Assessment to the Effectiveness of Cloud Computing in Protecting Google’s Company Information
Table of Contents
- Introduction: how Cloud Computing develops and what the background of Google is. 3
- Cloud Computing has some useful functions and unique features. 3
- What are the functions of Cloud Computing. 4
- What are the features of Cloud Computing. 5
III. Some problems are witnessed in the information management in Google. 6
- There is a lack of security of involved information. 6
- There is insufficient concern paid to privacy projection. 7
- Cloud Computing is effectively applied in Google. 8
- Cloud Computing helps Google improve its information management 8
- The effectiveness of applying Cloud Computing in Google is agreeable. 9
- Conclusion: Google improved its information management with Cloud Computing. 10
- Cloud Computing is helpful to the information management in Google. 10
- Cloud Computing is properly applied in Google. 11
Cloud Computing can be defined as a colloquial expression that may be used for describing various sorts of computing concepts involving a wide range of computers that are connected via a real time network for communication purposes (Takabi et al. 2010). Cloud Computing is a technology that makes use of the Internet to realize exchange and transmission of virtualized information or data that are dynamic and easily to be extended. In meteorology, cloud refers to a mass of liquid droplets that is formed with water and other suspending chemicals in the air; cloud here refers to the Internet which plays an important and necessary role in the technology of Cloud Computing. Despite the great assistance of Cloud Computing while being widely applied to in more and more organizations and fields in the society, some defects are also found to be related to the lack of sufficient effectiveness in ensuring the privacy information transmitted via Cloud Computing (Armbrust et al. 2010). As a result of that, in choosing a specific Cloud Computing tool for realizing the business development objectives of an organization, it is necessary for the business operators involved to assess the reliability in protecting the privacy information of the would-be users, so as to achieve the expected effectiveness of application of Cloud Computing.
Google is a US multi-national enterprise providing Internet information search services, Cloud Computing services and advertising services for clients all over the world. Organized in 1998, Google quickly grew into a largest search engine in the world, providing information search services for numerous uses all across the world (Subashini and Kavitha, 2011). Cloud Computing is playing a critical role in realizing the objective of effectively integrating the collection and transmission of information and data in the worldwide range to benefit the existing and potential users. The increasing levels of public concern about the lack of efficiency of the application of Cloud Computing in the commercial business world reminded Google of the importance of enhancing the effectiveness of protecting the privacy information involving its business development (ComPUtING, 2011).
To have a comprehensive and deep understanding to the concept of Cloud Computing, it is important to assess the useful functions and unique features of the technology when applied in organizations in the contemporary society.
After the concept of Cloud Computing was created, continual development and progress were witnessed in the increasingly wider range of application for meeting the varying computing and information transformation purposes of the users in different social circles. The major functions of Cloud Computing in the contemporary society can be summarized in five important forms, including SAAS, Utility Computing, Web Service, PAAS and MSP (Calheiros et al. 2011). They are analyzed in the paragraphs below.
SAAS
In SAAS, Cloud Computing can help deliver the software application service to numerous Internet users (Calheiros et al. 2011). That reduces the costs used by the user in buying the hardware equipment and software applications for realizing their specific computing purposes. For the service supplier applying the Cloud Computing technology, the costs used in its operations management are obvious reduced to improve the profitability as well. Two of the most popular SAAS services are Google Apps and Zoho Office.
Utility
Computing is an idea that can date back to a long time ago. However, it is realized only via using the Cloud Computing that employs storage servers and virtualized servers by the service suppliers. An integrated resource pool is created for meeting the various sorts of computing services needed in providing corresponding services for the users (Calheiros et al. 2011).
Web Service is closely related to SAAS. Web service suppliers can provide software developers with API to help them get access to more applications based on the use of Internet (Marston et al. 2011).
PAAS is actually a SAAS in another form. It provides the users with software development environment (Voorsluys et al. 2011). The users can make use of the equipment available from Cloud Computing context to develop a certain software application and send the finished product to the clients. That makes the job of a software developer much easier and convenient.
MSP is regarded as a preliminary form of application of the Cloud Computing (Subashini and Kavitha, 2011). The major target users of such application are IT businesses instead of the end-users. That can be used for such purposes as virus-scanning and software application monitoring.
The features of Cloud Computing can be summarized in eight major aspects, as are revealed in the paragraphs below:
Firstly, a large number of servers are generally included in the application of Cloud Computing in a specific organization. For example, more than one million servers are involved in the application of Cloud Computing in Google (Subashini and Kavitha, 2011). In many other organizations applying Cloud Computing, hundreds of thousands of servers are involved as well. With the use of the excellent computing capabilities realized in the use of the Cloud Computing, the users can expect to easily realize their varying computing needs.
