Cloud computing provides on-demand computing resources such as applications, hardware, and software over the Internet. The key benefits associated with cloud computing services include better protection against disaster, workload balance, reduction in investments costs, improved accessibility, usability, performance, and mobility, as well as sales automation. These benefits have led to an increase in the adoption rate of cloud computing ERP, despite having some notable challenges. These difficulties include performance, compliance, strategic and security risks as well as functionality limitations. As it operates on the Internet, cloud computing ERP is prone to risks such as distributed denial of services attacks (DDoS) that lead to unavailability of services (Somani et al., 2017). Such downtime results in unprecedented losses in organizations that rely on cloud infrastructure for critical business operations.
Global information systems (GIS) are essential because they retrieve, store, analyze, and map geographic data. These systems are complex because they are designed to collect information from different points and transform it to perform the desired activities. Programmers are essential in designing and implementing various functionalities and components used in GIS. Therefore, the lack of knowledgeable analysts and experienced software engineers limits the efficiency of GIS.
Cloud-based systems offer IT resources ranging from platforms, software, and infrastructure on-demand. As a result, companies manage to scale down or up the IT department as needed, which helps in saving costs of operations. On the other hand, on-premise systems require huge initial investments that go into purchasing equipment and integrating the system to meet a company’s needs. On-premise systems take much time to design and implement compared to cloud-based systems.
One downside to cloud-based systems is that cloud computing is managed by third parties. Most organizations rely on external expertise for support and maintenance of platforms, software, and infrastructure hosted on the cloud servers. The overreliance on these companies exposes cloud users to security challenges, especially on issues to do with data confidentiality and integrity. Organizations also give up control of managing their IT services as they are delegated to independent experts.
References
Somani, G., Gaur, M. S., Sanghi, D., Conti, M., & Buyya, R. (2017). Service resizing for quick DDoS mitigation in cloud computing environment. Annals of Telecommunications, 72(5-6), 237-252. Doi: 10.1007/s12243-016-0552-5