As seen in our book "Management Information Systems - Managing the Digital Firm", globalization integrates the business world and the traditional ways to conduct business are deemed obsolete for most part.
By having an integrated supply chain, where goods travel around the world, cloud computing came to aid the performance of almost every business.
From Business to Business (B2B) models, all the way to Consumer to Consumer (C2C) models, cloud computing is greatly impacting the way we conduct, and manage our businesses.
Many of the "old concepts" of commercialization of goods and service are being changed by a more dynamic and competitive way.
The Wall Street Journal publicized an article titled: "16 Ways the Cloud Will Change our Lives". In this article, Joe Mullich describes 16 different ways in which cloud computing started by affecting the tech industries and now ripples throughout all industries.
The outlined topics are:
- Everyone will become a gamer
- Fixing stuff will be easier
- Computers will become invisible
- You’ll actually find what you want in stores
- Everyone will want to give you advice
- You will be sold to differently
- You’ll be able to make smarter decisions
- Small businesses will go global…in days
- Road trips will be less stressful
- Laptop security breaches will decline
- “Bedside manner” will become app-infused
- Public/private clouds will make homes healthier
- Developing countries will become new markets and new competitors
- Companies will use more suppliers
- Everyone will bootstrap
- Language barriers will fade
In essence, this topic reflects almost exactly all the benefits of cloud computing, the barrier and information asymmetry breaking characteristics of the digital world, the richness of information, and the easiness of connecting with suppliers and customers around the world.
Finally I could say that many of the predictions made by Laudon & Laudon on our book, have come true and even evolved to a more transparent world, with more access to information, do-it-yourself techniques, and a more effective way to outsource many services, which before the Internet age, was almost impossible to do.
Soon, every single person in any metropolitan region, and maybe far out on any country's interior, will have a handheld device, and m-commerce will as transparent as a glass of water.
Are you ready to see future babies born almost computer savvy and cloud ready?
References:
Laudon, K., & Laudon, J. (2012). Management information systems - managing the digital firm.
Mullich, J. (n.d.). 16 ways the cloud will change our lives. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/ad/article/cloudcomputing-changelives
While its true those 16 ways will be a possibility, there will be those that fight the changes being stubborn in the simpler ways. Cloud computing has definitely enhanced and broadened the economies of the world, however this also has a crucial weakness. When cloud computing is involved there is no way to retrieve information or send data offline. If it comes to the point where homes have terminals and all information is stored online from files and documents to the very programs used to run them, during any blackout or power outage will setback people, companies, and economies based on the location of the outages.
ReplyDeleteThat future where babies are already cloud ready is here. The kids who are born today are practically given a tablet right from birth to play with. I think though in long run with cloud computing speaking to the fact that if there is a power failure or some kind of disaster that destroys central storage locations people will have home hard drives to store crucial information offline.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize how revolutionary cloud computing was until I read through this blog. This post stood out to me because it laid out the ways it was actually going to change my life. Not all are relevant to my livelihood, but the majority are. Of that majority I would have no idea that it was the cloud that created that possibility, such as "everyone will become a gamer". They are making it possible to create and use things, like product development to personalized medication and disease management programs. It's awesome.
ReplyDeleteHi Jack,
DeleteIt is really fascinating and at the same time scary to see how much our lives depend on the cloud. All major businesses, and our personal lives are connected, and with the fast advancements of cloud computing within the last years, our dependency grew with it. That is the reason why a cyber attack to our power grid can cause more damage than a conventional war.