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Cloud Computing Infrastructure as a Global IT Platform for Doing Business Internationally

Introduction

Cloud computing is a new important trend in the IT technology sphere. Within a short period of time, it has become possible to download various application development platforms and interesting programs via the Internet using available cloud computing providers (Leavitt, 2009). Unfortunately, not all organizations understand and consider the advantages of cloud computing platform; therefore, they are not able to offer secure services at cheap prices.

People from different life and work spheres try to implement cloud computing only after deep research is done. There are many medical and healthcare projects that could be improved if their creators used cloud computing as the main IT platform and developed the chosen business internationally. For example, breast cancer theme is widely discussed around the whole world. It seems reasonable to create a powerful system to empower people to exchange information worldwide, discuss their experiences, and offer unique pieces of advice.

Rosenthal et al. (2009) explains that cloud sellers offer resources, which provide users worldwide with a kind of illusion that they are using a huge machine. It means that people should not worry about the necessity to deal with a number of technologies and programs. All they need is to choose a platform and register. Taking this step is not an easy task. Still, there are more suggestions on how to improve the life of a person with breast cancer.

Cloud computing may become a successful IT platform in the global healthcare market and provide credible help for people with breast cancer, if potential users are able to find information about the provider and realize that the problem of breast cancer may be discussed and solved on the international level.                                      

Literature Review

Cloud computing is a new concept in many spheres of life. People try to choose the most appropriate systems and infrastructures to organize their work on a high level and achieve the best results within a short period of time and with fewer expenses. Nowadays, cloud computing is defined as various applications, which are offered through the Internet, and the system software that makes the above-mentioned applications work (Armbrust et al., 2010). The most popular services based on cloud computing infrastructure are Google Apps, Amazon, and Salesforce (Leavitt, 2009). The example of these organizations proves that cloud computing is a successful type of investment. There is no need to spend much effort to implement cloud computing platform, as the only required steps are setting up an account with the preferred provider and downloading the necessary software (Leavitt, 2009).

The list of advantages of the platform under consideration is indeed long. In addition to easy registration, organizations are able benefit financially, especially the small ones. Even third-world countries may become competitive in the IT revolution (Martson et al., 2010). Zang, Cheng, & Boutaba (2010) admit that cloud computing remains a marketing term without a clear definition. This happens to be one of the main reasons why the idea of cloud computing as the main IT platform brings up a lot of skepticism and confusion. For example, Rosenthal et al. (2009) investigated cloud computing in the frame of biomedical informatics community and proved that the chosen lab infrastructure is successful and promotes privacy that is so required by a number of consumers.

Etro (2009) discusses the economic impact of the cloud computing platform and assumes that entry costs may be justified in case adjustment speed is properly chosen. It is also necessary to consider computing needs and specific Quality-of-Service parameters to offer appealing conditions for developing business on an international level (Buyya et al., 2008). People always aim to cut their expenses in any type of business. International business requires the development of new projects with cloud computing as a global IT platform, which services will be safe and cheap.     

Research Methodology

Taking into account the analysis of the research done in the Literature Review section, it is possible to conclude that cloud computing is a new concept that requires more investigations and explanations to prove its worth, especially if it is applied to the global healthcare market. People are not always able to entrust their health problems to professionals, and it is hard to believe that they can entrust their problems to a certain IT platform. This is why it is crucial to give clear explanations of how cloud computing infrastructure as a global IT platform may be useful for them and why it is justified to use this system for doing business internationally. Breast cancer is a problem for millions of people worldwide. Sometimes, people from a particular region are not able to get appropriate help in time, and they cannot access some other places for help for different reasons. Cloud computing infrastructure should empower people with a chance to know more about breast cancer, opportunities to have treatment, and support that is usually required.

To promote the urgency of cloud computing, people should have credible information, and, in this paper, qualitative methods are used. Descriptive study chosen for this paper aims at providing people with necessary information on cloud computing and the ways of how it may be implemented to healthcare global market. Explanatory study helps understand the main reasons why this kind of implementation should be supported and accepted on an international level. The evaluation of past investigations helps understand what people have already known about cloud computing and its worth for doing business internationally.

Academic journals turn out to be the main sources of information about cloud computing. As a rule, it is hard for ordinary people to test innovations and apply them in regards to their needs and interests. For this reason, illustrative examples and personal experience of professionals may be rather helpful. Models offered by Marston et al. (2010) and Etro (2009) show how successful the usage of cloud computing may be for small and large organizations. These researchers aim at identifying the most important business-related issues and economic factors, which may influence the decision of consumers on whether to use cloud computing for their business or not. Healthcare is one of the most important spheres of life. Medical services have to be available to all people no matter what their financial, economic, or cultural status is. If cloud computing platform is able to offer credible information about breast cancer, it has to be used internationally, so that people can find necessary support and help.

