Knowledge and Assessment Essay

1. Understand the principles & requirements of assessment 1. 1explain the functions of assessment in learning and development Determining level of knowledge & understanding †¢ Ensuring that learning is taking place †¢ Checking progress †¢ Adhering to course criteria 1. 2define the key concepts and principles of assessment 1. Explain the functions of assessment in learning and development. Assessment is carried out to evaluate that learning has taken place. It measures the learner’s attainment of knowledge and skills in their particular learning area. Assessment encourages learners to ask questions on anything they have not fully understood, as learners know that they will have to prove their knowledge and understanding during assessment to the standards of the awarding body. The anticipated outcome of assessment is that the learner will complete assessment to City and Guild standards within the time frame stated, with no assistance and show through answering questions that they have full understanding of the subject. 2. Define the key concepts and principles of assessment. Assessment has to remain fair, consistent and valid to ensure all learners have an equal and fair chance of receiving a fair assessment. An assessor cannot be swayed 1. 3 explain the responsibilities of the assessor The role of the assessor is to assess the learner’s knowledge and performance in a range of tasks. This includes, ? Ensuring that the learner has demonstrated competence and knowledge in the assessment to the standard of City and Guilds criteria. ? Assessments need to be planned between the assessor and each learner; the learner needs to be fully aware of his/her responsibilities in the collection and presentation of evidence. ? The assessor then needs to observe the learners performance in their workplace or similar environment and can ask questions to confirm a learners understanding. ? Accurate and constructive feedback needs to be given to the†¦ 1. 4 identify the regulations and requirements relevant to assessment in own area of practice 2. Understand different types of assessment methods 2. 1 compare the strengths and limitations of a range of assessment methods with reference to the needs of individual learners 3. Understand how to plan assessment 3. 1 summarise key factors to consider when planning assessment 3. 2 evaluate the benefits of using a holistic approach to assessment 3. 3 explain how to plan a holistic approach to assessment 3. 4 summarise the types of risks that may be involved in assessment in own area of responsibility 3. 5 explain how to minimise risks through the planning process 4. Understand how to involve learners & others in assessment 4. 1 explain the importance of involving the learner and others in the assessment process 4. 2 summarise types of information that should be made available to learners and others involved in the assessment process. 4. 3 explain how peer and self-assessment can be used effectively to promote learner involvement and personal responsibility in the assessment of l earning 4. 4 explain how assessment arrangements can be adapted to meet the needs of individual learners 5. Understand how to make assessment decisions 5. 1 explain how to judge whether evidence is: †¢Sufficient †¢Authentic †¢Current 5. 2 explain how to ensure that assessment decisions are: †¢Made against specific criteria †¢Valid †¢Reliable †¢Fair 6. Understand Quality Assurance of the assessment process. 6. 1 evaluate the importance of quality assurance in the assessment process 6. 2 summarise quality assurance and standardisation procedures in own area of practice 6. 3 summarise the procedures to follow when there are disputes concerning assessment in own area of practice 7. Understand how to manage information relating to assessment 7. 1 explain the importance of following procedures for the management of information relating to assessment 7. 2 explain how feedback & questioning contribute to the assessment process 8. Understand the legal & good practice requirements in relation to assessment 8. 1 explain legal issues, policies and procedures relevant to assessment, including those for confidentiality, health, safety and welfare 8. 2 explain the contribution that technology can make to the assessment process 8. 3 evaluate requirements for equality and diversity and, where appropriate, bilingualism in relation to assessment 8. 4 explain the value of reflective practice and continuing professional development in the assessment process.

Night World : Witchlight Chapter 13

Unfortunately, Keller didn't. â€Å"Well just have to work something out,† she said to her team. â€Å"Make it as safe as possible, and stick by her every minute.† Winnie and Nissa exchanged unhappy glances. But they didn't say anything. Keller looked at Diana. â€Å"The one thing is, you have to be at the Solstice Ceremony at midnight They're meeting in Charlotte, so that's about twenty minutes' drive, and we'd better leave plenty of time for safety. Say an hour at the least. If you're not there, where the shapeshifters and the witches are meeting, at exactly midnight-â€Å" â€Å"My coach turns into a pumpkin' Diana said tartly. She swabbed her nose with a tissue. â€Å"No, the shapeshifters walk out, and any chance of an alliance is gone forever.† Diana sobered, stared at the table. Then she met Keller's eyes. ‘I'll be there. I know it, and you know why? Because you'll get me there.† Keller stared at her, astonished. She heard Winnie give a short yelp of laughter and saw that Nissa was hiding a smile. Then she felt a smile pulling up the corner of her own lip. â€Å"You're right; I will. Even if I have to drag you. Here, shake on it.† They did. And then Diana turned to Galen. She had been watching him out of the corner of her eye ever since she'd first started talking. And now she looked hesitant again. â€Å"If there's anything-any reason I shouldn't do it.. .† She fumbled to a stop. Keller kicked Galen's ankle hard. He glanced up. He still didn't look like the Galen she knew. Talking about the dragons had done something to him, thrown a shadow across his face and turned his eyes inward. And Diana's announcement hadn't lightened anything. Keller stared at him intently, wishing she had telepathy. Don't you dare, she was thinking. What's wrong with you? If you mess this up, after all the work we've done and with so much at stake†¦ Then she realized something. Before, when he'd been telling the history of the dragons, Galen had looked brooding and a little scary. Now, he still looked brooding but unutterably sad. Heart-stricken-and full of such regret. She could almost hear his voice in her head. Keller, I'm sorry†¦ Don't be an idiot, Keller thought, and maybe she wasn't telepathic, but she was certain that he could read her eyes. What have you got to be sorry for? Hurry up and do what you're supposed to do. Her heart was pounding, but she kept her breathing tightly controlled. Nothing mattered but Circle Daybreak and the alliance. Nothing. To think of anything else at a time like this would be the height of selfishness. And love is for the weak. Galen dropped his eyes, almost as if he had lost a battle. Then he turned slowly from Keller to Diana. Who was standing with tears about to fall, hanging like diamonds on her lashes. Keller felt a twisting inside her chest. But Galen, as always, was doing exactly the right thing. He took Diana's hand gently and brought it to his cheek in a gesture of humility and simplicity. He could do that without stopping looking noble for a moment. After all, he was a prince. â€Å"I'd be very honored to go through the promise ceremony with you,† he said, looking up at her. â€Å"If you can bring yourself to do it with me. You understand everything I was telling you before- about my family†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Iliana blinked and breathed again. The tears had magically disappeared, leaving her eyes like violets freshly washed in rain. â€Å"I understand all that. It doesn't matter. It doesn't change anything about you, and you're still one of the best people I've ever met.† She blinked again and smiled. Nobody could have resisted it. Galen smiled back. â€Å"Not nearly as good as you.† They stayed that way for a moment, looking at each other, holding hands-and glowing. They looked perfect together, silver and gold, a fairytale picture. That's it. It's done. She'll have to go through the ceremony now, Keller thought. As long as we can keep her alive, we've recruited a Wild Power. Mission accomplished. I'm really happy about this. So why was there a heaviness in her chest that hurt each time she breathed? It was late that afternoon when the second call came. â€Å"Well, they found the driver of the car,† Nissa said. Keller looked up. They'd moved the box full of scrolls to Diana's bedroom when Mrs. Dominick came back from shopping. Now they had them untidily spread out on the floor while Iliana lay on the bed heavy-eyed and almost asleep. She perked up when Nissa came in. â€Å"Who was it?† â€Å"A shapeshifter. Name of Fulton Arnold. He lives about ten miles from here.† Keller tensed. â€Å"Arnold. ‘Eagle ruler.'† She glanced at Galen. He nodded grimly. â€Å"The eagles are going to have some explaining to do. Damn it, they've always been hard to get along with, but this†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"So it was connected with the Night World,† Winnie said. â€Å"But did Circle Daybreak figure out why?† Nissa sat down on the chair in front of Iliana's gold-and-white vanity. â€Å"Well, they've got an idea.† She looked at Galen. â€Å"You're not going to like it.† He put down a piece of scroll and sat up very straight, bleak and self-contained. â€Å"What?† â€Å"You know all our theories about why shapeshifters are attacking humans? Whether it's just the common ‘shifter on the street or orders from the First House and so on? Well, Circle Daybreak thinks it's orders, but not from the First House.† â€Å"The shapeshifters wouldn't take orders from vampires,† Galen said stiffly. â€Å"So the Night World Council is out.† â€Å"They think it's the dragon.† Keller shut her eyes and hit herself on the forehead. Of course. Why hadn't she thought of it? The dragon giving direct orders, setting himself up as a legendary ruler who had returned to save the shapeshifters. â€Å"It's like King Arthur coming back,† she muttered. On her bed, Iliana was frowning in shock â€Å"But you said dragons were evil. You said they were cruel and horrible and tried to destroy the world.