What is cloud computing? What are the impacts of cloud computing, if any, on electronic commerce and on digitalizing the value chain? Use the Amazon case to illustrate.
Cloud computing is delivering hosted services over the Internet (SAAS). The service is completely managed by the provider, the only resource the consumer needs is a workstation and access to the internet. The cloud allows workers to log into a Web-based service which hosts all the programs the users would need do their jobs.
Cloud computing has allowed enterprises and companies to “scale down on in-house” hardware and software requirements. Instead of data pipes, switches, routers and servers, there are now services. Now, these companies’ local computers no longer have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The network of computers that make up the cloud handles them instead. Behind the services are data and compute resources. Hardware and software demands on the user's side decrease.[1] The only thing the user's computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing systems interface software, which can be as simple as a Web browser, and the cloud's network takes care of the rest. The primary hardware and software of networking is still in place but now the cloud provides and elevated service capabilities which can be used to build applications. E-commerce becomes SAAS and the value chain becomes much shorter. With e-commerce – in using the cloud, users of the service are less concerned with its implementation or how the cloud is managed. They are only concerned about access to the information and resources that are needed. Also, that it has a high level of reliability necessary to meet their requirements.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service like Amazon Web Services provides virtual server instance to start, stop, and access and configure their virtual servers and storage. Amazon EC2 reduces the time required to obtain and boot new server instances to minutes,...