Old Westbury Cloud Service Model for Scenario Two on Dropbox Application Response

Assignment :

In your response to your peers:

• Determine whether you agree or disagree that the cloud service model your peer suggested works for the given scenario, and provide your rationale
• If you disagree with the suggested cloud service model, discuss what alternative service model you would use, given the scenario

POST # 1

I have chosen to discuss Scenario 2 regarding the Dropbox application to provide access to files and storage for all users. The main reason the company would wish to implement a cloud service is to provide ease of access for their employees to obtain the information they need. With Dropbox, all of the designers would be able to access the information they needed on-demand, as everything would be shared on this platform. Dropbox would also save the company money, as they are able to choose storage plans based on what they need (Secure Collaboration with Dropbox Business, n.d.).

Dropbox would be considered a SaaS, as it is accessible via the internet and managed from a central location and not by the company itself (Watts & Raza, n.d.). Some advantages to SaaS include cost savings since everything is managed centrally outside of the company. Therefore, the company would not have to worry about the costs of software upgrades and installation on their end. Specifically, Dropbox provides advantages such as transferring dropbox files amongst team members, third-party app integrations, and the ability to remotely wipe data from lost or stolen devices, adding an added layer of protection (Secure Collaboration with Dropbox Business, n.d.). However, the security protection feature is not necessarily a need for the company at this time, as they plan to share this data publicly overtime.

Some disadvantages to SaaS include lack of customization and lack of control in house (Watts & Raza, n.d.). For instance, these Software-as-a-service platforms are designed as a one size fits all solution for businesses and their various needs. However, what might be important for one business may not make sense for another company. The company may be missing out on key functionality needs, as it may not be a need that Dropbox felt was necessary for all businesses when developing their platform. Lack of control is a concern, as this third-party handles everything on their end. This may serve as mostly an advantage. But when you consider issues such as downtime or data breaches, those are two disadvantages to the company’s customers that the company would have no way of mitigating on their own. The resolution of such issues would be at the full discretion of Dropbox, in this scenario, leaving the company completely out of the loop aside from communication regarding how this would be resolved.

POST # 2

The scenario I chosen to use is scenario 2. There are a few good reasons why the company should run a cloud environment. One of the reasons is it allows employees to access the cloud from just about anywhere to work, submit designs, and help sell designs by showing potential clients their work on the fly. All that would be needed to be done is to set up a connection with each employee with a user and password then the employee can work from anywhere using a vpn to connect directly to their work space. Another reason to integrate a cloud environment is less money spent on hardware to run the environment in house. The cloud is also a very easy platform to move existing services and data onto. The cloud service model I would use for the companies cloud is Software as a service or Saas because Dropbox is a application on its own which allows companies to use for file storage. Some advantages of this service model is the costs stay low, the service is ready to go with a quick initial setup, and files are easily stored with the dropbox interface. One disadvantage is the service takes care of security which in turn will always have breaches of data and information, but the company isnt worried about security as the company does deal with sensitive information. In the end Saas is the best option for this scenario and dropbox works well.