This document proposes installing an integrated cloud computing system in a 36-level condo building in Burnaby, BC. The project aims to reduce electronic waste by decreasing demand for new devices through cloud access. A 2.5 year implementation plan is outlined, with hardware installation, testing, and maintenance described. Costs total $5.43 million, with profits of $1.63 million projected in year one from terminal and service fees. The project aims to pioneer green technology while cutting living costs for residents.
1. Cloud Computing
Running Head: Cloud computing helps reduce E-wastes
Cloud computing helps reduce E-wastes
Customer Name
University Name
2. 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract 3
Project Overview 4
Project Description 5
Personal Resources and Project Plan 8
Implementation Plan 9
Project Budget and Business Plan 13
Conclusion 16
References 17
Appendix 18
3. 3
Abstract
The Vancouver City Council recently approved a policy requiring all new building rezoning
to meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standard. This
change is expected to be implemented from January 31, 2011 onwards, and is estimated to
result in creating new green buildings annually, thus automatically creating new green job
opportunities in the city. Hence, keeping the city council’s plans in mind, this project is
aimed towards creating Sustainable Community Development, Faculty of Environment. The
topic chosen for the business plan is based on the concept of Cloud Computing and how it
helps in reducing emissions of electronic waste (E-wastes). The entire project is based upon
installing of an integrated cloud computing system to a 36 level high-rise condo Burnaby,
BC.
Upon approval, this project will not only be beneficial to my real estate company, but also
prove to be a great asset for the Canadian Government along with other well known bodies
such as Environment Canada (EC) and Waste Reduction and Management Division
(WRMD) Moreover, I expect complete support from these environmental bodies as they
have been involved in the Basel Convention Law, an international treaty which aims to
reduce the amount of e-waste being transported to developing countries. However, on the
contrary the Electronics Stewardship Association of British Columbia (ESABC) and Western
Canada Computer Industry Association (WCCIA), these two organizations may not be quite
happy for my project, because they receive a monthly fee from the computer producers based
on the number of item sold.
4. 4
General Project Overview
Project Overview
To install an integrated cloud computing system to a 36 level high-rise condo named Centre
Strada near Metrotown, Burnaby, BC. This project will be in line with Vancouver City
Council’s policies towards building establishments that meets the Leed Gold Standards.
Mission and Vision
Vision: To be the pioneers in providing cost efficient standard of living.
Mission: To reduce the emission of E-Wastes and raise the living standards of clients
towards a 21st century high-end technology
Strengths and Core Competencies
A reduction in demand for purchasing new electronic devices.
A reduction in the emission of e-wastes thus protecting the global environment.
Owner’s own commitment and dedication towards the project.
Lower costs in comparison to competitors
Challenges
As Cloud Computing is a relatively new technology and still in its testing phase, thus it has to
deal with pressure from competitors within the existing field. Nevertheless, the project will
be strongly supported by the Vancouver Government and the BC Government.
5. 5
Project Description
Introduction
“Cloud Computing” is one of the recently growing niches gaining popularity around the world. It
is a type of a technology that permits users to access certain applications on any of the
computers. These applications however need not be installed on their computers, instead the
users can easily avail them at their disposal through the Internet.
Electronic waste, or more commonly referred to as e-waste, is electronic equipment that no
longer serves a useful purpose and is thus discarded. Many e-wastes contain lead, cadmium,
beryllium, mercury and brominate flame retardants, which are all not only significantly
dangerous to recycle workers, communities but are also deadly toxic to the entire global
environment. According to the United Nations Environment Program estimates more than 20 to
50 million tones of electronic waste are generated each year worldwide, as North America and
Europe are known to be the largest exporters of e-waste to the developing countries.
