Collaborative_Technologies_and the Internet of Things

Collaborative Technologies and the Internet of Things (IoT)

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Collaborative Technologies and the Internet of Things (IoT)

Introduction

Collaborative technologies refer to technologies that use online software to ensure there is real-time communication between different components situated in different locations to achieve a certain objective. Therefore, the use of the internet is of the major features of collaboration technologies. The internet facilitates communication between various components of the technology. Collaborative technologies have revolutionized various industries due to their novel applications. However, they also present various risks.

Definition of Technology Chosen

Cloud computing is the technology I have chosen. Cloud computing refers to the use of on-demand computing services such as storage and computing power, which are delivered via the internet. The computing services are delivered from data centers that are available to many people through the internet. Cloud general refers to the data centers from where the computing services are delivered.

There are several types of clouds. These include public clouds, private clouds, and hybrid clouds. Public clouds refer to clouds that are owned and operated by third-party providers. Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services are some of the public clouds. Private cloud refer to cloud computing resources that are exclusively used by one organization. Private clouds are usually located within the organization’s data center. In some instances, third-party service providers may host private clouds of organizations. hybrid clouds refer to clouds that use both private and public clouds. The clouds are links by technology that facilitates the sharing of data and applications between the two (Murugesan & Bojanova, 2016).

Cloud computing services may be classified into four categories. These include Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), serverless computer, and software as a service (SaaS). IaaS refers to the renting of IT infrastructure from cloud providers on a pay as you go basis. PaaS refers to the supply of on-demand environment for the development, testing, delivery, and management of various software applications. Serverless computing refers to the development of app functionality without managing servers or infrastructure needed in the development of the app. Finally, SaaS refers to the delivery of software over the internet on demand with the cloud providers hosting and managing the software and its underlying infrastructure (Murugesan & Bojanova, 2016).

How and why organizations use the technology with real-world example

Various organizations use cloud computing in the contemporary world. The use of cloud computing eliminates the need for organizations to purchase servers, update operating systems and applications, or dispose outdated hardware or software, it makes the organization focus on what its core functions with the cloud providers maintaining the company’s data. Offsite storage of data also protects it from physical damage in case of a fire or people physical access of the servers by unauthorized people. Uber, a ride hailing company, uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its cloud computing platform. Use of cloud computing reduces the need for the company to develop its own data center, which is an expensive undertaking. Instead, it depends on the network infrastructure offered by AWS.

Benefits of the technology to Organizations

Cloud computing enables an organization to achieve efficiency and flexibility in addition to providing the organization with a strategic edge in its industry. Use of cloud computing enables an organization to be efficient as its operations are accessible in any location across the globe that has a network connection. It also eliminates the costs involved in the purchase of hardware and software and setting up and operating on-site data centers. It also eliminates the need for the organization to hire IT experts to management the network infrastructure. An organization can simply access these services through IaaS. The company is also assured of security since the companies that offer cloud computing services use the best security standards to protect their clients’ data in the cloud. Disaster recovery also improves the efficiency of an organization as it would easy for an organization to recover data since cloud computing provides a means to backup and restore the data and applications of an organization.

Cloud computing also increases the flexibility of an organization since it enables it have more scalability if it has fluctuating workloads. This is because the infrastructure scales of the cloud depend on the demand of the organization. Organizations can also choose whether to use private cloud, public cloud, or hybrid cloud solutions. Each of these solutions has different features. These options improve the flexibility of an organization.

Cloud computing also provides organizations with a strategic edge in their businesses since it enables them to focus on their core operations as the cloud providers acquire and manage the cloud infrastructure. It also improves the competitiveness of an organization to develop, deploy, and scale applications quickly. The fast deployment of applications provides organizations with a competitive edge.

How the technology benefits internal and/or external users

Internal user of cloud computing benefit from having the ability to work anywhere as long as there is an internet connection. Using the cloud, enables an employee of an organization to have access to his workstation from a remote location through the internet. This increases the productivity of the employees. The internal users of cloud computing also benefit from automatic software updates. They do not have to keep updating software since all software access through the cloud is up to date (Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2017).

Reliability is also one of the benefits of cloud computing to both internal and external users. Cloud computing makes it easy for an organization to backup or engage in disaster recover of its data. Therefore, it is easy for an organization to recover valuable data of its operations or clients (Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2017).

Challenges or potential problems of using these technologies

Network connection dependency is one of challenges of cloud computing. For an organization to reap the maximum benefits of computing it must always have an internet connection. This requires the organization to have a network for sending and receive files from the cloud. Loss of the network connection due to outage or a storm leads to downtime.

Loss of the control of data is one of the challenges of cloud computing. Cloud computing requires an organization to entrust its data with another party. The organization trusts that the data centers of the service provider are safe and online. This may be unnerving to certain organizations (Murugesan & Bojanova, 2016).

Limited customization is also one of the major challenges of cloud computing. Economics of scale is the major factor that makes cloud computing cheap. Therefore, the cloud computing may not have some of the features that an organization requires to facilitate its operations.

Conclusion

Cloud computing is one of the technological advancements of the 21st century that has revolutionized various industries. With the development of 5G, cloud computing promises to experience even higher growth as 5G facilitate the storage and access of vast amounts of data. Improved efficiency and flexibility are some of the benefits of cloud computing that make it attractive to most organizations.

References

Murugesan, S., & Bojanova, I. (2016). Encyclopedia of cloud computing. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Rittinghouse, J. W., & Ransome, J. F. (2017). Cloud computing: implementation, management, and security. Boca Raton, FL: CRC press.