An analysis about the relationship between the cloud computing model and ITIL v3 2011

Cloud Computing is widely recognized as a recent computing paradigm of digital transformation in which scalable and elastic computational resources are delivered as a service through Internet technologies. Its characteristics made this business model increasingly adopted by organizations reaching business goals. Besides its benefits, some risks may impact organizations internally and, in the way they deliver their services to their clients. Therefore, it became important to understand the impacts of the Cloud model on the way companies organize their processes. The goal of this work is to investigate which are the main impacts arising from the Cloud Computing model currently impacting Information Technology Infrastructure Library framework processes. The methodology selected will be through semi-structured interviews with knowledgeable professionals to effectively collect practical information that, according to the Systematic Literature Review performed, could not be collected by the traditional literature. By analyzing the Systematic Literature Review results, several processes of this framework were affected, which may lead to a need for reframing it. Although the organization’s approach to this model must be enhanced and adapted to a new reality, the empirical insights collected from semi-structured interviews, suggest that the framework does not need to be reframed, and ITIL v3 2011 most impacted processes by the introduction of the Cloud-based model, are Change Management and Incident Management.A computação em nuvem é amplamente reconhecida como um paradigma de computação recente da transformação digital, no qual recursos computacionais escaláveis e elásticos são fornecidos como um serviço através de tecnologias na Internet. As suas características fizeram com que esse modelo de negócio fosse cada vez mais adotado por organizações que na prossecução dos seus objetivos de negócio. Além dos benefícios, também existem os riscos podem impactar as organizações internamente e na forma como entregam os seus serviços aos clientes. Portanto, tornou-se importante entender os impactos do modelo de Cloud na forma como as empresas organizam seus próprios processos e práticas. O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar quais são os principais impactos decorrentes do modelo de Cloud que impactam atualmente os processos da Information Technology Infrastructure Library. A metodologia selecionada será por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas a profissionais capacitados para recolher informações decorrentes de experiências na prática que, de acordo com a Revisão Sistemática da Literatura realizada, não poderiam ser obtidas pela literatura tradicional. Ao analisar os resultados da Revisão Sistemática da Literatura, diversos processos desta framework foram afetados, o que pode levar à necessidade de reformulá-la. As considerações empíricas recolhidas nas entrevistas semiestruturadas, sugerem que a framework não necessita de ser reformulada e que os processos do ITIL v3 2011 mais impactados no modelo Cloud são o de Gestão de Incidentes e de Gestão da Mudança

IT controls in the public cloud : success factors for allocation of roles and responsibilities

The rapid adoption of cloud computing by organizations has resulted in the transformation of the roles and responsibilities of staff in managing the information technology (IT) resources (via IT governance controls) that have migrated to the cloud. Hence, the objective of this research is to provide a set of success factors that can assist IT managers to allocate the roles and responsibilities of IT controls appropriately to staff to manage the migrated IT resources. Accordingly, we generated a set of success factors from behavioral and information systems (IS) literature. These success factors were verified using in-depth interviews of executives from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The empirical intervention suggests that the role allocation is driven predominantly by people’s skills, competencies, organizational strategy, structures, and policies. In addition, the research made clear that the most significant competency and skill for a person allocated to IT controls is to be able to evaluate and manage a cloud service provider, especially in terms of risks, compliance, and security issues related to public cloud technology. The findings of this study not only offer new insights for scholars and practitioners involved in assigning responsibilities but also provide extensions for IT governance framework authorities to align their guidelines to the emerging cloud technology

