THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD COMPUTING AS STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT USING REGRESSION ANALYSIS

As information technology has advanced, there has been a shift toward relying more and more on online cloud storage and computing services. There is no getting around the fact that recent times have seen a meteoric rise in interest in cloud computing. This technology is used by many different organisations as the central component of their information technology infrastructure. The use of cloud computing results in increased data processing efficiency across a variety of computer and storage systems that are available over the internet. The approaches have advanced as a direct result of the cutting-edge and forward-thinking computer procedures that are the foundation of the internet's core database and network architecture. In the 1990s, a new sort of cutting-edge computing known as grid computing came into being. 2005 saw the birth of two new computing paradigms: cloud computing and utility computing. Consolidating several virtual computing components into a single physical platform is one of the most distinguishing features of cloud computing services and infrastructure. These components include the central processing unit (CPU), the network, storage, and memory. A piece of software known as a hypervisor is responsible for isolating each virtual machine (VM) (used by Virtual box and VMware, for example). Using this strategy, one virtual disc or machine may be prevented from directly accessing the memory and programmes of another inside the same environment. This can be accomplished by using a firewall. Through the use of hardware abstraction, it is feasible to conceal the complexity of operating physical computer systems, while at the same time efficiently boosting the systems' processing capacity. Utilizing virtualization technology in the cloud comes with a number of benefits, including scalability and the capacity to support many tenants (one software programme serving many users at once). These properties are essential to cloud computing because they make sharing and pooling resources possible. Sharing and pooling resources provides a number of benefits, some of which include increased business value, more flexibility, and cost savings. When it comes to the process of moving assets from cloud providers to cloud virtualization users, provisioning is an extremely important step. In order to fulfil the requirements of its clientele, the cloud service provider must create an acceptable number of virtual machines and make available sufficient amounts of resources. This may be accomplished by any one of the following three methods: advanced provisioning, dynamic provisioning, or user self-provisioning. The mechanism by which cloud services and resources are made available, known as dynamic provisioning, faces a number of challenges. These challenges include the correct configuration of virtual machines (VMs) and technological constraints such as disc space, processing power, memory, and network throughput. It's possible that the scalability of virtual machines, the setup of cloud systems, and other aspects of virtualization's deployment might provide some difficulties

Reference ontologies for interoperability across multiple assembly systems

The role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is crucial for future manufacturing organisations in order to support effective collaboration and information sharing. However, the contemporary ICT-based systems lack the required ability to adequately support interoperability across multiple domain systems. The capability of such ICT-based systems to interoperate is impeded by the semantic conflicts arising from loosely defined meanings and intents of the participating system concepts. The aim of this paper is to investigate the interoperability of assembly systems at multiple levels of concept specialisations using the concept of a formal reference ontology. Formal ontologies are providing a promising way to computationally capture the domain meanings which can subsequently provide a base to support interoperability across multiple systems and in our case multiple assembly systems. This paper takes the example of manufacturing bill of materials concept and three different domain-specific interpretations to explore and demonstrate the potential of formal reference ontologies to support interoperability

Juegos serios educativos como servicio: retos y desafíos

Cloud computing is a distributed computing technology that facilitates access to the resources in a dynamic, scalable and highly available manner. One of its service models is SaaS (Software as a Service) which allows executing Web applications in a flexible and elastic way while offering collaborative characteristics. The integration of SaaS in educational environments promotes academic performance and facilitates knowledge management, allowing for storage, exchange, access and synchronization of information. On the other hand, educational serious games promote among the people involved: collaboration, communication, social abilities, critical thinking and problem solving. The main objective of this investigation is to analyze the challenges that SaaS, with its collaborative and multitenancy characteristics present to the execution of educational serious games. This is named ESGaaS - Educational Serious Games as a Service. The analysis was developed based on a review of the existing literature through the methodology known as Systematic Mapping Studies (SMS) which facilitated the generation of investigation questions, search strategies, key words and inclusion and exclusion criteria applied to identify articles in several sources. This investigation facilitated the development of a list of functional characteristics that the educational serious games will acquire when used as software for service.La computación en la nube es una tecnología de computación distribuida que ofrece acceso a los recursos de manera dinámica, escalable y con alta disponibilidad. Uno de sus modelos de servicio, es el SaaS (Software as a Service) que permite ejecutar aplicaciones Web de manera flexible y elástica, además de ofrecer características colaborativas. La integración del SaaS en los entornos educativos potencia el rendimiento académico y facilita la gestión del conocimiento permitiendo almacenar, intercambiar, acceder y sincronizar información. Por su parte los juegos serios educativos potencian, entre los involucrados, la colaboración, comunicación, habilidades sociales, pensamiento crítico y resolución de problemas. El objetivo principal de esta investigación consistió en analizar los retos que SaaS, con sus características colaborativas y multiinquilino, ofrece a la ejecución de juegos serios educativos, lo cual denominamos ESGaaS – Juegos Serios Educativos como Servicio. El análisis fue realizado a partir de una revisión de literatura existente a través de la metodología denominada Systematic Mapping Studies (SMS) la cual permitió generar preguntas de investigación, estrategias de búsqueda, palabras claves y criterios de inclusión y exclusión que fueron aplicadas para localizar artículos en diversas fuentes. Como resultado del trabajo se elabora una lista de características funcionales que los juegos serios educativos adquirirían al ser utilizados como software como servicio.Facultad de Informátic

