Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Computing for Businesses Article 1:Aljabre, A., 2012. Cloud computing for increased business value. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(1). Literature Scope: According Aljabre (2012), today Cloud Computing has become the key to success for all growing business. It provides disruptive innovation to the growing business which ensures its productivity and profitability. Amazon cloud service being a very popular provider for this innovation in business. Comparative analysis: It considers the Cloud computing to serve well as a great advantage by providing the business their software needs in fragments earlier for which company required to pay huge amounts. The article has been far better structured than other articles. Quality: Aljabre (2012) presents the thought of Cloud computing being highly effective way of reducing the extra cost of software that every computer at the business premises requires. The article has been sourced adequately and has been well phrased. Advantages: The literature points that along with higher storage capacity it serves to be more compatible with the operating system. Multiple user collaboration is another feature highlighted by the author. Disadvantages: Aljabre (2012) with the advantages points out the disadvantages too under which constant internet connection is the most important one. Secondly it is considered very much unsafe by the users which in business perspective can be a huge drawback. Unauthorized people can access data by hacking into the cloud. Gaps and Future Research: The article yet lay back in reflecting the future probabilities in this field. Aljabre (2012) brings out the advantages well and predicts the future of the subject to be bright. Article 2: Grossman, R.L., 2009. The case for cloud computing. IT professional, 11(2), pp.23-27. Literature Scope: Grossman (2009), describes cloud as a network of several distributed computers which enhances business’ profit level by providing them with extra advantage leveraging the competition too. The article defined its goal to present the aspect of cloud computing being good for the professional world. Comparative Analysis: The article comparatively lacks that much information and fails to highlight the features of Cloud Computing. It did point out how it will help the IT professional. The article lacked more intensified research. Quality: The article is phrased well with points but seem to lack ability to identify much more about Cloud Computing might be because it is old and does not relate to the newer aspects of it. Advantages: Grossman (2009), comments Interoperability to be a great advantage provided by Cloud helping user to switch between applications much faster and in a more efficient way at a very low cost. Disadvantages: Although author considers security being the biggest challenge which needs to be addressed Hadoop being the most appropriate example not providing access controls. The cloud comes with several possibilities of storing or computation. Gaps and Future Research: The authors have focused more on addressing the components rather explaining the drawbacks and addressing its future scope and research flow. The article concludes with the thought that Clouds has revolutionized Business perspective by making a single computer a huge database. Article 3: Motahari-Nezhad, H.R., Stephenson, B. and Singhal, S., 2009. Outsourcing business to cloud computing services: Opportunities and challenges. IEEE Internet Computing, 10(4), pp.1-17. Literature Scope: Motahari-Nehzad, Stephenson and Singhal, (2009) presents the goal of the research with thought of identifying the Opportunities and challenges in context of Cloud computing in Business. The authors in here talk about such a business with all its functions being outsourced to the online services. Comparative Analysis: The article well identified the opportunities that the Cloud computing will deliver to the bigger and smaller enterprises with IT technologies as services which are much more flexible, attractive, and affordable. The article in comparison to the other article well reflects the challenges and opportunities implementing its goal. Advantages: Authors find it more useful for the small business who cannot afford big IT Infrastructure and skilled IT teams to handle all the situation of errors. The small businesses can pay small values for it and can higher up their profit level without much capital investments. Disadvantages: Usually the larger firms opt for the hybrid cloud services for running their critical application and storing confidential data in the private part of the cloud while using public for rest of their work. Gaps and Future Research: The article identified the gaps in form of the drawbacks that thew cloud computing faces and will face in the future. Motahari-Nehzad, Stephenson and Singhal, (2009) concludes with the usage of cloud Business can overcome those challenges which are evident like security, complexity and connectivity. Article 4: Gai, K. and Li, S., 2012, November. Towards cloud computing: a literature review on cloud computing and its development trends. In Multimedia Information Networking and Security (MINES), 2012 Fourth International Conference on (pp. 142-146). IEEE. Literature Scope: Gai and Li (2012) are evident about the changes that cloud computing has brought to the field of the Information and Technology. The goal of the research was to present cloud computing as an experience where the virtual machine creates and effect on the user of a physical machine where the whole process goes on. Comparative Analysis: The present article approves of the cost-benefits which the clouds offer free of cost unlike other articles. Data intensive application witnesses the need as they require running huge amount of computation. Advantages: Authors think that the elasticity of the whole process provides making it more and more tempting for the business. Yet, the authors think it to be huge success in perspective of business if the negatives and shortcomings are dealt with. Disadvantages: Gai and Li (2012) highlights some of the obvious or upcoming obstacles which may serve as great challenges for businesses namely data transfer issues, Scalable storage, software licensing, bugs in the largely distributed application, data lock-in problems and performance unpredictability. Gaps and Future Research: The authors identified the gap in the present research work on the subject which laid foundation for present research. Authors conclude critically, pointing towards the suggesting they can be the one who can overcome these obstacles by design such computers which can directly be deployed directly into the Cloud. Article 5:Armbrust, M., Fox, A., Griffith, R., Joseph, A.D., Katz, R., Konwinski, A., Lee, G., Patterson, D., Rabkin, A., Stoica, I. and Zaharia, M., 2010. A view of cloud computing. Communications of the ACM, 53(4), pp.50-58. Literature Scope: Armbust et. al. (2010) finds it more comfortable for the Startups for using the cloud computing. The Authors identified the goal of the research as to present a clear concept of Cloud computing in business perspective. Comparative Analysis: The article