A Cloud Decision making Framework

A Cloud Decision making Framework
for SMEs
Author Andy Marshall
Submitted as part of the requirements for the degree
of MSc in Cloud Computing
at the School of Computing,
National College of Ireland
Dublin, Ireland.
July 2016
Supervisor Victor del Rosal

Abstract
Cloud computing adoption continues to grow at a significant rate attracting a large base
of different organisation types. However, a lack of understanding in the decision-making
criteria required to adopt cloud computing successfully is lacking.
Cloud computing is a topic within the SME sector that creates significant uncertainty
and confusion regarding the benefits pertaining to adoption and the delivery of IT
services. For SMEs the biggest question IT decision makers need to answer is How do
we know if cloud is the right delivery model for us?
Today, there is no framework or model available to derive the answer to this question
for SMEs. To answer this question, IT decisions makers must understand the benefits,
challenges and implications across criteria such as cost, quality of service, organisational
readiness, impact on resource utilisation, service availability, vendor lock-in, compati-
bility and security before drawing a conclusion.
Research does exist outlining the supposed reasons for adopting cloud computing within
SMEs and large enterprises but little or no research exists specifically focused on the
strategic assessment of cloud computing when evaluated against existing on premise
solutions. This a challenge for virtually all organisations currently availing of on premise
IT services today.
A reasonable amount of research pertaining to cloud computing adoption across SMEs
has been published. Irrespective of size or activity sector, whether a start up or provider
of traditional services with the capability and offerings provided by cloud capabilities
SMEs have the ability to expand their business. Cloud computing offers SMEs access
to IT services that previously only large enterprise organisations could have afforded,
the ’Digital’ economy being a good example of this. It is a belief of the author that
no business can survive without embracing technology in some capacity. SMEs often
resist the opportunity to deploy new technology because they have limited resources
available to either deploy or manage these services.
ii

The focus of this research is to develop a cloud computing decision making framework
for SMEs in order to drive the decision-making rationale for cloud computing adoption.
This will enable IT decision makers within SMEs to determine if IT services should be
delivered through cloud computing rather than on premise.
Keywords: Strategic, Sourcing, Cloud, Decision making, Outsourcing, Model
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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Victor del Rosal for his
support and guidance in writing this Thesis. Victor was a pleasure to work with and
his guidance and support made the overall experience extremely enjoyable.
I would also like to thank my colleague Noel Ginty for pointing me in the right direction,
technical guidance and support with developing the on-line framework itself.
Finally, without the support of my amazing wife Emma, it simply would not have been
possible to complete my Masters, thank you so much!
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Contents
Abstract ii
Acknowledgements iv
1 Introduction 1
2 Background 5
2.1 SMEs and Technology adoption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Transformation of IT Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 Cloud computing in SME’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4 Cloud computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.5 Recent Survey: Cloud First for Corporates and Chief Nation . . . . . . 9
2.6 Challenges, Concerns and Barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.6.1 Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.6.2 Internet Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.6.3 Cloud Service Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.6.4 Compliance and Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.6.5 Lack of Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.6.6 Compatability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.6.7 Latency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.6.8 Vendor Lock-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.7 Outsourcing and Cloud adoption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.7.1 Traditional provisioning of IT Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.7.2 Evolution from outsourcing to Cloud computing . . . . . . . . . 16
2.8 Cost Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.9 Organisational context and senior management support inﬂuence . . . . 17
2.10 Company Size and Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.11 Technology Readiness and Utilisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.12 Vendor Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.13 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
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3 Specification 21
3.1 Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4 Design 23
4.1 Cloud Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.2 Current On-Premise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.3 Design of the Cloud Decision Making Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.3.1 Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.3.2 Establish criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.3.3 Confirm requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.3.4 Build CDMF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.3.5 Apply CDMF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.4 Modules and Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.5 Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.5.1 Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5 Implementation 34
5.1 Research Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.2 Research Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.3 Designing the Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.4 Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.4.1 Visual Studio 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.4.2 Azure Web App services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.4.3 SQL Server express . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6 Evaluation 40
6.1 Organisational Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7 Conclusions 49
7.1 Future work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
A Interview data 59
B Cloud decision making Framework development 69
C The published Cloud Framework 72
D Sample Excel Models 75
E ASP.NET web app to Azure App Service using Visual Studio 76
E.1 Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
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F Creating the SQL database and setting up Firewall rules on the Azure
portal 84
F.1 Create a new Azure SQL server-level ﬁrewall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
G Completed framework analysis 89
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List of Figures
1.1 Oppertunity: business moving to the cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Cloud computing infrastructure and platform Market . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1 Where is your organisation in terms of cloud deployment? (Auxilion,
2015) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2 What was your main driver for moving to the cloud? (Auxilion, 2015) . 10
2.3 Has Cloud reduced your capital expenditure? (Auxilion, 2015) . . . . . 11
2.4 CSA cloud security threats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.1 AWS architecture framework Amazon (2015) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.1 CDMF workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.2 Quantative attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.3 Qualative attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.4 CDMF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.5 Office365 comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.6 Azure cloud calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.7 TCO template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.1 Creating a web app and project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.1 CDMF of benefit? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.2 Completed frameworks by country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.3 Cloud direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
6.4 Cloud services under consideration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.5 Opex and capex options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6.6 Cloud provider control handover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.7 Come across other similar frameworks? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.8 Cloud recommendation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
B.1 Different itterations of CDMF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
B.2 Sample 1 extract from CDMF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
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C.1 CDMF Welcome page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
C.2 CDMF registration page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
C.3 CDMF post registration and instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
C.4 CDMF output and score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
E.1 Creating a web app and project in Azure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
E.2 Cloudframework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
E.3 Selecting a Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
E.4 Change Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
E.5 Hosted in the Cloud and app services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
E.6 Service plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
E.7 Web Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
E.8 Publish App . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
E.9 Publish Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
E.10 App preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
E.11 Overall status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
E.12 Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
F.1 New SQL database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
F.2 SQL setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
F.3 Creating CDMF database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
F.4 Deployement started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
F.5 SQL Firewall setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
F.6 SQL Firewall settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
G.1 CDMF variable scoring - count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
G.2 CDMF variable scoring - percentage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
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List of Tables
2.1 Cloud computing characteristics and models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.1 TCO acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
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Chapter 1
Introduction
Mell and Grance (2011) refer to the characteristics of cloud computing as on-demand
scalability of highly available and reliable pooled computing resources, secure access
to metered services from nearly anywhere, and displacement of data and services from
inside to outside the organization. As SME organisations evolve, particularly within
the digital economy, the characteristics mentioned above are becoming increasingly
essential for SMEs. Given this fact, a unique opportunity exists to research existing
materials associated with cloud computing adoption decision making as part of this
research and then apply the knowledge obtained towards the development of a cloud
decision making framework for SMEs.
It is easy to assume that Enterprise organisations are at the centre of the global econ-
omy; however, this is an erroneous perception as a majority of people think that it is
SMEs that are at the centre of the global economy (European, 2008).
Bridge and O’Neill (2012) outline the level of importance of the SME sector to
economies and that the support of local governments is crucial to enable the continued
growth and development of SMEs. The significance of SMEs extends and reaches far
wider than just a country’s economic health or its employment status. SMEs play a
core role in enhancing the social, economic and political health of a country and they
have a fundamentally different relationship with these attributes compared to large
enterprises (Curran and Blackburn, 2000).
Cloud computing offers SMEs an alternative option that they can employ to deliver
IT services rather than depending on the traditional on-premise approach. Although
the concept of cloud computing has been around for many years, it is a relatively new
delivery model for the SME industry to profit from. The ultimate objective of cloud
computing is to deliver business success.
1

Hypothesis: Should small to medium sized businesses take advantage of
cloud computing to deliver IT services?
This research will attempt to provide an answer to the research question:
“Cloud computing adoption in small to medium sized enteprises: Is cloud
computing better than on-premise technology for the delivery of IT ser-
vices?”
In the context of Ireland, the success of SMEs and in turn the wider economy is directly
linked to the relationship between SMEs and the adoption of new technologies. This
view can also be extended to the European economy as well as on a global basis.
Furthermore, the formulation of the framework and association of certain variables
linked to the success of cloud computing adoption will contribute new understanding for
those researching or evaluating it. The lessons identified from this particular research
coupled with the theoretical underpinnings, will enhance the researchers knowledge in
this area. Hadidi (2010) states that previous publications in the cloud computing field
have focused primarily on technical aspects. The contribution of the overall research
in this area linked with this framework will provide a contribution to address the
shortcomings with regards to cloud computing research (Vaezi, 2012).
According to del Rosal (2015), the following benefits can be delivered through cloud
computing, 1) increased operational efficiency 2) scalability 3) grater speed of deploy-
ment 4) increased productivity and 5) improved financial performance. Figure 1.1
shows the block diagram of the mentioned outline.
There is such a vast quantity of available research relating to cloud computing usage and
adoption available. To date, most of this research is focused on cloud computing usage
once it has undergone implementation. It does not focus on the strategic assessment to
determine if cloud computing is indeed the correct model for organisations to leverage
in order to maximise its capabilities and opportunities presented by the model. A cloud
decision making framework is required to ensure that strategically SMEs strategically
evolve into more competitive, dynamic and leaner organisations.
Smith D (2015) postulates that cloud computing is an integral part of IT; however,
hype and multiple options continue to confuse IT leaders. The statement supports the
belief that no clear decision making model exists in order to simplify the comparison
of cloud computing over on-premise.
Initial cloud computing studies have focused on topics such as the emergence of and
developments within cloud computing (Su, 2011), strategies for migrating to cloud
2

