A Path to Socio-economic Development Using Cloud Computing

Micro-enterprises face numerous challenges in adopting and utilizing information technology due to lack of resources and appropriate support systems. We contend that cloud computing provides an affordable option for such resource-constrained micro-enterprises in adopting technology. Significant advances in information and communication technology, and more recently in virtualization technologies have enabled the cloud computing paradigm. Cloud computing enables users to access services based on their requirements without regard to where the services are hosted or how they are delivered. Using cloud computing both software and hardware can be provided as a service over the Internet in a scalable and cost efficient manner. In this paper we describe the cloud computing paradigm and present two case studies of micro enterprises that adopted cloud based services. The contribution of this study is in integrating micro enterprises, cloud computing and development to show how cloud computing may facilitate socio-economic outcomes.