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6-4. a. Is cloud- based hosting suitable for all organiza-
276 Chapter 6 The Cloud 6-5. A company that sells news online, wants to de-
tions? Explain. liver content to its customers more quickly and ef-
b. Suppose that the cloud- based hosting is not suit- ficiently based on their geographic location. How can
able for an organization, but the organization still it achieve this? Explain.
wants to use cloud computing to reap its benefits.
Describe two different ways in which the company 6-6. Describe the three trends that have led to the growth of
can still use cloud computing. cloud computing.

Coll abora tion exerCiSe 6

Using the collaboration IS you built in Chapter 2 (page 110), collabo- c. Which of the three responses identified in your
rate with a group of students to answer the following questions. answer to question 6-8b would you choose? Justify
The cloud is causing monumental changes in the informa- your choice.
tion systems services industry. In every city, you will still see the 6-9. Even if SaaS eliminates the need for email and other
trucks of local independent software vendors (ISVs) driving to local servers, there will still remain viable services that
their clients to set up and maintain local area networks, servers, you can provide. Name and describe those services.
and software. You’ll know the trucks by the Microsoft, Oracle, 6-10. Suppose instead of attempting to adapt an existing
and Cisco logos on their sides. For years, those small, local com- ISV to the threat of cloud services, you and your team-
panies have survived, some very profitably, on their ability to set mates decide to set up an entirely new business, one
up and maintain LANs, connect user computers to the Internet, that will succeed in the presence of SaaS and other
set up servers, sell Microsoft Exchange licenses, and install other cloud services. Looking at businesses in and around
software on both servers and user computers. your campus, identify and describe the IS needs those
Once everything is installed, these companies continued businesses will have in the cloud services world.
to earn revenue by providing maintenance for problems that 6-11. Describe the IS services that your new business could
inevitably developed and support for new versions of software, provide for the business needs you identified in your
connecting new user computers, and so forth. Their custom- answer to question 6-10.
ers vary, but generally are smaller companies of, say, 3 to 50 6-12. Given your answers to questions 6-7 through 6-11,
employees—companies that are large enough to need email, would you rather be an existing ISV attempting to
Internet connections, and possibly some entry-level software adapt to this new world or an entirely new company?
applications such as QuickBooks. Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvan-
6-7. Using the knowledge of this chapter and the intuition tages of each alternative.
of the members of your team, summarize threats that 6-13. Refer to Figure 6-6 and find out how the computers
cloud services present to such ISVs. in your college/university are connected. Fill the first
6-8. Suppose your team owns and manages one of these part of the table using this information. The next task
ISVs. You learn that more and more of your clients is to find out the major DSL, cable line, and WAN wire-
are choosing SaaS cloud services like Google for email, less connection service providers in your city. Also,
rather than setting up local email servers. find out the connection to the internet in your college/
a. What, if anything, can you do to prevent the en- university lab. Fill the bottom half of the table using
croachment of SaaS on your business? this information.
b. Given your answer to question 6-8a, identify three
alternative ways you can respond.