand Self-service: The cloud computing provides self-service portals to its users,
where they can access basic IT services such as storage, server time without interaction of
human.

2. Rapid Elasticity: The provision and issue of IT resources is elastic and can be accessed
on-demand. The automated access is allowed to users; however, there are some parameters
and triggers fixed in system. The resources provisioned to users are unlimited, as the exact
capacity is available on time to meet the needs of a specific application.

3. Resource pooling: The service providers merge different IT resources such as memory,
storage, processing and network bandwidth, and supply these pooled computing resources to
multiple customers. However, these resources are separated and secured based on logical
level to meet the dynamic demand of multiple customers.

4. Broad network access: Service users can access the cloud computing resources from
main network or server. Mainly, these resources are retrieved by many different devices such
as user mobile phones, tablet devices, workstations, laptops and computers.

5. Measured service: The resource use is automatically controlled and improved by

computing system, as it utilizes a metering competence which is appropriate to different
services such as bandwidth, processing, storage and dynamic user accounts. Asset utilization
can be observed, controlled and stated by offering transparency for both service users and
service providers. This attribute of cloud computing empowers aservices user to expend the

32
administration in a "pay as you develop" model or for inner IT divisions to give IT
chargeback abilities.

Ahson& Ilyas (2010, 59) emphasized on the fact that virtualization is not main objective of
cloud computing, it also focuses on innovation where technology is utilized as service
whenever needed. It is important for users to have complete knowledge about
implementation and usage of particular cloud computing service, such as infrastructure and
internet requirements (Thain&Moretti 2010, 153-171). It enables the service users to
understand the services available in cloud computing market and how these services are used
to achieve organizational objectives. Moreover, the understanding about characteristics of
cloud computing help the users to manage self-service portals.

2.2 Importance of Small and Medium Enterprises

SMEs cannot be defined with an exact and universally accepted definition, as diverse
countries and industries perceived SMEs differently according to their business culture.
There are different criteria considered by many authors in literature to characterize SMEs
such as investment level, total assets, sales turnover and number of employees in an
organization.
Small enterprises are registered with local authorities and formally operated by 5 to 100
employees. These employees work full time in an organization without getting higher
incentives. On the other hand, there are mostly 100 to 250employees working in a medium
enterprise.
In modern economies of developed nations, the SMEs are considered as an essence of their
economic progress because a large number of jobs are created by SMEs as compared to large
businesses. A variety of goods and services are offered by SMEs which facilitate customers
with more options, some of which might not be delivered by large enterprises on low prices.
The development of manufacturing sectors, arts and sports is not possible without growing
intervention of SMEs because they act as a catalyst for economic growth in a country.
Falkena (2000, 14) explained the fact that SMEs has great potential to expand their
operations and grow as large industry. He further emphasized on the decentralization of
power in SMEs, which introduced a new management layer among SMEs operator and their
employees. The management is now responsible for innovations and technological
interventions such as cloud computing which may increase the level of development in

33
locally employed sector.

2.3 Cloud Computing and SMEs

The business competitiveness can be improved with the utilization of advanced information
and communication technologies (ICT). SMEs can also be benefitted by the use of ICT as it
makes them able to compete in market with large organizations. The complexity of
management issues related to networking, software and hardware are increasing in traditional
IT environments. So, it is essential for SMEs to employ IT specialists in order to implement
and maintain the IT services. Cloud computing offers an appropriate solution of these IT
issues by providing scalable capabilities and infrastructure to SMEs. According to Vouk
(2008, 235-246), cloud computing also provides the immediate access to modern solutions of
information technology, which enables the SMEs to expand their services by enhancing
customer interaction and market reach. It maximizes the SMEs return on them
investment and helps them to operate in ever demanding corporate environment effectively.
The idea of cloud computing in SMEs does not only indicate the improvement in
technological data centers, but it also specifies the fundamental change in IT services such as
how these are used, provisioned and released to users from one place. As compared to large
business industries, the access of SMEs towards human and financial resources is low.
Therefore, they do not have the ability to effectively upgrade their IT systems in order to
meet changing business requirements effectively. Their incapability of implementing modern
technologies in business also reduces their chances to participate in highly advance business
environment and to contend with prevailing competitors. However, the adoption of cloud
computing enables a variety of services for SMEs, such as provision of storage services,
collaboration, IT infrastructure, more specifically private cloud infrastructure.
Therefore, SMEs which are operating with small IT departments can rent IT services rather
than buying by utilizing their limited resources. Literature about cloud computing adoption
by SMEs indicate that these enterprises are motivated to use cloud computing services
through internet in order to enhance their business capabilities.

2.4 Cloud Computing Structure in SMEs

According to Peng et al. (2009, 23-27) SMEs should classify their IT requirements in
different cloud computing categories in order to make effective decisions about technological
structure.
These services are able to meet every IT requirement of SMEs with constant support of

34
telecommunication and IT industries. The following are four basic categories of cloud
computing services which are recently available for SMEs.

2.4.1 Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

The least disrupting cloud computing service adopted by SMEs is infrastructure as a service,
also known as IaaS. The SMEs can get virtualized computing services through internet by
using IaaS, as IT stacks and servers are based on this service which also enables the software
as a service and platform as a service. A third party is involved in an IaaS model, who
operate as a host to offer software, hardware, storage, server and other components of
infrastructure to service users. It also handles user’s applications and offers backup solution,
system maintenance and resiliency development. Highly accessible resources are offered by
IaaS platforms which can be managed on user demand.
Therefore, the IaaS is most suitable for temporary and experimental workload which can be
changed unexpectedly. The cloud providers in IaaS can be differentiated based on their
service legal agreements (SLAs), their pricing and their performance.

2.4.2 Platform as a Service (PaaS)

The platform as a service (PaaS) offers an interesting solution for IT related SMEs who are
involved in the development of applications. A hosted environment is offered by PaaS which
enables the SMEs to use web-based platform and develop applications online. PaaS likewise
provides the infrastructure like development software, hardware and operating system to
service users which help them to develop new application without making heavy investment.
They can rent PaaS services which offer an entire lifecycle of application development.
Zhang et al. (2010, 7-18) stated the association of infrastructure as a service and PaaS as it
delivers an operating system over the internet which eliminate the need of downloading and
installing software on end-user system.

2.4.3 Software as a Service (SaaS)

Software as a service (SaaS) is basically a distribution model, where service providers or
vendors host the applications and use internet network to deliver these applications as a
service to customers. It is also referred as on-demand software because applications are
licensed on subscription basis. This is the most valuable computing service forSMEs because

35
it is supported by the “plug and go” notion where SMEs can get IT resources from public
cloud or other service providers, and deliver those resources to their customers. Meanwhile,
the IT organization play a role of IT service broker to provide basic services to SMEs. An IT
solution is provided by SaaS by utilizing software, bandwidth and server.
SMEs have option to choose the service provider who has required solution which can be
accustomed according to the workers need. However, it is important to make sure that the
service access is guaranteed by the service provider.

2.4.4 Communication as a Service (CaaS)

SMEs can lease communication solutions from a cloud computing service provider, this
processes categorized as communications as a service (CaaS). It enables the SMEs to utilize
Unified Communications and Voice over IP services without making any hardware
investment because the required infrastructure is managed by cloud provider. CaaS is a
basically outsourcing model for business communication which can be used by the
organization to increase efficiency and reduce cost by involving telecommunication. A wide
range of cloud services are available to SMEs; however, it is important for enterprises to
analyze their IT requirements and workload before the adoption of any cloud computing
model.

2.5 Empirical Evidences

An emerging paradigm of information technology is cloud computing which provides web-
based computing services to its customers. Sultan (2011, 272-278) discussed the cloud

36
computing approach by focusing on the existing technologies such as grid computing,
virtualization and internet. The study also concentrates on the identification of some
constraints which organizations face while adopting cloud computing model. However, there
are some unique aspects of cloud services which make this viable for SMEs, such as on-
demand and flexibility.
One other important feature is pay-as-you-go, which limits the stretching of financial
resources to fulfill IT requirements, and manage an appropriate cost structure for SMEs
which increase their competitiveness and make them able to operate in change economic
situation.
Rath et al. (2012, 688-691) conducted a research study to assess the adoption of cloud
services in Indian SMEs. Organizations can concentrate more on their core business
operations when all the IT requirements are outsourced with the help of cloud computing
technologies. Many firms in India have adopted the cloud service approach in order to
decline their operational cost without undermining the need of their customer. Nonetheless,
in case of SMEs there is less trend of outsourcing and use of cloud services. An initial survey
is conducted by Rath et al. (2012, 688-
691) to identify the major reasons for SMEs to adopt services. The findings of the study
indicates that cloud computing can be more beneficial for SMEs if it is used for computation
intensive tasks such as modeling, data mining and simulation. They also identified some
other benefits of cloud services, for instance, efficient use of computing system, low level of
hardware investment, faster upgrades of software.
Now a days, cloud computing is a much-argued subject in literature. IT professionals are
trying to identify more and more logics to explain its uniqueness and to implement cloud
services in business environment. In a research study Abdollahzadehgan et al. (2013, 67-74)
advocate the cloud computing by providing a list of its benefits which motivates an
organization to adopt it.
However, some disadvantages of cloud service are also discussed in their study to inform
businesses about risks associated with this system. They further discuss the SMEs need to
adopt cloud computing, as the SMEs cannot fulfill their IT requirements efficiently because
they do not have enough human and financial resource to deal with over-demanding market.
Mainly, the research study focused on the TOE framework (Abdollahzadehgan et al., 2013.
68) which includes technological, organizational and environmental factors for the evaluation
of cloud
computing adoption in SMEs. A detail review of previous literature has been conducted by