† â€Å"Right,† Keller said dryly. Only Iliana would think that this constituted a reason not to follow them. â€Å"They were all those things. But they were also strong. They kept the shapeshifters on top. I'm sure there are plenty of ‘shifters who'd welcome a dragon back.† She looked at Galen in growing concern as she figured it out. â€Å"They're going to think it means a new era for them, maybe even a return to shapeshifter rule. And if that's what they think, nothing the First House says is going to make any difference. Even the mice are going to rally 'round Azhdeha.† â€Å"You mean the promise ceremony is no good?† Iliana sat up. The interesting thing was that she didn't look particularly relieved-in fact, Keller thought, she looked positively dismayed. â€Å"No, so don't even get that idea,† Keller said shortly. â€Å"What it means is-† She stopped dead, realizing suddenly what it did mean. â€Å"What it means is†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Galen said, â€Å"We have to kill the dragon.† Keller nodded. â€Å"Yeah. Not just fight it. We have to get rid of it. Make sure it's not around to give orders to anybody. It's the only way to keep the shapeshifters from being split.† Iliana looked down soberly at the snowstorm of paper that covered her floor. â€Å"Does any of that stuff tell you how to kill a dragon?† Keller lifted a piece of parchment, dropped it. â€Å"So far, none of this stuff has told us anything useful.† â€Å"Yeah, but we haven't even looked through half of it,† Winnie pointed out. â€Å"And since you and Galen are the only ones who can read the writing, the parts Nissa and I have gone through don't really count.† There was definitely a lot of work left. Keller stifled a sigh and said briskly, â€Å"Well, we don't need to worry about killing the dragon right now. If we can fight him off long enough to get through the promise ceremony, we can worry about destroying him afterward. Winnie, why don't you and Nissa start trying to figure out a way to protect Iliana at the party Saturday? And Galen and I can stay up tonight and read through these scrolls.† Winnie looked concerned. â€Å"Boss, you're trying to do too much. If you don't sleep sometime, you're going to start cracking up.† I'll sleep on Sunday,† Keller said firmly. â€Å"When it's all over.† Keller had meant that she and Galen could study the scrolls separately that night. But when everybody else headed for their bedrooms, he stayed in the family room with her and watched the eleven o'clock news. More animal attacks. Keller pulled out her pile of scroll fragments. It was her way of saying good night, and much easier than looking at him. But he just said quietly, â€Å"I'll get my half,† and brought them out. Keller felt uncomfortable. It wasn't that she could find any fault with what he was doing. He was studying his pieces of scroll intently and letting her do the same. But every now and then, he would look at her. She could feel his eyes on her, feel that they were serious and steady and that he was waiting for her to look up. She never did. And he never said anything. After a while, he would always go back to his parchments. They worked on and on in silence. Still, Keller was aware of him. She couldn't help it She was a panther; she could sense the heat of his body even three feet away. She could smell him, too, and he smelled good. Clean and a little bit like the soap he used, and even more like himself, which was something warm and golden and healthy. Like a puppy with a nice coat on a summer afternoon. It was very, very distracting. Sometimes the words on the scrolls blurred in front of her eyes. But worst of all, worse than feeling his heat or smelling his scent or knowing his eyes were on her, was something more subtle that she couldn't exactly define. A connection. A sense of tension between them that she could almost touch. The air was buzzing with it. It lifted up the little hairs on Keller's arms. And no matter how she tried to will it away, it only seemed to grow and grow. Somehow the silence made it worse, made it more profound. I have to say something, Keller thought. Something casual, to show that I'm not affected. She stared at the scrolls, which she was beginning to hate. If only she could find something useful†¦ Then she saw it. Right there on the scroll she was studying. â€Å"Galen. There's something here-in a copy of the oldest records about dragons. It's talking about what the dragons can do, what their powers are besides the dark energy.† She read from the scroll, hesitating on words that were less familiar to her. † ‘A dragon has only to touch an animal and it is able to assume that animal's form, know all that the animal knows, do all that the animal can do. There is no'-I think it says ‘limit'-‘on the number of shapes it can master. Therefore, it is a true shapeshifter and the only one worthy of the name.' I told you this stuff was old,† she added. â€Å"I think the original was written by the dragons' press agent during the war.† † ‘No limit on the number of shapes it can master,'† Galen repeated with growing excitement. â€Å"That makes sense, you know. That's what the First House has inherited, only in a diluted form. Being able to pick whichever shape we want to become- but only the first time. After that, we're stuck with it, of course.† â€Å"Do you have to touch an animal to learn its shape?† He nodded. â€Å"That's how we choose. But if a dragon can touch anything and assume its shape- and change over and over†¦Ã¢â‚¬  His voice trailed off. â€Å"Yeah. It's going to be awfully difficult to spot them,† Keller said. The tension in the air had been somewhat discharged by talking, and she felt a little calmer. At least she could talk without the words sticking in her throat. But Galen wasn't helping. He leaned closer, peering down at her scroll. â€Å"I wonder if it says anything else, anything about how to identify†¦ wait. Keller, look down here at the bottom.† To do it, she had to bend her head so that his hair brushed her cheek. â€Å"What?† â€Å"Horns, something about horns,† he muttered almost feverishly. â€Å"You're better at translating than I am. What's this word?† † â€Å"Regardless'? No, it's more like ‘no matter.'† She began to read. † ‘But no matter what form it takes, a dragon may always be known-‘† † ‘By its horns,'† he chimed in, reading with her. They finished together, helping each other. â€Å"‘A dragon has from one to three horns on its forehead, and in some rare cases four. These horns'†-both their voices rose-† ‘which are the seat of its power are most cruelly removed by the witches who capture them, to steal from them the power of changing.'† They both stopped. They kept staring at the parchment for what seemed endless minutes to Keller. Galen was gripping her wrist so hard that it hurt. Then he said softly, â€Å"That's it. That's the answer.† He looked up at her and gave her wrist a little shake. â€Å"That's the answer. Keller, we did it; we found it.† â€Å"Shh! You're going to wake up the whole house.† But she was almost as shaky with excitement as he was. â€Å"Let me think. Yeah, that guy Azhdeha could have had horns. His hair was all messy, covering his forehead, and I remember thinking that was a little strange. The rest of him looked so neat.† â€Å"You see?† He laughed breathlessly, exultantly. â€Å"Yes. But-well, do you have any idea how hard it would be to try and take off a dragon's horns?† â€Å"No, and I don't care. Keller, stop it, stop trying to dampen this! The point is, we found it. We know something about dragons that can hurt them. We know how to fight!† Keller couldn't help it. His exhilaration was infectious. All at once, all the bottled-up emotions inside her started to come out. She squeezed his arm back, half laughing and half crying. â€Å"You did it,† she said. â€Å"You found the part.† ‘It was on your scroll. You were just about to get there.† â€Å"You were the one who suggested we look at the scrolls in the first place.† â€Å"You were the one-† Suddenly, he broke off. He had been looking at her, laughing, their faces only inches apart as they congratulated each other in whispers. His eyes were like the woods in summertime, golden-green with darker green motes in them that seemed to shift in the light. But now something hike pain crossed his face. He was still looking at her, still gripping her arm, but his eyes went bleak. â€Å"You're the one,† he said quietly. Keller had to brace herself. Then she said, â€Å"I don't know what you're talking about.† â€Å"Yes, you do.† He said it so simply, so flatly. There was almost no way to argue. Keller found one. â€Å"Look, Galen, if this is about what happened in the library-â€Å" â€Å"At least you're admitting that something happened now.† â€Å"-then I don't know what's wrong with you. We're both shapeshifters, and there was a minute when we sort of lost our objectivity. We're under a lot of stress. We had a moment of†¦ physical attraction. It happens, when you do a job like this; you just can't take it seriously.† He was staring at her. â€Å"Is that what you've convinced yourself happened? ‘A moment of physical attraction?'† The truth was that Keller had almost convinced herself that nothing had happened-or convinced her mind, anyway. â€Å"I told you,† she said, and her voice was harsher than she'd heard it for a long time. â€Å"Love is for weak people. I'm not weak, and I don't plan to let anything make me weak. And, besides, what is your problem? You've already got a fiance. Diana's brave and kind and beautiful, and she's going to be very, very powerful. What more could you want?† â€Å"You're right,† Galen said. â€Å"She's all those things. And I respect her and admire her-I even love her. Who could help loving her? But I'm not in love with her. I'm-â€Å" â€Å"Don't say it.† Keller was angry now, which was good. It made her strong. â€Å"What kind of prince would put his personal happiness above the fate of his people? Above the fate of the whole freaking world, for that matter?† â€Å"I don't!† he raged back. He was speaking softly, but it was still a rage, and he was a little bit frightening. His eyes blazed a deep and endless green. â€Å"I'm not saying I won't go through with the ceremony. All I'm saying is that it's you I love. You're my soulmate, Keller. And you know it.† Soulmate. The word hit Keller and ricocheted, clunking inside her as it made its way down. When it hit bottom, it settled into a little niche made especially for it, fitting exactly. It was the word to describe what had really happened in the library. No stress-induced moment of physical attraction and no simple romantic flirtation, either. It was the soulmate principle. She and Galen were soulmates. And it didn't matter a bit, because they could never be together.

