1

Mos 1033 Assignment Chengran Ouyang Kings University College

1. What is cloud computing?

The cloud in cloud computing is a metaphor for large networks. Among these large networks, the most common and well-known one is the Internet. Computing refers to using computers. Generally, cloud computing is done by servers, a large groups of computers. These servers are usually run by corporations and available at all times. Compared with the traditional way, people storing and accessing their data from the drive of their own computers, the new method, cloud computing allows data to be held in the cloud of the network or the internet (Lillongton, 2008).

2. What is meant by PaaS (Platform as a Service) and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)?

PaaS is a system that enables single developers and start-up companies to install their own web-based applications rather than buying servers from others or investment in hardware. In this case, these developers and companies effectively eliminate the cost and complexity of purchasing and establishing servers (Schofield, 2008). By applying the provision model, Infrastructure as a Service, organization can outsource the equipment and support operations including storage, hardware, servers and networking components. Housing, running and maintaining it will be done by the service provider who owns the equipment. The owner will charge customers based on every time they use it. This an innovation that allows small companies to have access to all sorts of services that they wont afford it in the traditional way (Tech Target, 2009).

3. What are the top PaaS or IaaS vendors?

Amazon, AppScale, Salesforce.com, Visual WebGui, Appistry, CA AppLogic, Windows Azure, OrangeScape. ThinkGrid, RightScale, OutSystems, Engine Yard, FlexiScale, gCloud3, GigaSpaces, Google, GridGain, LongJump, OpenStack, OS33 (Clouds360, 2011).

4. How do PaaS/IaaS vendors charge their customers? Give two different examples. (You can compare Microsoft Windows Azure with Amazon EC2).

Microsoft Windows Azure has three payment options. The first one is pay-as-you-go, which includes no commitments and up-front costs. Basically, the user has to pay the fee according to what they use. Though, there are no up-front costs, it is relatively more expensive than other payment plans and only ideal for people who need it for a small duration of time or short-term work (Microsoft Azure, 2011). The other respective payment method is subscription. These subscriptions range from monthly to yearly basis, targeting developers who require time, space and tools expansion to fully utilize their developing scope. Since it is a fixed contract, incentives are apparent and very appealing to any subscriber. Such may include discounts on storage computers for tremendous data storage and also on computers to create a shared network hub to accelerate sharing with other developers (Microsoft Azure, 2011). Finally the third payment method is through pre-existing memberships to other platform partners. Members of the MSDN, MPN and BizSpark can get various benefits such as $3500 in

special offers without any additional cost, expanding their pre-existing membership to more platforms (Microsoft Azure in this case) (Microsoft Azure, 2011). Another example is Amazon AC2 cloud computing and their platform. Their payment method, only, comprises of Pay-As-Use payment methods which is similar to the one offered with Azure. However, it is different from Azure. It includes several concepts, on demand instances, reserved instances, spot instances. (Amazon, 2011)

5. What is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)?

A widely used term in the technology solutions world, ERP is especially frequently employed by enterprise software professionals, consultants and ERP practitioners (ERP, 2011). ERP is used when a company is trying to get all of its components to work on the same platform. The result is all of its sectors applying the identical software to control the whole process, which dramatically increase the efficiency and the profit of the company by eliminating unnecessary resources (Rolo, 2010).

6. What are the top ERP companies (Name between five and ten companies)?

SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Invensys, ABB Automation, i2, SSA Global Technologies, Intentia International, Epicor, Lawson Software (Erppandit, 2010).

7. Compare between SAP ERP, Oracle ERP, Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Peoplesoft ERP

SAP ERP

Oracle ERP

Microsoft Dyamic ERP

Peoplesoft ERP

SAP is mainly applying in financial/managerial assistance. (SAP, 2011)

Oracle ERP provides services as needed and industry specific tools. (Oracle, 2011)

Microsoft Dyamic ERP is a relatively flexible software with versatile functions. (Microsoft, 2011)

Peoplesoft ERP focused on the Human Resource side of ERP. (Erpwire, 2010)

8.

What is Software as a Service (SaaS)?

Heralded by a great deal of media outlets in application software distribution, Software as a Service (SaaS) is generally recognized as the Application Service Provider (ASP) model, which is an application hosted on a remote server and accessed through the Internet. However, the definitions are frequently changing due to the continue design of innovative commerce models and technologies providing work for delivering companies vision of software as a service. The approaches, application service provider (ASP), application infrastructure providers (AIPs) Internet business service (IBS), business service provider (BSP), solutions service provider (SSP) and more, and the acronyms indicating these approaches are quite similar to some extent. These terms are created and used in the market place in a short period of time. To avoid confusion, the model would be the best definition of SaaS (SIIA, 2001).