Additionally, cloud computing allows researchers to handle challenges in genome research and
environmental modeling etc. It also enables researchers to access multidisciplinary research
needed to better understand ecosystems, global climate change, ocean currents, and other
complex phenomena. (Nelson, Michael. 2009)
Thus, as a result, cloud computing allows you to send almost all of your computing tasks away
from your computer, making it clutter-free and at the same time sending you back the results that
you desire. (Gozzi 2010)
6. 6
Proposed Project
The city of Burnaby is spread over 98.60 sq km, residing in the heart of the Great Vancouver
Regional District. Being the third most populated urban centre in British Columbia, with an
estimated population of 202,799, it occupies almost 4 percent of the land area of the Vancouver
Regional District and accounted for approximately 10% of the Region's population in 2006.
Burnaby is a maturing, increasingly integrated community that is centrally located within a
rapidly growing metropolitan area. Burnaby's characteristic has shifted from rural to suburban to
largely urban. The City features high density residential areas, major commercial town centers,
rapid transit, high technology research and business parks, comprehensive industrial estates and
major post-secondary institutions.
Moreover, under the insightful guidance of Mayor Derek Corrigan, the city of Burnaby, BC has
now started taking active steps in developing a Social Sustainability Strategy in order to ensure
that Burnaby will continue to be a great place to live, work and learn.
Keeping in mind, the lucrative range of benefits availed through “cloud computing”, the
proposed project is aimed at installing an integrated cloud computing system in a 36 level high-
rise condo building called Centre Strada, which is located near Metrotown, Burnaby, BC. This
building has gem room, and six levels of underground parking lot. Additionally, the key purpose
of this entire project is to reduce the emission of E-wastes and at the same time simultaneously
raising the clients’ standard of living towards a 21st century high-end technology.
7. 7
Benefits and Features
There is an old saying in China, “The first person to eat crab is a hero.” This means every new
thing needs to have a starter, and usually the starter will gain the most benefits. We believe,
applying the cloud computing system to resident community can lead towards creating an
enormous revolution in the information technology market. From the sustainable environmental
aspects, adopting cloud computing system can successfully reduce the demand of purchasing
new electronic devices. That will effectively reduce the emission of e-wastes, in order to protect
the global environment. Due to the efficient use of the mainframe, there will also be huge
amount of electricity saved. Thus, this project is intended towards power saving, space saving, e-
wastes reducing and modern highly technological revolution. Apart from this some of the other
prominent benefits and features of this project include: (Nelson, Michael. 2009)
Flexibility to use millions of software and databases for a variety of purposes.
Increased security where users will not have to worry about their hard drives crashing or
getting stolen.
Enhanced collaborations
The ability to access the data and tools they need anywhere by easily connecting to the
Internet.
Use of simpler devices as both the data and the software being used are in the clouds.
8. 8
Why people need this service?
Keeping in mind the general increase in the level of prices in Canada, Vancouver, this project
will now only help in cutting costs, but also open a whole new futuristic means of living for the
people hence providing them with an ideal standard of living. (Appendix A)
Personal Resources and Project Plan
The proposed project is intended to be a self funded project which I intend to lead as the project
coordinator. Since my family is already associated within this field, thus I feel that I am quite
well-versed and equipped to handle the task. Additionally, most of the funds involved within this
project will come from my father and his immigrant friends. Additionally, most of the group
members already have the real estate, construction, net work and engineering experience thus
making the entire project quite straightforward and simple to pursue.
Cloud Computing is a really new technology and it is still in testing period, there would not be
too much pressure from the competence in the same field. However, it may gain a little support
from all relative technology focused companies, because, as a trial test, the result of applying
Cloud Computing in resident community is also very important for these companies who want to
develop on the Cloud Computing System. Nevertheless, the project will be strongly supported by
Vancouver Government and BC government, even the Canada Federal Government, because this
is a giant step of the human beings toward sustainable modern technology, it would also be a
great honor for Canada to perform this project, no matter it successes or failed.
9. 9
Cloud Computing is the goal and orientation of the development of public and private computers
in the future, which is already been proved to be true throughout decays of research in
information technology field. Thus, it won’t be hard to find any partners who want to get
involved in this project. Even though they may not gain much profit through it, this project itself
is a valuable experience for them. IBM China, HP China, Ultra power, Google and 360 have
cooperated with my father’s engineering company in China. Due to the long history of
cooperation, it will be easy to get their technical supports on our project. IBM, HP, Ultra power
and Google had spent a lot of research and development on cloud computing system for a long
time. They have superior experience than other computer hardware and software companies.
