CHALLENGES FOR ADOPTING CLOUD-BASED SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE (SAAS) IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Technological advances such as the creation of bandwidth, modular applications and cloud computing have enabled the creation of a distributed collaborative sourcing model named Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS presents the embodiment of a new service delivery model in which a service provider is delivering its electronic services over the web to many users on a pay per use or period basis. SaaS is still unexplored in the public sector context and its use has been limited. Based on interviews and a group session the main challenges for adopting SaaS are explored from the government perspective. It was found that SaaS could provide many benefits which are related to the outsourcing of the local control, installation and development of software which could result in potential cost-savings and better cost control. Disadvantages and risks are related to the more difficult control of the IT function. Several items were mentioned as both a benefit and disadvantage, as this will be dependent on the organizational arrangements. There are also many challenges that need to be addressed including ensuring the quality, privacy, security and business continuity which require the implementation of organizational changes and governance mechanisms for public sector organizations that are considering SaaS

CLOUD ADOPTION: RELATIVE ADVANTAGE OR IT FASHION?

Cloud computing is a recent trend that has transformed the IS resource provisioning industry. However, the hype that cloud computing has received lately in combination with the ˜must-deploy´ imperative usually used by its promoters, makes it easy for decision makers to lose track of the reasons that make cloud computing valuable to business. At the same time, the IS research community has focused on addressing the factors that affect cloud adoption, paying little attention to the impact of external factors. Reviewing earlier work on diffusion of innovation theory and based on a preliminary qualitative research, we note that a main driver for cloud adoption is a set of factors that mark its relative advantage compared to earlier provisioning service models. Taking into account our interview data and fashion management theory, we extend earlier research work by introducing the tendency of organizations to follow IT fashion as a reason that also influnces cloud computing adoption. We therefore propose a research model that takes into account both relative advantage and fashion drivers for cloud adoption and we discuss further steps and control dimensions for empirically testing this model in future work

Selection Criteria for Software as a Service: An Explorative Analysis of Provider Requirements

Currently, customers can choose among many Cloud providers for enterprise systems. The provider selection involves several challenges to match individual customer requirements and provided service characteristics. Unfortunately, this process is not transparent and characterized by the lack of appropriate selection criteria. Research is mainly concentrated on capabilities and success factors on the customer side. A set of Cloud provider requirements from a customer perspective, especially within the context of an adoption of on-demand enterprise systems, have barely been discussed so far. In this paper we present a set of selection criteria for Software as a Service (SaaS). These criteria are developed to enable a Cloud provider comparison and match the customer requirements with the provider characteristics. We followed a design science approach and conducted a systematic literature review, an extensive market analysis of 651 providers and an evaluation based on expert interviews to develop the presented selection criteria

The Future of Accounting Profession in an Era of Start-Ups

With the help of the advancements in the field of communication and information technologies, the number of IT-based software has rapidly increased and the capabilities of high-budget enterprise resource planning (ERP) software widely used by large enterprises have begun to be offered to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In this chapter, cloud computing and other information technologies based accounting start-ups are covered, and the effects of these highly increasing start-ups on the profession of accounting have been addressed. In conclusion, it has been predicted that technology-based accounting start-ups with both accounting professionals and entrepreneurs having an expertise on information technologies will come together and will increase in the future, and cloud-based accounting initiatives will shape the future of the profession

Decision Model for Selecting a Cloud Provider: A Study of Service Model Decision Priorities

This article describes a methodology to support the decision-making process for Cloud customers, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). For this purpose, we present a decision model to select an appropriate Cloud provider. Despite its success in the industry, Cloud Computing still struggles with fulfilling customer expectations regarding provider characteristics. Due to limited transparency of existing Cloud providers, the evaluation and selection becomes a key issue. With the help of this decision model Cloud providers can be selected on the infrastructure, platform or application level. Subsequently, seven IT executives were interviewed and the decisions related to each level are discussed. Furthermore, differences and similarities between the infrastructure, platform and application levels are presented as most companies have similar requirements for basic systems and standard Cloud use cases. We enrich existing research on Cloud Computing adoption and present a systematic approach to assess Cloud providers and to apply a prioritization of selection criteria for all Cloud models

