Cloud-based assistants like the Google Home and the Amazon Alexa have become ubiquitous in our homes. Users can simply communicate with the devices using a smartphone application. There are privacy concerns associated with cloud-based assistants. For example, users do not know what type of information is being sent to the device manufacturer, if the device is stealthily listening to conversations, data retention, or who else has access to the data. Privacy is about perception. The goal of this study is to determine user privacy concerns regarding cloud-based assistants by adopting a quantitative research method. The study used a privacy decision framework that lists three core components, which are technology controls, understanding user privacy preference, and government regulations. The research used Dervin's sensemaking model to describe users' privacy perception using the privacy decision framework and improved on a privacy perception survey instrument from previous dissertations. An understanding of user privacy concerns with cloud-based assistants is required to provide a comprehensive privacy guidance to stakeholders. The significance of this study is in the identification of the privacy perception of users of cloud-based assistants and the extent to which the components of the theoretical framework can impact user privacy perception. The results of this study serve as a guide for device manufacturers and other stakeholders in prioritizing privacy design decisions.

This study focuses on the impact of Cloud-Based Shadow IT on data privacy in the tech sector of Sweden. It explores the use of unapproved applications by employees without the knowledge and control of the IT department. The objective is to understand how Cloud-Based Shadow IT affects employees' compliance with cloud services and to examine the understanding of IT managers regarding this phenomenon. The research problem addresses the challenges faced in ensuring compliance with regulations and effective utilization of cloud technology. By identifying the strengths, weaknesses, possibilities, and risks associated with Cloud-Based Shadow IT, this study aimed to provide insights for companies and IT managers in making informed decisions. It explores the relationship between Shadow IT and cloud services and investigates employees' and IT managers' adherence to and understanding of these issues.    The findings indicate that employees have varying levels of understanding, with limited knowledge of approved cloud services. Managers prioritize security concerns, including data compliance and ownership, but lack strategies to address knowledge gaps. The use of Cloud-Based Shadow IT has both positive and negative consequences, including increased productivity and collaboration but also data loss and non-compliance risks. Factors such as education and awareness of security risks are important for employees to understand and comply with policies. Overall, the study highlights the need for continuous education and awareness programs to improve understanding and decision-making regarding cloud services and Shadow IT.

Digital teknik används alltmer av företag för att utveckla sina erbjudanden, och framstegen inom området har haft en betydande inverkan på att företag omprövar och förändrar sina affärsmodeller. En viktig teknologi inom detta område är molntjänster (eng. Cloud Computing), som möjliggör lagring och tillhandahållande av information som en tjänst via internet. Inom molntjänster finns olika tjänstemodeller, och en av dem är Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). SaaS utgör en tredjedel av den totala mjukvarumarknaden och förväntas fortsätta växa inom industrin för internetbaserad mjukvara och tjänster. SaaS har potentialen att främja transformationen av affärsmodeller genom att introducera en ny logik för att skapa, leverera och fånga värde. För att lyckas med användningen av SaaS behöver tjänsteleverantören implementera och införa nya affärsmodeller. Trots att många företag strävar efter att utveckla digitala tjänster, upplever många företag svårigheter med att skapa verkligt kundvärde med sina digitala tjänster. Dessutom möter företagen utmaningar när det gäller att generera en lönsam intäktsström och bedöma vilken intäktsmodell som är lämpligast för tjänsten. Med grund i detta formulerades studiens syfte: att undersöka hur ett företag kan styra affärsmodellens utveckling mot ett SaaS-baserat erbjudande. En litteraturstudie genomfördes inom områdena affärsmodeller och affärsmodellsinnovation. I denna studie betraktas affärsmodellen som en modell bestående av tre komponenter: skapa, fånga och leverera värde, där varje komponent byggs upp av aktiviteter. Baserat på dessa teoretiska områden utvecklades en analysmodell. I litteraturstudien presenteras även tjänstefiering och digital tjänstefiering för att ge förståelse för drivkraften och relevansen av molntjänster. Studien utfördes som en flerfallsstudie av åtta företag som erbjuder en SaaS-lösning. Dessa företag är verksamma inom olika branscher och befinner sig på olika stadier i utvecklingen av sitt SaaS-erbjudande. Empirisk data samlades in genom 15 semistrukturerade intervjuer, där respondenterna var personer med relevant kompetens inom studieområdet. Studien visade att kunderna spelar en central roll i utvecklingen av affärsmodellen för en SaaS-baserad lösning. Kunden har särskild betydelse i de tidiga faserna av affärsmodellens utveckling, och deras påverkan på styrningen av affärsmodellens utveckling är av stor vikt. När det gäller affärsmodellens komponenter framkom det att komponenten för att fånga värde spelar en betydande roll i styrningen av affärsmodellens utveckling. Vidare har studien visat att mognadsgraden och vidareutvecklingen av affärsmodellens komponenter sker i en särskild ordning (skapa värde→leverera värde→fånga värde), där företagets mognadsgrad styr vilken affärsmodellskomponent deras utvecklingsaktiviteter fokuseras på. Studien visade också att utvecklingsprocessen mot en SaaS-baserad affärsmodell är en iterativ process, där det är svårt att undvika behovet av att aktivt iterera affärsmodellen mot kunder för att fortsätta utveckla den. / Digital technology is increasingly being used by companies to develop their offerings, and advances in the field have had a significant impact on businesses reconsidering and changing their business models. One important technology in this area is cloud computing, which enable the storage and provision of information as a service over the internet to customers. Within cloud services, there are different service models, and one of them is Software-as- a-Service (SaaS). SaaS accounts for one-third of the total software market and is expected to continue growing in the industry of internet-based software and services. SaaS has the potential to promote the transformation of business models by introducing a new logic for creating, delivering, and capturing value. To succeed in the use of SaaS, the service provi- der needs to implement and adopt new business models. Despite many companies striving to develop digital services, many of them struggle to create real customer value with their digital services. Additionally, companies face challenges in generating a profitable revenue stream and choosing the appropriate revenue model for their service. Based on this, the following purpose of the study was formulated: to investigate how a company can steer the development of its business model towards a SaaS-based offering. A literature review was conducted in the areas of business models and business model innovation. In this study, the business model is considered as a model consisting of three components: creating, capturing, and delivering value, where these components consist of activities. Based on these theoretical areas, an analytical model was developed. The litera- ture review also presents servitization and digital servitization to provide an understanding of the driving force and the relevance of cloud services. The study was conducted as a multiple case study of eight companies offering a SaaS so- lution. These companies operate in different industries and are at different stages in the development of their SaaS offering. Empirical data was collected through 15 semi-structured interviews, where the respondents were individuals with relevant expertise in the study area. The study showed that customers play a central role in the development of the business model for a SaaS-based solution. Customers have particular significance in the early stages of business model development, and their influence on the development of the business model is of great importance. Regarding the components of the business model, it emerged that the value capture component plays a significant role in guiding the development of the business model. However, the study has shown that the maturity and further develop- ment of the business model components occur in a specific order (value creation→value delivery→value capture), where the company’s maturity level determines which business model component their development activities focus on. The study also demonstrated that the development of a SaaS-based business model is an iterative process, where companies need to actively iterate their business model with customers to continue its development.