Figure 1.1: Oppertunity: business moving to the cloud
computing environments (Conway and Curry, 2012; Iyer and Henderson, 2010), and of
particular interest to this research; the benefits and challenges in moving to cloud com-
puting by Armbrust et al. (2010) and Conway (2011). However, these studies though
have focused primarily on large enterprise organisations. Furthermore, as argued by
Doherty et al. (2015) significant research regarding the adoption of cloud computing
in the SME sector has previously been completed but not for specific industries in the
knowledge intensive, niche. Doherty et al. (2015) proposes that the earlier research
would be well complemented by new additional research focusing on industries that
are in knowledge intensive business areas. Given the expected rate of increase in cloud
computing, an opportunity exists to create a decision making framework that allows
SMEs to understand clearly if IT services should be operated from cloud computing
platforms. A report from Columbus (2015), suggests that the expected annual spend
on cloud computing could reach forty three billion (dollars) by 2018. Figure 1.2 shows
the statistics of the cloud computing infrastructure and platform market.
A further report from IDC (2014) highlights that the spending on Public IT cloud
services may reach 127 billion (dollars) in 2018. This represents a five-year compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.8 percent. This would be approximately six times
the rate of growth for the overall IT market. In 2018, public IT cloud services will
account for more than half of the software, server, and storage spending growth in the
world.
3

Figure 1.2: Cloud computing infrastructure and platform Market
In 2008, the EU’s Small Business Act was introduced to implement a range of pro-
enterprise initiatives to assist SMEs (Borb´as et al., 2009). The overall concept of this
Act was to encourage the adoption and utilisation of information and communication
technologies by SMEs. As a result, it was expected that this would lead to improved
competitiveness in the market and that SMEs were best placed to capitalise since they
are seen as being more agile and dynamic than large enterprises. In addition, especially
for the SMEs that are located in Ireland, they appear to be positioned extremely well
given the direct local access to technology leaders, OEMs, researchers and government
support that they can enjoy. However, this does not necessarily lead to automatic
adoption, particularly in regard to cloud computing. SMEs that would like to adopt
cloud computing are today faced with substantial volumes of information and multiple
products that on surface appear to be the same. Furthermore, they are faced with tech-
nology selection dilemmas, alignment to business strategy challenges and a challenge
in truly understanding if cloud computing is the right choice for their business.
An opportunity may also exist to develop the framework in a commercial sense as
the available research chas indicated that customers and channel partners do not have
access to such a service.
In addition, the AWS Well-Architected Framework Amazon (2015) refers to a set of
general design principles when considering cloud options. These principles entail the
following: 1) stop guessing capacity needs 2) test systems at production scale 3) lower
the risk of architecture change 4) automate to make experimentation easier 5) allow
for evolutionary architectures.
4

Chapter 2
Background
2.1 SMEs and Technology adoption
An SME is a small or medium sized enterprise that typically employs less than 250
people or has a turnover of less than 50 million euros per year (Street and Meister,
2004). In Ireland, as an example, it is estimated that there are in excess of 250,000
SMEs providing over half of the total population with employment. SME’s form a
cornerstone of the European Union (EU) economy, representing 99 per cent of all en-
terprises (European, 2008). Given the instrumental role played by SMEs in contributing
to socio-economic development (Sin Tan et al., 2010), ensuring that they fathom the
multitude of benefits and opportunities offered by cloud computing to the organisation
is imperative (Aljabre, 2012).
Amazon (2015) explains that in 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) began offering IT
infrastructure services to businesses in the form of web services that are now commonly
referred to as cloud computing. One of the key benefits of cloud computing is the
opportunity to replace up-front capital infrastructure expenses with low variable costs
that scale with businesses. With the cloud service, businesses no longer need to plan for
and procure servers and other IT infrastructure in earnest. Instead, they can instantly
spin up hundreds or thousands of servers in minutes and deliver results much more
efficiently according to Amazon (2015). Cloud-based computing introduces a radical
shift in how technology is obtained, used and managed, in addition to how organisations
budget and pay for its services.
According to Riemenschneider et al. (2003), SMEs are understudied as well as unique
when trying to understand them from an IT perspective. As an additional note, the
benefits articulated throughout this research paper can also apply to enterprises as
5

well as SMEs. However, for the purposes of this research, the researcher has amassed
literature focusing on benefits and challenges associated with Cloud adoption with
emphasis on the SME sector.
It has been suggested by Sarkar and Young (2011) that cloud computing offers great
benefits including cost reduction, improved performance and availability of services.
Owing to this fact, a better explanation needs to be offered as to why the adoption or
transition to cloud has been so slow to date. “With the perceived dramatic reduction
of in-house IT infrastructure, organizations have been promised by supplier’s dramatic
cost savings and reduced administrative obstacles, resulting in an attractive outsourcing
proposition for non-IT enterprises” (Sarkar and Young, 2011).
As cloud computing is a relatively new IT and business phenomenon, there remains
many untapped areas of research in this field (Son et al., 2011). Initial studies by
Conway (2011) and Loebbecke et al. (2012) have focused on big corporations, with
little attention paid to the SME sector. SMEs are defined by the European Commission
(2005) and (Street and Meister, 2004) as any firm with less than 250 employees and
are recognized as being inherently different from the large organization.
In a survey of over 3,000 SMEs undertaken by Microsoft (BCSG, 2015), almost 40
per cent of respondents indicated that they expect to pay for some cloud services
within the next three years. This was found to be an increase of almost a third since
2010. The survey also found that the number of cloud services that SMEs would pay
for will increase almost two fold within the next three-year period. This notion is
further supported by the findings of a European Commission study, which highlighted
the importance of technology and stipulated the increasing need for SMEs to have
“objective and understandable information about cloud computing” (European, 2008).
2.2 Transformation of IT Services
Supposedly, traditional in-house IT service models have been dramatically impacted
with the perceived increase in the adoption of cloud computing. The primary objective
of cloud computing is to reduce costs and to minimise processing time associated with
IT services, while at the same time improving and enhancing reliability, processing
throughput, flexibility and availability (Dwivedi and Mustafee, 2010; Choudhary and
Vithayathil, 2013; Oliveira et al., 2014). The standard cloud computing model promotes
flexibility and is composed of five essential characteristics, four service models and four
deployment models (Sultan, 2011; Mell and Grance, 2011; Lin and Chen, 2012; Brender
and Markov, 2013) as summarised in Table 2.1.
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Table 2.1: Cloud computing characteristics and models
Essential Characteristics Service Models Deployment Models
On-demand self service Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) Private Cloud
Broad network access Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) Community Cloud
Resource pooling Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Public Cloud
Rapid elasticity Hybrid Cloud
Measured service
Cloud computing, according to (Mell and Grance, 2011) is a model for enabling ubiqui-
tous, convenient and on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable com-
puting resources (e.g. networks, servers, storage, applications, and services). Cloud
computing can be quickly deployed and released with very little management effort or
service provider interaction. Cloud computing is composed of five essential characteris-
tics, three service models, and four deployment models. Since its emergence in 2006, it
has become one of the key technologies considered for implementation by organizations
worldwide (Canatara, 2015). Babcock (2010) refers to cloud computing as the out-
sourcing of IT resources. The idea of cloud computing is not new. Cloud computing
as is known today incorporates existing technologies such as centralized, distributed
and utility computing and the concept of virtualization (Gong et al., 2010). The value
of this concept according to (Weiss, 2007) is the combination of these technologies on
to a network platform. Cloud computing facilitates improved device independence,
portability, and collaboration opportunities. Regardless of location, employees can be
more flexible (Zhang et al., 2010) by accessing information and sharing it in real time
through devices such as laptops, smart phones and tablets. This phenomenon nurtur-
ers the growing generation of remote workers who travel frequently as well as project
teams that are spread across geographical locations (Aljabre, 2012).
2.3 Cloud computing in SME’s
Whilst the adoption of cloud computing has been drastic over the last number of
years, most SME organisations are still testing and evaluating the model. The reasons
for this slow uptake needs to be examined in greater detail. It is the belief of the
author that no concise framework that fully incorporates technology, business and socio
economic factors exists today. This impacts the strategic assessment and adoption of
cloud computing services when compared with traditional on-premise delivery models.
To date, most organisations have chosen a soft or tentative first step towards cloud
computing, particularly for the delivery of business critical IT services (Mircea and
Andreescu, 2011).
7