Cloud Computing Industry Analysis

Report – 2012 Cloud Computing Industry Analysis Submitted ByRomi Narang (197) Suryadeep Gumber(212) Rajesh Anuragi (196) Smith Rakesh (194) Neha Chavan(221) Neha Agrawal (224) Chandrika Gailot(229) 1/10/2012 Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Cloud Computing †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 WHAT ARE THE NECESSITIES OF CLOUD COMPUTING? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 5 What are the needs of PaaS, IaaS, SaaS (Cloud Families)? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 6 Pricing Models †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 9 PESTLE Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 11 Technological Infrastructure required for Cloud Computing †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 17 Cloud Computing – Drivers Vs Inhibitors †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 8 Global cloud computing market size& Future growth †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 22 CLOUD COMPUTING AFFECTING FIRM BOUNDARY †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 25 Web 2. 0 and Cloud Computing †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 31 Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 35 1. Cloud ComputingCloud computing refers t o the provision of computing resources like computing power, applications, computing infrastructure and business processes in manner that is scalable as per requirement and can be shared in order to gain economies of scale. These provisions are delivered as a service over the internet (or any other electronic network) and the service can be accessed by the end users via a computing device. The data and application related information relevant to the end users business/personal needs is stored on remote servers.The term ‘cloud’ is used for the abstraction of the complex network infrastructure that is used for providing the service. [1] Figure 1. Logical Diagram for Cloud Computing: [2] Office building analogy for cloud[4] A more effective way to explain the concept of cloud computing is to compare it with an office building. An office building can accommodate multiple companies belonging to different types of industries. Although some companies can go for privately manag ed maintenance/servicing of their own office, it will be extremely economical and cost effective for all companies to go for shared services that are used by all.These will mostly comprise of some essential and fundamental utility services. Likewise, Cloud computing enables sharing of the computing resources, management of which by a single company could be taxing and uneconomical. The flexibility, immediate availability and cost effectiveness of the maintenance, hardware and platform development offered by cloud computing can be compared with the electricity coming out of every wall of an office building, the underlying technical aspects being abstracted from the user. Figure 2: Cloud computing compared to shared office space[4]Players in the Cloud computing world: [1] Vendors: Provide applications and enabling technology, infrastructure, hardware, and integration. Partners: Collaborate with the vendors and provide support services to customers. Business Leaders: Either use or eval uate various types of cloud computing offerings. Types of Cloud computing services:[3] Private Cloud: The cloud is owned by a particular customer with the required infrastructure and technology residing either on-site or off-site. This type of service is costly but provides better security.Public Cloud: The cloud is owned by a large organization or company specializing in cloud computing services. The cloud can be rented for use to anyone willing to pay for it. It is the cheapest type of cloud computing service but because of its public nature it is deemed to be less secure. Hybrid Cloud: It consists of multiple private and public clouds. 2. WHAT ARE THE NECESSITIES OF CLOUD COMPUTING? 1. Information Technology penetrated in day to day life very fast With the starting of Internet era, most of the people and majority companies in the world became dependent on the services you could get to with a click of the mouse.The best example may be the free email (Gmail/Yahoo mail), the chat te chnology (Yahoo Messenger), Social Networking websites (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter). One can’t imagine life without them. That’s where the cloud was born. You need cloud data centers to run that stuff. 2. Cheaper source of Technology One may look for quality or ease of access but in the end the main thing that’s at the top of everybody’s mind is the economy. Cloud data centers are fundamentally different because they are built for very large user numbers and for a particular focus. Traditional data centers cannot compete on cost.In fact it’s no competition on the cost front. 3. Go Green In the scenario where environment is one of the biggest concerns, cloud computing seems as a perfect option as there is no paper etc required. The data is saved over internet as digital signals. Nowadays digitization of everything is becoming a trend among all top multinational companies. 4. The never ending and always expanding data The data is ever increasing and it probably always will. It seems to grow at about 60% a year and it doesn’t pause for breath. It won’t stop, even if you cry at it.But like old email, you never access most of the data and at the same time you also don’t want to delete it. So saving it all in the cloud makes sense clearly. 5. Unlimited Access This is almost impossible to stop users accessing anything they want on the Internet. One may be able to blacklist some web sites (adult sites etc) but one can’t want to prevent users from finding useful capabilities on the Internet. And those are cloud apps by any definition. There’s a wealth of it and it’s a boon to us. 6. No need for continuous software development Cloud computing is the best way of software development.There was always two types of software development; the mission critical stuff that gives us business traction, and the rest. We need not to worry for it. It’s the competition that drives the software developm ent and thus making it cost effective. 7. Emergence of cloud computing as an ecosystem The cloud computing has created an environment and hence various companies and developers create applications that support this environment, just like Google which is no more a website but an ecosystem. [4] 3. What are the needs of PaaS, IaaS, SaaS (Cloud Families)? PaaS: What is it? [5]The way of renting hardware, operating systems, storage and network capacity over the Internet is called PaaS(Platform as a Service). It allows the customer to rent virtualized servers and associated services for running existing applications or developing and testing new ones. Features:[8] 1. All the services needed in the process of making an application like developing, testing, deploying, hosting and maintaining applications is integrated into the same platform. 2. It is very user friendly as different user interfaces can be easily created using various web tools available in PaaS. . Various users can simultane ously use the same application process because of it’s â€Å"tenant architecture† feature. 4. It is used for billing and subscription management. 5. Integration can be done via common standards with web services and databases. 6. It has built in feature to handle load balancing and failover. Revenue: Figure 3[9] Players: Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Rightscale, Wipro, Adobe, Oracle, Vmware, TCS, Sales Force, Google, VirtuStream, NetMagic. Which industry can use it and why? [11] Telecommunications industry can use PaaS.With the advent of 3G and popularity of Mobile VAS, PaaS products like Flypp that enable telcos with faster go-to market applications and reduce risk and operational overheads are predicted to see increased adoption. SaaS: What it is? [5] The model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet is known as SaaS (Software as a Service) Features[8] 1. 2. 3. 4. It is used in commercial applications for accessing web It has a central hub for software management It uses the star network model for oftware delivery It has a feature called â€Å"application programming interface† which is used to link different softwares 5. Time to time upgradation of software and recovery of system patches is not required to be monitored by the SaaS users. Revenue Figure 4[9] Players: IBM, Microsoft, Synage, Wipro, Oracle, Vmware, TCS, Salesforce, Google, VirtuStream, NetMagic. Which industry can use it and why? [11] Healthcare industry can use SaaS. With medical tourism flourishing, India is slowly becoming a haven for healthcare services.Healthcare industry is also advancing its IT platforms to touch the global standards. This industry’s key worry of system consolidation can be addressed by SaaS solutions. Iaas: What it is? [7] A model in which an organization outsources the equipment used to support operations, including storage, hardware, servers and netwo rking components is called IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). The service provider owns the equipment and is responsible for housing, running and maintaining it. The client has no obligations and he only pays on a per-use basis. Features:[8] 1.Dynamic scaling can be done 2. It allows access to multiple users on single hardware 3. It is based on the model of utility pricing and hence has a variable cost 4. Resources are distributed as a service. Revenue Figure 5[10] Players: Amazon, Go Grid, Wolf Frameowrks, Microsoft, Rightscale, Wipro, Oracle, Vmware, TCS, Google, IBM, Net Magic, Reliance Data Centre. Which industry can use it and why? [11] Government and public sector can use IaaS. With current e-governance initiatives driving on a PPP model, immense investments are being made on the IT infrastructure front.For projects like Aadhaar, the UIDAI is contemplating on the adoption of a cost-effective cloud based model that can provide effective and scalable processing of large databas es. 4. Pricing Models Elastic pricing or Pay-as-you-Use model Elastic pricing model is a model that incurs less wastage and lower costs as under this system customers are charged based as per their usage and consumption of a service. As the users are keenly aware of the cost of doing business and consuming a resource (since it’s coming from their pockets) therefore the awareness of cost and selective usage is quite prominent.When to use it? 1. When there is Unpredictability of resources . 2. When there is limitation of budget. Fixed or Subscription based pricing The simplest pricing option where the customer organization is billed on a fixed monthly basis is known as fixed pricing. The consumer is billed the same amount every month without consideration for actual usage. When to use it? 1. When requirements are well defined. 2. When more control over the budget is required. 3. When it is required to use the cloud for a longer periods. Spot pricing for cloud It is a new concep t in cloud computing, where market forces will decide the pot pricing model i. e. , when the demand of computing and storage resources is higher than the price of services will be higher and vice-versa. Cloud chargeback Customers are charged on the basis of usage. Benefits of this model are: 1. 2. 3. 4. Resource utilization can become more visible. Forecasting, budgeting and capacity planning can be facilitated. It encourages the use of new emerging technologies. It facilitates justification and allocation of cost to their stakeholders and business units. Adoption of cloud computing models in India Findings on the basis of survey done by E&Y recently: 1. 2. 3. 4.Annual contract based modelling is mostly opted by large enterprises. Resource based usage model is adopted by SMB segment in majority. Potential customers are not satisfied with single pricing model. Pricing structures offered by vendors should be easy to understand, transparent and cost efficient. Figure 6 [61] 5. PESTLE A nalysis Figure 7 Political Regulations Even with Internet’s rise to the Horizon, it took many years for policy makers to set up common norms and procedures regarding the internet’s usage. With the current popularity of cloud computing policy makers are more proactive in addressing technological changes.Regulations are still at a very nascent stage for Cloud computing: There are various government policies involved in that need to be incorporated by vendors to successfully implement cloud. There are various issues like security, privacy, location and ownership of data, that hinder the growth of cloud computing. Some vendors like Amazon Web Services have addressed certain issues by deploying local infrastructure in main markets (US and EU). [12] Government projects Cloud computing has the potential to provide good level government service deliveries to the people despite the government agencies suffering from resource constraints.US government has an estimate to spend al most USD 20 billion on cloud computing related products. Figure 8[13] The federal government has a complete cloud related strategy that can be described below. ? Develop a decision framework that can be used to migrate services to cloud ? Find the services that can be migrated to Cloud and their time frames ? Calculate the resources required to move the services to cloud. Figure 9[13] Economic Various multinational companies have reduced their IT spending in lieu of the economic slowdown that has hit the economy hard. JP Morgan recently cut their IT spending. 