ACME Sports Corp

Cloud Computing: ACME Sports Corp

Introduction

Cloud computing is a technology in which IT related and computing capabilities are provided to the user, as a service, using internet access. It is a subscription based service where users can obtain networked storage space and computing resources. In this technology, mostly software, platform or infrastructure is provided as a service from a remote location over the internet. In the modern world, cloud computing is considered as one of the rapidly emerging technologies.

Case study

ACME Sports Corp is one of the world's leading organizations that provide technologies as well as services to a number of telecom operators. ACME Sports Corp has deployed Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and Right Scale for the purpose of auto-scale functionality and provisioning. They use multiple AWS locations incorporating feature of failover between installations, partly based on Right Scale features. By using cloud computing technology, ACME Sports Corp has received immense benefits. Let us consider them in detail.

Cost reduction

Cloud computing has dramatically reduced costs for ACME Sports Corp. They do not need to buy expensive hardware or software for their organization. Instead, they share the cost of installation, system management and other related services with other users of the cloud. The cloud computing providers, i.e. Amazon takes care of all these concerns. Thus, ACME Sports Corp's staff can better focus on their productivity goals. Moreover, sharing reduces the energy consumption of the system since sharing of resources utilizes the computing capabilities of the system to its fullest, thus reducing energy costs.

Automated software updates

Another benefit, which ACME Sports Corp enjoys, due to deployment of cloud computing is automated software updates. In cloud computing, software updates are automated, and these updates are performed by the cloud service provider. Therefore, ACME Sports Corp do not need to bother about software updates since they are done by Amazon and Right Scale.

Remote Access

Another benefit associated with the use of cloud computing is remote access. ACME Sports Corp's staff can now access there required applications as well as their webmail from any location, whether be it their office or some other place, over the internet. Since the applications are hosted on the servers of Amazon and Righscale, they can be accessed from any location via an internet connection. This provides great flexibility for ACME Sports Corp's staff since they can remain connected with their official work, thus enhancing their productivity to a significant extent.

On-Demand Availability

The deployment of cloud computing by ACME Sports Corp has provided it with the benefit of on-demand availability of computing resources. All the needs of computing power required by ACME Sports Corp are monitored by their cloud providers, and resources are adjusted according to demand. When ACME Sports Corp requires greater computing resources, Amazon and RightScale provide them accordingly and quickly. (Mell & Grance, 2011)

Scalability

Another advantage that cloud computing incorporates is scalability. ACME Sports Corp can now scale up or down their computing capabilities as per requirement, without having to physically ...