The opportunities and challenges in the area of cloud computing adoption in SMEs will
be examined as part of this research. The present study will entail analysing drivers
such as cost, resource utilisation, life-cycle management, service availability, vendor
lock-in, security and other external factors.
2.4 Cloud computing
Cloud computing is a way in which IT services taking many different forms can be de-
livered to organisations or the end user. Services such as streaming videos, delivery of
emails and mobile application downloads are currently widely available via cloud com-
puting. In addition, cloud computing powers many of the interactions among systems,
services and people that take place occur globally in the current dispensation.
Cloud computing is transforming the ‘delivery’ model of Information Technology (IT)
services. This is due to the requirements of increased digital solutions that organisations
need to remain competitive (Linthicum, 2013; Choudhary and Vithayathil, 2013; Dil-
lon et al., 2010). This transformation, significantly impacts a decision maker’s opinion,
when assessing the benefits that are associated with cloud computing. These perceived
advantages can be listed as: 1) cost savings 2) agility or flexibility 3) improved collab-
oration 4) efficiency for mobile and digital solutions (Noor et al., 2013; Trinh et al.,
2015; Oliveira et al., 2014). However, the adoption of cloud computing also comes with
a number of potential risks regarding 1) security 2) reliability 3) data privacy 4) regu-
latory compliance and 5) data protection laws amongst others (Yang and Tate, 2012;
Brender and Markov, 2013). Furthermore, migration to the cloud service elicits a num-
ber of concerns in addition to the fact that common procedures do not exist and tool
support is often absent (Jamshidi et al., 2013; Pahl et al., 2013). To further complicate
things, cloud represents the least transparent outsourcing model (Dutta et al., 2013).
Even so, there is still a growing demand for flexible and on-demand infrastructure,
platforms and software as a service (Armbrust et al., 2010; Subashini and Kavitha,
2011; Noor et al., 2013) capabilities. As a result, decision makers have to understand
the benefits and risks associated with cloud computing pertaining to their organisation
for this evolving technology.
This literature review will highlight multifarious factors that contribute positively to
an SMEs decision to adopt cloud computing. for instance, Truong (2010) the usage
of cloud to enhance competitive advantage. Furthermore, Berkeley’s view (Armbrust
et al., 2009), as one of the fundamental published research papers in cloud computing,
identifies several important benefits. The first benefit is the elimination of start-up
costs for new organisations or organisations starting a new project the requires new
8

computing resources. The pay-as-you-go feature of many cloud computing services also
helps to eliminate risks that are related to purchasing servers and data-centre services
(Leavitt, 2009).
Previous research has examined organisations from the knowledge intensive business
services (KIBS) sector which are referred to as those industries that rely heavily on the
use of professional knowledge, such as accounting, tax consulting, marketing, advertis-
ing and legal activities (Muller and Doloreux, 2007). Companies in this sector are best
placed to take advantage of the internet and related technologies for business inten-
tions (McCole and Ramsey, 2004; Peterson et al., 1997). As such, characteristics such
as industry and organisation size are fundamental and thus of in this research. These
characteristics play an important role in establishing whether organisations should mi-
grate to a cloud computing platform or not.
2.5 Recent Survey: Cloud First for Corporates and Chief
Nation
The ‘Cloud First for Corporates and Chief Nation’ survey, produced and published by
Auxilion (2015) in October 2015, is designed to provide a benchmark of the existing of
the existing cloud computing migration and adoption trends in the United Kingdom.
The survey was sent to over 1,000 senior IT decision-makers from corporate companies.
Cloud First for Corporates is a cloud thought-leadership resource purposely developed
to aid corporates to simplify their cloud journey, and to realise the accompanying ben-
efits. Auxilion is a global award-winning cloud transformation and support company,
specialising in moving corporates to cloud computing platforms.
As shown in Figure 2.1, twenty six percent of all companies have not even began using
cloud computing, whilst another forty percent are only using cloud computing for small
deployments. This raises questions as to why such a high number of companies are not
currently using any cloud computing capabilities given the perceived benefits that it
possesses.
In Figure 2.2, we can see that ‘scalability’ was the primary reason for adopting cloud
computing services, closely followed by the desire to dissociate from utilising in house
data centres.
Interestingly and as demonstrated in Figure 2.3, only 5 percent of surveyed business
have acknowledged a significant reduction in capital expenditure spend as a result of
cloud computing adoption. Given that the perception of cloud computing adoption is
9

Figure 2.1: Where is your organisation in terms of cloud deployment? (Auxilion, 2015)
Figure 2.2: What was your main driver for moving to the cloud? (Auxilion, 2015)
10

Figure 2.3: Has Cloud reduced your capital expenditure? (Auxilion, 2015)
11

a move away from capital expenditure, this is astonishing.
2.6 Challenges, Concerns and Barriers
In their most simplistic form, IT services and applications simply enable business pro-
cesses to be executed. Business process directors and other process leaders often see
moving business processes to a cloud computing platform as their ultimate objective
(Canatara, 2015). However, cloud computing is not the end goal – cloud computing is
merely a delivery model for abridging a specific business outcome or goal by utilising
less capital outlay. In addition, there are many different types and levels of cloud com-
puting services (Canatara, 2015). Business process (BP) directors and process leaders
must possess the capacity to distinguish between them. As a consequence, they can
understand which services have a higher likelihood of producing the desired business
outcome the quickest and at the lowest risk. Also, there are a number of factors that
need to be considered before migrating to a cloud computing platform (Lian et al.,
2014). These include financial and legal considerations as well as any impact on the
cultural shift within an organisation. Risks such as customer care, service quality, de-
pendency on third parties suppliers, and the absence of supporting resource need to be
determined. Furthermore, Lian et al. (2014) contend that since the business model of
cloud computing is pay-as-you-go, capital expenditure can be reduced by adopting the
cloud computing model.
Despite its growing popularity, several concerns surround the model. A recent study
conducted by Frost and Sullivan (2015) reported that cloud computing was one of the
major areas that represented risks from an organizational perspective, see Figure 2.4.
Within the context of the Cloud Security Alliance’s “Notorious 9 Security Threats,”
the survey respondents indicated their level of concern for each threat. Data breaches
and data loss topped the list of concerns.
2.6.1 Security
Security concerns present the greatest barrier to the adoption of cloud computing
adoption (Armbrust et al., 2010; Doherty et al., 2015; Luoma and Nyberg, 2011; Su,
2011), due to the demand for organizations to entrust external cloud computing ser-
vice providers with their business critical data. Other concerns include physical and
personal security in accessing machines and customer data, identity management, ap-
plication security and data confidentiality. Furthermore, privacy, from the perspective
of customer in publicly accessible data centres, as well as legalities surrounding data
12

Figure 2.4: CSA cloud security threats
protection, conﬁdentiality, copyright and audits are the additional fundamental consid-
erations (Yang and Tate, 2009).
2.6.2 Internet Connectivity
Cloud computing services are dependant on the quality and availability of internet con-
nections in addition to the cloud computing service itself (Smyth, 2009). Subsequently,
business continuity concerns due to internet downtime, connection unreliability or cloud
computing service provider outages abound (Armbrust et al., 2010). In respect to Ire-
land and in relation to the availability of a good-quality Internet or broadband infras-
tructure, Ireland’s telecommunications market did not open up to competition until
late. This was due to only initiating general broadband deployment in 2002 (Doherty
et al., 2012). It may be because of this reason that by 2006, Ireland registered one of the
lowest rates of broadband penetration in Europe (Johnson, 2011). More recently, the
Irish government have adopted an aggressive approach to broadband rollout (Doherty
et al., 2012). Combined with the fact that Ireland has one of the youngest demograph-
ics in Europe, strong broadband growth has been seen in the last few years (Johnson,
2011). Having said this, much still needs to be done, as highlighted by OECD (2010)
report where Ireland was ranked a worrying 22nd out of 33 countries in terms of ﬁxed
line broadband penetration rates.
13

2.6.3 Cloud Service Availability
Previous, significant outages by large cloud computing providers such as Amazon, Sales-
force.com and Google heightened concerns regarding the availability of services. In
addition, and from a non-technical perspective, non-availability of cloud computing
services due to the cloud computing provider exiting the market or being targeted due
to regulatory actions, formulate concerns (Mell and Grance, 2011).
2.6.4 Compliance and Regulation
According to Council (2011), ensuring compliance with local, regional and global statu-
tory and legal requirements represents a potential barrier to cloud computing adoption.
The physical location of the servers which store the customer’s data is significant under
many local country laws. This is as a consequence of national legislations regarding
privacy and data management. For example, within the EU, there are strict limitations
regarding the flow of information beyond the user’s jurisdiction (Iyer and Henderson,
2010).
2.6.5 Lack of Standards
There is no single standard open architecture for cloud computing. Each of the major
cloud computing providers impose their own architecture that are analogues from each
other. Due to this, migrating existing applications, such as complex multi tier appli-
cations to a cloud computing platform can be arduous (Smyth, 2009). Similarly, the
ability to move virtual machines and software as a service solution from one cloud com-
puting provider to another is strenuous. Furthermore, a lack of standardization and
resulting technology integration issues pose difficulties to cloud computing adoption
(Su, 2011).
2.6.6 Compatability
Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is deemed to be consistent with an
organisation’s values and needs which is influenced by past experiences (Rogers, 2010).
It is vitally important for the adoption of new technology. Organisations are more
likely to adopt cloud computing if the technology used within is compatible with their
existing applications. In addition to this, cloud computing allows for organisations to
remain at the forefront of technology without impacting the current legacy IT systems
that may still need to be used (Sultan, 2011; Gupta et al., 2013; Ye et al., 2013).
14

