Cloud Computing in [Chosen Business Sector] - Research Report

Description of the Business Sector

This coursework is to write a well-researched and referenced business report of between 2,500-3,000 words (excluding references and appendixes) covering the potential use of, and security and LSEP issues associated with, cloud computing services in an agreed (with the module leader) business sector of your choice (i.e., education sector, finance industry, transport sector, government, travel sector, entertainment sector, hospitality sector, healthcare sector, etc.…).

Describe a company operating within the business sector of your choice –e.g., what it does, type and size of user base, what kind of data it generates, what business IT applications it requires, what its current network infrastructure likely consists of, how mobile its employees and users are, etc. It could be a real company that you are familiar with, or an archetypical one representative of the business sector that you are researching. If you decide to go for the latter, you are responsible for carrying out documented research into the business sector in order to ensure the company description you provide is suitably realistic.

In this section, you need to discuss your approach to research. A research method is a systematic approach plan for conducting research. This can be qualitative and/or quantitative research methods, incl8ding experiments, survey research, participant observation, and secondary data.

Research the current usage of cloud computing in your selected business sector. Describe the typical level of a company’s involvement in cloud computing. If most appear not to have tried cloud computing services, what are the obstacles, perceived or otherwise, of them doing so? If they have already started using cloud computing services, what appear to be the current limitations if any? Critically examine the adoption of cloud computing by such companies, and outline the corresponding technical, legal, organisational, ethical, and individual employee/user impact of such usage.

Analyse the information system requirements of your chosen business sector carefully, and identify the benefits (in terms of cost saving, profit making, agility, efficiency, etc.) that could potentially be obtained from more, or better, usage of cloud computing technologies. Detail which areas of the sector’s business you believe could benefit the most from such technologies and justify through appropriate references these likely benefits.

Analyse the specific security concerns associated with the business sector of your choice, and identify the potential security issues that will need to be addressed for its successful use of cloud computing technologies. Detail which aspects of the sector’s business you believe would be most at risk from such cloud security concerns.

Proposals for the secure implementation of Cloud Computing (Discussion of Findings)

Provide proposals that will best help your selected company to achieve the potential benefits of cloud computing technologies. Explain the possibilities offered by your proposals, and the best way to mitigate against any security risks involved in implementing them. In addition, outline any technical issues associated with your proposals – i.e., system integrity, reliability, usability, and scalability, as well as any social and/or ethical considerations that may need to be made. Provide researched justifications (rationale) for the technical choices you recommend. Explain how best to measure the performance and impact of the application of such new technologies. Describe in detail the critical success factors for your overall plan to work in practice. Produce report conclusions that summarises the main results, assess the key findings, and draw conclusions from your study that suggest potential future developments in the use of cloud computing in your chosen business sector.

Critical Reflection, Project Management and Professional Issues

This section sits outside of the main report and is where you reflect on the overall success of the project and can be more subjective or personal in tone. You should also review the success of your project management here as well.

Describe the project management process followed in the current project. Provide evidence of methods, templates and frameworks that you employed (provide evidence in the Appendix).

In this section, you need to discuss all ethical, social, legal and security issues related to your product (following BCS terms and regulations).