Besides that the most concern of net security issue has been solved by 360, who performed a
great job in China’s public and private net security, furthermore 360 had already proved who has
a better strength on Cloud Security than other companies. Thus technology is not a problem.
Furthermore, it is also been proved through recent marketing research that although the
technology provider may not gain much profit from this project, but it is true that the service
provider may gain some profit from proving cloud system as a service, as long as we did
sufficient work on marketing and sales promotion.
Implementation Plan
For the reason of it is more like a technological project than an architecture project, most of its
time may be consumed on technology synchronization. We need to gather all the technique
providers, hardware providers, service providers, electrical engineers, computer engineers, power
10. 10
engineers, market and sales people and project managers together to discuss how we can
cooperate together to finish this work. This period may cost around a year.
After everyone has an agreement on each other, they may start on their own jobs. Hardware
providers may start to design and make the mainframes, server machines, central control panel
and terminal Clouds (clients’ terminal monitors and input/output devices). Technique providers
provide their techniques to all the Service providers should arrange the physical location and
prepare the supplementary equipments and services in the Centre Strada condo building. The
market people should start to do promotions and advertisements, make the project to be the focus
point of the whole country, even the whole world. If necessary, a technique supervisor from the
project of SAP Business ByDesign is needed, which is a Cloud project has been started in China.
All of these sectors should be controlled and coordinated by the project coordinator and project
manager. This whole preparation process may take maximum six month.
The initial implementation plan is to set a room in the building to hold all the servers, multiple
CPUs and storage devices as a Local Area Network. The hardware might be expanded to
increase the performance of the entire system and satisfy terminal clients’ requirements.
Terminal clients only hold a simple terminal monitor with touch screen or other simple
input/output devices. Thus, clients will send all requirements to the center database to process
their requirement and then the processed information will be sent back to the clients’ terminal.
Any terminal client may purchase the necessary resources, such as functions and storage space,
according to their needs. Applying the integrated cloud computing system may help people save
more time, physical space, energy and even money. The most importantly, significantly reduce
the amount of e-wastes, because people won’t need to purchase many differentiated electronic
devices, and clients’ terminals will not have a short planned obsolescence.
11. 11
During the course of the implementation, immense support is expected from Government of
Canada, Environment Canada (EC) and Waste Reduction and Management Division (WRMD),
since in 1989, they had present and signed the Basel Convention Law, an international treaty
which aims to reduce the amount of e-waste being transported to developing countries. However,
Electronics Stewardship Association of British Columbia (ESABC) and Western Canada
Computer Industry Association (WCCIA), these two organizations may not be quite happy for
my project, because they receive a monthly fee from the computer producers based on the
number of item sold.
Once all the installations are done and the building is ready to run, an initial trial testing period
of approximately six months to one year will be implemented. Since cloud computing is still a
relatively new concept thus, it seems not only imperative but also logical to properly carry out a
test-run, before the project is exposed towards the general public. Moreover, it is only during this
testing period that the true worth and efficiency of the whole project can be judged and at the
same time any malfunctions or setbacks can be identified.
Overall, after two to two and a half years, the whole project should be finished, and ready to face
the clients. After-sale maintenance service is required. This is the major part which generates
profits, since clients purchase terminals and pay for the service fee monthly. More profits could
be earned if clients require to updates their systems.
Regardless of serving as a cost-effective solution, cloud computing may also pose a few
technicalities along the way, especially in terms of implementation. However, these hurdles need
to be dealt with strategically before widespread adoption is possible. Some of the most obvious
problems that might complicate the implementation process include: Circadence. (2010)
12. 12
• WAN performance
• Data security
• Central management of virtual resources
Additionally, one of the key problems associated with cloud computing, that might arise include
performance, reliability, and security of connections to the cloud infrastructure. Due to the
increasing complexity and bandwidth the demands of software applications, will tend to become
more and more crowded over time, especially when pressed into the service of cloud-based
computing. Circadence. (2010)
Thus, as the project manager, I shall be dealing with each of these matters critically and
strategically in order to assure a steady implementation of cloud computing within the building.
