Using the Balanced Scorecard Approach to Appraise the Performance of Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing

The field of computing has come a long way from the days of punch cards to the current environment of pervasive computing and intergalactic Internet. This progress has been accompanied with commercialization and the need for more computing power and storage. The need for computing resources in the different domains tends to be variable and not constant or permanent, thus requiring responsive or on-demand computing infrastructure. As a matter of fact, it is not economically defensible to set up and maintain an entire infrastructure to solve a single problem and later dismantle it. Neither is it reasonable to own an IT infrastructure with less than 20% utilization. These scenarios have happened in the past. Cloud computing creates a responsive environment and is conceptually suited to solve computing problems on an on-demand basis. Before the advent of cloud computing, organizations maintain the physical location of their hardware and software, and actually required a longer time frame and human resources to accomplish their IT needs. Cloud computing is eliminating this past practice, and is satisfying the twin purpose of reducing cost and human exertion.