37
the researchers to identify the critical success factors based on the chosen criteria. The
finding of the study indicates that technological factors such as complexity and compatibility
are more important which motivate the adoption of cloud services in SMEs.
The inefficiencies of SME sector can be addressed with cloud computing services as it also
makes a vital contribution towards the competitiveness and growth of these enterprises. It
enables the SMEs to obtain advanced technology without paying any upfront cost. Sahandi,
Alkhalil and Para-Martins (2013, 1-12) explored the different perception of SMEs about
cloud computing adoption by discussing the major requirements and motivation concerning
cloud services. A quantitative approach is adopted and survey is conducted from 300 SMEs
operating in UK. The
results of the study indicate that SMEs have more concerns about vendor lock-in and security
breach which are influencing the adoption of cloud services in UK.
In today’s digital age, cloud computing has become the buzzword for web-based IT services.
The concept of cloud computing became more famous with the advancement of internet,
broadband, improved bandwidth, mobile devices and increasing mobility requirements of
end-users. Gupta, Seetharaman and Raj (2013, 861-874) argued on the SMEs preferences
towards cloud computing and its perceived benefits. IT requirements of SMEs are different
from large business,
so, the cloud usage in SMEs is also influenced by different factors which are discussed in
their research study. Five major factors are identified in which most favorable factor is
convenience and ease of use. Second important factor is security and privacy while the third
cause for adoption of cloud is lower cost or expense. However, the fourth factor identified
was reliability which is not supported by results because cloud service is not considered
reliable by SMEs. One other unfavorable factor is old conventional method, which is
preferred by SMEs to share and collaborate with their stakeholders because they do not trust
cloud for sharing their private data.
Alshamaila, Papagiannidis, and Li (2013, 250-275) conducted a research study to analyze the
adoption process of cloud computing in SMEs. They identified that the access to scalable
technologies enables the SMEs to compete large business in market by delivering modern
products and services. A qualitative exploratory study is conducted by using interviews as a
tool to collect primary data. SMEs operating in north east of England were selected for data
collection, as that region aspires to become home of digital innovation and have large
number of enterprises. Technological, organizational and environmental (TOE) framework is
used as thetheoretical base of this study and findings indicates some major factors which play

38
important role in adoption of cloud services by SMEs. These factors include market scope,
innovativeness, geo-restriction, uncertainty, compatibility, firm size, relative advantage,
supplier effort, external computing and top management support. However, there are no
significant evidence has been found on competitive pressure as factor of cloud computing
adoption.
Enterprises are showing lot of interest in cloud computing since its inception, as it enhances
the business value by offering technological solutions. However, there are some obstacles
faced by organization adoption of cloud services such as higher management experience,
standards and regulations. El-Gazzar (2014, 214-242) explored major issues related to
adoption of cloud computing by presenting a systematic literature review on subject matter.
He has reviewed 51academic articles about adoption of cloud computing and its benefits.
The grounded theory approach (Pandit 1996, 1-15) is used to classify the articles in eight
main categories, further these articles are classified in to abstract categories which involve
process and factors of cloud computing adoption. Findings of the study indicate that there are
many critical issues faced by SMEs in adoption of cloud services. Moreover, the researcher
recommended the use of information systems (IS) in order to explore the under-investigated
areas concerning process and factors of cloud computing.
Cloud computing refers to the movement in IT model which increase the efficiency, agility,
and flexibility of an organization. However, there is a lack of research on adoption of cloud
computing technology in SMEs. Conway, Curry and Donnellan (2014, cited 20.09.2015)
attempted to fill literature gap and conducted a case study to discuss the challenges faced by
SMEs. They have used a framework named IT-CMF (Conway et al. 2014, 2-4, cited
20.09.2015) to address the identified issues. A startup company which was involved in
technological research was considered as a sample, and a highly concerted research plan
constructed on design science principles was discussed by applying the concerned
framework. A measurement competency enabled by the framework guaranteed that risks
associated with cloud computing were eliminated. Findings suggest that IT-CMF framework
is invaluable tool for SMEs as it maximizes the opportunity for cloud computing in a
controlled and planned way.
A research study is conducted by Adam and Musah (2015, 115-139) to explore the need of
cloud computing in SMEs operating in developing countries. An exploratory approach is
adopted to conduct a qualitative study. They reviewed 95 research articles on cloud
computing and categorize these articles by developing a framework. The research activity is
differentiated based on lifecycle model which includes the needs, requirements and desires of

39
 SMEs which leads towards the adoption of cloud computing. The research study further
highlighted an unbalanced
utilization of quantitative methods and absence case study usage to frame the theoretical
basis in this subject. Additionally, literature gaps are recognized which indicated the
obstacles of cloud computing in SMEs are ignored, while adoption of cloud computing is
widely discussed. Their research study focused on identification of key research gaps
involving conceptual framework, issues and techniques.

2.6 Essential Characteristics of Cloud

Cloud computing resources can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal
management effort or service provider interaction. This means that an organization can use
more or fewer servers, stores, applications, or services, and can configure the ones it uses to
meet its requirements, as and when it wishes to do so, and without major effort.

Cloud computing has five essential characteristics, as depicted in Error! Reference source not
found..They are:

 On-demand self-service
 Broad network access
 Resource pooling
 Rapid elasticity
 Measured service

These features distinguish Cloud from other computing models.

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 2.7Cloud Infrastructure Market in India (2019 to 2024)

source:

(February 21, 2020 01:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Cloud Infrastructure Market in India 2019" report has

been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.)

The cloud infrastructure market in India is estimated to expand at a compound annual growth
rate CAGR of ~23.61% during the forecast period (2019-2024) and will reach a value of INR
196.46 Bn by 2024.

Cloud infrastructure refers to the back-end components (servers, network devices, Ethernet
switches, and storage) that supports cloud computing services. Businesses across all
industries are leveraging the benefits of cloud infrastructure to enhance efficiency, reduce
server and storage costs, and incorporate flexible work practices. Based on the deployment
type, public cloud holds over 66% of the total market share, in 2019.

The growing adoption of new-age technologies such as Big Data, analytics, artificial
intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT), along with favorable government
initiatives are propelling the growth of the Indian cloud infrastructure market. Government
initiatives such as DigiLocker, MeghRaj, and Cloud vision for India 2022, among others,
have supported the growth of the cloud infrastructure market and established India as a
global hub for cloud computing, content delivery, and data communication services.

Key influencers of the market:

1. According to a study conducted by Startup Blink (global start-up ecosystem map and
research center), India has moved its position at 37 in 2018 to 17 in the Startup Ecosystem
Ranking for 2019'. Owing to support from the government's Startup India Initiative,
availability of skilled IT personnel, and easy access to government funds, India has become a
popular destination for start-ups. In the Indian cloud ecosystem, start-up companies act cloud
service consumers (like Ola Cabs, OYO Hotels and Homes, Big basket), as well as a cloud

41
 service provider (such as Practo, Knowlarity Communications, and Freshdesk, among
others). Hence, the increasing number of start-ups are driving cloud adoption, which as a
result is driving the growth of the cloud infrastructure market.

2. Emerging technologies, especially IoT and AI has enabled growth in the cloud market in
India. Cloud computing is the principal force that enables companies to tap into AI
capabilities. Using cloud infrastructure, companies store, manage, and analyze the massive
amount of data that are required for AI applications. Similarly, IoT connected devices
including connected cars, and smart home appliances use cloud-based infrastructure to
communicate and store information. Thus, this symbiotic relationship between IoT, AI, and
cloud infrastructure is anticipated to propel the market growth.

3. Over the past few years, India has been witnessing a significant increase in cybercrime and
data breaches. Concern regarding managing sensitive and confidential information has
restrained many enterprises to opt for cloud-based services. Consequently, data security and
privacy remain the key challenge limiting the growth of themarket.

Competitive insights:

India's cloud infrastructure market is highly fragmented that is proliferated by both global
players (like Amazon and IBM) and domestic players (like Tata Consultancy Services and
Wipro).
Companies are expanding their target market by investing in setting up new data centers and
upgrading their existing data centers in India. Moreover, owing to the importance in
understanding customer requirements and ease of deployment process, the role of channel
partners (Cognizant, Mindtree) in the cloud ecosystem is also rising.

