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The Cloud and Cloud Computing
Published in Stephan S. Jones, Ronald J. Kovac, Frank M. Groom, Introduction to COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES, 2015
Stephan S. Jones, Ronald J. Kovac, Frank M. Groom
With the twenty-first century came a lot of innovations with the cloud. In 2008, Eucalyptus became the first application program interface (API) compatible platform for private clouds. Efforts now are focused on providing some type of quality of service (QoS) for users. During 2009, the Gartner Research Company recognized cloud computings’ ability to change the relationship between an ICT user and a provider—a groundbreaking movement. The year 2010 brought out the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s and Rackspace’s efforts toward an open-source cloud software product. In 2011, IBM launched its SmartCloud Framework for businesses. In 2012, Oracle announced the Oracle Cloud. Since then, not a year has gone by without some major announcement on the cloud, a pivotal technology release, or a new business model.
Designing price-service menus in a product-service system
Published in International Journal of Systems Science: Operations & Logistics, 2023
In many industrial sectors, firms have moved away from a product-oriented, pure sales business model to a Product-Service Systems (PSS) model that uses a mix of products and related services that firms use to satisfy customer needs. Besides offering the equipment itself, the vendor is also responsible for providing maintenance and repair services to the clients. For example, companies such as Xerox, Toshiba and Canon, offer periodic contracts for their printers and copiers to corporate and small-business owners. Sometimes devices are replaced in the event of failure, and the failed unit is repaired at an off-site facility. Cloud computing providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud and Oracle Cloud, have multiple standby server units to provide uninterrupted service to clients. Likewise, owing to huge downtime costs, mission-critical equipment in advanced technical facilities (e.g. defense systems, telecommunication facilities) have on-site backup power generators. Post-sales services including maintenance and repairs make up more than three-fourth of total revenue at Xerox.1 Similarly, a broad, across the industries study by McKinsey and Co. has shown that aftermarket support services constitute a stable revenue stream, often providing higher margins than fresh sales.2