Cloud computing : developing a cost estimation model for customers

Cloud computing is an essential part of the digital transformation journey. It offers many benefits to organisations, including the advantages of scalability and agility. Cloud customers see cloud computing as a moving train that every organisation needs to catch. This means that adoption decisions are made quickly in order to keep up with the new trend. Such quick decisions have led to many disappointments for cloud customers and have questioned the cost of the cloud. This is also because there is a lack of criteria or guidelines to help cloud customers get a complete picture of what is required of them before they go to the cloud. From another perspective, as new technologies force changes to the organizational structure and business processes, it is important to understand how cloud computing changes the IT and non-IT departments and how can this be translated into costs. Accordingly, this research uses the total cost of ownership approach and transaction cost theory to develop a customer-centric model to estimate the cost of cloud computing. The Research methodology used the Design Science Research approach. Expert interviews were used to develop the model. The model was then validated using four case studies. The model, named Sunny, identifies many costs that need to be estimated, which will help to make the cloud-based digital transformation journey less cloudy. The costs include Meta Services, Continuous Contract management, Monitoring and ITSM Adjustment. From an academic perspective, this research highlights the management efforts required for cloud computing and how misleading the rapid provision potential of the cloud resources can be. From a business perspective, proper estimation of these costs would help customers make informed decisions and vendors make realistic promises.Cloud Computing ist ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der Digitalisierung. Es bietet Unternehmen viele Vorteile, wie Skalierbarkeit und Agilität. Cloud-Kunden sehen Cloud Computing als einen Zug, auf den jedes Unternehmen aufspringen muss. Das bedeutet, dass Einführungsentscheidungen schnell getroffen werden, um mit dem neuen Trend Schritt zu halten. Solche Schnellschüsse haben zu vielen Enttäuschungen bei Cloud-Kunden geführt und die Kosten der Cloud in Frage gestellt. Dies ist auch darauf zurückzuführen, dass es keine Kriterien oder Leitlinien gibt, die den Cloud-Kunden helfen, sich ein vollständiges Bild davon zu machen, was von ihnen erwartet wird, bevor sie in die Cloud gehen. Aus einem anderen Blickwinkel ist es wichtig zu verstehen, wie Cloud Computing IT- und Nicht-IT-Abteilungen verändert und wie sich dies auf die Kosten auswirkt, da neue Technologien Veränderungen in der Organisationsstruktur und den Geschäftsprozessen erzwingen. Dementsprechend werden in dieser Forschungsarbeit der Total Cost of Ownership-Ansatz und die Transaktionskostentheorie verwendet, um ein kundenorientiertes Modell zur Schätzung der Kosten von Cloud Computing zu entwickeln. Die Forschungsmethodik basiert auf dem Design Science Research Ansatz. Zur Entwicklung des Modells wurden Experteninterviews durchgeführt. Anschließend wurde das Modell anhand von vier Fallstudien validiert. Das Modell mit dem Namen Sunny identifiziert viele Kosten, die geschätzt werden müssen, um die Reise zur digitalen Transformation in der Cloud weniger wolkig zu gestalten. Zu diesen Kosten gehören Meta-Services, kontinuierliches Vertragsmanagement, Überwachung und ITSM-Anpassung. Aus akademischer Sicht verdeutlicht diese Forschung, welcher Verwaltungsaufwand für Cloud Computing erforderlich ist und wie irreführend das schnelle Bereitstellungspotenzial von Cloud-Ressourcen sein kann. Aus Unternehmenssicht würde eine korrekte Einschätzung dieser Kosten den Kunden helfen, fundierte Entscheidungen zu treffen, und den Anbietern, realistische Versprechungen zu machen

Toward a Model for Customer-Driven Release Management

Undetected software bugs frequently result in service disruptions, productivity losses, and in some instances significant threat to human life. One way to prevent such bugs is to engage customers in acceptance testing prior to the production software release, yet there is a considerable lack of empirical examination of the release process from the customer’s perspective. To address this research-practice gap, this study proposes a model for customer-driven release management that has been shown to minimize the number of software bugs discovered in production systems. The model is evaluated during a 27 month study at a municipality using the action research method. Following the model, 361 software bugs were detected and eliminated prior to final production releases, confirming the value of customer-driven release management for elimination of production software bugs

Role assigning and taking in cloud computing

The widespread use of cloud computing (CC) has brought to the forefront information technology (IT) governance issues, rendering the lack of expertise in handling CC-based IT controls a major challenge for business enterprises and other societal organizations. In the cloud-computing context, this study identifies and ranks the determinants of role assigning and taking by IT people. The study’s integrative research links CC and IT governance to humane arrangements, as it validates and ranks role assigning and taking components through in-depth interviews with twelve IT decision-makers and forty-four Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) members, engaged as panelists in a Delphi technique implementation. The empirical results recognize skills and competencies as prioritized determinants of IT controls, while IT security, risk and compliance emerge as capabilities crucial to evaluate and manage CC service providers. Despite the study’s generalizability limitations, its findings highlight future research paths and provide practical guidelines toward the high technology of open-market IT self-governance. The latter entails the humane flows of collegial control and responsibility, as opposed to the inhumane flows of authority and power, under the sequestered technique of the bureaucratically-hierarchized IT hetero-governanc