has comparatively listed all the aspect of Cloud computing with its future propositions too. They suggest virtual data centre becoming a big valuable asset for the start-ups. Along with that the startups could also create their own fabrication lines too. Advantages: Flash memory is said take the cloud computing to the whole new level. Not only does it help the technological business but also other business needing huge data storage. This saves the organization from the danger of under-provisioning or over-provisioning. Disadvantages: Cloud computing sometime can be disadvantageous for the bigger enterprises who already own the data centers, IT infrastructure and networking for themselves. The companies having such features it becomes a bit expensive to pay for something which they already have. Gaps and Future Research: Armbust et. al. (2010) is optimistic about the upcoming future of clouds. Yet there are some flexibility provided by the cloud vendors which serves them with extra piece of technology. The authors conclude with emphasis on the improvements of bandwidth for the usage of the computing. Article 6: Hofmann, P. and Woods, D., 2010. Cloud computing: The limits of public clouds for business applications. IEEE Internet Computing, 14(6), pp.90-93. Literature Scope: Hofmann and Woods (2010) in their article emphasizes on the trade offs of cloud computing. The objective of the article was to present obstacles in terms of security, Performance instability, lock-in issues and other such stifling Innovation which leads to the Innovation named Cloud Computing. Comparative Analysis: The author fears that it might stop or impair innovation and provide a great analysis. Authors point its analysis towards the same. The growing IT market has actually resulted in the growth of cloud computing. Advantages: Hofmann and Woods (2010) does not mentions of much positive that the cloud co outing has brought in the way of running business. Disadvantages: Latency and network limits along with security are seen as a big drawback. Fiber optical cable limits the speed of the network. Security becomes an issue as the enterprise requires trusting the provider itself for safety and does not promotes customizable security. Gaps and Future Research: The authors identified the gap in the fact that the Cloud computing may not work like other electronic plug plays and will reach the heights only if they earn such effective measures and concludes it to be the base for their future research. Article 7: Dillon, T., Wu, C. and Chang, E., 2010, April. Cloud computing: issues and challenges. In Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA), 2010 24th IEEE International Conference on (pp. 27-33). Ieee. Literature Scope: Dillon, Wu and Chang, (2010) brings out the issues and challenges aligned with its goal that the cloud computing faces. Comparative Analysis: The authors find it a bit vague because of the challenges and issues it raises. The article describes the Service-oriented computing and the other grid computing to better understand the barriers being the bottlenecks. Advantages: The popularity and its acceptance in the market have been seen successful because of the flexibility that it promises. It is acclaimed that the cloud computing will change the whole scope of the IT Infra. Disadvantages: Along with the benefits cloud computing the article entertains all the risks and challenges that are probable like data theft, No service level agreement provision, Cloud Interoperability issue and stifling innovation. Gaps and Future Research: Dillon, Wu and Chang, (2010) did not discussed solutions which may solve some issues of this upcoming technology like through layering and hybrid cloud usage which was the identified gap in the research. Authors conclude that private layer protects the confidential data while the other outsources work at public with data not confidential. Article 8: Truong, D., 2010. How cloud computing enhances competitive advantages: A research model for small businesses. The Business Review, Cambridge, 15(1), pp.59-65. Literature Scope: According to Truong (2010), cloud computing services are responsible of providing the business today with power of using different model being provided by the providers in terms of hardware and software. Comparative Analysis: The comparative analysis shows that the author has provided a well articulated research work suggesting firstly, reduction of the stress of having built up whole infrastructure to support their business and secondly the cost spends. It promises of different set of applications being provided at low cost which were not possible earlier. Advantages: The users enjoy the benefit of time saving, cost and reliability for the service. Small businesses are majorly profited as they receive scalable resources for small pay which works on their demand and can be removed or added on when asked. Disadvantages: Truong (2010), points out the gap being the challenges which the small businesses will face in the adoption of Cloud computing. Some of them can be highlighted as Data integrity, privacy, audit trails, security and compatibility. These reasons points out towards the low rate of adoption. Gaps and Future Research: Truong (2010), believes that a company which uses it wisely may get profited through it while the other may degrade their performance in adoption of Cloud Computing. The author intended to identify the advantages which was efficiently done. Article 9:Marston, S., Li, Z., Bandyopadhyay, S., Zhang, J. and Ghalsasi, A., 2011. Cloud computing—The business perspective. Decision support systems, 51(1), pp.176-189. Literature Scope: Marston et. al., (2011) presents it goals for accepting Cloud Computing as Commodity for it is increasing demand and lowering prices. The businesses today find it difficult to handle the IT infrastructure along with their running business as the importance of technology grows. Comparative Analysis: The article has comparatively listed all the perspective of Cloud computing with its objective and goals. Authors provide great analysis as they consider Cloud Computing focuses on two main trends bringing them together at one place that is Business agility and IT efficiency. Advantages: It providing immediate access to all sort of hardware without making any upfront investment is seen as its major advantage. It lowers down all the witnessed IT barriers which came in the way of growing business. It provides option to the companies of scaling their need for the services. The analysts can get access to the data that is public for their own researches. Disadvantages: Marston et. al., (2011) through SWOT analysis provides with some of the major weakness or disadvantages that the cloud computing confronts with. The prime weakness being the loss of controls over physical operations of the business along with that no information about the location of the business data storage. Gaps and Future Research: The authors identified the gap in the point of non-provision of Service level agreements which makes it more difficult for the businesses to rely on such a service. Marston et. al., (2011) concludes by addressing Cloud Computing as A technology which is here to stay.