Secondly, virtualization is a most important technology used in Cloud Computing to allow users to be served everywhere and whenever. The users’ requirements for all sorts of computing can be realized by way of using the virtualized servers and terminals included in the Cloud Computing application (Ekanayake and Fox, 2010). Users only need to prepare a notebook or mobile phone that can have access to the Internet for receiving the computing services provided with the help of the Cloud Computing.
Thirdly, high level of reliability is also a major feature of Cloud Computing (Zhang et al. 2010). The fault tolerance against double device failures in multiple device systems, together with the isomorphic interchangeable computational nodes, makes the computing processes and results realized through Cloud Computing even more reliable than that through local computer (Zhang et al. 2010). That obviously adds to the attraction of Cloud Computing among users in modern times.
Fourthly, Cloud Computing can help the users enjoy the particularly powerful functions that are likely to be required at the same time and by different specific users in varying locations (Ostermann et al. 2011). In other words, with the assistance of the Internet, Cloud Computing allows a large number of different software applications to effectively operate in the meanwhile. Thus, Cloud Computing is also featured in high level of universality.
Apart from that, some potential risks are found in the application of Cloud Computing in providing services for users of the Internet resources (Voorsluys et al. 2011). It is mainly because of the fact that Cloud Computing also involves in storage of some important information related to users and information sources. For the privacy information related to government policies, activities and commercial business strategic management, there is the possibility of providing ill-intentioned users access to those influential information, which is more likely to result in destructive aftermaths (Voorsluys et al. 2011). As a result of that, it is also important for the organizations applying the cloud computer to pay enough attention to the security of privacy information, so as to reduce or avoid unexpected losses to the organizations as well as their users.
As a matter of fact, Cloud Computing is also found to be used in commercial service platforms and Internet resources integration, which indicates Cloud Computing is to have growing levels of influences over the development of the human society in the future.
III. Some problems are witnessed in the information management in Google
The major problems witnessed in the process of the information management in Google are found to be lack of security of involved information and insufficient concern aid to privacy projection. To be specific, they are analyzed in details in the following paragraphs.
In the process of applying the Cloud Computing to improve the information management in Google while providing services for its customers and visitors via the Internet, Google is faced with the challenge of improving the levels of security for projecting the relevant information involved in its business development (Takabi et al. 2010). The customers are enabled to get access to the various sorts of information and data via the Internet, which makes it a major concern for the users. It is the same case with the information management about the information from the users.
The users are more likely to be concerned with the actual places and equipment, or hardware used by Google to store the information closely involved in the users (Subashini and Kavitha, 2011). If all the information is stored without enough consideration to the reliability and safety, the users are more likely to be faced with high level of risks while enjoying the convenience and excellent services provided by the organization via the application of the Cloud Computing technology.
In addition, when the information and data needed by the users are not accessible, Google is in need of properly dealing with the cases of failure in collecting with the needed resources while using the services available from the organization (Subashini and Kavitha, 2011). As the service supplier in the field of the application of the Cloud Computing which is still not very familiar to consumers in the contemporary times, Google are faced with the challenge of providing acceptable explanation for the relevant inquiry proposed by the users.
The shortage of sufficient concern paid to privacy protection is a major problem in the application of the Cloud Computing in Google in the initial stages (Calheiros et al. 2011). To be concrete, the issue of ensuring the security of software applications in the operating system remained a major challenge for Google in applying the Cloud Computing technology in its business development process. Under the context of the application of the Cloud Computing, if the operating system used in providing commercial services for the users is in low level of security, the visitors would have excessively high authority in getting access to the information stored (Calheiros et al. 2011).
In addition to that, compared with the traditional models of computing, Cloud Computing distinguishes itself by widely applying the virtualized technology (Subashini and Kavitha, 2011). The information about the users may be scattered in different databases contained in the virtualized service center. The geographical locations of the databases may be in different parts of the world under certain occasions (Subashini and Kavitha, 2011). That is more likely to result in difficulties in resorting to the varying legal provisions enacted in different countries of the world for protecting the personal privacy of the users.
On the other hand, it is very likely for the users of the Cloud Computing services provided by the service supplier to unintentionally commit information leakage while benefiting from the services available in the Internet resources via the Cloud Computing technology (Marston et al. 2011). For example, the critical privacy information of the users may be stolen by others while using the Cloud Computing because of the relevant information about the users via the data or materials transmitted via the Internet (Marston et al. 2011). It is especially the case when the users are required to fill in various sorts of tables about their personal information before they are allowed to use the specific applications provided by the service supplier applying the Cloud Computing. Google witnessed the same problem in its service delivery process via the application of the Cloud Computing technology as well.