14] Cloud computing helps cut costs in following ways ? By lowering opportunity cost of running technology. When it comes to technology only 20% of the time and effort goes into running technology which is where all the value lies. By using Cloud computing the 80-20 can be reversed as time required to manage the OS and hardware gets considerably reduced. ? Capital expenditure shifts to operating expenditure. Figure 10[15] ? Ren ewed focus on core activities With the movement from traditional operation to cloud, A company gets a lot of time focus on its core activities. Recently, Netflix moved on to the Amazon Cloud service (AWS EC2).Social Figure 11[18] Internet has been the most disruptive social phenomenon of the past couple of decades and has found its use in both professional and personal activities. The number of internet users is close to 2. 23 billion[18] and growing. Figure 12[12] Internet users Since cloud being an internet based technology its adoption has a greater probability. The future generation will no doubt be connected through the internet for both personal and professional lives. Social media has grown from strength to strength and now even companies are focused towards the use of social networking to find opportunities for their growth.Technical Technology has taken great strides over the last 2 decades and IT infrastructure and service sharing has become a great source of growth for so me companies. With high speed of internet, low connectivity issues, higher security standards and modularization of environments, it has become easier to implement cloud. Figure 13[12] IBM IT Transformation Roadmap The IBM IT transformation road map suggests how the IT has transformed over the years and it is headed straight towards the adoption of cloud computing on a major level. LEGAL There is currently no legal framework designed for the adoption on cloud computing.There are local regulations on free flow of information between countries. Figure 14[16] There are a few questions that are raised by the law structure when cloud is being implemented. 1. Who is the controller? 2. Which law is applicable 3. Transfer outside the country? The future of legal policies appear uncertain and they can easily keep a lid on growth of cloud computing Environmental IT contributes 2% of the world’s CO2 emissions in the world which is the same as the Airline industry[12]. Other than CO2 emi ssion IT produces 2 million tones of electric waste as well.Cloud Computing is one of the ways to reduce the environmental impact of IT industry. Most of the electric waste would become obsolete with the evolution of cloud computing. Figure 15[17] Total PESTLE Impact Diagram Figure 16[12] 6. Technological Infrastructure required for Cloud Computing Following Infrastructure is needed for Cloud computing: 1) 2) 3) 4) Computing Infrastructure Network Infrastructure Storage Infrastructure Linking Infrastructure a. Linking to Network b. Linking to Storage Depending upon the service required (IaaS or PaaS or SaaS), these infrastructure elements can be owned by the client or the Cloud service provider.As per the CIO. com article are as follows: [1] , there are seven important aspects of any cloud infrastructure, these 1) Heterogeneous System Support Other than leveraging the latest software and hardware systems, the cloud infrastructure should also be compatible with the legacy and traditi onal systems of the organization and should also support the existing infrastructure. 2) Service Management In order to make the cloud offering successful, the cloud service should be able to provide proper resource (e. g. CPU cycle or storage etc) guarantees, transparent metering rules of the service and proper billing cycles.Also, the service should be able to be managed and deployed easily and quickly. 3) Dynamic Workload and Resource Management For providing truly on demand and virtualized services, it is important for any cloud infrastructure to manage the resources and workload as per the required service level agreement to the consumer. And hence in case of peak load, prioritize resources in order to be highly efficient and performance driven. 4) Reliability, Availability and Security Reliability, Availability and Security are important aspects of any service, whether it is provided through cloud or through the traditional model.Hence any cloud infrastructure should provide a smooth transition to the cloud service without compromising on any of these aspects of the system. 5) Integration with Data Management tools It is possible that cloud computing management solutions do not fully take the place of the traditional systems and data centers. Hence the cloud infrastructure should be able to integrate with these out of the box systems and data centers to provide a hassle free service to the clients. 6) Visibility and Reporting An important feature of the cloud service is the ‘pay as per-use’ facility.Hence to fully achieve this objective, the cloud infrastructure should support detailed levels of visibility and reporting regarding the usage, service level agreements, compliances, system and network performances, billing schedules etc. 7) Administrator, Developer and End User Interface Most Cloud infrastructures provide user interfaces and portals to hide the cloud service complexities from the end user and in a way also provide the ability to manage these cloud services in a simple yet comprehensive way. [19] 7. Cloud Computing – Drivers Vs Inhibitors Inhibitors for Cloud ComputingA report published by IBM [20] (IBM Academy of Technology, Thought Leadership White Paper, October 2010) based on the survey conducted on 110 Cloud implementation Projects, revealed that the major concerns for implementing Cloud were issues involving security, lack of perceived value proposition by the customers, lack of standardization and lack of funding for implementation. Some of the other factors include- complexity concerns, lack of skills, concerns about reliability and availability of cloud, technical immaturity etc. Figure 17 Source: IBM Academy of Technology, Thought Leadership White Paper, October 2010 [20]Security [20] Security is one of the major concerns specially in public cloud implementations. Most customers are worried about the privacy and integrity of their data. The concerns may increase even more if the cloud is sh ared among other customers, who may be your competitors. Hence according to the IBM survey most companies are interested in implementing the private cloud (instead of going for the public Cloud). Standardization [20] As Cloud Computing is an emerging technology, the processes and implementations are not yet standardized.Each of the Cloud implementers provides their own solutions. There are no industry wide standards yet developed for Cloud computing. Hence this lack of hardware requirements, software, operating system and processes act as an inhibitor for implementing cloud. Value Proposition [20] Implementation of Cloud is much easier if value which it provides in terms of meeting the business requirements and cost benefits can be explained to the customer. Hence lack of tools and models that assist the customers to calculate the return on investment and value proposition pose a deterrent in cloud implementation.Complexity and Integration [20] Most customers today run a host of app lications including numerous legacy tools. Customers are looking integrated solution for all their applications from the cloud providers. Hence the doubts over integrating all solutions and also reducing complexity are one of the concerns of the customers in implementing cloud. According to Keane White paper [21] on â€Å"Cloud Computing – Clear thinking about its risks, benefits and success factors† impediments to cloud Adoption are as follows: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Security Privacy / Compliance Immaturity of vendors / Offerings Risk Mitigation Legacy ApplicationsDrivers for Cloud Computing BENEFITS [20] The study conducted by IBM based on 110 Cloud implementations revealed following results: ? ? ? Around 80% of clients acknowledge benefits in sharing of IT resources through highly virtualized infrastructure by implementing cloud. Around 60% achieved ease-of-use through self service with rapid delivery. Taking about public clouds specifically ? ? ? Ease-of-use is 85% (as com pared to 60% overall by both public and private cloud users) 68% benefit from pay-as-you-go Charging model 63% benefit from Internet / Web based CloudFigure 18 Source: IBM Academy of Technology, Thought Leadership White Paper, October 2010 [20] According to Keane White paper [21] on â€Å"Cloud Computing – Clear thinking about its risks, benefits and success factors† benefits of Cloud solution are as follows: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Cost Capability / Scalability More Green Organization Agility Collaboration Focus According Deloitte report on â€Å"Cloud Computing – Forecasting Change – Market overview and Perspective† [22] Figure 19 Source: Deloitte Report on Cloud Computing – Forecasting Change – Market overview and Perspective [22]Deloitte’s perspective on perceived and real impact of cloud Inhibitors [22] Figure 20 Source: Deloitte Report on Cloud Computing – Forecasting Change – Market overview and Perspective [22] 8. Global cloud computing market size& Future growth According to the report called â€Å"Sizing the Cloud† of independent research firm Forrester Research the global cloud computing market would fetch the $241 billion by 2020[1] as compared to $40. 7 billion in 2010. It could be possible cause of rapidly growing of cloud computing services.Figure 21 According to this report, Software-as-a-service(SaaS) would have a significant share in the total revenue. This segment would offer more opportunity growth than any other segments. The SaaS would have the leading position in the Cloud Computing market by holding the $92. 8 billion by 2016[23]. According to IDC by 2015[24] nearly 24% of the software purchaseswould be service enabled software. SaaS delivery will have the share of around 13. 1% of worldwide software revenue and 14. 4% for applications. Global Corporate Mobile SaaS Market will be at $1. billion in 2011 and will grow to $3. 7 billion by 2016 with Compound annual growt h rate of 25. 8% according to latest Strategy Analytics Wireless Enterprise Strategies. It will be possible by integration of business application on smartphones, tablets and other wireless devices[25]. Deloitte has estimated that cloud based usage will replace 2. 34% of IT spending in 2014 and further it will rise to 14. 49% in 2020[26]. Figure 22[26] Cisco’s Global Cloud Index forecasted that the transition of workloads from traditional data centres to cloud data centres will exceed in 2014.This year would be the crucial year when workloads through cloud data centres (51%) would be higher than the traditional data centres (49%) for the first time. If this trend would be continued then cloud workloads would be dominating to the traditional work load by 2015. The Compound annual growth rate expected to be at 22% during 2010-15[27]. Fig 23[27] According to Gartner, Insurance industry would have a higher rate of cloud adoption (34%) compared to their enterprise counterparts (27 %) in the Small & Medium Business (SMB) category. Fig 24[28] Complete analysis of Cloud Computing in Asia [8]Fig 25[30] Indian Market In terms of market size, Indian market holds only $990 million compared to global market $ 109 billion7. It is predicted that India would be having market of $3-4 billion by 20157according to Zinnov Management Consulting. On the other hand Nasscom and Deloitte consulting estimated that Indian market would be worth of $16 billion by 20207. It is also estimated that India would have a huge potential growth in future cause of millions of Small & Medium Business who are not able to afford to invest in the expensive business software solutions.Vishnu Bhatt, head of cloud services at Infosys says that, â€Å"About 60 per cent of enterprise workloads will be on the cloud in five years, from the current nonexistent levels†. Four different types of market opportunity are there in the India. Roughly 25 per cent of the Indian market is in â€Å"private c loud† business cause of security reasons. Other three opportunities lies in the â€Å"public cloud† as Saas, PaaS, & in Iaas. Independent software vendors (ISVs) like†Infosys, Wipro etc. † are the middle players who serve to small clients from the big players like Microsoft and Salesforce.The entire cost is borne by the end users, on an average the ISVs make around 20-30 per cent of the total revenue. Around 3000 ISVs are there in India and nearly 1000 of them have tied up with the Microsoft and Salesforce. So we can say Indian cloud market mostly depend on the ISVs[29]. 9. CLOUD COMPUTING AFFECTING FIRM BOUNDARY Start-ups Cloud computing reduces initial investments of the start-ups by reducing capital investment in a data center. In cloud computing the infrastructure for data storage is provided by the cloud providers which help start-ups in reducing their investment.Cloud computing does not eliminate the development cost but helps start-up companies to foc us on their core competency without hiring people with expertise. Cloud computing also helps different software companies (start-ups) to expand their offering by partnerships with big firms (exa-IBM). [32, 33] Due to this lowered capital cost the companies were able to prove their products on less initial capital. . In 2011, 1339 companies received a total of US $5. 