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 2.8List of Indian Companies Using AZURE Web Hosting Services

Sr.no. Company Name Service Used

1 Snapdeal AZURE Cloud

2 Infibeam AZURE Cloud
3 Indiarush AZURE Cloud
4 Craftsvilla AZURE Cloud
5 Myntra AZURE Cloud
6 Koovs.com AZURE Cloud
7 Voonik.com AZURE Cloud
8 Shoppers Stop AZURE Cloud
9 Nykaa.com AZURE Cloud
10 Paytm AZURE Cloud
11 Firstcry AZURE Cloud
12 Bookmyshow AZURE Cloud
13 TataCliq AZURE Cloud
14 Limeroad AZURE Cloud
15 Yepme AZURE Cloud
16 Pepperfry AZURE Cloud
17 Reliance Trends AZURE Cloud
18 Peter England AZURE Cloud
19 louisphilippe.com AZURE Cloud
20 IndiaMart AZURE Cloud
21 Justdial AZURE Cloud
22 Hotstar AZURE Cloud

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5 CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MODELS

5.1Private cloud

Private cloud is cloud infrastructure operated solely for a single organization, whether
managed internally or by a third party, and hosted either internally or
externally.]Undertaking a private cloud project requires significant engagement to
virtualized the business environment, and requires the organization to reevaluate
decisions about existing resources. It can improve business, but every step in the project
raises security issues that must be addressed to prevent serious vulnerabilities. Self- run
data centers are generally capital intensive. They have a significant physical footprint,
requiring allocations of space, hardware, and environmental controls. These assets have
to be refreshed periodically, resulting in additional capital expenditures. They have
attracted criticism because users "still have to buy, build, and manage them" and thus do
not benefit from less hands-onmanagement essentially "[lacking] the economic model
that makes cloud computing such an intriguing concept"

5.1.1 Public cloud

A cloud is called a "public cloud" when the services are rendered over a network that is
open for public use. Public cloud services may be free. Technically there may be little or
no difference between public and private cloud architecture, however, security
consideration may be substantially different for services (applications, storage, and other
resources) that are made available by a service provider for a public audience and when
communication is affected over a non-trusted network.
Generally, public cloud service providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), IBM
Cloud, Oracle, Microsoft, Google, and Alibaba own and operate the infrastructure at
their datacenter and access is generally via the Internet. AWS, Oracle, Microsoft, and
Google also offer direct connect services called "AWS Direct Connect", "Oracle Fast
Connect", "Azure Express Route", and "Cloud Interconnect" respectively, such
connections require customers to purchase or lease a private connection to a peering
point offered by the cloud provider.

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Hybrid cloud

Hybrid cloud is a composition of a public cloud and a private environment, such as a

private cloud or on-premises resources that remain distinct entities but are bound
together, offering the benefits of multiple deployment models. Hybrid cloud can also
mean the ability to connect collocation, managed and/or dedicated services with cloud
resources. Gartner defines a hybrid cloud service as a cloud computing service that is
composed of some combination of private, public and community cloud services, from
different service providers. A hybrid cloud service crosses isolation and provider
boundaries so that it can't be simply put in one category of private, public, or community
cloud service. It allows one to extend either the capacity or the capability of a cloud
service, by aggregation, integration or customization with another cloud service.

Varied use cases for hybrid cloud composition exist. For example, an organization may
store sensitive client data in house on a private cloud application, but interconnect that
application to business intelligence application provided on a public cloud as a software
service. This example of hybrid cloud extends the capabilities of the enterprise to deliver
a specific business service through the addition of externally available public cloud
services. Hybrid cloud adoption depends on a number of factors such as data security
and compliance requirements, level of control needed over data, and the applications an
organization uses.

Another example of hybrid cloud is one where IT organizations use public cloud
computing resources to meet temporary capacity needs that cannot be met by the private
cloud. This capability enables hybrid clouds to employ cloud bursting for scaling across
clouds. Cloud bursting is an application deployment model in which an application runs
in a private cloud or data center and "bursts" to a public cloud when the demand for
computing capacity increases. A primary advantage of cloud bursting and a hybrid cloud
model is that an organization pays for extra compute resources only when they are
needed. Cloud bursting enables data centers to create an in-house IT infrastructure that
supports average workloads, and use cloud resources from public or private clouds,
during spikes in processing demands. The specialized model of hybrid cloud, which is
built atop heterogeneous hardware, is called "Cross-platform Hybrid Cloud". A cross-
platform hybrid cloud is usually powered by different CPU architectures, for example,
x86-64 and ARM, underneath. Users can transparently deploy and scale applications
without knowledge of the cloud's hardware diversity. This kind of cloud emerges from

45
the rise of ARM-based system-on-chip for server-class computing.

Hybrid cloud infrastructure essentially serves to eliminate limitations inherent to the

multi-access relay characteristics of private cloud networking. The advantages include
enhanced runtime flexibility and adaptive memory processing unique to virtualized
interface models.

Others

Community cloud shares infrastructure between several organizations from a specific

community with common concerns (security, compliance, jurisdiction, etc.), whether
managed internally or by a third-party, and either hosted internally or externally. The
costs are spread over fewer users than a public cloud (but more than a private cloud), so
only some of the cost savings potential of cloud computing are realized.

Distributed cloud

A cloud computing platform can be assembled from a distributed set of machines in

different locations, connected to a single network or hub service. It is possible to
distinguish between two types of distributed clouds: public-resource computing and
volunteer cloud.

 Public-resource computing—This type of distributed cloud results from an

expansive definition of cloud computing, because they are more akin to distributed
computing than cloud computing. Nonetheless, it is considered a sub-class of cloud
computing.
 Volunteer cloud—Volunteer cloud computing is characterized as the intersection
of public- resource computing and cloud computing, where a cloud computing
infrastructure is built using volunteered resources. Many challenges arise from this
type of infrastructure, because of the volatility of the resources used to build it and
the dynamic environment it operates in. It can also be called peer-to-peer clouds, or
ad-hoc clouds. An interesting effort in such direction is Cloud Home, it aims to
implement a cloud computing infrastructure using volunteered resources providing a
business-model to incentivize contributions through financial restitution.

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Multicolor

Multicolor is the use of multiple cloud computing services in a single heterogeneous

architecture to reduce reliance on single vendors, increase flexibility through choice,
mitigate against disasters, etc. It differs from hybrid cloud in that it refers to multiple
cloud services, rather than multiple deployment modes (public, private, legacy).

Poly cloud

Poly cloud refers to the use of multiple public clouds for the purpose of leveraging
specific services that each provider offers. It differs from multicolor in that it is not
designed to increase flexibility or mitigate against failures but is rather used to allow an
organization to achieve more that could be done with a single provider.

Big Data cloud

The issues of transferring large amounts of data to the cloud as well as data security
once the data is in the cloud initially hampered adoption of cloud for big data, but now
that much data originates in the cloud and with the advent of bare-metal servers, the
cloud has become a solution for use cases including business analytics and geospatial
analysis.

HPC cloud

HPC cloud refers to the use of cloud computing services and infrastructure to execute
high-performance computing (HPC) applications. These applications consume
considerable amount of computing power and memory and are traditionally executed on
clusters of computers. In 2016 a handful of companies, including R-HPC, Amazon Web
Services, Univa, Graphics International, Sabalcore, Gomput, and Penguin Computing
offered a high performance computing cloud. The Penguin on Demand (POD) cloud
was one of the first non-virtualized remote HPC services offered on a pay-as-you-go
basis. Penguin Computing launched its HPC cloud in 2016 as alternative to Amazon's
EC2 Elastic Compute Cloud, which uses virtualized computing nodes.
Amazon Web Services is a subordinate of Amazon that provides cloud computing
platform to evolve an organization. AWS has always been a building block for those
organization as they are used to create and develop any type of application over the
cloud. Simplified implementation, high security, elasticity, scalability, and flexibility are
some of the known advantages of Amazon Web Services.

47
Additionally, Amazon has different services that cater to fulfill the requirements of
different domains.

Some of the most widely used domains of Amazon Web Services are Compute, Storage,
Database, Migration, Network and Content Delivery, Management Tools, and Security
and Identity Compliance.

Talking about the endless services offered by (Amazon Web Services) with limitless
possibilities, we have mentioned these 5 trending services that can be implemented on
applications or database over AZURE Cloud to perfectly fit into the project.

1.5Best Services offered by AWSare

1. Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute(EC2)

The Amazon EC2 service comes under the compute domain and it provides
services that help to compute workloads. Amazon EC2 web interface is used to
reduce the expensive physical servers by creating virtual machines. Also, they
help in managing different features of the virtual servers such as security, ports,
and storage. Amazon EC2 is highly preferable while creating a virtual server
within a few minutes with just a few clicks according to the user’s operating
system conveniently. It offers resizable compute capacity in the cloud. This
helps a lot to focus more on the project rather than the server maintenance.