Analysis and Evaluation

Breast cancer is the disease that touches upon the millions of lives in the whole world. People are trying to find the most effective solutions to overcome the challenges connected to breast cancer and find some hope. There is a substantial number of cases when breast cancer leads to human deaths. Sometimes, women lose their breasts because they do not get diagnosed on time. Still, breast cancer outcomes may vary considerably, and it is hard to predict what another case of breast cancer may lead to.

Healthcare is an industry that faces a number of challenges globally. People with different social statuses have to receive different types of medical support. It is not fair that people with the same diagnose cannot get the same treatment. This is why it happens that patients with breast cancer of the same stage may or may not be treated. Various countries have different access to information about breast cancer, methods of treatment, and rehabilitation opportunities. It is sad to admit that some political, economic, or cultural factors may define the quality of human health. For example, medical insurance in the USA, Britain, or China differs considerably from medical insurances offered in Mexico, Ukraine, or Bulgaria. If former countries’ governments take care of their citizens and offer them the best medical services, the level of services in latter countries are not that successful.  This is why it is crucial to create one single system that makes information available to all sick people. It is impossible to help all people at the same time. Nevertheless, it is possible to start with some particular patients, for example, people with breast cancer.

There are many old women with breast cancer. They do not know much about IT technologies, and they cannot understand how it is possible to have access to one global system and get different kinds of help. So, how is it possible for cloud computing to improve healthcare industry and offer people credible help?

Cloud computing is a combination of IT efficiency and business agility (Marston et al., 2010).  On the one hand, scalable software is available to people worldwide. On the other hand, offered IT solution may serve as a successful competitive tool for many organizations. There are many advantages of cloud computing as a global IT platform: cheapness, accessibility, ability to unite numerous systems, fast processing speed, etc. The main challenge of cloud computing implementation is people’s poor awareness about this platform and inability to understand a true worth of the chosen platform as a service. This type of cloud computing services allows consumers create individual software with the help of the tools offered by certain providers. Such control of software should be appealing as people can take into account their own cultural, economical, and even political preferences. Most successful examples of cloud computing platform as a service are Microsoft Windows Azure and Google App Engine (Zhang et al., 2010).

Public web-servers will be the most appropriate for doing healthcare business internationally, as the purchase of the servers does not require any initial capital investments. People do not have to spend much money to find or offer information (Zhang et al., 2010). Still, public web-servers are characterized by poor security properties, and it is necessary to improve control on information and convince people that their information is safe within a chosen platform. In other words, organizations that make a decision to use cloud computing are afraid to lose physical control over the data stored in the cloud (Marston et al., 2010). Providers are not always able to guarantee that all information will be available at the same specific location (web-server), and this creates the main challenge for many potential users. Therefore, more improvement and investigation are required on this field to make services safe.

Recommendations and Solutions

Nowadays, difficult economic situation is observed, and cloud computing turns out to be an appealing platform for organizations with poor investments capabilities. The representatives of different companies admit that people are not always eager to trust the technologies they are not confident in. However, if consumers can accept clouds’ processing speed, security, and uptime, organizations will be ready to use cloud computing as the only reliable IT platform.

Therefore, the main task is to inform people about cloud computing and its advantages in the healthcare sphere. It is possible to offer case studies as examples of the companies, which have already achieved certain success using cloud computing. As a rule, people trust real life examples the most. Leavitt’s investigations (2009) offer a powerful list of organizations, which use cloud computing platform as the major service: Amazon’s and Salesforce’s services are the most popular around the globe. Etro’s calculations (2009) show how cloud computing influences the new technologies’ adaptation in some European countries. Regarding the implementation of cloud computing into global market and healthcare system, it is possible to admit that people will be eager to find information on breast cancer topic, share their own experience, and realize that all given data is circulating worldwide.

This is why it is recommended to improve the conditions under which cloud computing is executed, pay more attention to the marketing aspect, and consider consumers’ needs and expectations. More qualitative and quantitative research would help to introduce a thoughtful image of the platform and explain how it should be used on the international level. Many developing countries have already succeeded in using ‘clouds’ as the main storage of information, and their example should encourage other people to do the same. It is exactly the type of marketing needed to promote this kind of services in the most appropriate way.   

Conclusion and Future Considerations

Overall, the paper explains why cloud computing is worth attention and recognition worldwide. Healthcare system may implement different types of platforms. Still, ‘cloud’ seems to be the most appealing due to cheapness and accessibility. Though few people are aware of cloud computing (and this poor awareness is considered to be the main challenge for using clouds as the main global platform), it is still possible to spread credible information and provide consumers with interesting facts of how advantageous cloud computing can be.

People are not always ready for some innovations, as a result, people themselves create certain challenges, problems, and inabilities to cope with tasks set. To explain why cloud computing manufacture may be used as a global IT platform for doing business internationally, informative marketing campaigns have to be organized. Consumers should feel that they will get a number of benefits using this particular system, financial benefits are being the most attractive. Though cloud computing development is in its early development stage, people should get to know more about it, and this paper may serve as one of the credible sources to rely on. Further research in this sphere is necessary, as it helps find out more information and recommendations on how cloud computing may be implemented to healthcare system.