Acting as an International Development officer based in the US[31], for one of the largest non profit, on demand providers of TV programmes and movies that you can stream, FlixVision, it would be a challenging task to recover the company following major streaming disruption over the Christmas period since introducing cloud computing. The server was now up and running, but FlixVision could not afford this sort of negative media attention and disruption to reoccur [30]. It seemed that The Cloud transfer took place without thorough research and testing.
The main focus was to research, analyse, recommend and review the advantages and disadvantages of Cloud Computing, to identify whether in fact it was the best move for the company or if they should reconsider their transfer to The Cloud. The main issue was to ensure server uptime was over 99 per cent. The PESCEL framework would help to analyse the whole environment, identifying political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal issues, once analysed, each area would provide a building block in order to base recommendations. [1]
Main Body
Firstly, it was important to establish whether Cloud Computing was in fact the best option for FlixVision, and if it had the potential to meet the high demand of up time required. To do this we must look into Cloud Computing and it’s features further.
Cloud Computing is considered as the new enterprise computing model, which is the practice of storing, managing or processing data via a remote server rather than a local server or personal computer [2]. Allowing companies to save vast amounts of money on complex, inflexible and expensive IT infrastructure which are often poorly integrated onto existing premises, preventing the need to employ expensive IT personnel or consultants.
FlixVision’s already had an IT infrastructure, but when following transfer to the cloud this was removed, the aim was to free up space and IT personnel, allowing them to become innovate in other areas, such as training and development which all seemed to fit in well with what The Cloud offered.
The Cloud offers 3 different types of deployment models, public, private and hybrid cloud, 3 service models, Infrastructure (IaaS), platform (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) and even more suppliers to choose from, it was important to ensure FlixVision had signed up to the most suitable plan for their needs with a reputable supplier. [3]
Following a framework such as PESCEL allowed the team to consider every aspect of the environment surrounding the project before making final recommendations.
Political – Amazon, one of the largest cloud suppliers [13] seem to be very secretive regarding the location of its Data Centres, not only could it have huge repercussions when it comes to complying with regulatory requirements such as data location [12][17] some countries have strong privacy and security laws, Cloud suppliers have a human rights responsibility to consider location of data centre to maintain privacy and security [23]. If you are a US citizen for example, wherever your data is held, according to the Patriot Act, government can force the release of stored data without the need to consult it’s customers[7]. FlixVision has been able to lower it’s subscription fee since moving to the more affordable cloud, therefore signing up more users, helping to solve political, ethical and criminal challenges of video piracy by helping to reduce them by nearly one quarter in Australia alone[18].
While some countries have strong privacy and security laws and practices, others do not, and this variation can significantly affect the cloud’s impact on privacy, security and freedom of expression.
Institutions such as the BSC (The Chartered Institute for IT) sets out professional standards, to which members must abide by to protect the public, professional competence and integrity is just one, member shows integrity and dedication to the industry [19].
Economic – Although cloud computing is seen as an affordable option for data storage, mainly due to not having to make large initial capital investments, by some, this is only said to be true for smaller companies, larger organisations may still find it cheaper to steer clear of cloud computing and use their own servers [6] . However, Google has set the benchmark by lowering their prices to make it more affordable for companies to have in house servers and others are now following suit.[16][20].
The rise in cloud computing has raised concerns for a global skills shortages within IT professions, specifically with a blend of skills to deploy, build and manage software in the cloud [21].
Microsoft has pledged £700 million of cloud computing resources, over the next three years to non profits and for university research[22].
Developing countries can benefit hugely from The cloud by not having the expense of create infrastructures. Accessing data at any time of day from any device is yet another benefit.
Social Aspect-Job security concerns are inevitable with the introduction of cloud computing, lowering workplace moral. IT personnel may get replaced following the transfer, however, companies may come into difficulty if something goes wrong, they will no longer have quick and easy access on the ground to knowledgeable personnel[6] although this can be seen by some as a concern, future IT roles may develop into other areas [4].
Technological
Although The cloud is more proficient, agile, fast to set up, easily scalable, and has a fixed monthly fee allowing data to be accessed from any location on any device it’s not so easy to revert back. It does have it’s issues. Without internet connection it can only access local files stored on the device, which takes up memory. The perceivable benefit of automatic cloud based updates sounds good on the surface, however, these system updates can cause changes to, or break important files, without warning, interface design and layout can become unrecognisable overnight, having a detrimental effect on user experience. At least with you own server you can plan and prepare for change before they take effect. Of course one of the biggest concerns is when your cloud provider goes offline completely and you are left with no access to important data. Even though the main cloud players claim uptime of 99 per cent up time, this one percent, could be detrimental to the success of any business[6] especially to FlixVision.
Environmental
Electricity used by the internet’s infrastructure is rising, especially due to the popularity of video streaming [11]. Providers such as Google are widely publicised for being green, using 50% less energy than the typical data centre.[9][10]Apple and Facebook and Microsoft are open about their desire to be green, Apple are building the nation’s largest end-user-owned, onsite solar array [14], however, it is a mystery whether Amazon use renewable sources like wind or solar to produce the electricity to power servers or instead use coal or natural gas [11].
Legal
Unless you are a large business you have very little control over Cloud storage contracts, you may not agree with terms and conditions, but often there is little if not any room for negotiation. [6]
In 2007 the law changed, now individuals, companies and organisations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter if they grossly breach a duty of care, resulting from serious management failures [24]. Storing data using a cloud data centre runs the risk of the provider accessing or tampering with company data. From a privacy point of view, should the personal or company data get used in an inappropriate manner there is a risk of legal action being taken against the organisation [25]
Conclusion
The Carbon Disclosure Project Study carried out in 2011 highlights the environmental benefits of moving to the cloud [15], which summarised has clear bottom line benefits on both IT and energy [14]. As this report also shows, there are many advantages and disadvantages of Cloud Computing shown above in the PESCEL framework section.
However, with the specific needs of FlixVision in mind, the team would like to put forward two recommendations for your perusal.
Transferring cloud storage to Microsoft’s public cloud. Microsoft are open about data centre location, they are green, using recycled water for cooling, using renewable hydropower and are actively reducing waste, they also founded and are active in the Climate saving Computing Initiative, with the main purpose of running data centres without chillers saving power and capital expense. [26] They offer free cloud computing for non profits, whereby saving FlixVision thousands of pounds every year.
Alternatively Amazon, they are affordable, not as green as some of the others and the lack of knowledge of their data centres is a concern, however, there is one key benefit, using Eureka, it is a middle tier load balancer, which fills the gap in registering and de-registering servers on the fly, in short, ensuring uptime is nearer to 100%
With either of the above options the team suggests using, Software as a service (SaaS) for Human Resources Applications[8] to be used for accounts, invoicing, planning, sales etc. and Public IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) for virtual delivery of computing resources, hardware, networking, and storage, it can be easily scaled up or down, no contract is required[27]. FlixVison should also operate it’s own Content Deliver Network (CDN) to optimise delivery of it’s streaming video[28].