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2. Amazon S3 (Simple StorageService)

Amazon S3 is categorized under storage domain that provides data storage over
the Internet services. Primarily, S3 stores data over the cloud in the form of
objects. Amazon S3 stores the data with high security because of its improved
infrastructure. The information is distributed over different physical regions and
has a high-quality integration. This prevents the data from getting lost and helps
to retrieve stored data irrespective of time and space via the Internet. Amazon
S3 is highly available so that users can access their data just by one click with
minimum or zero retrieving time.

3. Amazon Virtual Private Cloud(VPC)

Amazon VPC falls under the Networking domain of AWS which is used to
isolate the network infrastructure of user’s computer. Every Amazon account
holds a unique virtual network that protects the information from being
accessed by others. These networks are logically isolated from other virtual
networks in AZURE Clouds. This makes the user information risk-free in the
AZURE Cloud.

49
4. AmazonCloudFront

Amazon Cloud Front represents the delivery domain that is used to deliver the
content with great speed and reduced latency. Amazon Cloud Front is used to
connect with other AWS services and to help the developers to send the
content to the end-users in a seamless manner. AZURE Cloud Front is
managing all the user’s content in an effective manner via the Global Content
Delivery Service.

5. Amazon Relational Database Services(RDS)

Amazon RDS comes under the Database domain of Amazon Web Services and
is used to handle database related workloads. The RDS helps the users to design
and manage the relational database in the cloud which stores the complex data
of the infrastructure. Earlier RDs used to support Myself and now it also
supports Oracle, Microsoft SQL, and MariaDB. It reduces the operational costs

50
 and leverages the database server from maintenance and support.
3 USE OF CLOUD COMPUTING IN SMES

There is a major role of cloud computing in addressing the ineffectiveness and inefficiencies
of SMEs. It also contributes in the fundamental competitiveness and growth of SMEs. After
the adoption of cloud computing, SMEs can be able to effectively utilize modern technology
along with cutting upfront cost. Therefore, this chapter is going to discuss the advantages and
disadvantages of cloud computing with regards to SMEs.

3.1 Cloud Computing Advantages

As cloud computing is modern technology, so these services are currently used by different
types of companies. It is expected by the IT experts that the growth of cloud computing will
be increased in next few years. Cloud computing is highly beneficial for mid-size and large

companies but now smaller firms are also adopting and using its benefits to increase their
businesses. Companies are offered benefits through cloud computing as they implement such
services and thus will be resulted in development of IT in all types of SMEs along with
industries and universities.

3.1.1 Cost Savings

Cloud computing is mostly helpful in IT cost cutting. This is also helpful for all businesses

including small, medium or large as it helps in maintaining operations and capital expenses to

least minimum amount. Further, it is also helpful in saving substantial cost along with
application

requirements and zero in-house server storage. Operational costs of the companies also
decline due to less on-premises infrastructure in terms of administration, air conditioning, and
power costs.

3.1.2 Scalability/Flexibility

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These days most companies are focusing on data management centers due to high scalable

cloud computing nature and for this purpose cloud experts are trained to maintain hybrid,
private, and shared clouds. Companies get quick resources allocation in controlled
environment in which overloading is not concerned for the time as system is properly
managed.

3.1.3 Reliability

Cloud computing service is highly reliable due to managed service provider and it is
consistent as compared to in-house IT infrastructure. Usually, service providers offer their
services in 24/7/365with 99.99% reliability. Services can be easily transmitted to further
available servers in case of failure of applications.

3.1.4Maintenance

Cloud computing is easy to manage as it is not required to install in every single computer
and thus can be reached from different locations. Features of cloud computing platform helps
service providers to maintain, host, develop, and test applications in cloud. In this way,
developers can modify and launch different programs as compared to setting up systems and
infrastructure themselves.

3.1.5 Minimize licensing new software

Cloud computing strategies are used to custom tailor solutions to the company and thus
company needs cloud IT with fully integrated, dynamic and robust computer systems with
completely web based. In this way applications, files, and emails can be accessed easily with
any internet connection and thus need of software and hardware is also decreased in this way.
Thus, companies need less licensed software. Therefore, companies can now

grow without investing larger amount on licenses.

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3.1.6 Innovation

Cloud computing is enabling the companies to interact with customers, employees, and
partnersin a different way. Companies can get highly incredible business opportunities which
can helpthem to build real-time interaction and innovation to flourish their enterprise.

3.1.7 Multiple Users at same time

Cloud computing is also helpful in increasing the effectiveness of shared resources. Multiple

users not only share these resources but allocate dynamically as per demand. Further, it is
also helpful for multiple users to retrieve their data through single server and update data
without buying license.

3.1.8 Its Green

Cloud computing is best and most effective for future use. According to Blaisdell (2014),

companies can increase their return by 200% by using cloud computing. Software
developmentand IT industry is also fundamentally changing in order to adopt modern
technologies. In thisway, they can help to save environment by using less servers and other
resources.

3.2 Cloud Computing Disadvantages

There are different potential advantages of cloud computing enterprises which are discussed

above in detail but still some factors need to be worried by the company’s management.

Therefore, cloud computing has some disadvantages for SMEs which are as follow.

3.2.1 Lack of Control

Cloud computing is fully owned, managed and monitored by service providers and thus

customers have minimum control over it. Therefore, customers only have control over
services,

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data, and applications. Further, customers do not have access to administrative tasks like

firmware and updating management, and access to server.

3.2.2 Network Dependency

Cloud computing is completely internet dependent service. This is major drawback of cloud

computing because full dependency of cloud to internet led to prone service outages at any
time. Service interruption can occur during transactions, file transmission, or other tasks and
as a result task can be delayed.

3.2.3 Risk

Every single cloud computing component is highly accessible from internet server. However,

internet connected services are not secure and sometimes IT teams have to suffer from hard

security breaches and attacks.

3.2.4 Essentially need an Internet connection

In IT department, cloud computing is excessively used as an essential feature but the most

important part is availability of internet. Computer networks and in-house servers are also

replaced but employees are not able to access data without an active internet connection.

3.2.5 Migration Issue

Migration to cloud computing is tricky. There are some common challenges in this regard,
whichconsist of identification of right cloud vendors, effective management of cloud
resources, andtransitions of IT hardware and investments.

3.2.6 Continuously Evolving

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Cloud computing, storage, networking, and interfaces requirements of the customers are

continuously changing. Such evolving parameter shows that cloud cannot be static and

continuously changing with the passage of time.

Small and Medium Enterprises Business

Cloud computing provides a new business paradigm for resources. It enables organizations to
create and use IT and business services on-demand from optimal sources to maximize
utilization and cost-effectiveness. This can be between enterprises or within a single
enterprise.

New Resourcing Paradigm

IT planning should begin with an understanding of the overall business strategy. From
experience, many businesses, irrespective of their size, lack business-IT alignment; hence IT
planning becomes a matter of trying to hit a moving target. When IT planning, as the
cornerstone of Plan, Build, and Run, is inadequately developed, IT organizations provision
and operate IT assets that are of questionable value to the business. To make matters worse,
small businesses struggle with a lack of skilled IT personnel, operational insufficiencies, and

55
poor IT management. As a result, IT organizations often fail to demonstrate satisfactory
business outcomes, such as improved financial performance.

Cloud computing won’t be the answer to all of the above. But it can help simplify IT so that
SMEs stay business-focused.

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 CHAPTER- 4

COMPANY PROFILE

57
Microsoft Azure, often referred to as Azure (/ˈæʒər, ˈeɪʒər/ AZH-ər, AY-
zhər, UK also /ˈæzjʊər, ˈeɪzjʊər/ AZ-ure, AY-zure), is a cloud computing platform run
by Microsoft, which offers access, management, and development of applications and
services through global data centers. It provides a range of capabilities, including software as
a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
Microsoft Azure supports many programming languages, tools, and frameworks, including
Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems.

Microsoft's cloud computing platform, Azure, was introduced at the Professional Developers
Conference (PDC) in October 2008 under the codename "Project Red Dog". It was officially
launched as Windows Azure in February 2010 and later renamed Microsoft Azure on March
25, 2014.

Services

Microsoft Azure uses large-scale virtualization at Microsoft data centers worldwide and it
offers more than 600 services.

Computer services

 Virtual machines, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) allowing users to launch general-

purpose Microsoft Windows and x virtual machines, software as a service (Saas) as well as
preconfigured machine images for popular software packages.[9]
o Starting in 2022, VMs are powered by Ampere Cloud-native processors.[10]
o Most users run Linux on Azure, some of the many Linux distributions offered,
including Microsoft's own Linux-based Azure Sphere.[11]
 App services, platform as a service (PaaS) environment letting developers easily
publish and manage websites.
 Websites, Azure Web Sites allows developers to build sites
using ASP.NET, PHP, Node.js, Java, or Python and can be deployed
using FTP, Git, Mercurial, Team Foundation Server or uploaded through the user portal. This
feature was announced in preview form in June 2012 at the Meet Microsoft Azure event.
Customers can create websites in PHP, ASP.NET, Node.js, or Python, or select from several
open source applications from a gallery to deploy. This comprises one aspect of the platform
as a service (PaaS) offerings for the Microsoft Azure Platform. It was renamed Web Apps in
April 2015.

