"LEVERAGING THE POWER OF CLOUD FOR BETTER PERFORMANCE FOR AN IT COMPANY"

INTRODUCTION
In a cut throat world where in all fields of business there exist a rival a competitor who greedily wants to take up your share at the smallest of errors by a company, it becomes essential for a company to put their best foot forward. A sound company strategy is a function broadly of managing resources, utilizing them to create a differentiated product and finally finding a place in customers mind and space. Cloud computing a contemporary topic has fuelled imagination of various competitors who are willing to experiment with this new phenomenon.

SCOPE
Scope of this project is to estimate how better performance of a company be driven by Cloud. How companies are leveraging clouds to expand their top line and also squeezing the middle line. IT companies in and around Pune will be targeted to understand their understanding of Cloud computing

PROBLEM DEFINITION
Cloud is a misunderstood phenomenon to which people have attached various myths. Because of this the companies which have adopted Cloud have not be successful in leveraging the full potential of cloud. Aim of this research is to understand this misunderstanding and also linkages to performance

LITERATURE REVIEW
Each decade, since the 1970s, has seen the evolution of IT into a whole new avatar. Mainframes (1970s), Rise of the Personal Computer (1980s), Client Server Architecture (1990s), are a few well known avatars. Meanwhile, what helped the adoption of these advances in IT was that each new avatar was preceded by a recessionary phase. Recessions brought about a greater need for businesses to improve efficiency levels and increase profitability. As a result, businesses and individual users rapidly adopted the modern avatars of IT with the objective of realizing their benefits. The double dip recession, in the early part of the 1980s, was almost immediately followed by the Rise of the Personal Computer (PC). The number of PCs installed grew from less than 1 million in 1980 to 1 over 100 million by the end of the decade . Similarly, the recession due to debt, rising inflation, etc. in the first half of the 1990s was followed by the growth of the Client Server Architecture and the internet. There were only a few thousand users of the internet at the start of the decade which ended with over 300 million users . Recently the world has gone through an economic downturn and there is an even stronger need for organizations to improve efficiencies by using collaborative solutions and real time information exchange. The Cloud could therefore be the next big thing with it gaining prominence during the recent credit crisis. The promise of the Cloud possibly lies in the flexibility, scalability and cost benefits made available through the as-aservice paradigm. The increasing use of IT brought with it overheads in the implementation and maintenance of computing systems. The amount of time and finances invested in managing IT, which has become complex over a period, has increased exponentially. This also resulted in the growth of IT companies and the outsourcing of IT management. The last century saw IT becoming a key business enabler. The dot com bust followed by the recession and financial crisis, saw an increasing demand from IT to do more with less. Technology and connectivity meanwhile evolved quickly with the introduction and adoption of technologies like XML, SOA, Web 2.0 and high speed internet connectivity. However, the impact of the computing evolution cannot be seen from the narrow lens of IT impacts only. IT has been one of the key disruptive technologies for the last many decades. It has changed how individuals and businesses function. The constant evolution of computing has helped businesses to automate and innovate providing them a competitive advantage in the global marketplace. A study of business history would reveal that the rapid rise of US-based organizations was due to their ability to quickly leverage IT for their business needs. On the other hand, organizations from other parts of the world were relatively slow in leveraging IT. However, over time IT has become a hygiene factor and large scale adoption has led to leveling of the playing field. Nevertheless, with the coming of the Cloud, organizations are once again at the crossroad of technology. Early adoption of the Cloud can provide organizations with an opportunity to transform their business models and gain a competitive edge. While cost reduction is one of the benefits, several other benefits

accrue to organizations. Organizations would be able to concentrate on their core competencies while leaving the task of running IT infrastructure to the Cloud service providers. Further,through the adoption of the Cloud, organizations are expected to become more nimble. The Cloud would help them quickly provision resources for business opportunities, which could otherwise be lost. The Cloud also enables organizations to build virtual and "open" business processes, enabling its various stakeholders including customers, business partners, suppliers, etc. to connect and do business more seamlessly.

HYPOTHESIS
HI : Companies which are using Cloud Computing are not able to utilize the full potential of cloud H2 : Cloud implementation and performance has a direct connect

METHODOLOGY
A primary data collection will be done with help of questionnaire and Samples will be taken from companies in and around Pune

DATA COLLECTION
Data will be analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by means of tools sucg regression, correlation etc.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Cloud Changing the Business Ecosystem a report by KPMG