The master thesis by Vazgen Ghazaryan explores the benefits and risks of cloud computing specifically for business users in Armenia, as there is a lack of knowledge in this area. Through theoretical and empirical methodologies, including interviews with IT experts, the study highlights the direct cost savings, productivity improvements, and innovation potential of cloud computing, while also addressing various risks such as policy, technical, and legal issues. The thesis suggests future research directions that include expanding the respondent pool and comparative analyses between SMEs and larger companies.

1. MAY 9, 2013, Vilnius - Yerevan
Vazgen Ghazaryan
CLOUD COMPUTING
DEVELOPMENT
IN ARMENIA
Master Thesis
Supervisor of master thesis
Prof. dr. Aelita Skaržauskienė

2. CLOUD COMPUTING DEVELOPMENT IN ARMENIA
Vazgen Ghazaryan
Page 2 of 13
Problem: The problem is lack of knowledge (benefits/risks)
of Cloud Computing for business users.
Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to clarify benefits and
risks of Cloud Computing from the perspective of business
users.
Objectives:
To analyze Cloud Computing risks
To analyze Cloud Computing benefits
To analyze Cloud Computing possible implementation

3. CLOUD COMPUTING DEVELOPMENT IN ARMENIA
Vazgen Ghazaryan
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What is Cloud Computing?
National Institute of Standards and Technology of the U.S.
Department of Commerce defines Cloud Computing as:
Model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access
to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g.,
networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that
can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal
management effort or service provider interaction.

4. CLOUD COMPUTING DEVELOPMENT IN ARMENIA
Vazgen Ghazaryan
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Motivation
• Previous researchers focused on technical questions of
Cloud Computing
• Previous researchers focused on end users
Relevance and novelty of this thesis is to analyze benefits
and risks of Cloud Computing business users, i.e.
companies that use IT technologies a lot

5. CLOUD COMPUTING DEVELOPMENT IN ARMENIA
Vazgen Ghazaryan
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Research questions
Q1: How can company benefit from using Cloud
Computing compared to other solutions?
Q2: What are possible issues that occur with Cloud
Computing?
Q3: How would Cloud Computing change an
organizations’ IT infrastructure?

6. CLOUD COMPUTING DEVELOPMENT IN ARMENIA
Vazgen Ghazaryan
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Methodology of research
Theoretical
• Review of selected scientific literature on Cloud
Computing
• Comparative analysis of empirical data with scientific
literature

7. CLOUD COMPUTING DEVELOPMENT IN ARMENIA
Vazgen Ghazaryan
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Methodology of research
Empirical (Qualitative Method)
• Expert analysis through semi-structured interviews
The date collection: I have carried out semi-structured
interviews with experts in the field. I identified the
respondents using snowballing method.
• Interviews with two Armenian IT companies
Research design method: Descriptive inference is the
process of understanding an unobserved phenomenon on
the basis of a set of observations.

8. CLOUD COMPUTING DEVELOPMENT IN ARMENIA
Vazgen Ghazaryan
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Cloud Computing Risks
Policy and Organizational – Cloud service termination or
failure, Loss of governance, Supply chain failure etc.
Technical – Intercepting data in transit, Insecure or
ineffective deletion of data, Distributed denial of service
(DDoS), Conflicts between customer hardening procedures
and cloud environment etc.
Legal – Licensing risks, Data protection risks etc.

9. CLOUD COMPUTING DEVELOPMENT IN ARMENIA
Vazgen Ghazaryan
Page 9 of 13
Cloud Computing benefits
Direct cost savings – The biggest and the most recognizable
economic profit of Cloud Computing.
Productivity improvements – To change something in
business there is no need to plan the capacity in details,
established technology changes or new technology
acquisition.
Innovation – Additional profits which can be gained by
organizations are quickness, flexibility, cooperation and
presenting new output and services in market.

10. CLOUD COMPUTING DEVELOPMENT IN ARMENIA
Vazgen Ghazaryan
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Cloud Computing benefits
Improved efficiency Increased availability
Elastic scalability
Low upfront cost
Simple to manage
Fast deployment
Economies of scale
Operating expense

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Vazgen Ghazaryan
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Traditional IT infrastructure vs. Cloud Computing

12. CLOUD COMPUTING DEVELOPMENT IN ARMENIA
Vazgen Ghazaryan
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Limits of the research and
future research direction
• Increasing the number of cases and respondents
• Comparing the SMEs with large companies that
possess sophisticated infrastructure of could
computing

13. G.Paražinskaitė - April 2012
THANK YOU
FOR YOUR ATTENTION!!
Vazgen Ghazaryan