A Comprehensive Study On ERP System Offerings And Their Benefits And Risks In Cloud Computing

Basics of Cloud Computing

This report aims to discuss the several features of cloud computing. A discussion about the basics of cloud computing is provided. The various kinds of clouds are discussed briefly in this report. The various services that the cloud service providers offer are stated in this report. The issues related to the on premises systems is discussed in this report. The benefits and risks related to the hosted ERP system or the IaaS infrastructure is stated in this report. The risks benefits that are related to the cloud ERP system or SaaS infrastructure is stated in this report. Some benefits of cloud computing are provided in this report. The challenges concerning the implementation of cloud computing are provided. Lastly, this report concludes with an appropriate conclusion of this report.

Cloud computing is a growing trend of disseminated computing. The foundation of cloud computing is viewed as the development of network computing technologies. CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, was the first person to give importance to the cloud computing term (Arora, Parashar and Transforming 2013). Cloud is generally build on some existing architecture that is grid based. It uses the services of the grid and some added technologies such as virtualisation and various business models. Cloud is a collection of service computers that are interconnected together in similar or different geographical locations, that operates together for serving numerous customers with workload and various needs depending on the basis of virtualisation (Dinh et al. 2013). The services of cloud are provided to the users as utility amenities depending on the business model. The clients utilise these services provided to them by providers of cloud service for building the necessary applications on the internet and finally deliver these services to the end users (Hashem et al. 2015). It provides no concerns to the cloud users about the installing or maintenance of hardware and software. The clients use the services provided by the cloud users and payment is done depending on the usage of these services. Large disseminated data centres are the providers of cloud storage. The data centres are organised as grids and cloud is assembled on the top of these grid services (Fernando, Loke and Rahayu 2013). Virtual images of all physical components in these data centres are provided to the cloud users. This allowance of virtual images to the clients is referred as virtualisation, which helps in building the abstraction over all the physical systems. Several cloud applications are obtaining recognition for the benefits of accessibility, scalability, dependability, and the utility model. The aspect of distributed computing has become easier as the respective cloud providers are handling all the critical aspects of cloud computing.

Types of Clouds

On premises software

This software is the most common conventional method for utilising the consumer and enterprise applications. On-premises refers to the software that has been installed on the computers of an organisation and it runs in the computers of the organisation rather than working from a server or any remote facility like cloud or server farm (Assunção et al. 2015). A software license is required in the on-premises software for all servers and the end user. In this system, the consumers are solely accountable for the maintenance, safekeeping, and availability of the on-premises software. The vendors provides integration after sales and some support services. The software of on-premises is commonly referred as shrinkwrap and the software that runs on the off-premises facilities is generally known as SaaS (Software as a Service) or cloud computing. The need of providing web servers made the drive for moving away from the on-premises software to co-location. As the growth of web increased around 2000, the companies with a strong foundation has to implement web servers in the remote data centres for achieving the necessary connectivity (Kaltenecker, Hess and Huesig 2015). The deployment of on-premises software and the use of business software was popular till 2005, when the execution of software from a remote location took over the on premises software (Azodolmolky, Wieder and Yahyapour 2013). The new innovation and the use model commonly utilises the facility of internet for removing the demands of the users to install some software on premises and the customers also achieved some extra benefits such as the execution of software from a remote location diminishes the costs of the organisation as it provides reduced maintenance, staffing, and power consumption. The risk factors that are included in the on premises includes lack of accessibility of services because of internet outages, the dependency of data security risks on the locations of data storage and issues of privacy.

Benefits of on-premises software

1. As the user is paying for the user licences for once, the on-premises solution has the ability to lower the TCT (Total Cost of Ownership).
2. The users get complete control over the data, software and hardware of the system. The user retains the ability of executing manual configuration, upgradation and changes of the system. These services do not require the permission or the authentication from a server or organisation.
3. The uptime of the on-premises is the benefit that determines there is an access to seamless data to the users and the access of software does not depend on internet connectivity or any other external factors.
4. The security in the on-premises is significantly higher than the storage of cloud and the services provided by the on-premises software is far more stable than the functions of cloud.

