A Systems Approach to Cloud Computing Services

Cloud services are becoming part of every company’s “right”mare. They know it is the future but are afraid to jump on the cloud computing bandwagon. This may be due to lack of standardization, evolving technology, and/or fear of loss of privacy and security. However, every emerging technology has its root in early adopters who defy the common wisdom, take chances, and help it to evolve into something marketable. They get the first advantage before it becomes a norm. History is full of such examples: ecommerce, m-commerce, online banking, check in through kiosk, et cetera. Companies who were early adopters still have an advantage over late adopters. Amazon.com and eBay are prime examples of this. As technology evolves, it transfers from “push” to “pull” cycle. Cloud services are in their infancy and still evolving around “push” cycle. The number of companies offering cloud services is multiplying exponentially. This chapter presents a systems approach to cloud computing services. Specifically, it examines issues in the context of the system development life cycle (SDLC). For completeness purposes, the chapter discusses issues in relation to SDLC; however, in practice, each user has to customize this approach to suit their own application(s). DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2187-9.ch006