8bn in first-time financing (an increase of 7% in capital raised and an inc of 19. % in deal numbers, compared with the same period in 2010). The data shows that Venture capitals are taking interest in investing on these small amounts since the risk is low. This helps the entrepreneurs in cracking more deals as supported by data. [34] SMB’s Cloud computing will help SME’s in modeling their business. Since it is cost effective, now companies are targeting these small and medium size businesses. These firms were not able to implement ERP due to high cost and lack of IT infrastructure. Now due to cost cut of t he infrastructure they can use cloud for their business. iON will enhance India’s global competitiveness by giving 35 million Indian SMBs access to world-class, simple-to-use and scalable technology tools. SMBs can use the power of iON to build their business advantage and compete on the global stage,† said N Chandrasekaran, chief executive officer and managing director, TCS, and chief architect, iON, in a statement. [35] The table below shows the share of small & medium businesses in different countries. In India Tata Consultancy Service is targeting $1 billion revenue from these small and medium businesses firm [36] over five years.Figure 26[37] A survey taken from Zoomerang (in April 2011) for small and medium businesses has shown that 77% of the small and medium businesses are not using cloud computing for their businesses and 52% of them will use cost effective IT management and maintenance sources. Figure 27 [39] A report published by Microsoft has shown that ther e is high potential for cloud adoption in SMBs. As per the report the number of companies with between 11 and 25 employees will potentially double till next wave.In 101 – 250 employee segment 33% companies will adopt cloud in the next wave. [38] Figure 28[38] Cost effectiveness of cloud computing will help startups and SMB’s in adopting it ,which in turn will help them in making their process efficient and as the result â€Å"SMBs will be able to challenge big businesses†. [40] Venture Capital Investment The diagram below shows the growth of public cloud and its comparison with the overall IT. The public cloud services are growing strongly with a rate of 18%, which is a positive sign for the companies providing cloud services. 42] This growth is also attracting the Venture Capitalist. Currently, not much of the investment is done on this sector and there is a strong chance of investment. [43] Figure 29[42] Venture capital is also affected by government regulatio ns. A report published by Josh Learner shows the impact of copyright policy changes on Venture capital investment in cloud computing companies. The data provided in the table in Appendix A has shown the investment of venture [41] capital quarter wise for cloud service firms in U. S. A. Figure 30[41]The figure below shows the ratio of investment in cloud computing companies to investment in all IT companies. A drastic change can be seen in the graph after the copyright policy changes. [10] Figure 31[41] A survey taken in 2012 by Deloitte regarding global trends in venture capital shows the confidence level of investors of different countries in different industries. The first graph shows the confidence level of venture capital investment sector wise and the second graph shows the confidence level of respondent’s country in cloud computing. 44] Figure 32[44] Figure 33[44] According to the article of NASSCOM Deloitte â€Å"Deconstructing the cloud – The new growth fronti er for Indian IT – BPO sector† cloud computing will affect by making (below points are directly taken from the article) [40] Lines blur between consumer and enterprise IT – Initially innovation was driven by enterprises but now trends have been changed and innovations are driven by customer segment also e. g. blogging, social networking and cloud is fast helping merge this divide between consumer and enterprise. IT drives arket-facing differentiation for businesses – Cloud will be a net positive impact on existing service lines while opening up new â€Å"product† opportunities Cloud have a net positive impact on existing service line revenues, though traditional IS outsourcing and testing service providers will have to re-invent existing models Uptake will vary across industries because of different drivers and barriers Cloud will alter the industry landscape – commoditization of IT through cloud computing will reduce entry barrier bringing s ome new breed competitors.Partnerships and alliances will be key to succeed in the Cloud ecosystem [40] 10. Web 2. 0 and Cloud Computing Web 2. 0 and Cloud computing have changed the way we develop, deploy and use computer applications. The World Wide Web had seen a transition from traditional publishing model to the new collaborative information creation model. [45] Web 2. 0 uses network as a platform for sharing information, creating content, & making a virtual community, in contrast to the websites where users can simply read the text (passive viewing of content). Web 2. includes some of the most widely known and used applications blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, wikis, Twitter, web applications etc. [46] Figure 34: Web 1. 0 & web 2. 0 Structure [47] Cloud computing services in nature are Web applications which deliver desirable computing services on demand. It is thus a natural technical evolution that the Cloud computing acquires the Web 2. 0 technique. [50] Cloud compu ting defines the way the applications are deployed. It offers infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).As per the requirement of resources, the processing power and memory gets allocated in an elastic manner. [45] The cloud is often misinterpreted as a combination of clusters and grids. However, in reality, clouds are next-generation data centres which are dynamically provisioned as per the user demand used for personalized resource collection for fulfilling specific user needs and accessible through â€Å"Web 2. 0† technologies. [51] Web 2. 0 and Implications on cloud computing Web 2. 0 contributes to the front end of the business, cloud computing contributes to the back end of the business.Combining both, web 2. 0 & cloud computing, both front end as well as some of the back end of the business can be outsourced. The work can be performed from anywhere, teams may not be at the same location thus collaborating the inf ormation using, web 2. 0 tools, cloud, mobile technologies. This is the concept of virtualized organizations. [53] Statistical Support David Osimo shows how web 2. 0 applications have grown masively. He uses the data from Technorati, Wikipedia, Myspace, Youtube and Nielsen-Netratings for analysis.His findings can be seen in Figure 2.. [10] Figure 35: Growth of Web 2. 0 applications [54] Cloud computing is addressing two different market needs [50] 1. Large scale web applications (‘web 2. 0 markets’) – scale-out cloud E. g. Google Traditional data centre computing (‘enterprise market’) – server clouds E. g. Microsoft 2. Figure 36: Evolution of World Wide Web [48] Cloud computing is integral to web 2. 0. It brings all sorts of user data along with operating system online and enables content sharing platform making the use of storage devices unnecessary.Web 2. 0 provides the collaborative functionality that helps in sharing documents and making c hanges on a real time basis regardless of their locations. This along with cloud computing allows for online storage of data avoiding the use of hardware, data centres as well as software replaced by online web applications like Google documents. There can be two kinds of customers for cloud [49] Those that need to scale up (achieve higher scale) at low costs 2. Those that want to eliminate data centre model and choose pay-as-you-go model 1.Many technologies like grid computing, peer to peer computing contribute directly to cloud. Thus, web 2. 0 provides users the capabilities of easy sharing and accessibility of data with anyone, from anywhere. Applications like Google doc, face book are managed by cloud storing huge amount of user data at one place and making it readily available to everyone anytime. These applications are one type of services, software as a service. Users have their own hardware at place, and use their own platform to run these cloud applications. The software re sources like application servers, database servers, IDE etc. re not required. Other kind of services include application as a service where users have their own hardware at place and rent platforms from cloud to develop customized software. Finally infrastructure as a service means the complete virtualization of business with storage at cloud. Hardware and computing also need not be performed at the site but takes place in cloud. Resources like storage, computing power are not required. [52] With the advent of web 2. 0, cloud computing got a boost as people could create and access any amount of information without having to worry about its storage.Google is the best example. It provides many services and applications like, Google doc, spreadsheet, YouTube all of which are cloud based and help sharing information on a real time basis. The real time sharing of knowledge is what is made possible though combination of the two. Cloud is incorporated in the next version of web 2. 0 retain ing the features of web 2. 0 and adding new ‘elasticity’ to the whole application or business deployment. 11. Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis Threat of new entrants ? ? ? ? Low barriers to entry Relatively lower development costs Low fixed costs Huge potential marketBargaining power of suppliers: ? ? High for few big players. Can depend on the type of service provided. Bargaining power of buyers: Existing competitive landscape ? ? Intense rivalry. Presence of big, small & niche players. ? ? Dependent on the size of the buyers. SMEs’ power can increase with standardization of offerings. Threat of substitutes: ? Mild threat from open source computing Figure 38 1. Existing competitive landscape: The Cloud computing market comprises of both small and big players causing intense rivalry.But there is a large variety in the type of products and services required by customers and so there is room for big, small and niche players. There are the big players providing end -to-end services like IBM, Amazon, Microsoft etc, pure players like Salesforce and niche players like Dell-BOOMI (specializes in Cloud Integration), Rackspace (leader in managed hosting services) and small players like Zenith. [55][56] 2. Suppliers’ bargaining power: Since there is a huge potential for demand from SMEs and few big players like Google, Amazon and IBM, the bargaining power of suppliers is quite high.Bargaining power could vary according to the type of service provided. E. g. In case of an IaaS service, switching cost for customers might not be very high since the offering is largely undifferentiated, but same cannot be said for a SaaS offering. Also there are is no clear rule of law for regulation of the data stored on the cloud. Data stored on the cloud could be subject to less stringent action by the regulatory authority than that stored on a personal computer. This could make the switching costs for the customers quite high. [57][58] 3.Buyer’s bargain ing power: Bargaining power of buyers can be said to be dependent on the size of the buyer’s business. In case of SMEs, the bargaining power can be said to be low since many of the suppliers in the cloud computing market are large corporations. Whereas the buyer’s bargaining power can substantially dominate the supplier if the buyer itself is a large organization. The bargaining power of SMEs can increase if with the standardization of the services which will be facilitated with establishing proper regulatory compliances. [57] 4. Threat of new entrants:With the huge potential market among the SMEs, it is expected that many new entrants from the SME segment itself will enter the Cloud computing market with low cost offerings. This expectation lies on the fact of low fixed costs, relatively lower costs of developing a product and low barriers to entry. [57][59][60] 5. Threat of substitutes: Open source computing can be considered as a substitute for Cloud computing servi ces. But it can be expected that the SMEs will prefer Cloud computing over open source due to higher switching costs in case of open source and lower costs of cloud computing services. [57]References Online: 1. Hurwitz et al. , (2010) Cloud Computing for Dummies [online]. Wiley Publishing Inc. NJ. http://books. google. co. in/books? id=_TvnVbFSYsQC&lpg=PP1&ots=u7GJ5I6STG&dq=cloud% 20computing&pg=PT10#v=onepage&q=cloud%20computing&f=false http://www. google. co. in/url? source=imglanding&ct=img&q=http://files. messe. de/007/medi a/04bilder/aufloesungsunabhaengig/2011_3/cb11bielastischrechnen. jpg&sa=X&ei=jqxJULO WHsHrrQeVuoDICA&ved=0CAkQ8wc4kgI&usg=AFQjCNFaG0Yc_Ym8Uya7F3ei130cbaQbVQ 2. Jamsa, K. Cloud Computing: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, Virtualization, Business Models, Mobile, Security and More [online].Jones & Barlette Learning, Wall Street, Burlington. http://books. google. co. in/books? id=msFk8DPZ7noC&lpg=PP1&ots=oW3KUl1HDm&dq=clou d%20computing&pg=PR2#v=onepage&q=cloud%20computing&f=fa lse 4. Trends and technologies in the CRM world. [online] http://www. allthingscrm. com/cloudcomputing/the-importance-of-cloud-computing. html (Accessed 5 September 2012) 3. 5. Search Cloud Computing. [online] http://searchcloudcomputing. techtarget. com/definition/Platform-as-a-Service-PaaS (Accessed 5 September 2012) 6. Search cloud computing. [online] http://searchcloudcomputing. echtarget. com/definition/Software-as-a-Service (Accessed 5 September 2012) 7. Search cloud computing. [online] http://searchcloudcomputing. techtarget. com/definition/Infrastructure-as-a-Service-IaaS (Accessed 5 September 2012) 8. Ben, K. (2012) ‘understanding the cloud computing stack: Saas,IaaS,PaaS’ *online+ http://www. rackspace. com/knowledge_center/whitepaper/understanding-the-cloudcomputing-stack-saas-paas-iaas (Accessed 5 September 2012) 9. Deloitte,(2009) Cloud Computing – Forecasting Change – Market overview and Perspective. [online]https://www. deloitte. om/assets/D comGlobal/Local%20Assets/Documents/ TMT/cloud_-_market_overview_and_perspective. pdf (Accessed 6 September 2012) 10. Morgan Stanley,(2011) Cloud Computing takes off. [online] http://www. morganstanley. com/views/perspectives/cloud_computing. pdf (Accessed 6 September 2012) 11. Frost& Sullivan, Cloud Computing Services. [online] http://corporate. sify. com/uploads/CloudServices-F-S. pdf (Accessed 6 September 2012) 12. Callewaert, Robinson and Blatman, 2010 Market overview and Perspective: Cloud computing. Deloitte. https://www. deloitte. com/assets/DcomGlobal/Local%20Assets/Documents/TMT/cloud