9. What are the main differences between SaaS and On-Premise (Licensed) software?

There are two major distinctions between SaaS and Licensed software. First, users of SaaS do not need to install SaaS. SaaS software is always available on the internet. However, users of licensed software have to install their licensed software by using the security key. Moreover, the other main difference is the type of payment. SaaS generally charge its users in three ways, usages, monthly fee, or supported by advertisements. On the other hand, licensed software users need to pay for their software upfront rather than per-use. This is achieved by purchasing a product key, or a multi-use corporate usage (Kaplan, 2010).

10. What are the pricing models of SaaS? (How do SaaS vendors charge their customers?)

Unlike the traditional approach for buying business software, sold as a perpetual license with an associated up-front fee and required clients to pay a one-time fee to purchase licenses for the software, SaaS generally uses a hosting/subscription fee, most commonly a monthly fee or an annual fee, to charge its customers. For some SaaS vendors, quarterly fee or some other defined interval are also optional for their customers. Consequently, the primary setup fee for SaaS is normally much lower than other traditional software. SaaS vendors also charge a maintenance fee component, which is similar to that of licensing (Silva, 2011).

11. What are the main advantages and disadvantages of SaaS?

Advantages 1. It allows companies to lower their entry cost and total cost by reducing the capital and the size of an IT department. 2. Since the vendors can check and fix their software online at anytime for customers, the application always works. 3. The set-up process is comparatively easy because the only that users need to do is to create and login their online account.

Disadvantages 1. Some organizations are not willing to give up the control of their applications and data. 2. Some companies need out of the ordinary application, making outsourcing their process impossible. 3. Internet connection is required whenever users want to access their accounts. 4. If users need to use a third party application, it would be potentially difficult. (Silva, 2011)

4. Clients can easily catch up the upgrades of their software. 5. Vendors' investment in infrastructure and security are much higher than other organizations. (Silva, 2011)

12. What are the top vendors in SaaS?

Salesforce.com, NetSuite, SuccessFactors, Adobe Systems, Axentis (Villano, 2008).

13. Compare between Microsoft office, Office 365, Google Apps and Zoho Office Suite.

Microsoft office

Office 365

Google Apps

Zoho Office suite

Microsoft office is an Inter-related desktop application. The latest version of Microsoft office is Microsoft office 2010 for Windows, which is released on June 15, 2010 (Microsoft, 2010). It has three packages available for customers, office home and student, office home and business, and office professional. The company charge different prices for these three types of software (Microsoft, 2011).

Microsoft Office 365 is an online commercial applications package and services provided by Microsoft Corporation. It brings together various Microsoft cloud software and services such as Microsoft Professional Plus, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online, and Microsoft Office Web Apps all in this software package (Microsoft, 2011).

Zoho Office Suite is an online application, an example of software as a service (SaaS) or cloud computing application. The software utilities of Google Apps are this application are available for both hosted on remote servers individuals and rather than on personal organizations such as computers, while users schools and small or can access the utilities larger business. through a web browser Google Apps provide whenever and wherever a plenty of services they want. What is more, online, Gmail, Google the application is free for talk, Google Calendar, individuals and has a Google Docs, Google subscription for some sites, Google Reader, organizations. The Blogger, Picasa, and biggest advantage of Web Albums. They Zoho is that Zoho also offer extensive integrated the various its features such as video, online applications and Groups, 25GB email service all together. This storage, and security movement makes it much easier for both services for business individuals and with a subscription fee organizations to manage (Google, 2011). their jobs and business. Moreover, it also dramatically reduces the cost in the same times (Zoho, 2011).

14. What is meant by Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)?

CRM, Customer Relationship Management System, is a system, which brings together all the information of data sources within an organization and incorporates all parts of an organization that access to customers. As a consequence, it successfully reduces costs and

increases productivity by boosting customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy (DestinationCRM, 2010). The chief target of this system is to gather customers information, analyze it, and get valuable results for the company (Blackcharski, 2011). From my perspective, the biggest contribution of CRM is maintaining all customers information together, noticeably raising companies efficiency.

15. What is Salesforce.com?

Salesforce.com is a company, providing many cloud services such as relationship management (CRM) services to various companies worldwide. It gives specific solutions to business in: Communications, Financial Services, HealthCare, Hightech, Public Sector, and Retail (Salesforce, 2011). Moreover, clients and developers can construct and run business applications on the platform provided by it. By using the companys Salesforce CRM services, users can record, store, analyze, share, and assist businesses manage customer accounts. They can also follow sales leads, appraise marketing campaigns, and offer post-sales service (Yahoo, 2011).

