3. How do the concepts of capacity planning, scalability, and TCO apply to this case? Apply these concepts both to Amazon and to subscribers of its services. Cloud computing is taking off. The biggest players in the cloud computing marketplace include Amazon Web Services division (AWS), Microsoft, and Google.

These companies have streamlined cloud computing and made it an affordable and sensible option for companies ranging from tiny Internet startups to established companies like FedEx.

For example, AWS provides subscribing companies with flexible computing power and data storage, as well as data management, messaging, payment, and other services that can be used together or individually as the business requires. Anyone with an Internet connection and a little bit of money can harness the same computing systems that Amazon itself uses to run its retail business. If customers provide the amount of server space, bandwidth, storage, and any other services they require, AWS can automatically allocate those resources. Amazon’s sales pitch is that you don’t pay a monthly or yearly fee to use their computing resources – instead, you pay for exactly what you use.