Cloud Computing has many advantages and merits in providing services and convenience for people living in our contemporary society; some influential problems are also identified to be negatively affecting the actual efficiency and functions of it.
By using the privacy information management system, users can expect to effectively protect their privacy information in the process of receiving all sorts of services provided by Google for realizing their varying purposes (Voorsluys et al. 2011). The privacy information that is likely to be closely related to the users is to be properly managed with the proper application of the privacy information management system developed by Google for meeting the needs of its customers. The method of fuzzification is applied by Google in providing the relevant services for its customers, so as to reduce the possibility of transmitting sensitive information between the various sorts of users. The privacy information management system, which is also addressed as the privacy manager, is actually a software application designed to be downloaded and installed in the user ends to help the users properly protect their privacy information while resorting to the services offered by Google under the Cloud Computing context (Voorsluys et al. 2011).
The unique advantage of the privacy manager used in protecting the privacy information of the users of Google is based on the employment of the internal virtualized services provided for the users to help meet their varying purposes (ComPUtING, 2011). Under different specific occasions, users can choose different degrees of privacy management efficiency, so as to properly control the information to be delivered to the public users that are likely to get access to the concerned information and data transmitted by the servers in Google via its Cloud Computing technology.
The most important target service users of Google in promoting its privacy manager in the market are the enterprise clients. Compared with ordinary individual users, enterprise clients are usually in need of properly protecting various sorts of influential privacy information in using the services and resources provided by Google (Zhang et al. 2010). For example, enterprise clients are likely to be in need of properly protecting the information about their business strategic development decisions that are likely to be revealed through all sorts of facts and data required to provide while using the specific applications provided by Google (Zhang et al. 2010). A best example can be witnessed in the financial and accounting data and information required to be revealed while applying the corresponding virtualized applications provided in Google through its Cloud Computing. With the help of the privacy manager offered by the organization, the enterprise clients can have an assessment to the degree to which the relevant information required to be revealed are important to the organization, so as to decide on the degrees of security of the information management in applying the privacy manager for getting access to the powerful software applications and information resources from the databases of Google.
In applying Cloud Computing in enhancing its core competences and competitive advantages over the business rivals in the market, as well as in catering for the existing and potential needs of the customers, Google has achieved outstanding achievements (Ostermann et al. 2011). For example, by way of taking the needs of protecting the privacy information into sufficient consideration for the users on the part of the business operators in Google in trying to achieve further achievements in the field of applying the Cloud Computing technologies in expanding its businesses to the international market, Google proves to have achieved excellent outcomes in a sense (Ostermann et al. 2011). That can also be witnessed in the process of protecting the privacy information of the individual users in their processes of resorting to the services offered by Google.
As a matter of fact, in the past stages of its development, the success Google reached in applying Cloud Computing in its business development process can also be witnessed from the achievements reached in exploring the needs of the individual users that get increasingly interested in benefiting from the services delivered via the application of the Cloud Computing. The individual users’ needs for more considerate services delivered via the Cloud Computing make a most important drive leading Google to get on the way to continual improvements (Calheiros et al. 2011). Eventually, Google successfully gets to be more and more popular among the enterprise users when more and more practical and useful applications are developed to meet the requirements of the different types of clients in the contemporary society. At present, the customer satisfaction of the users of Google in experiencing the services offered by Google via using the Cloud Computing technology is found to be in agreeable status, which indicates that the organization has managed to achieve excellent outcomes in applying Cloud Computing in properly managing the information about the users, including the individual users and the enterprise users (Calheiros et al. 2011).
The successes reached in Google in applying the Cloud Computing in its business development are also believed to be due to the sufficient attention paid by the business development strategic decision makers of the organization when it comes to undertaking the relevant corporate social responsibilities related to enhancing the security levels of the information management involved in the users.
To sum up, the application of Cloud Computing in Google proves to be rather successful, which can be due to two aspects of facts observed in the application of Cloud Computing in the company.
The problems witnessed in properly and effectively managing the information about the users are identified and properly resolved in Google in developing more useful applications used to promote its Cloud Computing services to the target market among the Internet users in the world. In improving the levels of security of the privacy information from the users, Google applies the privacy manager soft ware application to help protect the privacy information of the enterprise users as well as the individual users. That improves the popularity and core competences of Google in the field of the application of Cloud Computing in the target industry sectors.
In addition to that, Cloud Computing is actually properly applied in Google for the purpose of providing more considerate and practical services for the various sorts of users with different purposes. It is especially the case when it comes to the need for virtualized software application and information sources got from the virtualized databases of the organization. The proper application of Cloud Computing is a key to the successes reached in Google in a sense.
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