58
 WebJobs, applications that can be deployed to an App Service environment to
implement background processing that can be invoked on a schedule, on demand, or run
continuously. The Blob, Table and Queue services can be used to communicate between
WebApps, XYZ, iOS Software and WebJobs and to provide state.
 Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) allows you to quickly deploy a production
ready kubernetes cluster in Azure. Azure is responsible for managing the control plane and
customers get the flexibility to choose/scale the data place (kubernetes worker nodes).
Identity

 Azure Active Directory Connect is used to synchronize on-premises directories and

enable SSO (Single Sign On).
 Azure Active Directory B2C allows the use of consumer identity and access
management in the cloud.
 Azure Active Directory Domain Services is used to join Azure virtual machines to a
domain without domain controllers.
 Azure information protection can be used to protect sensitive information.
 Azure Active Directory External Identities are set of capabilities which allow
organizations to collaborate with external users including customers and partners.
Mobile services

 Mobile Engagement collects real-time analytics that highlight users’ behavior. It also
provides push notifications to mobile devices.
 HockeyApp can be used to develop, distribute, and beta-test mobile apps.
Storage services

 Storage Services provides REST and SDK APIs for storing and accessing data on the
cloud.
 Table Service lets programs store structured text in partitioned collections of entities
that are accessed by partition key and primary key. Azure Table Service is a NoSQL non-
relational database.
 Blob Service allows programs to store unstructured text and binary data as blobs that
can be accessed by an HTTP(S) path. Blob service also provides security mechanisms to
control access to data.
 Queue Service lets programs communicate asynchronously by message using queues.

59
 File Service allows storing and access of data on the cloud using the REST APIs or
the SMB protocol.

Communication services

 Azure Communication Services offers an SDK for creating web and mobile
communications applications that include SMS, video calling, VOIP and PSTN calling, and
web based chat.
Data management

 Azure Data Explorer provides big data analytics and data-exploration capabilities
 Azure Search provides text search and a subset of OData's structured filters using
REST or SDK APIs.
 Cosmos DB is a NoSQL database service that implements a subset of the SQL
SELECT statement on JSON documents.
 Azure Cache for Redis is a managed implementation of Redis.
 StorSimple manages storage tasks between on-premises devices and cloud storage.
 Azure SQL Database works to create, scale and extend applications into the cloud
using Microsoft SQL Server technology. It also integrates with Active Directory, Microsoft
System Center and Hadoop.
 Azure Synapse Analytics is a fully managed cloud data warehouse.
 Azure Data Factory, is a data integration service that allows creation of data-driven
workflows in the cloud for orchestrating and automating data movement and data
transformation.
 Azure Data Lake is a scalable data storage and analytic service for big data analytics
workloads that require developers to run massively parallel queries.
 Azure HDInsight is a big data relevant service, that deploys Hortonworks Hadoop on
Microsoft Azure, and supports the creation of Hadoop clusters using Linux with Ubuntu.
 Azure Stream Analytics is a Serverless scalable event processing engine that enables
users to develop and run real-time analytics on multiple streams of data from sources such as
devices, sensors, web sites, social media, and other applications.
Messaging

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The Microsoft Azure Service Bus allows applications running on Azure premises or off-
premises devices to communicate with Azure. This helps to build scalable and reliable
applications in a service-oriented architecture (SOA). The Azure service bus supports four
different types of communication mechanisms:

 Event Hubs, which provide event and telemetry ingress to the cloud at massive scale,
with low latency and high reliability. For example, an event hub can be used to track data
from cell phones such as coordinating with a GPS in real time.
 Queues, which allow one-directional communication. A sender application would
send the message to the service bus queue, and a receiver would read from the queue. Though
there can be multiple readers for the queue only one would process a single message.
 Topics, which provide one-directional communication using a subscriber pattern. It is
similar to a queue, however, each subscriber will receive a copy of the message sent to a
Topic. Optionally the subscriber can filter out messages based on specific criteria defined by
the subscriber.
 Relays, which provide bi-directional communication. Unlike queues and topics, a
relay doesn't store in-flight messages in its own memory. Instead, it just passes them on to the
destination application.
Media services

A PaaS offering that can be used for encoding, content protection, streaming, or analytics.

CDN

Azure has a worldwide content delivery network (CDN) designed to efficiently deliver audio,
video, applications, images, and other static files. It improves the performance of websites by
caching static files closer to users based on their geographic location. Users can manage the
network using a REST-based HTTP API.

Azure has 118 point of presence locations, across 100 cities, worldwide (also known as Edge
locations) as of January 2023.

Developer

 Application Insights
 Azure DevOps
Management

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 With Azure Automation, users can easily automate repetitive and time-consuming
tasks, often prone to cloud or enterprise setting errors. They can accomplish it using runbooks
or desired state configurations for process automation.
 Microsoft SMA
Azure AI

 Microsoft Azure Machine Learning (Azure ML) provides tools and ML frameworks
for developers to create their own machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) services.
 Azure Cognitive Services by Microsoft comprise prebuilt APIs, SDKs, and services
developers can customize. These services encompass perceptual and cognitive intelligence
features such as speech recognition, speaker recognition, neural speech synthesis, face
recognition, computer vision, OCR/form understanding, natural language processing,
machine translation, and business decision services. Many AI characteristics in Microsoft's
products and services, namely Bing, Office, Teams, Xbox, and Windows, are driven by Azure
Cognitive Services.
Azure Blockchain Workbench

Through Azure Blockchain Workbench, Microsoft is providing the required infrastructure to

set up a consortium network in multiple topologies using a variety of consensus mechanisms.
Microsoft provides integration from these blockchain platforms to other Microsoft services to
streamline the development of distributed applications. Microsoft supports many general-
purpose blockchains including Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric and purpose-built
blockchains like Corda.

Functions

Azure functions are used in serverless computing architectures where subscribers can execute
code as an event driven Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) without managing the underlying
server resources. Customers using Azure functions are billed based on per-second resource
consumption and executions.

Internet of Things (IoT)

 Azure IoT Hub lets you connect, monitor, and manage billions of IoT assets. On
February 4, 2016, Microsoft announced the General Availability of the Azure IoT Hub
service.[37]

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 Azure IoT Edge is a fully managed service built on IoT Hub that allows for cloud
intelligence deployed locally on IoT edge devices.
 Azure IoT Central is a fully managed SaaS app that makes it easy to connect,
monitor, and manage IoT assets at scale. On December 5, 2017, Microsoft announced the
Public Preview of Azure IoT Central; its Azure IoT SaaS service.
 On October 4, 2017, Microsoft began shipping GA versions of the official Microsoft
Azure IoT Developer Kit (DevKit) board; manufactured by MXChip.
 On April 16, 2018, Microsoft announced the launch of the Azure Sphere, an end-to-
end IoT product that focuses on microcontroller-based devices and uses Linux.
 On June 27, 2018, Microsoft launched Azure IoT Edge, used to run Azure services
and artificial intelligence on IoT devices.
 On November 20, 2018, Microsoft launched the Open Enclave SDK for cross-
platform systems such as ARM TrustZone and Intel SGX.
Azure Orbital

Launched in September 2020, Azure Orbital lets private industries and government agencies
process satellite data quickly by connecting directly to cloud computing networks. Mobile
cloud computing ground stations are also available to provide connectivity to remote
locations without ground infrastructure. Third-party satellite systems, like SpaceX's
Starlink and SES' O3b constellation, can be employed.

SES plans to use Microsoft's data centers to provide cloud connectivity to remote areas
through its next-generation O3b mPOWER MEO satellites alongside Microsoft's data
centers. The company will deploy satellite control and uplink ground stations to achieve this.
SES launched the first two O3b mPOWER satellites in December 2022; nine more are
scheduled between 2023 and 2024. The service should begin in Q3 2023.

According to Microsoft, using satellites to connect to cloud data centers may provide faster
speeds than complex fiber routes. For online media, entertainment, or gaming activities,
connecting from home to the cloud can involve longer routes with multiple hops. Through
their experiments with Xbox Cloud, Microsoft has discovered that satellite connection is
faster than terrestrial networks in certain parts of the world (including specific locations in the
USA).

Regional expansion

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As of 2018, Azure was available in 54 regions, and Microsoft was the first primary cloud
provider to establish facilities in Africa, with two regions in South Africa. Azure geographies
consist of multiple Azure Regions, like "North Europe" (located in Dublin, Ireland) and
"West Europe" (located in Amsterdam, Netherlands). Each Azure Region is paired with
another region within the same geography, forming a regional pair. For instance, the locations
of Dublin and Amsterdam create a regional couple.

Middle East cloud data centers

On June 19th, 2019, Microsoft announced the launch of two new cloud regions in the United
Arab Emirates – Microsoft's first in the Middle East. Microsoft's management stated that
these new data centers would empower customers and partners to embrace the benefits of
the Fourth Industrial Revolution and achieve more using cloud technologies.