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Anything of Van Morrison - Research Paper Example His dynamism in composing and singing different song genres boosted his music career by ensuring that he stayed relevant to the changing times. Among his greatest albums was A sense of wonder, released in 1985, the album became a hit and among the songs that sold the album was one which he used to name the album. The rock genre piece is a classical of all times owing to the level of creativity that Van Morrison employed in its composition. He personally directed the first version of the song bring it out as a soft rock. Morrison carried out his research effectively before writing and composing a song. The themes he addressed in this piece earned him a direct entry into the market by being relevant to the issues affecting his target market. Among these included the social issues affecting the youths of the time. The early 19th century youth craved for change and revolution. Morrison epitomized this in his rock genre release of the song and the manner in which he addresses the issue in a musical composition. The track A sense of wonder has to this day been performed by a number of secondary artists most of who change the beats in order for the piece to fit other music genres thereby expanding its market base. Among such artists are The Chieftains, an Irish band with which he later performed a number of Grammy winning sets and John Lee Hooker who tried converting the piece into the Blues genres in 1991. Morrison’s original piece of the song is a soft rock; the band setting gives it the natural aura of such. He succeeds in creating a holistic piece by developing a harmonious set in which the entire beats are in unison with the lyrics of the song. He composed the song in a structure of a poem. This made it easier to sing owing to the fact that poem structures easily fuse with the beats. In his composition of the piece, he uses a number of composition styles to achieve the rhyme and rhythm that later sold the track. He uses refrain extensively, this is the rep etition of a phrase or a word in the piece in order to create a rhythm. The chorus is one such collection of sentence he repeats after every successful stanza (Hindemith and Arthur 22). A number of subsequent rock artists composed songs without choruses but Van Morrison in most of his tracks used choruses. Choruses break the monotony presented by a plain rap or narration in a stanza; it reminds the audience of the underlying theme in the song and has often served as the central point in the entire song. Van Morrison’s chorus in this song is therefore served to create the thematic statement and the kind of fusion it earns with the instruments and the beats sells the piece. During the chorus, he changes his voices to a near alto finish thereby interacting with the female voices in the set. This gives the song a twist from the previous straight, tough and dry voice in the previous stanzas. Additionally, by the chorus the beat changes seamlessly in accordance with the flow of the previous stanza, an audience does not automatically feel the change in the beats that serve to create the rhythm and unity in the entire piece by giving an adequate consideration of the difference that the chorus ought to convey. Additionally, Van Morrison achieves rhythm by using with rhymes extensively in the near poetic piece. Rhymes are a series of similarly sounding words that the songwriter uses at the end of every

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THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN FOREGIN POLICY SINCE THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION - Essay Example After a brief but important war with Spain in 1898, the United States became, almost at once, a world power with distant colonial possessions. While some Americans believed that their national identity suited them for such overseas expansion, others questioned it. In addition, reformers began to demand greater involvement on the part of government in solving the problems of the poor and the helpless and of protecting the nation’s natural resources. Several factors contributed to the new idea of overseas expansion. New railroad lines and government land policies brought a flood of settlers to the American West. The desirable land there was quickly settled. When the Bureau of Census officially announced the end of the frontier in 1890, some Americans began to fear that the nation’s opportunities for growth would end. Another factor in the growing interest in expansion was American nation’s rapidly increasing production of goods. By the late 1800s American farms and factories turned out increasing amounts of crops and manufactured goods. American began to seek out new markets for those goods that could not be sold at home. Foreign markets for these surplus goods were considered essential for the nation’s continued economic growth. (Hall, 1999) In the late 1800s a new spirit of imperialism, the policy of extending one country’s rule over other nations and colonies, developed in Europe. Great Britain, France and Germany colonized Africa and turned eagerly toward Asia. Some Americans shared this spirit. Some believed that American empire would help less fortunate people all around the world. These Americans believed that the cultures of Asia, Africa, and Latin America were inferior to American and European cultures. They believed Americans had a duty to civilize these people by showing them American ways of governing and working. American missionaries also

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Risk Profiling Of Hazards Due To Operation of Autoplast Ltd - Essay Example This paper illustrates that considering the present scenario of chemical leakage from the storage plant of AutoPlast Ltd. and contamination of water of River Cruze and subsequent outbreak of fire leading to the health problem of the surrounding housing estates, village and fish market, there is a dominant upheaval from the local community against the operation of AutoPlast Ltd. It is evident that there would be political intervention due to mismatch and fulfillment of interest of the political parties leading to several agitations and discussion between the management of AutoPlast Ltd. and the political entities. Political intervention would lead to the demand of hefty compensations for the health-affected people and any disagreement on mutual points would lead to unplanned expenditures of the company that is likely to affect the profit margin of AutoPlast Ltd. Although AutoPlast Ltd. is considered to be a major player in the local economy employing several local people surrounding t he river Cruze, the present scenario of fire outbreak due to the operations of the company leading to respiratory and health issues of local mass would generate a sense of disloyalty and hatred towards the brand of AutoPlast Ltd. and hence they would have a tendency to reject its products leading to the fall in production and price of AutoPlast Ltd. Thus, the economic risk of AutoPlast Ltd. in the present scenario needs to deal with in a strategic manner by the management of the company. Considering the present scenario of AutoPlast Ltd., the society has shown some tolerance to the company as it employs a majority of the workers in the local community. But considering the extent of damage in terms of life and death and the psychological impact on the society due to the presence of stimulants, the extent of risk that AutoPlast Ltd. is going to bear in terms of goodwill and subsequent volume and value of sales is considerable.

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Hardware maintenance for checking the regular running equipments Essay Example for Free

Hardware maintenance for checking the regular running equipments Essay †¢ periodic replacement of hardware resources to keep it according to changing atmosphere (e. g. developmental plan revisions) †¢ system software also requires timely maintenance (fixing bugs, developing newer versions, revisions, etc) †¢ reports must be seriously checked for their correlation with system requirements (creating error logs, testing strategies, performance measures, etc) †¢ Maintenance and updation of system documentation for future reference and updations. Remedial maintenance – It is performed to bring the system to running condition after correcting the hardware or software fault (Mawer, 2000). The remedial service is likely to include: †¢ Create a Help Desk concept which will log and action any reports from the customer in the event of a fault. †¢ On-site or remote login concept of issue resolution. †¢ Engaging a third party service to resolve and manage the resolution. †¢ Updating documentation every time an event has taken place. In this case both the technical and non-technical staff must be made aware of the support strategies so that their response time is optimized for better handling the issues of the customer timely and professionally. 1. Sequence of activities: It includes the activities which must take place in sequence: Activity (Tasks) Duration (Days) Preceded By A Working out the feasibility of the system 1 _ B Collection of information from different groups and creating data flow diagrams 3 A C Internal review of information collected and its validity with the management 2 B D Identifying the relationships between the entities 3 C E Define the degree of interaction between entities 2 D F Creating E-R Model and establishing cardinality ratios with distributed feature taken into account (as the Center has 5 sub locations in the city) 2 D,E. G Identifying Functional dependencies and others and then Normalization of relations 1 F H Converting the normalized relations to tables in database 2 G I Creating primary key and foreign key relationships and implementing business rules using integrity constraints 1 H J Creating interfaces and report generation techniques 3 I K Connecting the database tables with the interfaces and distributing the application to become geographical independent 3 J L Testing the system 2 K M Implementing the system across locations 2 L N Create maintenance plans and documentations 1 L,M. O Final review report after installation 1 L,M,N Advantage to the Bead Bar: The merits of the technology would envelope the very nature of the technology which the enterprise needs to focus. The following are the various advantageous factors: †¢ The Bead Bar would get a global recognition and would be accepted by all. It would create trust and confidence in the eyes of the people. †¢ Having an internet website would make possible that it markets itself to the global pool of the internet and gets accessible quite possibly. Customers can access it online and order for purchase of products and services. †¢ The store would be able to reach a greater domain of customers so that it can be a good source for expanding their business. †¢ The store would require less budget for marketing as the website, in the form of information system would get the direct and indirect marketing done by itself. †¢ It can also reduce the human errors of wrong deliveries and other related factors. Computerized system would make it error-free and would enhance greater satisfaction of service (Hoffer, 2002). †¢ It can also generate revenue by marketing other related companies and their products in their website space. †¢ It can render services to other companies via its website so that other businesses can purchase its products in bulk for their enterprise requirements facilitating B2C model of ecommerce. †¢ Payment systems can be made quite secure so that customers can pay online and are not troubled by the in-hand payments. †¢ The Bar would have enough mechanism to track their product list and its availability so that timely action can be taken to update. †¢ The customers get a greater facility to compare products and judge the best one before taking them. Physically doing so would have taken them a lot of effort and time. Conclusion Bead Bar has taken a right step in the light of technology and it must exploit the very supreme nature of the latest technology. It has taken a great step which would place it above all its competitors and would enhance the very nature of competition. It must also take care of the innovative techniques for getting the customers using the website and the frequent updations that would make efficient handling of the information. The use of information system would make the Jewelry superstore organize and restructure itself so that it is able to depict organizational thought in every activity and would handle every resource productively and optimally. References/Bibliography Barry Mawer (2000). Systems Maintenance. Hoffer A. Jeffrey (2002). Modern systems analysis and design, third edition. Pearson Education Korth (2002). Database Management systems. Navathe Elmasri (2002). Fundamentals of Database systems, fourth edition. Pearson Education.