2.6.7 Latency
Latency or the delay incurred in transferring data packets is of substantial concern when
operating applications in the cloud (Carcary et al., 2014). This case is particularly
essential for time-sensitive applications such as those used in financial markets and
international trading (Smyth, 2009). Latency across the internet is unpredictable and as
a consequence, performance unpredictability and the resultant data transfer bottlenecks
impact the realization of cloud computing (Armbrust et al., 2009; Yang and Tate, 2009).
2.6.8 Vendor Lock-in
Vendor lock-in can be a significant barrier to the adoption of cloud computing. In-
dividual vendors use unique and proprietary user interfaces, application programming
interfaces and databases. Hence, customers cannot readily move their data and pro-
grammes from one site to another. Customers are also vulnerable to cloud computing
service providers’ frequent price increases, reliability issues, or even business cessation
(Armbrust et al., 2009; Yang and Tate, 2009).
2.7 Outsourcing and Cloud adoption
The manner in which IT resources and services are provisioned within organisations is
closely associated with whether IT should be delivered internally or be sourced through
external providers (Fill and Visser, 2000). For some time now, the option to outsource
the delivery of IT services to an external service provider has been a favourable pro-
visioning option. This is attributed to characteristics such as cost, quality, flexibility
and competency advantages. As a result, outsourcing has become one of the most
important recent concepts in business, especially in light of the rapid developments in
information technology (Loh and Venkatraman, 1992). In order to gain a greater un-
derstanding regarding the evolution of cloud computing, a brief overview of the history
of outsourcing research is important. The insight should permit the evaluation of cloud
computing versus on-premise when comparing a traditional IT provisioning model to
a cloud computing provisioning model.
2.7.1 Traditional provisioning of IT Services
At the onset of the outsourcing evolution, focus was typically on the decision to source
IT services (infrastructure, applications and processes) either internally or externally
15

(Bohm et al., 2011). The primary reason for outsourcing is still mainly the character-
istic economical benefits, particularly the flexibility of costs and cost savings (Fisher
et al., 2008). In addition, non-financial benefits such as technological advantages, inno-
vations, strategic aims, and business-oriented advantages, such as an increasing service
quality or an increasing flexibility of the business are key anticipated outcomes with
regards to outsourcing (Loh and Venkatraman, 1992). The question of appropriate
scope of outsourcing follows discussions regarding outsourcing motives, potential ben-
efits and risks. This results in a dilemma which usually requires a decision to either
choose to execute upon selective or total outsourcing (Barthelemy, 2001). The question
concerning which efficiency gains can be obtained through outsourcing, compared to
the internal operation of IT often lingers. These questions often remain unanswered
since the efficiency of outsourcing is difficult to prove, which results in the reinstatement
of in-sourcing. Outsourcing is a key discussion point regarding the adoption of cloud
computing as an organisation is essentially taking an indirect decision to outsource
some or all of their IT services dependant on the cloud computing platform adopted.
2.7.2 Evolution from outsourcing to Cloud computing
The decision to adopt cloud computing across SMEs will be a ’make-or-buy decision,’
which is essentially an IT outsourcing decision. The examination of outsourcing chal-
lenges can lead to the abridgement of the linkage between cloud computing and out-
sourcing. This is due ot the fact that customers expect efficient and flexible delivery
of IT services from the outsourced provider with cost flexibility. In parallel, customers
are demanding innovation and added value from the same providers (Leimeister et al.,
2008). Cloud computing has emerged out of these demands that were raised by cus-
tomers. As a consequence, it hopes to offer the technological foundation that meets
a customer’s flexibility demands on a business level. Infrastructure providers, such as
Amazon or Google, which were previously active in other markets, have developed new
business models to market their former by-products (e.g. large storage and computing
capacity) as new products (Leimeister et al., 2008). In consequence, these suppliers
have entered the traditional outsourcing value chain and have started to compete with
established outsourcing service providers. These new service providers offer innovative
ways of IT provisioning through pay-per-use payment models and that help customers
to satisfy their needs for efficiency, cost reduction and flexibility (Bohm et al., 2011).
In traditional IT outsourcing exercises the scope or remit is usually split across a
number of areas; infrastructure, applications and business processes (Kakabadse and
Kakabadse, 2000). These core areas of outsourcing are then supported by strategy and
consulting activities. In each of these steps, the process is often referred to as ”plan,
16

build, run” and it must then be implemented and supported. Alternatively, single
aspects may be outsourced, such as the development of applications (Leimeister et al.,
2008). Furthermore, purchasing and operating IT hardware as well as hosting can be
further divided into services that can be done by the customers themselves (Bohm
et al., 2011). As a result, the variation in outsourcing options may lead to complex
outsourcing relationships (Gallivan and Oh, 1999). The traditional value chain that
can be applied for outsourcing within cloud computing becomes even more complex
with the introduction of different roles and actors (Jacob and Ulaga, 2008). These
roles and actors need to be factored into any model for determining the viability of
cloud computing adoption.
2.8 Cost Management
Cost is typically a key driver relating to the decision to move services from on-premise
to a cloud computing platform due to the perceived cost savings delivered by Cloud
(Marston et al., 2011). Initially, the first item to assess is the cost to create a data
center and to provide resource services. De Assun¸cao et al. (2009) have developed a
framework to calculate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) which factors in the number
of the necessary physical servers and storage required. As an example, it has previously
been estimated that the US government would, in the long run, save up to two thirds
of its IT expenses if it adopted cloud computing (Alford and Morton, 2009). Cloud
computing provides potential for significant cost reductions in, for example, capital
acquisition, IT infrastructure operations and maintenance costs (Aljabre, 2012; Géczy
et al., 2012). Organisations can switch from a capex to an opex cost structure (Kundra,
2011), eliminate start-up costs and expensive software purchases, and take advantage of
the pay-per-use model (Armbrust et al., 2010). Due to the lower utilization of physical
resources, there is less hardware to maintain and less demand for full-time network,
server, storage and virtualization experts (Jackson and Williams, 2011).
2.9 Organisational context and senior management sup-
port influence
Migration to cloud computing can help ensure optimised resource utilization within an
organisation. This can potentially be achieved by freeing up employee resources when
they are released from IT maintenance tasks and non-core activities to focus on core
business related skills and competences (Neves et al., 2011; Pyke, 2009).
17

Organisational context refers to a number of different factors. These factors include:
organisational size, remit, trust, centralisation, technology readiness, formalisation,
management structure and quality of employees, organisational readiness (from a tech-
nological and personnel perspective), innovativeness and the level of senior manage-
ment support (Oliveira et al., 2014; Brender and Markov, 2013; Son et al., 2011; Lin
and Chen, 2012; Sila and Dobni, 2012).
The support of senior management becomes extremely important for organisations look-
ing to create or maintain a competitive environment. It is also important that they
provide the appropriate resources (technical and infrastructure) required to deliver
cloud computing services. Senior management support helps in overcoming internal
barriers and any resistance to change. Senior management awareness pertaining to
the possible advantages of cloud computing adoption is crucial in overcoming potential
organisational change by creating an atmosphere of positivity regarding the new tech-
nology to all employees (Low et al., 2011). The reason senior management plays such
an import role is that the implementation of cloud computing can involve integration
of resources, activities and the redesign of certain processes (Yew Wong, 2005). As a
result, this factor is considered to have a significant impact on the adoption of cloud
computing.
2.10 Company Size and Innovation
An organisation’s size is a key factor that makes up an innovator’s profile (Özsomer
et al., 1997). Large organisations have a higher tendency to adopt new IT innovations
compared to smaller organisations (Pan and Jang, 2008). This is mainly due to their
increased flexibility resulting in a greater aptitude and ability to take risks. Never-
theless, experimental results on what the correlation is between organisation size and
innovation (Damanpour, 1991) adoption often vary. According to Vahtera (2008), there
are numerous studies that unearth a positive correlation whilst other studies report a
negative correlation. A case can be made for the argument that the larger the organi-
sation, the greater its ability to survive any potential major incidents or outages when
compared to smaller organisations. Having said that, (Highsmith and Cockburn, 2001)
argue that smaller organisations can be more agile and creative as a result of their
size and the assumption that there is less bureaucracy. Whilst it has been reported
that cloud computing can be more attractive to SMEs (Sultan, 2011), industry reports
suggest that larger organisations have a higher likelihood of adopting cloud computing
services in comparison to smaller organisations (Geroski, 2000).
18