Research partnerships

Microsoft has partners that sell its products. In August 2018, Toyota Tsusho began a
partnership with Microsoft to create fish farming tools using the Microsoft Azure application
suite for IoT technologies related to water management. Developed in part by researchers
from Kindai University, the water pump mechanisms use artificial intelligence to count the
number of fish on a conveyor belt, analyze the number of fish, and deduce the effectiveness
of water flow from the data the fish provide. The specific computer programs used in the
process fall under the Azure Machine Learning and the Azure IoT Hub platforms.

Design

Microsoft Azure utilizes a specialized operating system with the same name to power its
"fabric layer".This cluster is hosted at Microsoft's data centers and is responsible for
managing computing and storage resources and allocating them to applications running on
the Microsoft Azure platform. It's a "cloud layer" built upon various Windows Server
systems, including the customized Microsoft Azure Hypervisor, which is based on Windows
Server 2008 and enables the virtualization of services.

The Microsoft Azure Fabric Controller maintains the scalability and dependability of services
and environments in the data center. It prevents failure in server malfunction and manages
users' web applications, including memory allocation and load balancing.

64
Azure provides an API built on REST, HTTP, and XML that allows a developer to interact
with the services offered by Microsoft Azure. Microsoft also provides a client-side managed
class library that encapsulates the functions of interacting with the services. It also integrates
with Microsoft Visual Studio, Git, and Eclipse.

Users can manage Azure services in multiple ways, one of which is through the Web-based
Azure Portal, which became generally available in December 2015. Apart from accessing
services via API, users can browse active resources, adjust settings, launch new resources,
and view primary monitoring data of functional virtual machines and services using the
portal.

Deployment models

Regarding cloud resources, Microsoft Azure offers two deployment models: the "classic"
model and the Azure Resource Manager. In the classic model, each resource, like a virtual
machine or SQL database, had to be managed separately. But in 2014, Azure introduced the
Azure Resource Manager, which allows users to group related services. This update makes it
easier and more efficient to deploy, manage, and monitor resources that work closely
together. The classic model will eventually be phased out.

History and timeline

Azure logo used from 2010 to 2012, under Windows Azure name

In 2005, Microsoft took over Groove Networks, and Bill Gates made Groove's founder Ray
Ozzie one of his 5 direct reports as one of 3 chief technology officers. Ozzie met with
Amitabh Srivastava, which let Srivastava change course. They convinced Dave Cutler to
postpone his retirement and their teams developed a cloud operating system.

 October 2008 (PDC LA) – Announced the Windows Azure Platform.

 March 2009 – Announced SQL Azure Relational Database.
 November 2009 – Updated Windows Azure CTP, Enabled full trust, PHP, Java, CDN
CTP and more.
 February 1, 2010 – Windows Azure Platform commercially available.
 June 2010 – Windows Azure Update, .NET Framework 4, OS Versioning, CDN, SQL
Azure Update.

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 October 2010 (PDC) – Platform enhancements, Windows Azure Connect, improved
Dev / IT Pro Experience.
 December 2011 – Traffic manager, SQL Azure reporting, HPC scheduler.
 June 2012 – Websites, Virtual machines for Windows and Linux, Python SDK, new
portal, locally redundant storage.
 April 2014 – Windows Azure renamed Microsoft Azure, ARM Portal introduced at
Build 2014.
 July 2014 – Azure Machine Learning public preview.
 November 2014 – Outage affecting major websites including MSN.com.
 September 2015 – Azure Cloud Switch introduced as a cross-platform Linux
distribution. Currently known as SONiC
 December, 2015 – Azure ARM Portal (codename "Ibiza") released.
 March, 2016 – Azure Service Fabric is Generally Available (GA)
 September 2017 – Microsoft Azure gets a new logo and a Manifesto
 July 16, 2018 – Azure Service Fabric Mesh public preview
 September 24, 2018 – Microsoft Azure IoT Central is Generally Available (GA)
 October 10, 2018 – Microsoft joins the Linux-oriented group Open Invention
Network.[77]
 April 17, 2019 – Azure Front Door Service is now available.
 March 2020 – Microsoft said that there was a 775% increase in Microsoft
Teams usage in Italy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company estimates there are now
44 million daily active users of Teams worldwide.
Privacy

According to the USA PATRIOT Act, Microsoft has acknowledged that the U.S. government
can access data even if the hosting company is not American and the data is outside the U.S.
To address concerns related to privacy and security, Microsoft has established the Microsoft
Azure Trust Center. Microsoft Azure offers services that comply with multiple compliance
programs, including ISO 27001:2005 and HIPAA. A comprehensive and up-to-date list of
these services is available on the Microsoft Azure Trust Center Compliance page. It's worth
noting that Microsoft Azure has received JAB Provisional Authority to Operate (P-ATO)
from the U.S. government under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program
(FedRAMP) guidelines. This program provides a standardized approach to security

66
assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud services used by the federal
government.

Significant outages

The following is a list of Microsoft Azure outages and service disruptions.

Date Cause Notes

Incorrect code for

2012-02-29 calculating leap
day dates

Misconfigured network
2012-07-26
device

Expiry of an SSL Xbox Live, Xbox Music and

2013-02-22
certificate Video also affected

Worldwide partial
2013-10-30
compute outage

Azure storage upgrade Xbox Live, Windows Store, MSN,

2014-11-18 caused reduced capacity Search, Visual Studio Online
across several regions among others were affected.

2015-12-03 Active Directory issues

2016-09-15 Global DNS outage

2017-03-15 Storage tier issues

2017-10-03 Fire system glitch

North Europe region experienced

2018-06-20 Cooling system failure
11 hours of downtime

2018-09-04 Cooling system failure Brought down numerous services

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Date Cause Notes

in multiple regions for over 25

due to inadequate surge
hours, with some services
protection (lightning
remaining affected until three
strike)
days later

2019-05-02 DNS Migration Issue

Authentication errors across

multiple services using Azure
2021-03-15 OpenID Key removal
Active Directory for up to 16
hours

DNS issue impacting

Worldwide DNS issues with Azure
2021-04-01 multiple Microsoft
services
services

Certifications

A large variety of Azure certifications can be attained, each requiring one or multiple
successfully completed examinations.

Certification levels range from beginner, intermediate to expert.

Examples of common certifications include:

 Azure Fundamentals
 Azure Developer Associate
 Azure Administrator Associate
 Azure Data Engineers Associate
 Azure Security Engineer Associate
 Azure Solutions Architect Expert
 Azure DevOps Engineer Expert

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 CHAPTER-5

DATA ANALYSIS

AND INTERPRETATION

69
 DATA ANALYSIS

5.1 DISCUSSION

Cloud computing is one of the biggest effects among all the new technologies which
has beenintroduced during the last few years. The organizations view about
technology have beenchanged because they can implement simple and effective
solution with help of computing. It also enabled them to be creative and interact with
customers more efficiently. Moreover, cloud is easy to deploy and cost effective
which makes possible for organization to experience advanced technologies. The IT
sector has become able to produce new items and distribute these items to a wide
network.
In this study, interviews from different IT personnel have been conducted to find out
the different factors in SMEs which drove them toward adoption of cloud computing
for their enterprises. It has been observed that most of the SMEs consider advanced
technology as a critical success factor so cloud platform is implemented to meet this
requirement.

5.1.1 Summary of the Interview

In SMEs, different types of clouds are used to run their operations. As observed in
interviews most of the organizations are using public cloud which are owned and
operated by isolated business in external environment. There are also some SMEs
which are using private cloud which are operated and owned by themselves while
use of partner cloud has been also noticed. In SMEs, a trend of hybrid cloud
computing is also observed where cloud services are provided by different sources
such as both private and partner. In case of cloud operating system, commonly used
packages in SMEs are SaaS and CaaS which helps them to manage them business
operations effectively. It provides different services such as network capacity,
storage, communication facilities etc. However, there is a less use of PaaS via cloud
computing in order to develop new applications because of high risk in environment.
Many SMEs are using cloud computing in order to reduce capital expenditure which
further lowers their cost, as they can avoid the expense of buying hardware and
licensing software. One other reason is to manage effective IT support because it is

70
difficult for small organizations to hire highly experience IT specialist and operate a
whole tech department. Moreover, scalability and flexibility of IT resources is
another observed reason which leads SMEs towards adoption of cloud computing.
Agility of services increases the opportunities to use advanced technologies in these
small organizations which increase firm profitability. However, they are facing some
hurdles in utilization of cloud computing in SMEs such as it decreases the level of
internal control in organization when they outsource a large number of services. It is
difficult for SMEs to manage reliability of IT operation on clouds, because there is
high level of security risk in environment.
Service legal agreements and vendor lock in are also biggest challenges for SMEs in
adoption and implementation of cloud computing. But the best thing is that, these
hurdles can be managed with effective strategies and planning.
Cloud computing services are utilized to manage different business processes in
SMEs, such as management of sales data, creation of payroll by using specified
software, administration of financial records. It also helps SMEs to manage research
and development activities and provide solutions for data analysis, in this way
organizations can become more informed about change in technological areas and
innovative. However, a problem arises when secure services cannot be achieved by a
single cloud system. Therefore, more reliable solution for this issue is Hybrid cloud
where automated services allow the users to control their data on networks. In this
way, some SMEs are managing security and privacy concerns of their organization
appropriately.