How Fluffy is the Cloud?: Cloud Intelligence for a Not-for-profit Organisation

Business Intelligence (BI) is becoming more accessible and less expensive with fewer risks through various deployment options available in the Cloud. Cloud computing facilitates the acquisition of custom solutions for not-for-profit (NFP) organisations at affordable and scalable costs on a flexible pay-as-you-go basis. In this paper, we explore the key technical and organisational aspects of BI in the Cloud (Cloud Intelligence) deployment in an Australian NFP whose BI maturity is rising although still low. This organisation aspires to Cloud Intelligence for improved managerial decision making yet the issues surrounding the adoption of Cloud Intelligence are complex, especially where corporate and Cloud governance is concerned. From the findings of the case study, a conceptual framework has been developed and presented which offers a view of how governance could be deployed so that NFPs gain maximum leverage through their adoption of the Cloud

Evaluation of a methodology for migration of the database layer to the cloud based on a research case study

Cloud computing has the advantage of converting capital expenses into operational costs. This student thesis evaluates a phase driven methodology for migration of the database layer to the Cloud based on a research case study. In addition, a Cloud data migration tool is evaluated. We build an evaluation design for the methodology and the tool. Based on the methodology and with the help of the Cloud data migration tool, an application from the e-Science field is migrated to Amazon Web Services. During the migration project we collect data and document all shortcomings concerning the methodology and the tool. This evaluation data is afterwards analysed, to see how well the methodology and the tool support the migration. The results of the analysis lead to improvement suggestions on the methodology and the Cloud data migration tool

A Reference Architecture for Service Lifecycle Management – Construction and Application to Designing and Analyzing IT Support

Service-orientation and the underlying concept of service-oriented architectures are a means to successfully address the need for flexibility and interoperability of software applications, which in turn leads to improved IT support of business processes. With a growing level of diffusion, sophistication and maturity, the number of services and interdependencies is gradually rising. This increasingly requires companies to implement a systematic management of services along their entire lifecycle. Service lifecycle management (SLM), i.e., the management of services from the initiating idea to their disposal, is becoming a crucial success factor. Not surprisingly, the academic and practice communities increasingly postulate comprehensive IT support for SLM to counteract the inherent complexity. The topic is still in its infancy, with no comprehensive models available that help evaluating and designing IT support in SLM. This thesis presents a reference architecture for SLM and applies it to the evaluation and designing of SLM IT support in companies. The artifact, which largely resulted from consortium research efforts, draws from an extensive analysis of existing SLM applications, case studies, focus group discussions, bilateral interviews and existing literature. Formal procedure models and a configuration terminology allow adapting and applying the reference architecture to a company’s individual setting. Corresponding usage examples prove its applicability and demonstrate the arising benefits within various SLM IT support design and evaluation tasks. A statistical analysis of the knowledge embodied within the reference data leads to novel, highly significant findings. For example, contemporary standard applications do not yet emphasize the lifecycle concept but rather tend to focus on small parts of the lifecycle, especially on service operation. This forces user companies either into a best-of-breed or a custom-development strategy if they are to implement integrated IT support for their SLM activities. SLM software vendors and internal software development units need to undergo a paradigm shift in order to better reflect the numerous interdependencies and increasing intertwining within services’ lifecycles. The SLM architecture is a first step towards achieving this goal.:Content Overview List of Figures....................................................................................... xi List of Tables ...................................................................................... xiv List of Abbreviations.......................................................................xviii 1 Introduction .................................................................................... 1 2 Foundations ................................................................................... 13 3 Architecture Structure and Strategy Layer .............................. 57 4 Process Layer ................................................................................ 75 5 Information Systems Layer ....................................................... 103 6 Architecture Application and Extension ................................. 137 7 Results, Evaluation and Outlook .............................................. 195 Appendix ..........................................................................................203 References .......................................................................................... 463 Curriculum Vitae.............................................................................. 498 Bibliographic Data............................................................................ 49

Evaluation of IT Service Desk: A Case Study

Organisations rely heavily on Information Technology Services Management (ITSM) to provide efficient and quality services to all stakeholders. This research is an exploratory study conducted of the service desk operations model. The research explores simple metrics and a weighted requirement matrix for evaluating and selecting ITSM systems. Several data gathering tools which include brainstorming, interviewing, participantobservation and collaborative feedback document have been employed in this research for collecting requirements from stakeholders to ensure viability and robustness of the research. Prominent challenges to sound implementation of a suitable service desk suite have been identified and tabulated. The identified challenges, coupled with feedback from stakeholders enabled the researchers to arrive at a scaled section framework for selecting an ITSM system. A comparison of eleven state of the art service desk systems has also been completed as part of the research. This research also proposes a novel service desk process with specific emphasis on the roles played by various stakeholders in provision of an efficient service desk operation