16. Is SAP moving to SaaS?

Yes. SAP began to more to SaaS since 2009. One of the most important reasons is that the movement permits firms to actually keep their in-house SAP systems for their core processes and take advantage of the benefits of SaaS in the same time. The result is expected to move in ahead of their other traditional competitors, Microsoft and Oracle (Simons, 2009).

10

17. Google just released a new chrome OS laptop (Chromebook) that only has a browser and it is designed to work exclusively with web applications. How would this innovation change the world of business?

It is a browser integrated with the internet and, especially, anything Google. The only application on this book is a browser, compatible with all worldly applications and flash, updated around the minute to ensure a smooth transitional integration into any website. People wont have to download any information since everything is available on the web. There is no requirement for updates or patches because it updates automatically in real time without any hassle or the need to look for one. You can use it anywhere in the world as long as one has a wireless ISP.

11

Reference Amazon (2011). Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). Retrieved from http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/#pricing Blackcharski, D. (2011). What is CRM(Customer Relationship Management)? Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-crm.htm Clouds360 (2011). The Top 20 Platform as a Service (PaaS) Vendors. Retrieved from http://www.clouds360.com/paas.php DestinationCRM (2010). What is CRM? Retrieved from http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/What-Is-CRM-46033.aspx ERP (2011). ERP- What is ERP- Enterprise Resource Planning? Retrieved from http://www.erp.com/component/content/article/324-erp-archive/4407-erp.html Erppandit(2010). Top ERP Vendors. Retrieved from http://www.erppandit.com/top-ERPvendors.html Erpwire (2010). Issues revolving around People Soft and ERP. Retrieved from http://www.erpwire.com/erp-articles/people-soft-and-erp.htm Google (2011). Google apps. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/apps/ Kaplan, J. (2010). Cloud Computing or Cloud Washing? Retrieved from http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/6VhqTj/itmanagement.earthweb.com/features/article.php/39132 96/Cloud-Computing-or-Cloud-Washing.htm

12

Lillongton, K. (2008). Getting clear about cloud computing. Retrieved from http://www.irishtimes.com/business-services/cloud-computing-ireland/getting-clear-about-cloudcomputing/ Microsoft (2010). Microsoft Office 2010 Engineering. Retrieved from http://blogs.technet.com/b/office2010/archive/2010/06/15/office-2010-availability.aspx Microsoft (2011). Microsoftstore. Retrieved from http://www.microsoftstore.ca/shop/enCA/Microsoft/Office Microsoft (2011). Online Services. Retrieved from http://www.microsoft.com/enus/office365/online-services.aspx#fbid=EOQLUsIQ2Wb Microsoft (2011). Why Microsoft Dynamics ERP? Retrieved from http://www.microsoft.com/canada/dynamics/erp.aspx?CR_CC=200018661&WT.mc_id=SEARC H&WT.srch=1&CR_SCC=200018661 Microsoft Azure (2011). Windows Azure Platform Offers. Retrieved from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/offers/ Oracle (2011). ERP: A control centre for the enterprise. Retrieved from http://www.oracle.com/us/products/enterprise-manager/index.html Rolo (2010). ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). Retrieved from http://www.rolo.org/erp.html Salesforce (2011). Salesforce.com. retrieved from http://www.salesforce.com/ SAP (2011). Retrieved from http://www28.sap.com/mk/get/ppcerplp?campaigncode=CRMUS11-SRCPPCERP&dna=80570,8,0,102293091,793079300,1318189050,SAP%20erp,37647976,90501941 45&gclid=CJjrwPCs3KsCFaUCQAodkBT6Qw

13

Schofield, J. (2008). Google angles for business users with 'platform as a service'. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/17/google.software Silva, D. (2011). Changing Deployment Methods: Hosted (SaaS) vs. On-Premises. Retrieved from http://www.bluelinkerp.com/newsroom/whitepapers/ChangingDeploymentMethodsSaaS_whitepaper.asp Simons, M. (2009). SAP's SaaS initiative gets user support. Retrieved from http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/cloud-computing/15220/saps-saas-initiative-gets-usersupport/ Software & Information Industry Association (2001). Software as a Service: Strategic Backgrounder. Retrieved from http://www.siia.net/estore/pubs/SSB-01.pdf Tech Target (2009). What is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)? Retrieved from http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/Infrastructure-as-a-Service-IaaS#content Villano, M. (2008). The Top Five Vendors Using SaaS. Retrieved from http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/netsys/article.php/3729966/The-Top-Five-Vendors-UsingSaaS.htm Yahoo (2011). Yahoo! Finace: Salesforce,com (CRM). Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=CRM+Profile Zoho (2011). Frequently Asked Question. Retrieved from https://www.zoho.com/zoho_faq.html#2