5.1.2 Use of Cloud computing in SMEs

After the identification of some innovative technology and its perceived benefit,
SMEs would liketo adopt that technology. Therefore, it is important for SMEs to
have complete knowledge of cloud computing and its relative advantage. According
to analyzed data, it has been found that cloud computing is considered as an
important and interesting technology in SMEs. Most of SMEs are attracted towards
use of cloud services to run their business operation, and trying to reduce some
minor drawbacks of clouds by implementing adequate plans. However, there was
lack of awareness among SMEs about cloud computing which became major reason
for the late adoption of this technology. SMEs current users of cloud computing are
well aware of its benefits as it has made them more competent and successful in

71
market. Such as, SMEs have more control over their IT operation and expenditure
because of cloud mobility and scalability. The major reason behind the adoption was
that the SMEs were not satisfied with their existinginfrastructure as it does not meet
their business expectation. Implementation of cloud computing can be easier for
them after conducting a brief analysis of its advantage.
Uncertainty was another important factor in adoption of cloud computing, because
majorconcerns of SMEs were privacy and security of data. It was also a complicated
issue to relinquish ownership to an external entity by accessing cloud computing
services. However, these issues are somehow addressed by establishing relationship
with reliable service providers. As per views of one participant, it is quite risky when
some other organization has your confidential data but there should be an element of
interest to run a successful business. However, there are also some other solutions
used by SMEs such as signing of confidentiality agreement in order to secure their
data. Another identified fact is that, some early adopters trust their service providers,
which leads these SMEs towards implementation of cloud computing. Overall,
SMEs are satisfied with cloud computing services as it is compatible with their IT
structure and easy to use. It is important for any advanced technology to provide
user friendly and comfortable services. In case of cloud computing, it has been
observed that its services are consistent with the organizational values and
technology requirements.
In cloud computing services, SMEs have options of trial-ability which allow them to
use theseservices on trial bases before implementation. It has great impact on their
decision aboutadopting a particular service but it is also very useful as it provides
them an opportunity to choose most suitable service providers. However, it has been
found that trial-ability of cloud computing services mostly have positive effect on
SMEs about adoption. It is also useful for them because of small size of
organization, as participant believe that it is quite easy for them to follow agility of
cloud computing and change direction whenever needed. Flexibility is another
important factor which motivates SMEs to choose cloud services, as it allows them
to control their density and avoid capital expense.

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5.1.3Reasons for adopting Cloud Computing
The following are some important reasons observed in this study, which motivates
small andmedium enterprises to adopt cloud computing services.

Flexibility and Scalability in resource utilization an unmatched flexibility is

offered to SMEs by cloud computing which allows them to manage their versatility
and usage policies. One of the most important benefit of cloud computing is
provision of data storage facilities which motivates SMEsto move on to clouds. In
fact, more than half of the population adopted cloud computing because of this
factor. Data storage facilities are flexible on clouds, as SMEs have to pay only for
that volume of space which they consume. In this way, they can increase or decrease
storage space whenever required to meet business requirement. Therefore, cloud
computing provides a relative advantage to IT business which require availability of
resources on demand to experience rapid growth.

Cost Effectiveness As discussed above flexibility and scalability in resource

utilization leads an organization to reduced operational cost and capital expenditure.
It also allows SMEs to control financial spending on extensive upgrades as cloud
computing assists them to install continuous updates at very reasonable costs. In
case of any maintenance requirement, SMEs do not have to pay any expenses
because it is a responsibility of the vendors to update, upgrade and maintain acloud.
Moreover, it enables them to compete in market by offering a cost reduction
structure and advance IT solutions. As findings of this study suggest that, most of
the SMEs saved a significant amount of their IT expenses after the adoption of cloud
computing in very less time.

Lower Technology Risk Apart from the financial advantages of cloud computing,
its ready touse infrastructures reduce the level of technology risk in SMEs. Major
cloud providers in industry offers guarantee for their clouds and risk of data
unavailability is also minimize because of cloud computing. In this way, the SMEs
have more trust on cloud providers which allows them to use their storage.

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Data Security At the beginning, SMEs have many concerns about security breaches
and datalosses on a cloud. However, after evolvement of cloud computing and some
advanced changesin this technology security concerns have been reduced. Recently,
cloud computing is used at asecure network because it offers high level of security
and integrity of user data.
Effective IT support the corporative productivity of SMEs has been enhanced with
theimplementation of cloud-based frameworks in IT sections. SMEs can get
effective supportanytime because cloud computing enables their service providers to
work from devices. Highlyspecialized IT personnel can offer their services to SMEs
from anywhere in the world atreasonable cost. SMEs can spend more on training of
their human resources, when other costsare reduced because of cloud computing. In
this way, organization performance can be highly
improved by following some effective strategies.

Technical Skills These days organizations are trying to reduce paper work, so it
increases level of IT utilization in all parts of organization. Therefore, it is important
for them to have highly skilled IT specialist with effective knowledge of computing
who can help them to maintain and update their work online. The implementation of
IT applications associated with cloud computing can helpSMEs to choose better way
to increase technical efficiency, which further enable them tocompete in market.
In spite of some security concerns, the level of risk in cloud computing is not much
higher. Cloud computing can offer best solution to small enterprises and ensure high
level of output from cloud investments when right organization is selected as cloud
partners. In last few years, a rapid change in IT environment has increased the trend
of cloud adoption in SMEs which can be more efficient with help of clear
understanding in this regard.

Some of Amazon Web Services are

Amazon VPC : Amazon Virtual Private Cloud is a commercial cloud

computing service that provides users a virtual private cloud, by
"provision[ing] a logically isolated section of Amazon Web Services Cloud".

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Amazon Cloud Front :Amazon Cloud Front is a content delivery network
offered by Amazon Web Services. Content delivery networks provide a
globally-distributed network of proxy servers which cache content, such as
web videos or other bulky media, more locally to consumers, thus
improving access speed for downloading the content.

Amazon RDS :Amazon Relational Database Service is a distributed

relational database service by Amazon Web Services. It is a web service
running "in the cloud" designed to simplify the setup, operation, and scaling
of a relational database for use in applications.

Amazon EC2 :Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud is a part of Amazon.com

cloud-computing platform, Amazon Web Services, that allows users to rent
virtual computers on which to run their own computer applications.

Amazon S3 :Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service is a service

offered by Amazon Web Services that provides object storage through a web
service interface. Amazon S3 uses the same scalable storage infrastructure
that Amazon.com uses to run its global e-commerce network.

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 5.2 DATA ANALYSIS

GENDER

49 responses

Male

Female

Out of 49 respondents 23 are female and 26 are male

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Analysis: Out of 49 respondent 22 in the age group of 20-30 years, between 20-
to-30-year age,20 are coming between 30-to-40-year age and 7 are above 40-
year age.

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Tab-3 Job Position in ICT Indystry

Analysis: from the above figure it is has been identified that out of 49 respondent 15
respondents designation is business analyst,14 respondents are are IT manager, 11 are
software engineers and 9 are system admin.

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Amazon relational database service are preferred by 32.7%, then Amazon

virtual private cloud (VPC) and Amazon cloud front preferred by

18.4%,Amazon elastic cloud compute(EC2) is preferred by 10.4%.

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49% respondent has given their response to standalone application to support specific
need and 40.8% respondent has given response to part of strategic effort.

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32.7% respondents said that their company definitely will continue to use
Amazon.com and 8% said that their organization probably will continue this
Amazon.com

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42.9 % respondent have given outstanding performance of the
Amazon.com for their particular

organization.

82
36.7 %respondents sai

d that their organization are satisfied by using this Amazon.com

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 18 respondents said that they get return on
investment in 12 to17 months
 8 respondents said that they get return on
investment in 18to24months
 2 respondents said that they get return on
investment in 24 months
 respondents said that they get return on
investment in less than 6months
 16 respondents said that they get return on
investment in 6 to11 months

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 42.9 % respondent get 50% to 74% return on
their investment 12.2% respondent get 75% to
99% return on their investment
 22.4 respondent get 25% to 49% return on their investment

 10.2 respondent get less than 24 % return on their investment

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 5.3FINDINGS

Objective1: To understand the reasons by which SMEs adopt cloud

computing into their business.

Findings:

As We observed before that, out of 49 respondents, 16 are using RDS cloud

service, which is highest among others, so as per these cross tabulations out of
16, 8 respondents are using it as a part of strategic effort, 7 are uses as a
standalone application. Second highest cloud services are Amazon S3 with 10
respondents, out of them 7 uses it as a standalone application. Amazon loud
front and Virtual private (VPC) are uses by 9 respondent each, where
implementation methods of both the services are almost equal. Only 5

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respondents are uses amazon EC2 services for strategic efforts.

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 Objective 2: To study the level of Adoption & Implementation of
Amazon Cloud.

