Small and medium businesses have embraced this technology because it involves no start up costs (like servers, hard disks, technicians etc.) therefore making it cost effective. Basically payment is based on the storage space taken by the user, again, this makes it user friendly. It may also be referred to as hosted storage.

The flying Organizations

Smart companies are looking at the various aspects of the cloud and pushing some application into the cloud and some into the traditional data center environment. The most significant value of cloud computing is not just the cost benefit but agility for the whole business. This is done by creating an opportunity for firms to upload anything concerning their IT infrastructure to an outside provider. With cloud you only contract for the services you need and at the time that you need them.

Microsoft corp. has a new Windows platform in the pipeline: the windows Cloud. The offering is intended to support cloud-based applications. Micro soft intends to release full information concerning Windows Cloud to come out during Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference. Meanwhile, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) unveiled her latest cloud service, making it possible for customers to run Windows Server and SQL Server database on its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service.

Deployment models

Public and private cloud

There are two important facets of cloud computing; the private cloud and the public cloud. Appropriate cloud is developed to offer the same services provided by the public cloud but eliminates a number of criticisms to the cloud computing model including control over the enterprise and the customer information, security and regulatory issues.

Public cloud

Public cloud describes cloud computing in the traditional main stream sense where the resources are dynamically provided on a fine grained, self-service basis over the internet, via the web applications from an offsite third party (Claburn, 2009).

Community cloud

In a situation where organizations have similar requirements and are interested in sharing infrastructure to realize some of the benefits of the cloud computing. The costs are spread over fewer users than a public cloud but more than a single tenant. As an option it may offer a higher level of privacy, security and policy compliance. It can also be economically viable as the resources are utilized and shared in the community are already exploited and have reached their expected return on investment (ROI) (Claburn, 2009).

Hybrid computing

Since the main responsibility of the IT department is to provide services to the business, both private and public computing becomes necessary as services must also be delivered through the in house methods. It is referred to hybrid delivery by the major providers including HP, IBM, Oracle and VMware who offer technology to manage the complexity in managing performance, security and privacy concern s that results from the mixed delivery methods of IT services (Needle, 2010).Another way of deploying web application in the cloud is through hybrid web hosting, where the hosting infrastructure is a mix of cloud hosting and managed dedicated servers. This is commonly achieved as part of a web cluster in which some of the nodes are running on real physical hardware and some on cloud server instances (Krangel, 2009).

The Intercloud

This is an interconnected global cloud of clouds and an extension of the internet network of networks on which it is based (Bernstein et al.,2009).The intercloud will have the dimension of one machine comprising all servers and cloud books on the planet .The intercloud idea is based on the key aspect that each single cloud cannot have endless physical resources. If in any case a cloud saturates the computational and storage capacity of its virtual structure, it cannot be able to satisfy further requests for service allocations sent to its clients and the intercloud idea aims to prevent this from happening. Theoretically speaking, each cloud can use the computational and storage capabilities of the virtualization infrastructure of other clouds. The competitive utility computing market which brought together a number of computer utilities is identical to the intercloud (Parkhill, 1996).

Since opening two years ago, law firm Havkins Rosenfeld Ritzert & Varriale, LLP (HRRV) has relied on software-as-a-service (SaaS) to save money, to cost-effectively serve its clients, and to be prepared in the event of a disaster which might otherwise hinder business.

Is SaaS the perfect solution?

A general litigation firm at the start up face may decide not to hire a full time IT administrator in an effort to keep its costs down. A firm in such a level can have a SaaS solution from a service provider of their choice. In this case, software applications are hosted by the service provider's network data center and are accessible...

It can run Microsoft office and outlook as well as WorldDox for document management and Juris for time and billing management. All software and data is hosted by the cloud provider and is easily accessed from the office, homes or other remote places.
Disaster recovery is a major of future using a SaaS solution. Knowing that your data is safe at an off-site location gives you a good peace of mind. In addition to this it gives the partners in the firm enough time to practice their trade as they are saved from the frustrations and the burden of having to manage own technologies.

The cloud model has been criticized for the ease with which the companies hosting the cloud service control and monitor sometimes unlawfully the communication and information between the user and the host company. For instance consider the case of NSA program, working with AT&T, and Verizon which is believed to have recorded over ten million phone calls between American citizen's cause's uncertainty and the greater power it gives to telecommunication firms to monitor user activity (Cauley, 2006). This could be potentially damaging for a low firm that need to keep confidential information from the public. Many service providers obtain certification but this has been criticized on the ground that the set of goals and the standard operating rules by the auditor and the auditee are often not disclosed and can vary significantly. Providers only avail this information on request, under non-disclosure agreement.

Cloud computing security

The security situation of cloud computing is complex and has not be exhaustively handled. Issues baring the adoption of cloud computing are due mostly to the private and public sector unease surrounding the external management of security-based services. In addition to this firms are getting worried the level of availability and performance of applications hosted in the cloud. Cloud providers can also shut down for financial or legal reasons which have occurred in the past (Scheier 2009).

SaaS-based attendance and time solutions is offering a number of strategic benefits to organizations. Besides, they are conveyed on the Internet through subscription fee structures. This paper is summarizing a number of the advantages and disadvantages of SaaS.

There are a number of significant considerations before selecting any SaaS-based Service Management solution for organizational environments. The following factors should be taken into consideration. First, the organizations should fully capture the net ownership cost. Secondly, they ought to evaluate the effects of customizations. They also ought to understand the efforts that are needed to establish as well as maintain integrations. Similarly, the organizations ought to scope the needs past initial modules. Finally, the organizations ought to consider the availability of the services that will provide implementation support (Sharon, Eschinger, Dharmasthira, Yanna and Pang, 2010).For the organizations that are still employing the legacy TDM tool, advancement to new SaaS-based call center systems classically implies gaining new capabilities and features at very low costs than if the purchase and installation were done separately.Different from hosted "client-side" solutions, SaaS-based systems are offering enhanced flexibility and scalability plus the capability to remove or add agent seats. Similarly, these solutions are capable of being more affordably, rapidly, and easily integrated with the systems that are in existence including CRM as well as several other systems (Sharon, Eschinger, Dharmasthira, Yanna and Pang, 2010).

Merits of SaaS adoption

In spite of the present recession, a number of organizations falling under diverse industries have adopted SaaS-based call center solutions at an alarming rate. There are a number of advantages of SaaS-Based Compliance Management Solutions. The following are some of the advantages that are associated with it:

Reduced Total Cost of Ownership

There are obvious financial advantages to the SaaS model when compared to the traditional software model in which customers must purchase costly licenses for each employee.

Human Resources, IT and Finance have long known that per-employee licensing is inefficient, particularly for companies with seasonal employment or whose workforce size varies for other business reasons.

The SaaS solution is available using subscription-based pricing rather than the per user licensing required for most client/server software. Companies pay a predictable monthly subscription fee that covers the users, employees, and modules for their entire organization.

The subscription pricing model eliminates the need for costly up-front investments in software and operating licenses, databases, servers, and backup equipment. The service provider bears all of these costs, which are passed along in the subscription pricing (Roberts,…