Microsoft and Google

Cloud service providers such as Microsoft and Google deliver applications and operating system updates

directly to users' devices over the Internet using a SaaS $($software as a service$)$ subscription model.

Typically, users access cloud applications through a browser. In today's workplace, employees access

corporate data stored in the cloud on mobile devices, tablets, and laptops running Windows, Mac, iOS,

Android, and other operating systems. Because apps and services are hosted in the cloud, employees can

work wherever they are able to get online.

A migration to the cloud enables employees to focus on the core tasks of their jobs rather than setting up

and maintaining servers or installing software updates on their devices. Before the launch of cloud$-$based

services, organisations had to undertake significant testing when upgrading an operating system. New major

versions were typically released once every two or three years and contained many more changes, requiring

significant testing to ensure ongoing compatibility with existing hardware and software resources. Although

SaaS applications such as Office $365$ and G Suite change frequently$-$requiring organisations to develop

strategies for evaluating and testing these updates prior to pushing them out to user's computers and

devices$-$the process for rolling out updates across the enterprise is much faster with cloud$-$based services.

Cloud service providers provide software and operating systems updates as they become available, and

analytics tools track when these upgrades take place.

Moving resources that have been traditionally hosted and managed in$-$house to the cloud requires an

organisation to consider many factors, including network infrastructure, security, and training. Although

information and applications may be hosted in the cloud, an organisation's technology infrastructure must

still be robust enough to handle the additional traffic when the entire organisation works online.

Organisations must determine whether data will be stored in the cloud only, or in a hybrid cloud

configuration, with some data stored on premises and some data stored in the cloud. This also involved

establishing security settings, including specifying which files and data can be accessed in$-$house and

remotely, and by whom.

Source: Stairs & Reynolds $(2020).$ Principles of information systems$-$Cengage Learning.

$4\mathrm{.}1$ Evaluate the impact of cloud$-$based services on IT management in organizations, focusing on how the

role of IT departments has evolved with the adoption of SaaS models by Microsoft and Google.

$(15$ Marks$)$

$4\mathrm{.}2$ Critically assess the role of cloud service providers like Microsoft and Google in supporting remote

work.