Findings:

Hear Majority of Respondents believes that Amazon Cloud Front Services

Possibly take 6 to 11 months and sometimes 12 to 17 months for ROI, Majorly
EC2 service could take time up to 12-17 months, Majority participant who uses
RDS as a service believes that it could take 12-17 or 18 -24 or 6 – 11 months for
ROI. Majority participant who uses S3 as a service believes that it could take
12-17 or 18 -24 or 6 – 11 months for ROI. Majority participant who uses VPC
as a service believes that it could take 12-17 or 6 – 11 months or 6 months or
less for ROI. Here we can state that VPC service is the one who possibly give
ROI within 1 to 11months.

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Objective 3: To study the Post Purchase Evaluation.

Findings:

Majority of amazon cloud service give 50% to 74% of ROI, followed by 25% to
49%. Here We can observe that RDS service which are favorite among 49
participants, also have highest Respondents who gets ROI between 50% to 74%.
Amazon Cloud Front’s ROI fall between 25% to 74%, EC2 can give ROI
between 50% to 99% which is the best and high result we have observe so far.
S3 and VPC services majorly Give ROI between less of equal 24% to 74%.

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Findings:

Majorly 18 and 16 respondents get ROI within 12 to 17 months and 6 to 11

months of time frame respectively which is 34 out of 49 total respondents.
Majorly 21 and 11 respondents get ROI up to 50% to 74% and 25% to 49%
respectively which is 32 out of 49 total respondents.

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 CHAPTER-6

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

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 6.1 CONCLUSION
Cloud computing is a blessing to the mankind. It has the potential to deliver benefits to
India especially in SMEs sector. India is currently facing many economic challenges and
there is a lack of infrastructure, but they have been trying to prove their ability to place it
in global cloud computing map. It can also be seen from the primary and secondary
research that the successful adoption of cloud computing is possible if there is a proper
training, rewards and recognition among the employees. Amazon cloud services give
competition advantage to companies and their clients in this era, to fulfill this, Amazon
provides wide range of cloud services which are able to satisfy different requirements
with different implantation methods to their clients, the factors like total ROI and the
time it takes are dependable on different services and methods used by different
company. In cloud computing Amazon is becoming more strongest competitors
satisfying full to their customer and give a full of accepted service. It is crucial for
organizations and providers do what is necessary to help users to adapt, give them
training and support and in return make the employees use the system. Companies need
to make it a part of their business, not just a standalone solution. This study proves that
cloud technology will continue to grow in the future.

These research findings are beneficial for SMEs managers, service provider and research
community as it can help SMEs managers to analyze benefits of cloud computing by
focusing on their business operations. In this way, they can formulate new and effective
strategies to adopt and implement cloud services in their enterprise. It can also to uproot
any ambiguity of service users about implementation of cloud services in small
enterprise. In case of service providers, with help of these research findings they can
understand SMEs behavior towards adoption of cloud computing and can design their
services by focusing on these specific factors. Service providers can be able to enhance
their cooperation with SMEs which are current users of cloud services to develop healthy
environment for adoption of cloud computing. One important factor behind the adoption
of cloud computing in SMEs is the level of trust on service providers which reduce their
security concerns as well.

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 6.2 Suggestions/recommendations

Based on these research findings, future research can be conducted by focusing

on some specific industry. A different research approach such as quantitative
analysis can be used to measure the role of cloud computing increasing firm
performance as most important benefit identified is cost reduction. A semi
structured interview method is used in this study, which can be modified in
future research to get more specified results on cloud computing advantages.
Further this research study is helpful for SMEs as it provides them to in-depth
understanding of cloud adoption and implementation. SMEs can make better
decision in use of technology by following research findings of this study. IT
personals working in SMEs are interviewed in this study and views of higher
management are gathered nonetheless future research can be conducted by
focusing on end-users and other stakeholders.

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 CHAPTER-7
REFERENCES- BIBLIOGRAPHY

References:

1. Shuai Zhang, Shufen Zhang, Xuebin Chen, Xiuzhen Huo, "Cloud Computing Research
andDevelopment Trend", Second International Conference on Future Networks, 2010
IEEE.
2. Urjita Thakar, Vandan Tewari, Sameer Rajan,“A Higher Accuracy Classifier based on
Semi-supervised Learning”, IEEE International Conference on Computational
Intelligence and Communication Networks (CICN), 2010, India.
3. Bernd Mohr, Computational Nanoscience: Do It Yourself! John von Neumann Institute
for Computing, Julich, Vol.31, pp. 491-505,2006
4. Distributed Computing: Utilities, Grids & Clouds, ITU-T Technology Watch Report 9,
2009.
5. Siani Pearson, "Taking Account of Privacy when Designing Cloud Computing
Services", CLOUD'09 May, 2009, IEEE.
6. Abdollahzadegan, A., Hussin, C., Razak, A., MoshfeghGohary, M., &Amini, M.
2013.
7. Theorganizational critical success factors for adopting cloud computing in
SMEs. Journal of Information Systems Research and Innovation (JISRI), 4(1),
67-74.
8. Durkee, D. 2010. Why cloud computing will never be free. Queue, 8(4), 20.
9. Alshamaila, Y., Papagiannidis, S., & Li, F. 2013. Cloud computing adoption by
SMEs in the northeast of England: A multi-perspective framework. Journal of
Enterprise Information Management,26(3), 250-275.

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Text books:

1. AZURE FOR ARCHITECTS (BY RITESH MODI)

2. HANDS ON CLOUD ADMINISTRATION IN AZURE (BY MUSTAFA TOROMAN)

3. MICROSOFT HYBRID CLOUD UNLEASHED (MARK SCHOLMAN)

Surf Engines:

o https://www.theproche.com/2018/06/23/list-of-indian-companies-using-aws-web-
hosting-services/

o https://www.i2k2.com/blog/5-best-services-offered-amazon-web-services-2018/

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

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APPENDICES

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 APPENDIX A– Questionnaire

Hello, I am an MBA student doing research project on topic "Adoption of Cloud

Computing by SMEs in emerging markets" and as an experience of your work in IT
industry, please help me to fill my questionnaire to get final conclusion.

Thanks, and Regards

1. Gender
A.Male B.Female

2. Age
A. 20-30 years B. 31-40 years C. +40 years

3. Job Positions
A. IT Manager B. Software Engineer

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 C. Business Analyst D. System admin

4. Which best describes your primary involvement with Amazon.com?

A. Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute(EC2)
B. B. Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)
C. Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) D.AmazonCloudFront
E. Amazon Relational Database Services (RDS)

5. How likely is your company to continue to use Amazon.com inthe future?

A. Definitely will B. Probably will

C. Probably will not D. Definitely will not E. Don't know

6. What are your current plans for your Amaozon.com deployment over the
next 12months?
A. Increase users by over 50 percent

B. Increase users by 1 to 50 percent

C. About the same

D. Decrease users by over 50 percent

E. Decrease users by 1 to 50 percent F. Don't know

7. Is your Amazon.com implementation a standalone application to support a

specific need or part of a strategic effort in your business?

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 A. Standalone application B. Part of a strategic effort C.
Don't know

8. Please rate the Amazon.com user interface. Using a scale from 1 to 6 where
1 is Unacceptable and 6 is Outstanding.
A. Outstanding B. Unacceptable

9. Please rate your overall satisfaction with Amazon.com. Using ascale from 1
to 6 where 1 is completely dissatisfied and 6 is completely satisfied.
A. Completely satisfied B. Completely dissatisfied

10.What is the estimated time it took you to achieve returnon investment from
your Amazon.cominvestment?
A. 6 months or less B. 6 months to 11 months

C.12 months to 17 months

D.18 months to 24 months E. 24 months ormore

11.What is the estimated return on investment has your company received

fromAmazon.com?
A. 24% or less B. 25% to49%
C. 50% to74% D. 75% to99%

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 E. 100% or more F. Don't know

12.. Has the Amazon.com service helped you to achieve your business
objectives? Multiple answers can be selected.
A. Enhance sales revenue

B. Enhance customer satisfaction

C. Increase customer loyalty D. Win new customers

E. Improve customer retention F. Improve customer service

G. Reduce operational costs H. Improve data quality

I. Increase up-sell opportunities

J. Increase marketing effectives

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 APPENDIX B – Questionnaire

1: What is the size of the enterprise, e.g., no of employees

2: No of years of cloud computing utilization
3: Which cloud computing solution you are using in enterprise?
4: Which type of Cloud you are using in enterprise.
5: Would you be willing to outsource to multiple cloud providers? Ask for reasons
6: Which IT services/Applications supporting business processes are most likely to be
outsourced to a Cloud Computing service provider?
7: What are the reasons behind your possible engagement in the Cloud Computing area?
8: What are your main concerns about Cloud Computing?
9: What is your opinion about continuously evolving nature of cloud computing?
10: Is Are you satisfied with internet connection and speed which is used for cloud
computing
service?
11: Is it easy for you manage your internet service all time?
12: Would you recommend use of cloud computing in other SME’s? Why?

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