2.11 Technology Readiness and Utilisation
The phrase ‘Technology Readiness’ was coined by Parasuraman (2000). The reasoning
was that the propensity to embrace new technology for accomplishing certain goals is
determined by the overall state of mind resulting from a gestalt of mental contributors
and inhibitors. Organisations that are at the leading edge of technology are gener-
ally better positioned to adopt cloud computing (Harris et al., 2011). Because of this,
they are more aware of current IT infrastructure potential and limitations. Also, they
generally possess the capacity to provide the appropriate training to ensure the re-
quired capability to adopt cloud computing. Due to this, organisations that have the
technological readiness are better positioned to embrace cloud computing (Low et al.,
2011).
2.12 Vendor Relationships
Many organisations rely on cloud partners for the design and implementation of new
systems and solutions (Low et al., 2011). It is identified by Pan and Jang (2008) that
partner pressure is a key determinant for IT adoption. Organisations of all size and
scale rely on the expertise and skills of partners when seeking to adopt cloud com-
puting. Marketing activities, targeted communications and case studies of successful
implementations by partners can have a significant impact on a potential client’s deci-
sion regarding whether or not they will adopt new IT innovations. More specifically, IT
decision makers for these organisations will assess the partner’s capability with regards
to matters such as regulatory support (Alshamaila et al., 2013; Oliveira et al., 2014),
IT product portfolio management, application customisation (Gupta et al., 2013) and
vendor lock-in (Sultan, 2011).
2.13 Conclusion
Cloud computing is a phenomenon that will only grow and become more important
over time. There is no doubt that organisations will adopt cloud computing even when
taking into account the risks inherent in it. The application of this to SMEs will be
determined as part of the overall research. There are many potential benefits that can
emanate from the adoption of cloud computing. Based on the research, it will become
apparent that cloud computing may not be the easy fix that it is sold to be and this
is a problem that warrants further research. Issues that arise from cloud computing
19

can result in financial implications, loss of reputation or data loss/theft. Therefore, the
decision to adopt cloud computing needs to be investigated thoroughly. This research
attempts to enhance the comprehension of the current cloud computing factors that
may influence its adoption. It is also hoped that this research may then aid other or-
ganisations in making the right decision concerning whether to adopt cloud computing
or not. Cloud computing supposedly provides potential for significant cost reductions
primarily in capital expenditure, IT infrastructure operations and maintenance costs.
Migration to a cloud computing platform can also potentially free up resource uti-
lization. This may be the resultant effect of freeing up internal resources, with staff
released from IT maintenance and non-core activities training their focus on core skills
and competences. With cloud computing, the majority of control and responsibility
shift from the customer to the cloud service provider (CSP) to provide availability of
services, data protection, resiliency, auto-repair and disaster recovery mechanisms.
As part of the literature review, we have attempted to identify the different issues that
will affect the numerous stakeholders involved in the decision making process regarding
cloud computing adoption. Many applications that are specifically used by SMEs are
general-purpose in nature, and therefore offer potential economies of scale through cloud
computing services. This research argues that understanding the organizational benefits
and drawbacks is far from straightforward. The adoption of cloud computing results in a
considerable amount of organizational change that will affect peoples work in significant
ways. Along with the potential benefits of cloud computing, there are challenges that
can impact its attractiveness. System downtime forms part of the concern, whereas the
complexity of cloud computing implementations and the compatibility with existing in-
house on-premise applications is another one. Even though cloud computing has been
seen as an important technology that can provide strategic and operational benefits,
the rate of implementation is not as progressive as one would expect across SMEs.
Hence, it is necessary to develop a framework that allows SMEs to determine whether
they should adopt cloud computing.
20

Chapter 3
Specification
3.1 Specification
In order to support SMEs in their decision making process, a framework will be de-
veloped which incorporates technological, organisational, privacy, security, availability,
continuity and other external variables. The AWS Well-Architected Framework refers
to the four pillars of cloud computing as security, performance, reliability and cost.
Figure 3.1: AWS architecture framework Amazon (2015)
My claim for this research is that cloud computing is a more advantageous and beneficial
platform for delivering IT services specifically for SMEs when compared to on-premise
technology. In order to prove this claim, a cloud decision making framework will be
developed. Input will be sought from industry experts who are currently working in
the cloud computing sales and implementation sectors of the information technology
21

industry. In addition, SMEs themselves will have the option to complete the framework
via a cloud hosted solution. Based on their data input and the associated output, a
conclusion will be drawn which will essentially support the researchers argument. Fur-
thermore, this claim will be supported by the statistical analysis that will be completed
across all data pertaining to the experimental evaluation.
The population for this research will be comprised of seven modules including 1) or-
ganisation proﬁle 2) infrastructure life cycle 3) availability and continuity 4) security,
privacy and regulation 5) software and applications 6) external factors and 7) cost.
Each module will have a sub-population known as attributes. The attributes are the
individual criteria that when pooled collectively create the overall content for the frame-
work. The collective assessment of these attributes will enable us to answer the research
questions.
The population of this research will be made up of industry experts who form their own
views on cloud computing adoption and stakeholders of SMEs’ stakeholders who impact
strategic decision making regarding IT. Sampling will be conducted across stakeholders
in the form of interviews, completion of questionnaires and submission of completed
framework evaluations.
Within each module, attributes that will form the foundation for the data gathered will
be established. In turn, this data will produce an output that 1) recommends SMEs
should move IT services to the Cloud 2) Evaluate their environment in greater detailed
and then prepare to move IT services to the Cloud or 3) Remain On-Premise. As part
of this research, a CDMF (Cloud Decision Making Framework) will be created to solve
real world decision-making problems (Asghar et al., 2009). It is proposed that as a
component of this research, the new framework will be developed to assist SMEs to
determine if they should move IT services to a cloud computing platform in preference
of on-premise technology.
22

Chapter 4
Design
The aim of this chapter is to provide the design goals of the newly created framework
that will help to establish if cloud computing is a more advantageous delivery model
for IT services in comparison to on-premise technology. The analysis of this problem
was completed in the Literature review. In addition, the literature review provided
significant evidence that supports the belief of the researcher that there is an absence
of available comprehensive frameworks available to answer this question. Particularly,
in the case of SMEs, it is clear that additional research is required with regards to cloud
computing adoption.
It is the researcher’s conviction that this framework will be a significant enhancement
on existing research in this particular field. The previous completed research in the area
would include other decision making models and frameworks that have were developed
primarily for large enterprises, singles standalone systems or applications. As part of
the present research, the researcher is incorporating a significant number of modules,
themes and attributes that impact the decision of SMEs to move to cloud computing
instead of gaining from on-premise technology.
Numerous alternative tools, methodologies and frameworks have been analysed in order
to develop the proposed newly created ’cloud decision making framework’. The (MC2)
model (Menzel et al., 2011), the TOE framework (NSA Ireland, 2012), the OS34CP
(Outsourced service selection model) (Ni et al., 2012) and the Swift10 (NSA Ireland,
2012) have all been reviewed, researched, analysed and assessed as part of current
research.
The researcher wants to understand if cloud computing provides a better delivery model
for IT services compared to on-premise for SMEs. In order to establish the appropri-
ateness of this model, a variety of modules and attributes need to be established and
23

determined. They will be in the form of quantitative and qualitative formats. To
support the claim, the cloud decision making framework’ will be created. The CDMF
will provide a comprehensive, and systematic evaluation of an SME’s suitability for the
adoption of cloud computing when relative to on-premise.
4.1 Cloud Options
With the rapid evolution of capabilities being deployed by cloud computing providers,
the options and features are evolving at a precipitous pace. New capabilities for in-
stance; identity as a service and disaster recovery as a service are starting to gather
momentum and uptake. In the overall scope of present research, the primary focus will
be on the more mature and traditional platforms available to SMEs. There are 3 cloud
platforms that can be leveraged by SMEs depending on what IT services are assessed
in the overall context of moving IT services to the cloud. These are Infrastructure as a
Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS).
4.2 Current On-Premise
Currently, most established SMEs that benefit from traditional on-premise infrastruc-
ture are comprised of local comms rooms or an off-site hosting facility for data centre
capability. The server, networking and storage footprint is predominantly made up of
physical servers utilising a Hypervisor for virtualisation with either locally attached or
network attached storage. Networking is made up of a mixture of routers and switches
with some resiliency built in. All aspects of this configuration requires day to day man-
agement, maintenance and upgrades as and when required. This leads to considerable
complexity that requires the SME to have IT staff or a costly relationship with a third
party IT provider in place to oversee. Alternatively, with cloud computing, and AWAS
as an example, when AWS services are introduced, a project team utilizes an AWS ac-
count, the virtual network is configured in the cloud, and computing environments are
launched in a matter of minutes and ready for use Amazon (2015). The environments
can be reconfigured easily, scaled up or down automatically to meet usage patterns
and optimize spending, or shut down temporarily or permanently. The billing for AWS
services becomes an operational expense rather than a capital expense Amazon (2015).
24