Limitations of on-premises software

1. The most commonly noticed disadvantage of the on-premises can be investment of large capital for the implementation of these software. As these software requires large purchases upfront, which leads to the increase in the CapEx (capital expenditure), there is an increase in the demand of Cloud computing. Addition to these requirements, there are some issues such as cost of maintenance of costs for supporting and the functionality that makes the shifting of users in the cloud facilities (Boillat and Legner 2013).
2. With on premises systems, the users are individually responsible of maintenance of server software and hardware, the ned of data backups, and disaster retrieval
3. The estimated times of implementation is significantly higher than the facilities of cloud computing.

Basics of cloud computing

The basic intention behind implementing cloud computing in an organisation is to utilise the benefits of cloud storage and other services such as utility services that are provided by the cloud service providers (Rittinghouse and Ransome 2016). Any organisation, with the help of cloud computing, can provide the end-users with highly reliable, accessible and efficient services. Cloud comprises of several physical components in these data centres of the cloud providers. Different cloud providers provide the services of cloud with different abstraction level (Garg, Versteeg and Buyya 2013). The services of cloud are partitioned into various types like SaaS (software as a service), PaaS (Platform as a service), and IaaS (Infrastructure as a service). The services are accessible on the internet where cloud acts as a sole entrance point for serving each client. Difficulties of data processing in large scale are addressed by the architecture of cloud computing (Xiao, Song and Chen 2013).

Services offered by Cloud Service Providers

Types of cloud

 Cloud is of three types:

1. Private cloud: The term private cloud refers to the cloud computing type that conveys very similar benefits of public cloud. Private cloud is built exclusively for one client, which provides the ultimate control over the security, data, and the service quality. This cloud includes self-service and scalability with the help of a proprietary architecture. The private cloud is devoted to the basic goals and need of a single organisation. The cloud that is maintained by the organisation and is used by the organisation only for internal purposed is called private cloud. The utility model is relatively small in this type of cloud (Hashizume et al. 2013). The organisation possesses the infrastructure and controls the deployment of applications in this platform. This type of cloud is most suitable for businesses with unpredictable or dynamic needs for computing, which requires direct mechanism over the respective environments to meet the security needs, business governance and governing compliance requirements (Jain and Paul 2013). The IT department or the cloud provider can build and manage the private clouds.
2. Public cloud: External cloud or public cloud defines the cloud computing in a outdated mainstream. These clouds services are governed by third parties, and several applications from various customers that are most likely linked together on the servers of the cloud, networks, and storage systems (Botta et al. 2016). This type of cloud is the standard model of cloud computing where the service provider creates resources like virtual machines, storage or applications, accessible to the public on the internet. The services of public cloud varies as per the usage of cloud by the users. The computing service structure that is used to establish computational services and storage to the common public is referred as public cloud (Yang and Jia 2013). The service provides supervision to the solution core of public cloud infrastructure, architecture of back-end and software in a layered environment to free the clients from these duties. Multiple customers can avail the benefits of public cloud services (Herbst, Kounev and Reussner 2013).   
3. Hybrid cloud: The environment of cloud computing that utilises the arrangement of third party or private cloud, on-premises, services of public cloud with the architecture designed between these two platforms is referred as hybrid cloud (Wei et al. 2014). Increased data deployment and greater flexibility for the business is achieved by using hybrid cloud as this cloud permits the movement of workloads between the public and private clouds depending on the cost change and computing needs. This type of cloud comprises of several external or internal cloud. The condition when an organisation shifts from their respective private cloud to a public cloud computing (Rong, Nguyen and Jaatun 2013). A successful implementation of hybrid cloud requires a public IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), an on-premises hybrid cloud that is hosted by a private provider of cloud, and an adequate Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity among the private cloud and public cloud environments (Gao et al. 2013).  

Services of cloud

The services provided by a cloud provider can be classified in three groups:

1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):The vendors of cloud provide the service of IaaS computing. The IaaS service model executes delivering of computer infrastructure on a subcontracted basis for supporting the enterprise operations. The IaaS offers virtualised resources of computing through the internet. IaaS assists in avoiding the complexity and expense of procuring and handling personal physical servers and infrastructure of data centres. The infrastructure is managed by the service provider of cloud computing and procurement, installing, configuration and management is done by the organisation. IaaS provider offers services that are policy based and they are responsible for operating, housing, and maintaining the equipments of client. The IaaS characteristics includes automated administrative tasks, dynamic scaling, platform virtualisation, and internet connectivity (Avram 2014). The main goal of businesses with IaaS includes:
2. Develop and testing: Economical scaling of dev-test environments is executed by IaaS platform as this platform enables creation and dismantling of environments and enables creation of new applications more quickly.
3. Backup, storage and recovery: IaaS provides effective handling of unpredictable demands and the steady need of growing needs of storage. It also simplifies management and planning of recovery and backup systems (Oliveira, Thomas and Espadanal 2014).
4. Software as a Service (SaaS): SaaS is the model of distribution software where the solicitations are presented by a third party provider and they are prepared available to the clients on the internet. SaaS eliminates the need of installing and executing applications on a system of the organisation. This diminishes the expense spent on the acquisition of hardware, organising and licensing of software, support and installation. SaaS services of cloud provides high scalability, which provides the clients an option to avail several or fewer services depending on the needs of the organisation. The SaaS providers provide automatic updates that reduces the burden on the IT staff of the organisation (Xiao and Xiao 2013).

Risks of SaaS

1. The privacy and security of data: the sensitive and confidential user data resides in the infrastructure that is cloud based services that are delivered by the cloud services benefactors. The most common threats to the data residing in the cloud storage are data breaches and unauthorised illegal system entry that are due to the malicious users or any kind of criminal activity, hacking, data theft and espionage.
2. The availability of SaaS is crucial for conducting proper business. The customers can face the situations of total impairment of the SaaS service due to server failure.
3. Insolvency or bankruptcy of the cloud providers includes the revenue that is lost due to the failure of user access in the cloud. When any cloud provider becomes unavailable for a significant period of time, there is a threat of unavailability of services of SaaS.

Risks of IaaS

1. Avoiding of misconfigurations and application of best security practices in the cloud is the measure of efficient working of the systems. A fail proof security has to placed in the cloud storage for the proper safety of user data.
2. The protection of the users from the weakness and vulnerabilities in the data and applications of the enterprise is not offered by the infrastructure of IaaS.

Cloud architecture

Cloud architecture refers to software system architecture that are tangled in the cloud computing delivery, and it comprises of software and hardware that are designed by cloud architects working for any cloud integrator. It basically involves several cloud computing components that are communicating with one another over some interfaces that are application programming, typically web services. The complexity is monitored and the systems resulting to this monitoring are easily manageable than the colossal counterparts. The architecture of cloud extends to the clients, and access to the cloud applications are provided using web browsers or applications software. The architecture of cloud storage is loosely coupled and the operations involving the metadata are centralised empowering the scaling of data nodes that are autonomously supplying data (Sanaei et al. 2014).

Benefits of cloud computing services, SaaS and IaaS

As the services of cloud can be accessed from anywhere anytime through the intranet or internet, it makes the computing needs of an organisation more feasible and easy. An organisation can utilise a software application of accounting as installed one license on a single server. RDSH is used by these servers for creating multiple sessions for desktop that an organisation can utilise for various staff members that are located virtually anywhere. Features of devoted desktop computer and secure environment for accessing data are offered depending on the adapted security model by an organisation (Alshamaila, Papagiannidis and Li 2013).

The SaaS provides some benefits for renting software from a vendor of cloud computing at an affordable cost, which mitigates the burden of purchasing own software and managing that software. Vendors can provide SaaS service on a rental basis, which makes it feasible and diminishes cost of maintenance. The risk of software acquisition by an organisation is reduced that makes the organisation more dedicated towards achieving organisational goals. The IaaS is a service of cloud computing that offers several benefits such as infrastructure of computing that includes middleware, applications, virtual machines, network, and operating systems. The vendors can allocate and scale on demand resources of cloud computing to meet the needs of customers quickly by utilising the IaaS. The IaaS helps in standardising the computing capabilities making the customers responsible for configuring and operating infrastructure, and the vendors can focus on covering the services of availability and performance of all infrastructure. It reduces the maintenance cost and burden of the vendors that enables the vendors to provide completive price (Xia et al. 2016).