A state-of-the-art review of built environment information modelling (BeIM)

Elements that constitute the built environment are vast and so are the independent systems developed to model its various aspects. Many of these systems have been developed under various assumptions and approaches to execute functions that are distinct, complementary or sometimes similar. Also, these systems are ever increasing in number and often assume similar nomenclatures and acronyms thereby exacerbating the challenges of understanding their peculiar functions, definitions and differences. The current societal demand to improve sustainability performance through collaboration, whole-systems and through-life thinking, is driving the need to integrate independent systems associated with different aspects and scales of the built environment to deliver smart solutions and services that improve the wellbeing of citizens. The contemporary object-oriented digitization of real world elements appears to provide a leeway for amalgamating modelling systems of various domains in the built environment which we termed as built environment information modelling (BeIM). These domains included Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Urban Planning and Design. Applications such as Building Information Modelling, Geographic Information Systems and 3D City Modelling systems are now being integrated for city modelling purposes. The various works directed at integrating these systems are examined revealing that current research efforts on integration fall into three categories: (1) data/file conversion systems, (2) semantic mapping systems and (3) the hybrid of both. The review outcome suggests that a good knowledge of these domains and how their respective systems operate is vital to pursuing holistic systems integration in the built environment

Reference ontologies for interoperability across multiple assembly systems

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Production Research on 28 Sep 2015, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2015.1087654The role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is crucial for future manufacturing organisations in order to support effective collaboration and information sharing. However, the contemporary ICT-based systems lack the required ability to adequately support interoperability across multiple domain systems. The capability of such ICT-based systems to interoperate is impeded by the semantic conflicts arising from loosely defined meanings and intents of the participating system concepts. The aim of this paper is to investigate the interoperability of assembly systems at multiple levels of concept specialisations using the concept of a formal reference ontology. Formal ontologies are providing a promising way to computationally capture the domain meanings which can subsequently provide a base to support interoperability across multiple systems and in our case multiple assembly systems. This paper takes the example of manufacturing bill of materials concept and three different domain-specific interpretations to explore and demonstrate the potential of formal reference ontologies to support interoperability

Juegos serios educativos como servicio: retos y desafíos

Cloud computing is a distributed computing technology that facilitates access to the resources in a dynamic, scalable and highly available manner. One of its service models is SaaS (Software as a Service) which allows executing Web applications in a flexible and elastic way while offering collaborative characteristics. The integration of SaaS in educational environments promotes academic performance and facilitates knowledge management, allowing for storage, exchange, access and synchronization of information. On the other hand, educational serious games promote among the people involved: collaboration, communication, social abilities, critical thinking and problem solving. The main objective of this investigation is to analyze the challenges that SaaS, with its collaborative and multitenancy characteristics present to the execution of educational serious games. This is named ESGaaS - Educational Serious Games as a Service. The analysis was developed based on a review of the existing literature through the methodology known as Systematic Mapping Studies (SMS) which facilitated the generation of investigation questions, search strategies, key words and inclusion and exclusion criteria applied to identify articles in several sources. This investigation facilitated the development of a list of functional characteristics that the educational serious games will acquire when used as software for service.La computación en la nube es una tecnología de computación distribuida que ofrece acceso a los recursos de manera dinámica, escalable y con alta disponibilidad. Uno de sus modelos de servicio, es el SaaS (Software as a Service) que permite ejecutar aplicaciones Web de manera flexible y elástica, además de ofrecer características colaborativas. La integración del SaaS en los entornos educativos potencia el rendimiento académico y facilita la gestión del conocimiento permitiendo almacenar, intercambiar, acceder y sincronizar información. Por su parte los juegos serios educativos potencian, entre los involucrados, la colaboración, comunicación, habilidades sociales, pensamiento crítico y resolución de problemas. El objetivo principal de esta investigación consistió en analizar los retos que SaaS, con sus características colaborativas y multiinquilino, ofrece a la ejecución de juegos serios educativos, lo cual denominamos ESGaaS – Juegos Serios Educativos como Servicio. El análisis fue realizado a partir de una revisión de literatura existente a través de la metodología denominada Systematic Mapping Studies (SMS) la cual permitió generar preguntas de investigación, estrategias de búsqueda, palabras claves y criterios de inclusión y exclusión que fueron aplicadas para localizar artículos en diversas fuentes. Como resultado del trabajo se elabora una lista de características funcionales que los juegos serios educativos adquirirían al ser utilizados como software como servicio.Facultad de Informátic