13. 13
Project Budget and Business Plan
Costs
(2.5 year = 30 month)
Item Detail Amount Notes
Technology provider 100,000$
Hardware provider 80,000$
Electrical & Computer 3,000$*5people*30month = 4500,000$
& Power engineers
Consultant 20,000$
Centre Strada Room 500$*30= 15,000$
Renting
Marketing and Sales 50,000$*2 groups= 100,000$
Project manager & 3,000$*5people*30month= 450,000$ (Provided by our
Coordinator own organization)
Service maintenance 500$ * 30 = 15,00$ (Provided by our
own organization)
Connection Fee(TV, 100,000$ (Connect our
Phone) server to
telephone and TV
cables)
Miscellaneous 50,000$
Total 100,000$+80,000$+4500,000$ 5,430,000$
14. 14
+20,000$+15,000$+100,000$
+450,000$+15,000$
+100,000$+50,000$=
Profit:
(First year, by 12 month, 250 terminals)
Item Detail Amount
Terminals 3,000$*250= 750,000$
Service Charge(monthly) 300$*12*250= 900,000$
Service maintenance and 1,000$*12= (12,000$)
update
Centre Strada Room Renting 500$*12= (6,000$)
Total 750,000$+900,000$- 1,632,000$
(12,000$) -(6,000$)=
1000
800
600
400
Amount ($000)
200
0
Terminals Service Service Centre Strada
-200 Charge Maintaence Room Renting
(monthly)
15. 15
Profit:
(Second year, by 12 month, 250 terminals, same as the rest year till when the whole system
needs major replacement)
Item Detail Amount
Service Charge(monthly) 300$*12*250= 900,000$
Service maintenance and update 1,000$*12= (12,000$)
Centre Strada Room Renting 500$*12= (6,000$)
Total 900,000$-(12,000$)- 882,000$
(6,000$)=
1000
800
600
400 Amount ($000)
200
0
Service Charge Service maintenance Centre Strada Room
(Monthly) and update Renting
-200
16. 16
Payback Calculations
Total budget cost – 1st year profit – (N-1)*2nd year profit = 0
5,430,000$ - 1,632,000$ - (N-1)* 882,000$ = 0
N = 5.306 ≈ Five years and 4 month
Conclusion
Hence, it is obvious from the above mentioned business plan that the entire project only needs
five years and four month to pay back all the cost. However, this is based on the assumption
that marketing and sales groups does a great job, and 250 terminals all sold out and service
providers finely collected monthly service fees.
Realistically, this project may not be a profitable project, because it is too new, and people may
fear to try these new technologies. However we should not be hold down by that, as long as this
project’s goal and purpose is human centered and environmental- friendly, I believe, there will
be people jumping out and saying “Hey, I like your plan, it might works.” Since there is no better
and more efficient way to achieve reducing e-wastes emission, why not give this cloud
computing system a try? Although Vancity or Cascadia may not fund it, there will be someone
who would like to fund it eventually, when people are facing huge amounts of e-wastes and
cannot send them to Asia or Africa anymore. Please don’t judge me or my crazy project, because
at least I dare to try it while I still can.
17. 17
References
Gozzi, Raymond. (2010) The Metaphor of Cloud Computing, Vol.67, Retrieved on May 30,
2011 from http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5045055078
Nelson, Michael. (2009) The Cloud, the Crowd, and Public Policy: A New Age of More
Flexible, Less Expensive, and More Secure Computing Will Emerge Soon If Governments Act
Wisely. Volume.25, Issue. 4 Retrieved on 30 May 2011 from
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5030447626
Circadence. (2010) Building and maintaining effective cloud computing infrastructures.
Retrieved on 31 May 2011 from http://www.circadence.com/files/Building-and-Maintaining-
Effective-Cloud-Computing-Infrastructures.pdf
Trading Economics (2010) Retrieved on 30 May 2011
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/canada/inflation-cpi