E-Auction in the cloud system
Cloud computing has recently emerged as a new computing paradigm that enables prompt and on-demand access to computing resources. This is exemplified in Amazon EC2 and Microsoft Azure. Cloud providers invest substantially into their data centre infrastructure, providing a virtually unlimited “sea” of CPU, RAM and storage resources to cloud users, often assisted by virtualization technologies. The elastic and on-demand nature of cloud computing assists cloud users to meet their dynamic and fluctuating demands with minimal management overhead, while the cloud ecosystem as a whole achieves economies of scale through cost amortization.
Cloud computing is usually large-scale, distributed computing leveraging Internet-accessible data centres that provide computing resources as cloud. Modern Internet applications are designed using the virtualization technology in the cloud computing environment. Such cloud-based Internet applications are deployed on virtual machines (VMs), also called instances whose resource requirements are pre-configured.
Latest developments in cloud computing technologies have enabled a plethora of cloud based data storage services (e.g., Amazon S3 [1], Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive et.c.) Cloud storage service has gained widespread recognition and adoption by Internet users, many of whom now routinely execute online storage and online backup tasks over the cloud.
In similar vein cloud based auctioning is becoming increasingly important as part of the strategic sourcing process because this allows you to track all aspects of an e-auction, including actions taken by both sellers and bidders. This automated auction processes puts companies ahead in time and also simplifies the entire cycle of activities. Some of the great features of a cloud based auction system include;
- No investment is required for cloud based E-auction.
- It’s a Pay per use utility
- You can prepare, manage and end auctions on it.
- It allows you to run an auction via the web and podium simultaneously.
- It reports cost implications, cost reductions etc, and lots more.
- Return on investment is high
- Cost is based on yearly license
Usually, a cloud based auction system manages the entire auction process. This makes it simple to set up online auctions which are intuitive to use by both buyers and suppliers, meaning that little training is required. Auctions can be open to all verified suppliers or focused on specific groups. Buyers and sellers can monitor their auctions in real time via an online dashboard. This is accessible in the office and on the road via tablet and smart phone. cloud based auctions also features a bidding timer which counts down until the auction ends. All parties can see the competitive bids as they are made via graphical and tabular displays. Suppliers execute their bidding strategy online, choosing when and how much to bid in relation to their competitors, until the auction ends and closes to inputs.The system also documents the auction process and keeps an audit trail to ensure your organisation can answer any retrospective queries or challenges.
Pay per use utility in the cloud system makes it suitable for experimenting on how it can accrue benefits to the business before it is fully adopted. In most cases buyers can test the functionality through demos, which are generally free for one time e-auction, allowing users to practise creating an event prior to purchasing a license.
Despite these numerous benefits associated with cloud based auctioning, the system is still not without its shortfalls and the two most significant of these are:
- Firstly, the storage service highly depends on centralized data centres in the cloud, accidents and natural disasters (fire, earthquake, power outage) will have significant impact on the service performance.
- Second, the cloud storage providers face significant cost in purchasing or renting real estate, cloud infrastructures, hardware, power and network bandwidth.
CONCLUSION
Buyer-assisted cloud storage is emerging as new, exciting hybrid architecture for online storage systems that represent a potential win-win solution for both cloud storage providers and cloud users. Online procurement auction for resource pooling by the provider which serves as a financial catalyst for bringing buyer-assisted cloud storage into reality is gradually becoming the norm. Procurement organisations that want to create a structured process around eAuction must adopt this system in order to stay ahead.