Cloud computing research: a review of research themes, frameworks, methods and future research directions

This paper presents a meta-analysis of cloud computing research in information systems with the aim of taking stock of literature and their associated research frameworks, research methodology, geographical distribution, level of analysis as well as trends of these studies over the period of 7 years. A total of 285 articles from 67 peer review journals from year 2009 to 2015 were used in the analysis. The findings indicate that extant cloud computing literature tends to skew towards the technological dimension to the detriment of other under researched dimensions such as business, conceptualization and application domain. Whilst there has been a constant increase in cloud computing studies over the last seven years, a significant number of these studies have not been underpinned by theoretical frameworks and models. Also, majority of cloud computing studies utilized experiment and simulation as methods of enquiry as compared to the qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodologies. This study contributes to cloud computing research by providing holistic insights into trends on themes, methodology, research framework, geographical focus and future research directions

Cloud computing (SaaS) adoption as a strategic technology: results of an empirical study

El presente estudio analiza empíricamente los factores que determinan la adopción de cloud computing (modelo SaaS) en empresas donde esta estrategia se considera estratégica para ejecutar su actividad. Se ha desarrollado un modelo de investigación para evaluar los factores que influyen en la intención de usar la computación en la nube que combina las variables encontradas en el modelo de aceptación de tecnología (TAM) con otras variables externas, como el apoyo de la alta gerencia, la capacitación, la comunicación, el tamaño de la organización y la complejidad tecnológica. Los datos compilados de 150 empresas en Andalucía (España) se utilizan para probar las hipótesis formuladas. Los resultados de este estudio reflejan qué factores críticos deben considerarse y cómo están interrelacionados. También muestran las demandas organizacionales que deben ser consideradas por aquellas compañías que desean implementar un modelo de gestión real adoptado para la economía digital, especialmente aquellos relacionados con la computación en la nube.The present study empirically analyzes the factors that determine the adoption of cloud computing (SaaS model) in firms where this strategy is considered strategic for executing their activity. A research model has been developed to evaluate the factors that influence the intention of using cloud computing that combines the variables found in the technology acceptance model (TAM) with other external variables such as top management support, training, communication, organization size, and technological complexity. Data compiled from 150 companies in Andalusia (Spain) are used to test the formulated hypotheses. The results of this study reflect what critical factors should be considered and how they are interrelated. They also show the organizational demands that must be considered by those companies wishing to implement a real management model adopted to the digital economy, especially those related to cloud computing.peerReviewe

Cloud computing: posibilidades para la ejecución de juegos serios educativos as a service (JSEaaS)

Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Trabajo final presentado para obtener el grado de Especialista en Redes y SeguridadEl presente trabajo de revisión bibliográfica ostenta las posibilidades que el software como servicio (Software as a Service - SaaS) en el marco de la computación en la nube (cloud computing) ofrece para la ejecución de juegos serios (serious games) educativos: lo cual denominamos JSEaaS – Juegos Serios Educativos as a Service. El trabajo se encuentra organizado de la siguiente manera: el presente capítulo (Capítulo 1) define el objetivo investigación, la motivación y la metodología a utilizar. En el Capítulo 2 se presentan los elementos conceptuales que conforman la base de esta investigación y se recopilan las diferentes definiciones encontradas en torno a cloud computing, SaaS y juegos serios. En el Capítulo 3 se analizan las propiedades del cloud computing, y en particular de SaaS, que contribuyen a la ejecución de juegos serios y se plantean los retos y desafíos a los que éstos últimos se enfrentan cuando son desplegados en estos nuevos modelos de servicio, destacándose el trabajo colaborativo y el Multi-Tenant entre las principales características funcionales que los juegos serios educativos adquirirían al ser utilizados como software de servicio. Finalmente, en el Capítulo 4, se presentan las conclusiones y líneas de trabajo futuras.Universidad de Costa Rica//UCR/Costa RicaUniversidad Nacional de La Plata//UNLP/ArgentinaUCR::Sedes Regionales::Sede del Atlántic