Undeniably, the technology over the Internet is evolving constantly since its creation. Actually, a new trend of using the Internet with business is showing up named Cloud Computing. This web technology offers new opportunities for companies or individuals to cut costs through the delivery of online software and other services. Various online providers such as Google, Amazon, IBM and many others offer a wide range of services. As this technology is burgeoning, major actors in this business adopt their own pioneer strategy that can be effective or not. But at the same time, some smaller players want to enter the game and play a role in the market by having opportunities to gain customers. This switch from inside controlled data to online services could however create fears about security and trust and this is the major concern that companies and individuals are facing with this new technology over the Internet. There is no doubt that nowadays, Cloud Computing is becoming more and more known in the Web World. This new technology is burgeoning and we can see a lot of concrete opportunities for businesses in the future. Some existing companies are trying to develop Cloud Computing through various forms and several strategies. Thus, we are going to see first, the definition and the history of Cloud Computing to better understand opportunities and issues that we are going to study. The major actors of this market will be described. Then, we will analyze their own strategy and if they will be able to be successful or unsuccessful. And finally, we will see how Cloud Computing will impact business in the next 10 years and we will finish with our recommendations.
[...] Cisco differentiates itself from the other major players of the cloud market. Actually, according to CTO Padmasree Warrior, “Cisco's strategy is to play in the Software-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and the IT foundation layer”[19]. Thus, Cisco offers its WebEx[20] which is a service providing applications for service providers. Cisco intends to launch other hosted services like it did with its WebEx mail and thinks about new services to develop like storage or office applications and thus is aiming in the future to compete with Google, even if Cisco is not on this market yet. [...]
[...] Besides, Microsoft is at the top of researches and financial supports to develop its software applications because it is strategic to survive without getting money from software licenses. Moreover, Microsoft has to review its strategy because it is losing market shares on its main market: PC sales; due to the emergence of other operating systems like Linux, Mac OS and the reduction of prices to buy computers. There is no doubt that Microsoft's margin is going to decrease in the next years. [...]
[...] Following these innovations, Google entered the market in 2009 and offered services with its Google Apps (Google Doc for example). Thus, this brief history of Cloud Computing show us how Cloud Computing is an old concept but at the same time how this technology is stuttering and have potential opportunities to grow in the next decade. III Concrete examples of the application of cloud computing We are going to see now some concrete examples to illustrate what we said before. [...]
[...] Another point that is important is that the governance of Cloud Computing is not very clear. Actually, we can compare this emerging technology like the Blue Ray of Sony and its former competitor the HD DVD. There was a huge fight between these two technologies to become the using standard and I think it is going to be the same trend with Cloud Computing because nowadays, each company is developing its own tool to touch its target but as the electricity grid, every part of this cloud will be regulated by standards, rules and laws that will lead to the ineluctable reduction of actors on this market. [...]
[...] And its continuous partnership with EMC[24], which is an online-storage-oriented company, this could be a strategic asset to improve innovation on the Cloud Computing market[25]. Amazon is positioned on the Cloud Computing market with its “Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud” (EC2)[26]. Amazon was actually one of the most innovative companies on the Cloud Computing market because it knows how to make its virtual hosting services reliable an how to deal with scalability[27]. But the fact is that Amazon encounters difficulties to compete with Google, for example, because they need more advertising and visibility all over the Internet. Moreover, the infrastructure of Amazon is hardly switchable. [...]
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