The Threat To Auditors Independance And Impartiality

The Threat To Auditors Independance And Impartiality This research is basically to access and analyse the threat to auditor independence and impartiality. This is crucial because the position of an auditor when auditing a financial statement will determine if he or she will be independent and impartial when drawing a conclusion on a financial report. This is why this research is very important. What this research wants to assess is to find out if auditors independence and impartiality can be threatened through offering non-audit services to their clients. Financial report is very important to stakeholders of an organisation. It is also important to prospective investors interested in an organisation. It is also important to the general public as a whole. Therefore, for this reason, the authenticity of a financial report is very crucial and important. This validation is authenticated by a set of people called auditors. Stakeholder, investors and the general public will rely on this authenticated report for making decision. However, there is a fact that this report may be misleading and this calls for concern. This is because auditor often offer further services to their clients other than auditing called non-auditing services which may make them impartial when auditing such companys financial report because of money been realised from non-audit services. This is when Auditor independence and impartiality could be threatened. This research will be based on this topic, finding whether the provision of these non-audit services can impair the independence and impartiality of auditors. 1.1 BACKGROUND History reveals that audit is a Latin word meaning he hears. Auditing originated in those years when individuals entrusted with public funds were required to give an oral account of their handling of those funds. Porter (1997) An opinion of an independent chartered accountant is needed to give the public rest of mind that the sets of accounts presented were true and fair and also conform to lay down standards. Independence is the cornerstone of auditing; Stewart (1977) quoted by Porter. In carrying out the audit assignment, the auditors must be independent i.e. the sense of being self reliant and his/her professional judgement not being subordinated by the opinion of others. (Porter, 1997, p.65) It is very important for the auditors to be independent otherwise the audit report will be undermined and lose its value. In order to make the users of information to have faith and rely on the audited account, they must be sure that the audited accounts are independent of entity, its management and other interested party. This is reflected in the fundamental principles of external auditing- objectivity and independence which state that auditors are objective and they express opinion independently of the entity and its directors. As the guide to professional ethics statement (GPES) 1:201: integrity objectivity and independence explains, objectivity is essential for any professional person exercising professional judgement. Objectivity is sometimes described as independence of mind (Dunlea, A. Maclochlainn, N. p.19). However, it is possible to identify some threats to auditors independence. The provision of non-audit services by auditors to their client is referred to as a self-review threat to auditors independence. This is so because once an auditor of a company starts to provide non-audit services to its client e.g. computation of corporation tax matters and other financial services the auditor and the directors tend to develop a relationship and this may jeopardise the objectivity of the auditor (Woolf, E. 1997, p.11-14). The provision of non-audit service by auditors to their client is still a topical issue. The New Standards on Ethics issued in October, 2004 by Auditing Practices Board (APB), gave some exemptions to small companies on the provision of non-audit services. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION Since the introduction of the auditing standard on independence, which requires auditors to be independent of the clients being audited, the maintenance of independence has become a critical issue for the accounting profession. Bartlett, R. W (1993, Online) The author sees independence in auditing as able to maintain an unbiased mental attitude in making decisions about audit work that one is to report upon. Bartlett, R. W. (1993) defined independence in auditing to be the auditors ability to resist client pressure or and the auditors ability to act with integrity and objectivity. Dunn, J. (1991, p.19) also described independence and impartiality as an attitude of mind characterised by integrity and an objective approach to professional work. Whittington and Pany, (1998, p.34) sees independence as the ability to maintain an objective and impaired mental attitude throughout the audit assignment or engagement. There is a general consensus that independence is an attitude of mind, which does not allow the viewpoints or conclusion of the corporate auditor to become reliant on or subordinate to the influence of pressures of conflicting interests; Lee (1993, p.98) quoted by Sherer, M. and Turley, S. (1997). For the purpose of this research, independence and impartiality will be separated into two related concepts of independence, which are: Independence and impartiality in fact Independence and impartiality in appearance. Independence and impartiality in fact occurs when an auditor displays independence in mental attitude when carrying out his statutory audit assignment while independence and impartiality in appearance simply means that the auditor should be seen as been independent and impartial in the publics view (shareholders, Potential investors). Public confidence would be impaired by evidence that independence was lacking, and/or when there is the existence of circumstances, which the public might believe, is likely to influence independence and impartiality. The relationship that exists between the auditor and their client should be such that it appears independent to the third party, Bartlett, R. W (1993). Whittington and Pany (1998, p.35) added that the requirement by the third party from the auditor is to give credibility to the audited financial statement. The concept of appearance of independence has been primarily concerned with identifying those situations in which a qualified Chartered Accountant might not be perceived to be independent. The mere perception that an auditor is not independent renders his report useless to the shareholders who wish to rely on it for decision-making purpose. Beattie, V. et al. (1999) stated that, The reality and perception of auditor independence and impartiality is fundamental to public confidence in financial reporting. This work will identify and assess the key threat to auditors independence and impartiality and concentrate on the provision of non-audit services. This will examine the controversies that exist on the provision of non-audit services and establish the opinions of the public and auditors on such provisions. Later in the course of this research, conclusion will be drawn on the extent to which provision of non-audit service does and is perceived to weaken the auditors independence and impartiality. 2.1 ANALYSIS OF THE PRESENT AUDIT SYSTEM Various factors could be identified in textbooks, articles, journals, auditing standards and the publics view, which can affect auditors independence and impartiality. Hussey, R. and Lan, G. (2001), identified some of the factors such as: the nature of the auditor-client relationship (Goldman and Barley, 1974), lack of strict auditing regulations, and competitive pressures leading to what has been termed predatory pricing or lowballing and the provision of non-audit services. Beattie and Fearnley, (1994), quoted by Hussey, R. and Lan, G. (2001), (Online). The auditing practice board (n.d) (Online) categories these threat as follows: Self interest threat, self review threat, management threat, advocacy threat, familiarity threat, and intimidation threat. Woolf, E. (1997, p.13), lists examples of threat to Auditors independence as follows: Undue dependence on a single audit client, overdue fees, litigation, external pressure or influence, family and other personal relationship, beneficial interest in shares (other investment) and trust, trustee investment in audit clients, voting on audit appointment, loans to and from client, receipt of hospitality or goods and services on preferential terms, and provision of non audit services to audit clients etc. Beattie, V. et al. (1999) stated the principal threat factors to independence relate to economic dependence and non-audit service provision. I have chosen to concentrate on how the provision of non-audit poses a threat to auditors independence, (Online). According to the Auditing standards guidelines (online, n.d.), non audit services comprises: Any engagement in which an audit firm provides professional services to an audit client other than pursuant to: the audit of financial statements; and those other roles which legislation or regulation specify can be performed by the auditors of the entity. An online source (n.d.) defined, non-audit service as those services that are permissible under applicable legislation and that are routine and recurring, that do not impair the independence and impartiality of the auditor, and are consistent with APB rules on external auditor independence. Other services that are rendered by auditors apart from auditing are: bookkeeping or other services related to the accounting records or financial statement, financial information systems design and implementation, actuarial services, internal audit outsourcing services, management functions, human resources, broker-dealer, investment adviser, legal services just to mention a few. (Online) The Authors research as indicated that over the years, there as been a growing dissatisfaction among investors and other users of financial statements about auditors provision of non-audit service. These services are perceived to weaken auditors independence when both audit work and non audit work are performed by the same audit firm to the same audit client. Barkess and Simnett, (1994), disagreed with the view that the provision of non-audit service does impair auditors independence and impartiality. They argued that there is no relationship between the level of other services and the type of audit report issued; hence they concluded that, the provision of other services by the external auditors to their clients does not compromise the independence of the external auditors. The accounting profession also disagreed about whether non-audit services impaired the performance of the audit and financial reporting process. Several auditors are of the opinion that when they understand the factors that influence and improve the entitys performance, then they will be able to focus their audit on those critical issues. Others view provision of non audit service, as an impediment to independence because, in some cases, the fees from the provision of non-audit services are more than that of audit fees. If the income earned from provision of non audit service, is more than that of audit service, auditors have naturally tendencies to lose their independence, considering the cost of losing a client can be considerably more than simply the audit fees. From an online source from wiley.com, it was established that the Securities Exchange Commission, in the United States of America, carried out a research in 1999 and discovered that: 4.6% of Big Five SEC audit client paid consulting fees in excess of audit fees. The SEC is concerned that the more the auditor has at stake in its dealing with the audit client, the greater the cost to the auditor should he or she displease the client, particularly when the non-audit service relationship has potential to generate significant revenue on top of the audit management. The SEC concluded that issue that impairs auditors objectivity are subtle and that certain non-audit services, when provided by the auditor do create inherent conflicts, (Online). http://www.wiley.com In a situation where an auditor assists an audit client with their bookkeeping services, this places the auditor in the position of later having to audit his or her own work. It is rather unprofessional for the person who prepared the account to also audit the account. When such happen it is practically impossible to expect the auditor to be able to audit those same records with an objective eye. In the same vein, when an auditor performs certain valuation services for the audit client, can such auditor raise questions in line with valuation of assets at the end when auditing that same audit client? An auditor who has appraised an important client asset at a period during the year is less likely to question his or her own work at year-end. Various examples can be used to see how the provision of non-audit service will impair audit independence. An auditor who provides services in a way that is tantamount to accepting an appointment as an officer or employee of the audit client cannot be expected to be independent in auditing the financial consequences of managements decisions. An auditor who has also helped an audit client to negotiate the terms of employment for a new chief financial officer is less likely to bring quickly to the audit committee questions about the new CFOs performance. Considering the following examples of non audit services rendered by auditors to their audit client, it would be seen that such services not only impair auditors independence but also shows that the accounting profession is not prepared to provide the reasonable assurance that the public expects. Graeme, W.  (1994), carried out a further investigation on whether there is the potential for an appearance of auditor independence impairment when higher levels of non-audit services are provided to audit clients. He investigated this, by analyzing the audit reports for a sample of publicly listed companies over a 10 years period. The results of his analysis revealed that the auditors of companies not receiving an audit qualification of any type over the period derived a significantly higher proportion of their remuneration from non-audit services fees than the auditors of companies receiving at least one audit qualification, (Online) The result of his findings could suggest that auditors are less likely to qualify a given companys financial statements when higher levels of non-audit services fees are derived. Firth M. (1997) in his write up concluded that, the provision of non-audit services to audit clients does increase the economic bond between the auditor and client. This bond, he said, is perceived as impaired auditor independence (Beck, Frecka, and Solomon 1988b; DeBerg, Kaplan, and Pany 1991; Pany and Reckers 1983, 1984), quoted by Firth, M. Firth, M. further affirms this by given two reasons to believe that such service impair independence: The audit firm is unwilling to criticize the work done by its consultancy division, and secondly, the audit firm does not want to lose lucrative consultancy services provided to the audit client and is, therefore, more reluctant to disagree with managements interpretations of accounting matters. He concluded that, auditors disagreements with management could lead to a change of auditor, a move which implies not only a loss of audit fees but, in all probability, a loss of consultancy fees as well. (Online) On one hand, many practitioners (auditors) are adamant that their auditing firms are able to wear both the hats of auditor and consultant without reducing the effectiveness of either service (Burton, 1980; Carey and Doherty, 1966; Klion, 1978; Mednick, 1990) quoted by Bartlett, R. W. (1993). The supporters of the opinion that non-audit service does not impair auditors independence argue that independence is a quality of auditor professionalism which can have a range of values: like all attributes of professionalism, independence is a matter of degree. Those arguing that independence is impaired by combining consulting and auditing have assumed that independence must be absolute, while their opponents have recognized that independence is a matter of degree and have decided that the auditor can achieve the necessary degree of independence and act in the dual capacity of auditor and consultant. Carmichael and Swieringa (1968) quoted by Bartlett, R. W. (1993). Auditing Practice Board under the Accounting Standard Board maintained its stand that the provision of non-audit services to audit clients does reduce the public confidence in the independence of the auditor, Bartlett, R. W (1993). However, consideration was given to small entities. A small entity is defined for the purposes of ES-PASE as; As a company which is not a UK listed company or an affiliate thereof that meets two out of the following three criteria: turnover below  £5.6 million, balance sheet total below  £2.8 million and employees below 50. ES-PASE: Provides auditors of Small Entities with procedures as an alternative to the safeguards described in Ethical Standards 1- 5, in relation to threats to independence created when the auditors have a degree of economic dependence or where they provide non-audit services to their audit clients; Makes available exemptions to the auditors of Small Entities in relation to: The prohibition on auditors representing their clients at tax tribunals; The prohibition on auditors providing non-audit services, including tax and accountancy services, unless management is sufficiently informed to make independent judgements and decisions in relation to them. (APB, 2010 Online) 2.2 AUDIT STRATEGY CONCEPT In the USA, the General Accounting Officer (G.A.O.) did a graphical representation of both the permitted and prohibited audit work to audit client: The standard for non-audit services was said to employs two major principles: Audit organizations should not provide non-audit services that will involve performing management functions or making management decision. Audit organizations should not audit their own work or provide non-audit services in situations where the non-audit services are significant to the subject matter of the audits. Please, note: an APPENDICE 2.2.1 has been inserted for table of permitted prohibited non- audit service TABLE before References page. 2.4 AUDIT CONCEPTUAL FRAME WORK The contention on the provision of non-audit service has been critically analysed. Different views of all stakeholders concerned with the provision of non-audit services to audit client have been examined. A logical conclusion has been drawn, as to the extent to which provision of non-audit service does and is perceived to weaken the auditors independence. The accounting profession has also reviewed the statement of Auditing Standard on auditors independence, knowing fully well that, without value in the auditor opinion, there would be no demand for audit service. Various proposals have been propounded for protecting auditors from the undue influence of directors and regarding the provision of non audit services. There have been many similarities with the proposals of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and the Board for Chartered Accountants in Business, in considering possible mechanisms to remedy the perceived weaknesses of regulations, practises on other audit services. They concern is to whether there should be a prohibition on firms undertaking work other than audit for their audit clients or whether there should be compulsory rotation of audit firms, after a fixed period of say anything between 5 and 12 years or whether the responsibility for the development of auditing standards and guidelines be distanced from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales? The conclusions it reached were that to prohibit additional work or require compulsory rotation of audit firms would increase clients costs, reduce efficiency and place restrictions on the freedom of the client to make decisions on the services they desired. The Board was also opposed to the establishment of another body to control auditing practices. It argued that this would lead to a bureaucratic, inflexible framework without the advantage of the accumulated experience of the accounting profession. They came out with these conclusions as regards non-audit service that; Auditors should no more be allowed to undertake work other than audit work for the same client. They recommended that there should be compulsory rotation of audit firm after a fixed number of years. This will break any relation that might exist between auditor and company management and would also make the auditor to perform his job without been biased knowing that other auditor (firm) will come in after him (them). An audit can only be effective if the auditor is independent and is believed to be likely to report breaches of the contract between principals (shareholders and lenders) and agents (managers) (Fearnley Page, (1994), quoted by Hussey, R. and Lan, G. (2001) CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH OBJECTIVES To carry out a critical literature review to identify and assess the key threats to auditors Independence and impartiality. To examine the controversies on the provision of non-audit service. To carry out empirical research to establish the opinions of auditors on the provision of non-audit service, to know whether it can pose a threat to auditors independence and objectivity. To come to a conclusion on the extent to which the provision of non-audit service does and is perceived to weaken the independence and impartiality of auditors. 3.2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES After carrying out a literature review to collate data on the views of different authors on issue of provision of non audit services to audit client and how this is viewed to threaten auditors independence and impartiality, a set of questions will be prepared. This is necessary so as to be able to have a wide range of auditors and entrepreneurs view on the subject matter. In order to obtain relevant information needed to achieve the objectives stated below, questionnaires will be sent and delivered to some twenty five auditing firms and fifteen small business entities for the following reasons: To examine the controversies on the provision of non-audit service. To analyse and establish the opinions of auditors on the provision of non-audit service, to know whether it can pose a threat to auditors independence, impartiality and objectivity. To draw a conclusion on the extent to which the provision of non-audit service does and is perceived to weaken the independence and impartiality of auditors. 3.3 RESEARCH APPROACH 3.3.1 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY Blaikie, N. (2003) defined positivism as the research that assumes that social reality is external to people involved and only the aspect that can be measured are regarded as relevant to research. Jackson, W. (1995) stated that research just like positivism relies on experiments, survey and secondary data, therefore my research philosophy is positivism based. The author will be using questionnaire which comes under the Survey category. 3.4 RESEARCH STRATEGY The deductive approach or research strategy will be used for this research because, sufficient materials like journals, articles and periodicals are available to carry out a test on how the provision of non-audit service does and is perceived to weaken the independence of auditors. This research approach will involve different researches strategies ranging from Experiment, Survey, Case Study, Ethnography and action Research but the Survey strategy will be used for this research. Survey strategy and questionnaire option are chosen under this category leaving behind the structured interview and observation. Kumar, R (1999, p.104) stated that sometimes information required to carry out a research are readily available but needed to be gathered or collected from different sources to get the clue to what one is trying to find out or achieve. To achieve the objective of this research as earlier stated above, questions will be tailored to answer the Research Objectives. Questionnaire was chosen because it allows the collection of data from a sizeable population i.e. auditing firms and small business entities as stated in the literature review. The delivery and collection questionnaire method is considered appropriate for this research. The questionnaire will be delivered in person to selected auditing firms and small business entities, asking them of a possible date of collection. This is chosen to be the best form of questionnaire method necessary to achieve the aim of the research, Saunders et al (2001) The author considered interview as another option to this research, but realised that time may be a limiting factor. It may be impossible to interview Twenty five auditing firms and fifteen small business entities due to time frame. The author also considered the convenience of answering the structured interview as respondents may be busy with other business matters on the day of interview. This may cause lack of concentration or simply not getting the best from the person interviewed. If time permits, additional information through interview would be gathered. This will be done by carefully selecting respondents from the questionnaire who are willing to supply more information on the subject matter and are ready to be interviewed, to assist in achieving the objective of the research. A question will be in the questionnaire asking whether respondent are willing to give further information to help achieve the research objective (Interview). Other research strategy or methods are considered in appropriate for this kind of research. ADVANTAGES OF QUESTIONNAIRE Questionnaires are generally seen as been cheaper to administer compared to interviews. Researchers and authors believe that questionnaire saves time, human and financial resources. Bryman, A. (2004, p. 133) added that, the reduction in cost of carrying out a research is an advantage considering a sample that is geographically widely dispersed. Questionnaires are also quicker to administer as they can be sent out through the post, distributed in an office, school or working place etc. It also offer greater anonymity as some questions are sensitive and are best asked without face to face interaction, Kumar R. added. This allows the respondent to freely express his/her opinion on the topic of research. According to Bryman, A. (2004), it has been argued that the characteristics of the interviewers (and respondents) do affect the answers that people give. It was discovered that characteristics like ethnicity, gender, social background of the interviewer may combine to bias the answers that the respondent provides. This is also part of the reason why questionnaire was chosen to be the most appropriate method of data collection. DISADVANTAGES OF QUESTIONNAIRE Despite all these advantages, questionnaire also has its own disadvantages and these are discussed below: Questionnaire can only be applied to a population that can read and write. This does not provide opportunity for the population sector that is part of the research that is illiterate, very young or old, or handicapped, Kumar R. stated. A low response rate or low feedback from the distributed questionnaire is a major disadvantage of the use of questionnaire. Some of the distributed questionnaires are thrown in the waste bin, some are forgotten where they are kept by the respondent; these do not make the researcher to get a perfect picture on the subject matter and conclusion may be drawn from few respondent who returned the questionnaire. Kumar, R. (1999), stated factors that can contribute to low response of the questionnaire as follows: The interest of the sample population on the topic of study; the layout and length of the questionnaire; the methodology used to deliver the questionnaire. In tackling these factors for the purpose of this research, I have carefully selected auditing firms that are directly involved in provision of non audit services. I have also considered the small business entities that desire the use of auditors for both auditing purposes and non audit services. Gill, J. and Johnson, P. (1997, p.89), stated that all questions in the questionnaire should be really relevant to the research question, therefore I have handled the issue of relevance, layout and length of question with care. I have also made up my mind to deliver the questionnaires in person to the sample of population selected and asking a convenient day and time for collection of the questionnaire. This approach will assist to reduce the problem of low response rate experienced using questionnaires. Another disadvantage of questionnaire is that respondent does not have the opportunity to ask for clarification on issues. This does affect the quality of information supplied by respondent. The may also cause collation problem for the researcher, if different respondent interpret same question differently. In handling this, the questions in the questionnaire will be set in a simple and unambiguous manner. The questions will be stated in clear terms for all to understand. Questionnaire cannot probe, stated Bryman, A. (2004). The researcher cannot probe further on an issue apart from that which is in the questionnaire. The only way that questionnaire can be made to probe is by asking an open-ended question. In Open- ended questions possible responses are not given to the respondent. The respondent write down the answers in his/her words, Kumar, R. (1999, p.116) The disadvantage of open ended questions is that it may be difficult for the research to summarise his find as opinion of respondent may be far apart/ different from each other making it difficult for researcher to summarise and conclude. Kumar, R. (1999), gave another disadvantage of questionnaire as its inability to be supplemented with other information like interview which can be supplemented with observation. To handle this, if time permit as earlier stated an interview will be conducted to supplement (additional information) the information gathered through questionnaire. CHAPTER FOUR RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 1. Conduct a review of literature on auditing in relation to auditors Independence and threat to auditors independence in order to develop research question. 2. A questionnaire will be developed with question based on the background and objective of the research. The questions in the questionnaire will seek to test the research question; does the provision of non-audit service, pose a threat to auditors independence? The questionnaire will be distributed to a sample of 20 auditi