4.3 Design of the Cloud Decision Making Framework
Before developing the architecture of the framework, a work flow was established as
depicted in Figure 4.1 that outlines how the data will be gathered to assist with the
creation of the framework.
4.3.1 Workflow
In order to establish the CDMF, a work flow had to be formulated in order to determine
the required modules in addition to the quantitative attributes, qualitative attributes
and the associated measurements. The work flow in Figure 4.1 outlines how this data
was collected.
Figure 4.1: CDMF workflow
4.3.2 Establish criteria
This maiden step identifies the attributes and data that will undergo examination. It
permits us to form a view regarding qualitative attributes and also to establish baseline
metrics for quantitative attributes.
25

4.3.3 Confirm requirements
This step in the work flow enables us to make certain that we have captured all the nec-
essary attributes. It acts as a check to ensure we have included all required attributes.
4.3.4 Build CDMF
The CDMF will be built using a rules-based engine that takes into account all the
different attributes, a comparison of the quantitative attributes for on-premise versus
cloud computing, and the surveyed results. Similarly, it determines the recommended
approach for SME.
4.3.5 Apply CDMF
Results are calculated, producing a recommendation for the SME regarding the adop-
tion of cloud computing. Once the result is produced, the researcher will be able to
provide an output in order to support the claim.
4.4 Modules and Variables
Once the workflow has been established, the framework can be developed. Differ-
ent variables were identified initially and determined based on the research that was
conducted within the Literature Review. The establishment of these modules and
attributes was established based on research and consolation with industry experts.
The attributes themselves can be broken into qualitative and quantitative attributes
as depicted in Figure 4.2 and Figure 4.3.
Figure 4.2: Quantative attributes
26

In Figure 4.3, a catalogue of the different qualitative attributes are outlined. These
attributes cannot be clearly measured in terms of numbers or metrics. These attributes
are more subjective and are based on different views and opinions of the individual SME.
Moreover, they will play a crucial role within the framework.
Figure 4.3: Qualative attributes
Once the attributes have been identified, we are then able to formulate the proposed
decision making Framework as shown in Figure 4.4
Figure 4.4: CDMF
As discussed in the literature review, cloud computing is a solution that leads to a
move away from SMEs owning, managing and maintaining infrastructure and software
(model dependent). The consequence is a solution that delivers services over the in-
ternet from 3rd party owned data centres known as ’the cloud’. The cloud decision
making framework will incorporate aspects of technical, economic and social aspects
27

when it comes to determining if it makes overall business logic to realign IT services
to a cloud computing platform. By incorporating all of these attributes, he present
research intends to create a comprehensive decision making framework which is yet to
be developed.
4.5 Evaluation
The current research purposes are to investigate the opportunities, barriers and bene-
fits that can be realised and also considered when adopting cloud computing for SMEs.
Through literature research, investigating and understanding the experiences, opinions
and views of selected industry experts and ultimately having SMEs complete a frame-
work, the researcher will determine if SMEs currently using on-premise IT services
should move these IT services to the cloud.
The researchers interest in this particular area is influenced by a personal bias since
he currently works in this field. Also, the researcher would like to use the present
research to enhance his career and personal development. Given the fact that research
objectives outline what the research wishes to achieve, then the personal objectives of
the researcher should also be considered. It is recommended by Maylor and Blackmon
(2005) that the addition of these individual research objectives is catered for to address
learning or career development objectives.
The achievement of excellence in the present research is majorly dependant on whether
it is defined by specificity, focus and a well-defined direction. Bryman and Bell (2015)
charge that in order to establish the research focus, the development of research objec-
tives derived from the research question should be completed.
The researchers framework is partly developed from the researcher’s personal and pro-
fessional interest and experience as the researchers is currently employed by an SME.
The two approaches that can be taken regarding research are inductive and deductive
(Saunders, 2011). The deductive approach incorporates the creation of a research
hypothesis, tests the theory and then the design of the research strategy which is
leveraged to test the hypothesis. The inductive methodology formulates theories from
observations and has the flexibility to take into account the context in which they are
taking place. Given this fact, the researcher is solely interested in the context in which
events and situations occur as well as the human interactions with the Cloud Decision
making Framework.
28

It is of fundamental significance that the formulated research strategy permits the re-
searcher to answer the research question and subsequently meet the research objectives.
There are a number of approaches that can be utilised including the following: exper-
iments, surveys, case studies and archival research. The decision by the researcher to
use a combination of experiments, surveys, archival research and interviews is based
on a detailed literature review to support the research dissertation. The researcher
also wants to gain a comprehensive understanding of the real-world context of the re-
search and the rationale that results in successful outcomes in the adoption of cloud
computing.
Regarding the research method, the researcher has two choices according to Saunders
(2011); mono-method and multi-method. The mono-method applies a single data col-
lection approach with an associated analysis technique. Perfect solutions for research
choices don’t exist. However the synthesis and comprehension of complex data that has
been gathered in a technical area such as this forms a significant part of the present
research. The researcher is also constrained by the time required to carry out the
research and this leads them to elect a single data collection approach. Noting the
previous statement, the quality of the research will not be affected ensuring that the
research question is answered and the objectives are met.
According to van der Zee and Han (2001), frameworks and models are common in iden-
tifying factors for success in technology initiatives based around business performance
indicators or ROI models. Furthermore, Bouwman et al. (2005) states that by paying
attention to technical, economic and organisational factors in addition to physiological
ones, and looking at things from an organisational perspective more so than a technical
one can allow for a framework to be created. The established framework will cater
for the analysis or technology and process within an organisation. Further support is
provided by Iyer and Henderson (2010) when they propose that a ’maturity model of
cloud readiness’ is developed based on seven capabilities.They recommend developing
a scorecard to assist with the decision process across controlled interface, location in-
dependence, sourcing independence, ubiquitous access, virtual business environments,
addressability and traceability and rapid elasticity.
The aim of the CDMF is to prove that cloud computing is a more appropriate delivery
mechanism for SMEs for IT services compared to on-premise. To do this correctly, there
are many attributes that need to be assessed. To conduct the assessment accurately, we
must be able to clearly compare some of these attributes within the different scenarios
(cloud v on-Premise).
The benefit of cloud computing is that SMEs will no longer need to be concerned
29

about the technical configuration or maintenance of the underlying components such
as servers, storage or networking. However, adopting cloud computing may present
other issues or implications. This is why the researcher expects that the CDMF un-
derstands this and incorporates all the attributes when settling on a decision. The
CDMF will incorporate technical, economic and social aspects in determining whether
the movement of IT services to the cloud constitutes overall business logic.
4.5.1 Cost
Cost is an important consideration when thinking about moving IT services from on-
premise to the cloud. Cost will play a significant part in determining if SMEs should
move to the cloud. Even though the cloud is marketed as a more cost effective thus
cheaper solution compared to on-premise, it is the view of the author that cloud and
on-premise are much the same from a cost perspective when compared. As an example,
outlined in Figure 4.5 is a sample of different costs associated with AWAS, an SME
currently analysing the cost impact of moving Email and Share-point to the Microsoft
Cloud offering ’Office 365’.
Figure 4.5: Office365 comparison
30

As can be seen from Figure 4.5 the cost saving differences are negligible. Like for like,
it is difficult to see an obvious reason as to why services should be moved to the cloud
from the cost perspective. Office365 as software as a service. Infrastructure as a service
present different challenges. This is again true when trying to compare On Premise
costs to a Cloud based solution. Part of the challenge is that Cloud providers for IaaS
usually provide on-line pricing calculator based on VM’s per minute or per hours as
shown below in Figure 4.6.
Figure 4.6: Azure cloud calculator
In order to be able to compare like for like, a TCO calculator has been developed
as part of this research to compliment the Framework. Given the fact that cost is not
considered a fundamental pillar in this particular framework the TCO calculator should
be used as an additional tool. In order to be able to understand clearly the kind of
costs that are associated with IT infrastructure, the template below and it incorporates
all of the components needed to get a true TCO are listed below in Figure 4.7.
Each major section within the template has been allocated an acronym as shown in
Table 4.1.
The challenge that engulfs the assessment of the cost advantages that cloud computing
possess over on-premise entail the fact that cloud computing providers quote prices
based on usage per minute or per hour. On-Premise infrastructure is typically priced
or ’costed’ on a yearly basis. In addition, on-premise costs are rarely ever quantified in
terms of CPU, memory or even storage. In an effort to address this challenge, a formula
has been developed to provide a Cost by VM per month for On-Premise Infrastructure
as indicated in Equation 4.1. By deriving a Cost by VM per month,the ability to
calculate per hour and per minute becomes straight forward. This then enables an
easy comparison of On-Premise costs versus Cloud costs.
31

Table 4.1: TCO acronyms
Acronym Description
HC Hosting and Comms room maintenance
P Premise costs
PC Platform costs (Initial cost on the equipment that the platform runs on)
L Licensing
SM Support and maintenance (once initial Warranty has expired)
MS Managed Service costs
OP Other Projects (additional projects implemented including hardware costs that
have added to the platform)
T Telecommunications (Associated Network and communications costs
as a result of on-premise)
r Cost of capital (typically a %)
V VMs supported (assume small increase year on year)
N Total Number of Years that the analysis applies to.
For the purpose of this study, we will be using 5 Years.
MonthlyTCOperV M =
HCn+Pn+PCn+Ln+SMn+MSn+OPn+Tn
(1+r)n
V1+V2+V3+V4+V5
N
(4.1)
Total cost of ownership is derived over ’x’ number of years. This is a key aspect of
calculating the ROI in terms of Cloud adoption and has been missing in numerous
researches that have been studied as part of this Thesis.
33