Issues related to On-Premises Systems

There is a significant reduction of risks with proper implementation of cloud computing. Better security with proper security and proper planning is offered by cloud computing. The resources of cloud computing can be reallocated dynamically providing cloud computing a significant advantage. Real time backup of the data of organisations is executed by cloud computing to ensure proper restoring of data in case of any data loss or data theft. Data reallocation facility of the cloud computing creates a difficult situation for the hackers to track the data of an organisation. Security of cloud computing is made secure by the implementation of security patches and Multi-factor authentication. Better security in cloud computing provides better privacy, accessibility, and integrity of information for an organisation. Better environment of security is offered by cloud computing with the help of proper monitoring of assets and regular assessment of security policies.

Cloud computing limitations

The major challenges in cloud computing are as follows:

1. Data protection: Security of data is an important element that warranties scrutiny. Enterprises are generally reluctant to purchase a guarantee of security of data from the vendors. The fear of data loss and data confidentiality is a major challenge in cloud computing. Sometimes the location of the storage is not revealed that aids in security concerns of the enterprises. Firewalls are implemented across these data centres for protecting the delicate information. Service provides of cloud services are responsible for data security maintenance (Carlin and Curran 2013).
2. Data availability and recovery: Service level agreements are strictly followed by all applications of business. Application runtime governance and monitoring of service level agreements are maintained by the operational teams. In the production environments, operative teams support

• Data redundancy
• Fail over and appropriate clustering
• Monitoring of systems
• Maintenance
• Recovery in case of disaster
• Performance and capacity management

1. Privacy: As cloud computing uses the technology of virtual computing, the personal data of the users can be distributed in various data centres rather than stored in a single storage location. Hackers can gain access to the cloud storage and leak confidential and sensitive data from these cloud storages (Manvi and Shyam 2014).  
2. Reliability: there is a major issue of reliability in cloud computing. The servers of cloud face the threat of slowdown and crashes.

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that organisation are shifting towards the implementation of cloud computing after analysing the benefits and advantages of cloud computing. On-premises refers to the software that has been installed on the computers of an organisation and it runs in the computers of the organisation rather than working from a server or any remote facility like cloud or server farm. A software license is required in the on-premises software for all servers and the end user. Cloud is a collection of service computers that are interconnected together in similar or different geographical locations, that operates together for serving numerous customers with workload and various needs depending on the basis of virtualisation. The services of cloud are provided to the users as utility amenities depending on the business model. The basic intention behind implementing cloud computing in an organisation is to utilise the benefits of cloud storage and other services such as utility services that the providers of cloud service offer to the users. Any organisation, with the help of cloud computing, can provide the end-users with highly reliable, accessible and efficient services. The environment of cloud computing that uses a assortment of on-premises, third party or private cloud, services of public cloud with the architecture designed between these two platforms is the hybrid cloud. The services that are provided on cloud are IaaS, PaaS, AaaS, and SaaS. The on-premises software is the software that are independent of any server or cloud, and this software are provided to the users for their own purposes.

Benefits and Risks of Hosted ERP System (IaaS) Infrastructure

The software system architecture referred as cloud architecture is involved in the cloud computing delivery, and it comprises of software and hardware that are designed by cloud architects working for any cloud integrator. The SaaS provides some benefits for renting software from a vendor of cloud computing at an affordable cost, which mitigates the burden of purchasing own software and managing that software. The IaaS helps in standardising the computing capabilities making the customers responsible for configuring and operating infrastructure, and the vendors can focus on covering the services of availability and performance of all infrastructure.

References

Alshamaila, Y., Papagiannidis, S. and Li, F., 2013. Cloud computing adoption by SMEs in the north east of England: A multi-perspective framework. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 26(3), pp.250-275.

Arora, R., Parashar, A. and Transforming, C.C.I., 2013. Secure user data in cloud computing using encryption algorithms. International journal of engineering research and applications, 3(4), pp.1922-1926.

Assunção, M.D., Calheiros, R.N., Bianchi, S., Netto, M.A. and Buyya, R., 2015. Big Data computing and clouds: Trends and future directions. Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, 79, pp.3-15.

Avram, M.G., 2014. Advantages and challenges of adopting cloud computing from an enterprise perspective. Procedia Technology, 12, pp.529-534.

Azodolmolky, S., Wieder, P. and Yahyapour, R., 2013. Cloud computing networking: Challenges and opportunities for innovations. IEEE Communications Magazine, 51(7), pp.54-62.

