Cloud business models and sustainability: impacts for businesses and e-research

This paper reviews current cloud computing business models and presents proposals on how organisations can achieve sustainability by adopting appropriate models. Using the Jericho Forums Cloud Cube Model (CCM), we classify cloud computing business models into eight types: (1) Service Provider and Service Orientation; (2) Support and Services Contracts; (3) In-House Private Clouds; (4) All-In-One Enterprise Cloud; (5) One-Stop Resources and Services; (6) Government Funding; (7) Venture Capitals; and (8) Entertainment and Social Networking. In addition, we newly propose the Hexagon Model that includes six key elements for sustainability based on Sun Tzus Art of War and literature review, and the sixth factor is rated based on case studies and peer reviews. Areas occupied in the Hexagon can represent strengths and weaknesses of a cloud business, and several cases are presented with rationale explained. We present four cases with Hexagon models, which include Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and an anonymous UK NHS and an University. Apart from the qualitative approach, the quantitative approach we use is the Capital Asset Pricing (CAPM), which aim organisational sustainability and predicts how well firms perform. The OMII-UK data is used to demonstrate sustainability and study the impact on cloud businesses, and is presented by statistical computation, 3D visualisation and the Hexagon Model. This leads to development of Cloud Sustainability Framework (CSF), which measures cloud business performance. CSF is part of the Cloud Computing Business Framework (CCBF), which will be discussed in some extent. We believe that adopting an appropriate cloud computing business model will help organisations investing in this technology to stand firm at all times. R&D projects can benefit from applying the right business models and strategie

Smart Systems:The Role of Advanced Technologies in Improving Business Quality, Performance and Supply Chain Integration

Technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and Smart Systems (SSs) have become an important focus for industry, especially in the manufacturing and retail sectors. The aim of this paper is to analyse the importance of SSs and their related technologies in improving business performance. Through an initial systematic review of sixty-one papers, the authors identify six key determinants that lead to the effective application of SSs in business systems, namely, the application of effective managerial skills, supply chain integration, financial analysis, business performance, strategic and operational capabilities, and technologies. The work then goes on to develop an industry case study that informs thinking on the capabilities of smart technologies in collaborative working environments and then onto the development of a practice-focused framework for future research. This study identifies that the implementation of SSs within organisations not only improves business performance but also their supply chains through the effective integration of business activities and systems, and through the degree to which communication and decision-making is facilitated between humans and devices. This leads to the improvement of quality, speed of information, and information sharing. This study also finds that there is a lack of systems standards that currently govern IoT and SSs integration and data security within businesses

Smart Systems:The Role of Advanced Technologies in Improving Business Quality, Performance and Supply Chain Integration

Technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and Smart Systems (SS) have become an important focus for industry, especially in the manufacturing and retail sectors. The aim of this paper is to analyse the importance of SS and their re-lated technologies towards improving business performance. Through an initial systematic review of sixty-one papers, the authors identify six key determinants that lead to the effective application of SS in business systems namely; application of effective managerial skills, supply chain integration, financial analysis, business performance, strategic/operational capabilities and, technologies. The work then goes on to develop an industry case study that informs thinking on the capabilities of smart technologies in collaborative working environments and then onto the development of a practice focused framework for future research. This study identifies that the implementation of SS within organisations not only improves business performance but their supply chains too through the effective integration of business activities and systems and, through the degree to which communication and decision-making is being facilitated between humans and devices. This leads to the improvement of quality, speed of information and, information sharing. The study also finds that there is a lack of systems standards that currently govern IoT/SS integration and data security within businesses

Towards Business Integration as a Service 2.0

Cloud Computing Business Framework (CCBF) is a framework for designing and implementation of Could Computing solutions. This proposal focuses on how CCBF can help to address linkage in Cloud Computing implementations. This leads to the development of Business Integration as a Service 1.0 (BIaS 1.0) allowing different services, roles and functionalities to work together in a linkage-oriented framework where the outcome of one service can be input to another, without the need to translate between domains or languages. BIaS 2.0 aims to allow full automation, enhanced security, advanced risk modelling and improved collaboration between processes in BIaaS 1.0. The benefits from adopting BIaS 1.0 and developing BIaS 2.0 are illustrated using a case study from the University of Southampton and several collaborators including IBM US. BIaS 2.0 can work with mainstream technologies such as scientific workflows, and the proposal and demonstration of BIaaS 2.0 will certainly benefit industry and academia

Towards business integration as a service 2.0 (BIaaS 2.0)

Cloud Computing Business Framework (CCBF) is a framework for designing and implementation of Could Computing solutions. This proposal focuses on how CCBF can help to address linkage in Cloud Computing implementations. This leads to the development of Business Integration as a Service 1.0 (BIaaS 1.0) allowing different services, roles and functionalities to work together in a linkage-oriented framework where the outcome of one service can be input to another, without the need to translate between domains or languages. BIaaS 2.0 aims to allow automation, enhanced security, advanced risk modelling and improved collaboration between processes in BIaaS 1.0. The benefits from adopting BIaaS 1.0 and developing BIaaS 2.0 are illustrated using a case study from the University of Southampton and several collaborators including IBM US. BIaaS 2.0 can work with mainstream technologies such as scientific workflows, and the proposal and demonstration of BIaaS 2.0 will be aimed to certainly benefit industry and academia. © 2011 IEEE

Cloud Storage and Bioinformatics in a private cloud deployment: Lessons for Data Intensive research

This paper describes service portability for a private cloud deployment, including a detailed case study about Cloud Storage and bioinformatics services developed as part of the Cloud Computing Adoption Framework (CCAF). Our Cloud Storage design and deployment is based on Storage Area Network (SAN) technologies, details of which include functionalities, technical implementation, architecture and user support. Experiments for data services (backup automation, data recovery and data migration) are performed and results confirm backup automation is completed swiftly and is reliable for data-intensive research. The data recovery result confirms that execution time is in proportion to quantity of recovered data, but the failure rate increases in an exponential manner. The data migration result confirms execution time is in proportion to disk volume of migrated data, but again the failure rate increases in an exponential manner. In addition, benefits of CCAF are illustrated using several bioinformatics examples such as tumour modelling, brain imaging, insulin molecules and simulations for medical training. Our Cloud Storage solution described here offers cost reduction, time-saving and user friendliness