Chapter 5
Implementation
The literature review identified the themes, issues and opportunities that are relevant
to SMEs who wish to adopt cloud computing. This chapter sets out the decisions and
choices pertaining to the research methodology and methods used to develop th cloud
decision making framework.
5.1 Research Methodology
Researchers need to consider how they define small businesses and ensure that they do
not avoid adopt simple quantitative definitions (Curran and Blackburn, 2000) as it is
not appropriate to compare a sole trader to a business employing over 200 employees.
Moreover, it is possible that a business of a dozen employees may generate much greater
revenues compared to that of a large enterprise. SME research is not a pure research
discipline in itself and it can be argued that SMEs can be a difficult topic for research
compared to larger enterprises primarily because they typically lack clear structures
and their propositions are more difficult to test (Curran and Blackburn, 2000). By
describing the research methodology, the researcher is determining the course of action
that will ultimately lead to the collection of data, which will be analysed thereby giving
validity to the research. This analysis will provide the framework for developing a theory
and also answering the research question, thus meeting the research objectives (Creswell
et al., 2007). The researcher is going to select the appropriate research approach by
referring to the ‘Research Onion’ model (Saunders, 2011).
The decision by the researcher to select a qualitative research approach is justified. The
research approach is discussed taking into account the philosophy of the researcher and
34

the primary objective, which entails the development of cloud decision making frame-
work to drive the adoption of cloud computing across SMEs. Secondly, the identification
and selection of ’decision modules’ and ’attributes’ within these modules are discussed
and the methods that will be utilised to analyse the resulting data are proposed. Fi-
nally, the reliability and validity of the research decisions are outlined and ethical issues
are considered.
Even though there are other determinants, the seven modules within the cloud deci-
sion making framework are hypothesized to have the most significant roles as direct
determinants of adoption:
H1: Has an organisation got the appropriate mindset and philosophy for the adop-
tion of cloud computing? The organisational profile, which refers to the ’mind set’
of the organisation, in essence lacks any association with technology but rather how
an organisation is set-up, its ethos and values with regard to qualitative variables are
intrinsically linked to the adoption of cloud computing.
H2: When is the best time to evaluate on-premise alternatives? The current Infras-
tructure Life cycle indicates that typically, when current on-premise infrastructure has
reached end of life, then the situation presents the most opportunistic point in time to
assess alternative cloud computing options.
H3: Do customers understand the current and future availability and continuity re-
quirements and can cloud computing offer a better alternative than what is currently
in place?
H4: Is cloud computing secure enough for an organisation? Where is data stored and
who has access to it? Security, privacy and regulation are perceived as some of the
biggest barriers to cloud computing adoption even though, for some organisations it
isn’t even an issue for organisations that wish to adopt cloud computing.
H5: Will software and applications run across the cloud computing environment? Un-
derstanding an application portfolio is crucial, especially its configuration, the appli-
cation and relationship that it has with storage performance, databases and other
infrastructure components.
H6: What are the other things organisations do not think of or consider that need
to be researched before adopting the cloud computing? Connectivity is crucial, the
cloud computing experience will only ever be as good as the associated connectivity.
In addition, the relationship that an organisation establishes with its cloud computing
partner is really important. The cloud computing partner must have proven experience
and industry accreditation.
35

H7: Will cloud computing be more cost effective than on-premise? This will depend
on the services that will be moving to the cloud computing platform. The probability
is that one on one, cloud computing will not be cheaper but will offer a subscription
and opex based approach to consuming services rather than capex.
5.2 Research Design
Data collection was carried out between February 2016 and May 2016. Primarily, face
to face interviews were utilised. Face to face interviews are a technique appropriate for
exploratory research such as this due to the ability to carry out expansive discussions
that it offers, and which can highlight factors of significance (Yin, 2013). It was impor-
tant to make certain that the quality of the detail and information gathered within the
interviews was high. Furthermore, ensuring that the interview process was reliable and
repeatable was equally fundamental. An ’audit trail’ was created both through note
taking and audio recordings of interviews starting with data collection. This process
was maintained and repeated until the actual creation of the framework.
In order to create the framework, a number of procedures were followed; (i) identifying
and selecting cases (ii) identifying the interviewees and (iii) determining how interviews
were to be conducted. Interviewees were senior decision makers with direct experience
of assessing the adoption of cloud computing and implementations involved therein.
A standard interview protocol was developed. Each interview was structured around
a ’questions and answers’ approach, with the interviewer asking probing questions.
The interviews consumed approximately 20 to 30 minutes in duration. The interviews
matured after each previous one was completed and lessons had been learnt and the
improvements identified. The questions were primarily open-ended, encouraging inter-
viewees to express their own views and opinions based on their industry experience.
The interviews were recorded with the consent of the interviewees and the primary ob-
jective of doing this was to simplify the subsequent analysis. At the end of the sessions,
the interviews were then transcribed, proof-read and annotated by the researcher. Each
transcript is added as an appendices. In addition, venting was used, results and the
researcher’s interpretations were discussed with other professional colleagues to avoid
the issue of multiple realities (Kaplan and Duchon, 1988). The approach and findings
were regularly informally presented and discussed with other industry professionals and
colleagues. Where ambiguity arose, clarification was sought via email or via a phone
call to the interviewee. Additional documentation regarding Cloud adoption within the
IT industry was collected and reviewed.
36

5.3 Designing the Framework
The objective of the research was to design a high quality framework that provides value
to the customers using it, identify the barriers to cloud computing adoption, and also
consider potential future commercial opportunities that may surface as a result. Whilst
the framework is comprehensive, every effort has been made to ensure it is simple to
use and concise. In it’s infancy, the framework was developed in Microsoft excel so as
to offer the flexibility required to develop, test, update and finalise it. This meant that
as feedback and direction were being obtained, the necessary modifications required
were relatively easy to implement as shown in Appendix D. Numerous iterations of
the framework were developed. Initially, it was deemed that the Framework contained
too much content and would distract the customer form it. It was reckoned that
’usability’ would be a key requirement in developing the Framework. Feedback was
sought regarding this and the framework was subsequently modified accordingly. To
avoid this first potential problem, it is imperative that the investigator defines precisely
the information desired and the endeavour to write as few questions as possible to obtain
it. Peripheral questions and ones that are intended to find out something that might
just be nice to know must be avoided (Frary, 1996). A clearly defined reason for every
question was established. Feedback was solicited from a number of industry experts
who deal with cloud computing on a daily basis. These included Mark Carragher
- Technical Director with Qualcom, Declan Ryan, Managing Director - The Project
Foundry, Gareth Jayes, Account Director - BT, Simon Sparrow - Cloud sales specialist
- Microsoft. Feedback was obtained from these highly experienced resources in order
to validate the inputs within the framework.
The cloud decision making framework is an ASP.NET web application, developed in
Visual studio 2015, and deployed as a web app in Azure App Services. The process
involved two steps as follows; 1) Creating a new web app via Visual studio 2015 and
2) deploying a web project to an app service. In order to achieve this, the researcher
created an app Service web app from within Visual Studio 2015 by creating a new ’Web
project’ in Visual Studio. We then deployed a ’Web project’ to an App Service web
app in Azure as shown in Figure 5.1.
5.4 Prerequisites
An Azure account is required, so we used a free Azure account and an MSDN subscrip-
tion for Visual Studio 2015.
37

Figure 5.1: Creating a web app and project
38

5.4.1 Visual Studio 2015
It is a rich, integrated development environment for building applications for diﬀerent
Operating systems such as Windows, Android, and iOS, as well as modern web appli-
cations and cloud services. Visual Studio 2015 supports the creation of applications
and services that work across Android, IOS and Windows devices.
5.4.2 Azure Web App services
Web apps on Azure app Service provides a high quality platform as-a service environ-
ment for hosting web applications.
5.4.3 SQL Server express
SQL server express oﬀers the same database engine as the full version but is tailored
particularly for redistribution and embedding. SQL Server Express includes 10GB of
storage per database, easy backup and restore to Microsoft Azure functionality.
The cloud decision amking framework can be found at the following location:
http://cloudframework.azurewebsites.net/
39

Chapter 6
Evaluation
In total 39 Frameworks were completed by organisations interested in moving IT ser-
vices to the Cloud. Encouragingly, 95% of these organisations found the framework to
be of benefit, 2.5% found the framework of some benefit and 2.5% found the framework
of no benefit as shown in Figure 6.1.
Figure 6.1: CDMF of benefit?
The majority of organisations were based in Ireland but organisations in Australia,
Bahrain, New Zealand and the United States completed the framework as demonstrated
in Figure 6.2.
All organisations are deemed as being 1) in a position to move services to the cloud
40