CLOUD REQUIREMENT FRAMEWORK: REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION CRITERIA TO ADOPT CLOUD SOLUTIONS

Due to the fast growth, Cloud Computing has become a non-transparent market with providers and customers willing to adopt it. Furthermore, many offers only partially meet customers? requirements and it is not clear how exactly Cloud Computing influences the IT. That makes it difficult for customers to plan migration projects and implement sustainable Cloud solutions. There are important factors and considerations for the decision to adopt Cloud Computing. The current studies and research in this field can be summarized to focus around the questions why adoption of Cloud Computing would occur, how much adoption would take place or how it would be adopted. But the adoption requirements covering all three service models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) have barely been discussed in literature so far. A detailed understanding of Cloud requirements enables customers to adopt Cloud solutions efficiently. Therefore this paper aims to contribute a framework addressing the adoption and selection of Cloud services. A Cloud Requirement Framework (CRF) was developed, concentrating on relevant requirements for adopting Cloud services targeting all three service models. To develop this framework we followed a design science approach and conducted a systematic literature review, an extensive market analysis and an evaluation based on expert interviews

Understanding and predicting teachers’ intention to use cloud computing in smart education

Purpose Applying cloud computing (CC) in education is a great opportunity to globalize knowledge with the minimum costs and maximum accessibility. This study aims to understand and predict teacher intention to use cloud commuting as infrastructure in Smart education. Design/methodology/approach This was a cross-sectional study in which faculty members’ perception concerning CC services adoption in education were assessed based on the extended model of theory of planned behavior, by researcher-developed questionnaire (a = 0.9). Collected data were analyzed by regression analysis and the final model was tested by structural equation modeling. Findings Attitude towards the behavior, perceived behavior control and privacy; had direct and significant associations with faculty members’ intention to use CC. However, subjective norms (p = 0.311) and security (p = 0.505 ) were not significant predictors of intention to use CC. Originality/value The results of this study elucidate the critical factors associated with teacher’s behavioral intentions toward CC services and also serve as a valuable reference for education sector to plan for the better use of these services. The presented model can be considered as best practice framework for adapting cloud commuting as infrastructure in education. Applying CC services in education is great opportunity and should be subsequently the major concern of educational organizations. This study clearly identified significant and non-significant factors that should be considered when successful implementation on could computing services is in progress

Cloud Computing and Big Data for Oil and Gas Industry Application in China

The oil and gas industry is a complex data-driven industry with compute-intensive, data-intensive and business-intensive features. Cloud computing and big data have a broad application prospect in the oil and gas industry. This research aims to highlight the cloud computing and big data issues and challenges from the informatization in oil and gas industry. In this paper, the distributed cloud storage architecture and its applications for seismic data of oil and gas industry are focused on first. Then,cloud desktop for oil and gas industry applications are also introduced in terms of efficiency, security and usability. Finally, big data architecture and security issues of oil and gas industry are analyzed. Cloud computing and big data architectures have advantages in many aspects, such as system scalability, reliability, and serviceability. This paper also provides a brief description for the future development of Cloud computing and big data in oil and gas industry. Cloud computing and big data can provide convenient information sharing and high quality service for oil and gas industry

Selecting Cloud Service Providers - Towards a Framework of Assessment Criteria and Requirements

The on-demand usage of enterprise software services from the cloud rapidly evolves towards a viable IT outsourcing option. Although the successful use of software services considerably depends on the ability of the consumers to assess the various offerings and select the ones best suited, literature provides little support for the evaluation of software services and their providers. In this manuscript, we address the question of how to support the evaluation of software service providers. Building upon a design science research approach and a literature survey, we propose an assessment framework that assembles relevant criteria for the evaluation of software service providers. We examine the practical relevance of the assembled criteria using the results of an empirical study, in which we surveyed 28 experts on the subject matter. The results indicate that the framework is effective in supporting the assessment of service providers