Introduction
of technology has changed the face of business operations and practices for
revenue generation. Technology reduces the time of executing processes
collectively with greater level of accuracy in a cost efficient manner.
Network technology is a
further advancement in the context of business operations which allows the
communication between two or more physically separated machines. With improving
innovations, this concept was reframed at a new level with cloud computing.
This technology strengthens the business with more efficient and adaptive
approach for effective communication.
Using the improved version of
networks i.e. cloud in the retail model of business has resulted into a new
branch of commerce called as E-commerce. Cloud computing has proven to be a
beneficiary fusion for e-commerce platforms due to the following advantages:
Cost-effectiveness: Cloud-based initiatives are
more cost-effective for e-commerce retailers since cloud vendors undertake all
the installation, translation and maintenance activities for the business.
Since a cloud vendor specifically dedicates the activities for a number of
clients, the overall cost is distributed among them and hence is more
cost-effective for the retailers.
Speed of operations: Rolling out an
e-commerce platform using cloud platforms is more paced because of already
installed IT infrastructure required for hosting the application. It
also speeds up the execution time of various modules of the application and is
more efficient.
Scalability: Cloud computing platforms
provide the ease of scaling up or down, the resource utilization and
requirement for any platform. This helps to manage the expenditure of hosting
and maintaining the platform for the retailers. Moreover, scalability
contributes in optimizing the load time of the application with the traffic so
cloud service is again more economic for the retailer.
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Security: With the introduction of
various standards drafted by various organizations like ISO for cloud vendors,
threats for information loss or network intrusion has been checked effectively.
Vendors following the standards are only allowed to provide such service and
improved customer knowledge about the concept also contributes to choosing only
those vendors which are certified by such organizations.
Resource pooling helps the
retailers to form a club with other retailers, on a mutual agreement in order
to share the cost of operating and deploying the service and efficiently utilize
the service and resources in a more economic fashion.
In case, if a retailer feels
that it needs a private space for conducting its operational practice due to
the presence of confidential data, Private cloud is the solution which vendors
provide to retailers. A private service with dedicated resources is rented to
retailers, which they can configure and deploy by themselves with absolute
authority. Retailers are allowed to alter the scope of service on their own
without any interference of the vendor by intimating the vendor for such
changes.
Different types of services
are available on cloud, making it easier for the retailer to choose a part of
it or a whole package for its use and purpose. They can select some software as
a service or they can even choose specific hardware needed for their platform
as a service or moreover, they can deploy a hosting platform as a service while
keeping different software’s of their own and simply host them on the platform.