Boillat, T. and Legner, C., 2013. From on-premise software to cloud services: the impact of cloud computing on enterprise software vendors’ business models. Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research, 8(3), pp.39-58.

Botta, A., De Donato, W., Persico, V. and Pescapé, A., 2016. Integration of cloud computing and internet of things: a survey. Future Generation Computer Systems, 56, pp.684-700.

Carlin, S. and Curran, K., 2013. Cloud computing security. In Pervasive and Ubiquitous Technology Innovations for Ambient Intelligence Environments (pp. 12-17). IGI Global.

Dinh, H.T., Lee, C., Niyato, D. and Wang, P., 2013. A survey of mobile cloud computing: architecture, applications, and approaches. Wireless communications and mobile computing, 13(18), pp.1587-1611.

Fernando, N., Loke, S.W. and Rahayu, W., 2013. Mobile cloud computing: A survey. Future generation computer systems, 29(1), pp.84-106.

Gao, Y., Guan, H., Qi, Z., Hou, Y. and Liu, L., 2013. A multi-objective ant colony system algorithm for virtual machine placement in cloud computing. Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 79(8), pp.1230-1242.

Garg, S.K., Versteeg, S. and Buyya, R., 2013. A framework for ranking of cloud computing services. Future Generation Computer Systems, 29(4), pp.1012-1023.

Hashem, I.A.T., Yaqoob, I., Anuar, N.B., Mokhtar, S., Gani, A. and Khan, S.U., 2015. The rise of “big data” on cloud computing: Review and open research issues. Information Systems, 47, pp.98-115.

Hashizume, K., Rosado, D.G., Fernández-Medina, E. and Fernandez, E.B., 2013. An analysis of security issues for cloud computing. Journal of internet services and applications, 4(1), p.5.

Herbst, N.R., Kounev, S. and Reussner, R.H., 2013, June. Elasticity in Cloud Computing: What It Is, and What It Is Not. In ICAC (Vol. 13, pp. 23-27).

Jain, R. and Paul, S., 2013. Network virtualization and software defined networking for cloud computing: a survey. IEEE Communications Magazine, 51(11), pp.24-31.

Kaltenecker, N., Hess, T. and Huesig, S., 2015. Managing potentially disruptive innovations in software companies: Transforming from On-premises to the On-demand. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 24(4), pp.234-250.

Manvi, S.S. and Shyam, G.K., 2014. Resource management for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) in cloud computing: A survey. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 41, pp.424-440.

Moreno-Vozmediano, R., Montero, R.S. and Llorente, I.M., 2013. Key challenges in cloud computing: Enabling the future internet of services. IEEE Internet Computing, 17(4), pp.18-25.

Oliveira, T., Thomas, M. and Espadanal, M., 2014. Assessing the determinants of cloud computing adoption: An analysis of the manufacturing and services sectors. Information & Management, 51(5), pp.497-510.

Rittinghouse, J.W. and Ransome, J.F., 2016. Cloud computing: implementation, management, and security. CRC press.

Rong, C., Nguyen, S.T. and Jaatun, M.G., 2013. Beyond lightning: A survey on security challenges in cloud computing. Computers & Electrical Engineering, 39(1), pp.47-54.

Sanaei, Z., Abolfazli, S., Gani, A. and Buyya, R., 2014. Heterogeneity in mobile cloud computing: taxonomy and open challenges. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 16(1), pp.369-392.

Wei, L., Zhu, H., Cao, Z., Dong, X., Jia, W., Chen, Y. and Vasilakos, A.V., 2014. Security and privacy for storage and computation in cloud computing. Information Sciences, 258, pp.371-386.

Xia, Z., Wang, X., Zhang, L., Qin, Z., Sun, X. and Ren, K., 2016. A privacy-preserving and copy-deterrence content-based image retrieval scheme in cloud computing. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, 11(11), pp.2594-2608.

Xiao, Z. and Xiao, Y., 2013. Security and privacy in cloud computing. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 15(2), pp.843-859.

Xiao, Z., Song, W. and Chen, Q., 2013. Dynamic resource allocation using virtual machines for cloud computing environment. IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst., 24(6), pp.1107-1117.

Yang, K. and Jia, X., 2013. An Efficient and Secure Dynamic Auditing Protocol for Data Storage in Cloud Computing. IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst., 24(9), pp.1717-1726.