Figure 6.2: Completed frameworks by country
41

immediately and 2) in a strong position to move services to the cloud but with some
further analysis required see Figure 6.3. As can be seen from figure 6.3 no organisation
is encouraged to continue using on-premise. This result indicates extremely strongly
that SMEs should move IT services to the cloud rather than remaining on-premise.
This result supports the hypothesis originally formed.
Figure 6.3: Cloud direction
Of the IT services that SMEs are considering moving to the cloud, the results varied.
Not all the assessed SMEs are currently seeking to move all IT service to the cloud as
shown in Figure 6.4.
Whilst 33% of SME organisations wanted to move all IT services, 23% were seeking to
move email only, 28% were considering moving all infrastructure services and 15% all
software. Interestingly, the range of services that organisations are considering mov-
ing is well spread across different services and capabilities. Cloud providers market
cloud as a way of reducing cost and providing the ability for organisations to remove
capital expenditure from their balance sheet. The results of the completed framework
demonstrated shown that the majority of organisations have a preference for blending
operational expenditure with capital expenditure pertaining to their financial manage-
ment as shown in Figure 6.5. This indicates that organisations may encounter some
42

Figure 6.4: Cloud services under consideration
43

challenges and barriers that they will need to consider if moving all services to the
cloud.
Figure 6.5: Opex and capex options
Previously, we have discussed previously that cloud is essentially another form of out-
sourcing. Organisations need to ensure that they are comfortable with outsourcing
certain aspects of their IT environment to cloud service providers before finally decid-
ing to adopt it. As shown in Figure 6.6, only 15% of all organisations that completed
the framework are currently fully satisfied with moving IT services fully into an envi-
ronment that is controlled by a cloud provider.
12% haven’t even given this variable any consideration, whilst 71% appear to be rea-
sonably content. Nevertheless, the decision requires further investigation. As shown in
Figure 6.7, 95% of organisations have not had exposure to a framework similar to the
cloud decision making framework.
Finally, based on completed frameworks, the findings show that no SME within the
sample pool of organisations should remain on-premise and that all organisations should
move immediately to the cloud or are very strong candidates but require some further
analysis as shown in figure 6.8.
With regard to the key findings identified after analysing the framework data, other
key points have been identified, see appendix G for the high level scoring by variable.
Some of the key points that were identified were as follows; 1) The majority of the or-
ganisations the completed the framework have a mixture of browser and Client/server
44

Figure 6.6: Cloud provider control handover
Figure 6.7: Come across other similar frameworks?
45

Figure 6.8: Cloud recommendation
configured applications; these client/server applications would require a detailed review
and testing plan to confirm if they would perform appropriately in a cloud environment.
If these applications did not perform accordingly, then a full redesign of them would be
needed. Interestingly, most organisation believe that their current application portfolio
is ’cloud ready’. The majority of organisations have a reasonable understanding as
to their current application portfolio in terms of IOP requirements 2) A considerable
percentage of the organisations that completed the framework are governed or are re-
quired to adhere to strict privacy laws. This would require organisations to ensure that
they wouldnot be contravening any privacy laws by potentially moving any of their
data or applications to the cloud. In addition, a high number of organisations that
completed the framework are required to meet some form of standards (e.g. ISO) that
their business achieves in terms of certification on an annual basis. Organisations also
have a requirement that some or all data may be required to reside in a particular ge-
ographical location. 3) From a security perspective, the majority of organisations will
continue to have the ability to execute their own penetration tests and that current
pen testing data and results provided by cloud providers will not meet the customer’s
requirements. 4) Every organisation apart from two organisations claim that they expe-
rience outages on a regular basis or from time to time. Furthermore, regular scheduled
maintenance impacts the availability of services. Cloud could offer a great opportunity
to minimise or significantly reduce service availability. A surprising finding revealed
that most companies do not have the requirement for disaster recovery capabilities.
5) The majority of organisations are dependent on single resources and see this as a
risk. Cloud offers the possibility to minimise this risk by moving responsibility for
aspects of the offering on to the cloud provider. 6) Most organisations have made an
46

assumption that their current Internet connectivity is appropriate for leveraging cloud
services but have not validated this. The realisation that internet connectivity is a
crucial underpinning capability in order to deliver cloud services has not been made.
In terms of the crucial findings, 7) the relationship between the cloud channel partner
and the customer most improve significantly. A major finding related to this research
involved the fact that customers believe that cloud vendors (as opposed to the cloud
owners) do not possess the appropriate experience and certification pertaining to cloud
technologies and implementations. Customers also believe that cloud vendors are not
having appropriate discussions with customers regarding cloud roadmaps, opportuni-
ties and capabilities that drive efficiencies and reduce costs. Relationships driven by
these vendors need to improve dramatically, especially between them and customers. 8)
most organisations regularly reach their current utilisation capabilities from a compute
perspective. The flexibility and scalability of cloud provides the prospect to eliminate
this issue comprehensively from an organisation’s environment. Finally, 9) Only one
organisation had a preference for an ’operational expenditure’ only financial model,
most organisations that completed the framework prefer a blend of capital and oper-
ational expenditure, how cloud can facilitate this requirement given cloud services are
typically on a subscription basis needs to be overcome.
6.1 Organisational Feedback
As part of the framework, feedback was requested from organisations that took their
time to complete the process. Of particular interest was the Users of the framework
generally felt that the process was thought provoking and asked the questions in their
IT environment that they had not considered previously. Listed below is some of the
feedback received:
Noel Ginty (AWAS) ’Very comprehensive’.
Shibu Abraham (Bahrain Duty free) ’Excellent tool for assessment’.
Simon Joyce (Carlow software consulting) ’It has made me think more about our ap-
plications and our readiness to move to cloud. I was not surprised by the final outcome.
Derek Hennessey (CSL) ’It has pretty much reinforced my thoughts around cloud
for my company. We don’t use apps that are suited to the cloud or have in-
house developers to leverage DevOps. We are only now looking at micro segmentation
47

within our networking infrastructure but our applications portfolio is extremely heavily
biased towards 3-tier architectures running with either SQL or Oracle on the back end’.
Padraig Carroll (Acsys) ’We are in year one still on start-up, so it got me thinking of
planning for tech we might need’.
Niall Duggan (Avnet) ’It highlights some aspects we hadn’t thought of and is helpful
in making a decision to move forward’.
Mark Oloughlin (IT Alliance) ’Very interesting, could be a good commercial tool
plugged into oﬀerings by IT providers’.
Enda Farrell (Caboom) ’Interesting approach. Surprised by result’.
48

Chapter 7
Conclusions
There is no doubt that cloud computing offers SMEs a more effective and advantageous
computing platform over traditional on-premise solutions. We have proven that most
SMEs are very well placed to adopt cloud computing and replace their traditional on-
premise solutions. SMEs do not always have the resources or expertise themselves to
make accurate decisions supported by data to justify technological implementations or
strategic changes. Our framework provides a simplified solution covering the core topics
and associated variables that SMEs must consider when determining if cloud comput-
ing is right for their organisation. Furthermore, we have proven that some challenges
exist regarding cloud computing adoption. If these critical issues can be surmounted, a
dramatic increase in cloud computing by SMEs could be inevitable. Challenges faced
by SMEs such as single resource dependency, a managing and resolving availability
outages can be efficiently addressed by the adoption of cloud computing. Cloud com-
puting providers such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google need to ensure an appropriate
eco-system with channel partners is in place. Furthermore, these cloud partners must
engage with customers pro actively and effectively to bring them on a cloud journey.
From a finance perspective, in the event that cloud computing providers can offer cost
models that leverage a blend of operational and capital expenditure, then this will
eliminate a significant barrier to cloud adoption within the SME sector. Interestingly,
we have discussed cost as part of this research but it has not been identified as a key
variable for cloud computing adoption. The rationale for this is that in most cases, like
for like from a pure compute perspective, cloud may actually be more expensive than
on-premise solutions. SMEs are well placed to adopt cloud computing. Supported by
the cloud decision making framework, SMEs now have the capability to form an ac-
curate perspective consisting of challenges, barriers, benefits and opportunities formed
specifically for their organisation relating to cloud computing adoption
49

7.1 Future work
Our cloud decision making framework has been developed to allow SMEs to easily
determine their suitability for cloud computing adoption. Throughout the research,
various organisations both on the customer side and the supplier side suggested that
the framework offers a commercial opportunity. The ability to have cloud vendors
integrate their cloud services directly into the framework provides an immense pos-
sibility for commercial cloud offerings to be presented directly to the customer. The
real-time interrogation of the assembled data during the period that the customer com-
pletes the framework could permit the cloud supplier the opportunity to provide an
end-to-end cloud offering that is particularly tailored to meet the customer’s desires
instantaneously.
Further research is required regarding why cloud suppliers are not addressing the short
comings in their cloud offerings. By potentially working with the cloud suppliers, and
highlighting the areas that customers believe have existing gaps and then consequently
addressing these, cloud computing adoption could increase greatly.
50

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