Cloud Computing for Business Sustainability

Abstract

Sustainable business approaches help in generating profits by improving business practices, without any negative impact on the global or local environment. Global enterprises always encounter issues, challenges and opportunities to endure in the long run. Most of the organisations use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools such as Management Information System (MIS), Decision Support System (DSS), Business Intelligence (BI), Knowledge Management (KM) and web collaboration to achieve the agility in business. This may also drastically increase the energy consumption, causing a big environmental concern. In the process of achieving business agility, sustainability takes a back seat and this can have a long-term impact on the business environment. The optimal and cost-effective solution for this problem can be achieved by Cloud Computing, which gives agility to business and provides a platform for sustainable business with increased profits, better environment and human resource management. Many organisations still have inhibitions in migrating to Cloud due to its high dependency on Internet. In the present work, the role of Cloud Computing paradigm has been discussed to achieve the business agility and sustainability. The effects of Cloud Computing on people, planet and profits, as three important factors of sustainability, have been presented. Industrial case studies have been presented as the Cloud Computing success stories.