<p dir="ltr">The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe how multi-cloud and cloud-based air gapped system security breaches occurred, how organizations responded, the kinds of data that were breached, and what security measures were implemented after the breach to prevent and repel future attacks. Qualitative research methods and secondary survey data were combined to answer the research questions. Due to the limited information available on successful unauthorized breaches to multi-cloud and cloud-based air gapped systems and corresponding data, the study was focused on the discovery of variables from several trustworthily sources of secondary data, including breach reports, press releases, public interviews, and news articles from the last five years and qualitative survey data. The sample included highly trained cloud professionals with air-gapped cloud experience from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google and Oracle. The study utilized unstructured interviews with open-ended questions and observations to record and document data and analyze results.</p><p dir="ltr">By describing instances of multi-cloud and cloud-based air gapped system breaches in the last five years this study could add to the body of literature related to best practices for securing cloud-based data, preventing data breach on such systems, and for recovering from breach once it has occurred. This study would have significance to companies aiming to protect secure data from cyber attackers. It would also be significant to individuals who have provided their confidential data to companies who utilize such systems. In the primary data, 12 themes emerged. The themes were Air Gap Weaknesses Same as Other Systems, Misconfiguration of Cloud Settings, Insider Threat as Attack Vector, Phishing as Attack Vector, Software as Attack Vector, and Physical Media as Attack Vector, Lack of Reaction to Breaches, Better Authentication to Prevent Breaches, Communications, and Training in Response to Breach, Specific Responses to Specific Problems, Greater Separation of Risk from User End, and Greater Separation of Risk from Service End. For secondary data, AWS had four themes, Microsoft Azure had two, and both Google Cloud and Oracle had three.</p>

I dagens informationssamhälle pågår en växande trend av molnbaserade tjänster. Vid implementering av molnbaserade tjänster används metoden Virtualisering. Denna metod minskar behovet av antal fysiska datorsystem i ett datacenter. Vilket har en positiv miljöpåverkan eftersom energikonsumtionen minskar när hårdvaruresurser kan utnyttjas till sin fulla kapacitet. Molnbaserade tjänster skapar samhällsnytta då nya aktörer utan teknisk bakgrundskunskap snabbt kan komma igång med verksamhetsberoende tjänster. För tillämpning av Virtualisering används en så kallad Hypervisor vars uppgift är att distribuera molnbaserade tjänster. Efter utvärdering av vetenskapliga studier har vi funnit att det finns skillnader i prestanda och funktionalitet mellan olika Hypervisors. Därför väljer vi att göra en prestanda- samt funktionsanalys av Hypervisors som kommer från de största aktörerna på marknaden. Dessa är Microsoft Hyper-V Core Server 2012, Vmware ESXi 5.1.0 och Citrix XenServer 6.1.0 Free edition. Vår uppdragsgivare är försvarsmakten som bekräftade en stor efterfrågan av vår undersökning. Rapporten innefattar en teoretisk grund som beskriver tekniker bakom virtualisering och applicerbara användningsområden. Genomförandet består av två huvudsakliga metoder, en kvalitativ- respektive kvantitativ del. Grunden till den kvantitativa delen utgörs av ett standardsystem som fastställdes utifrån varje Hypervisors begränsningar. På detta standardsystem utfördes prestandatester i form av dataöverföringar med en serie automatiserade testverktyg. Syftet med testverktygen var att simulera datalaster som avsiktligt påverkade CPU och I/O för att avgöra vilka prestandaskillnader som förekommer mellan Hypervisors. Den kvalitativa undersökningen omfattade en utredning av funktionaliteter och begränsningar som varje Hypervisor tillämpar. Med tillämpning av empirisk analys av de kvantitativa mätresultaten kunde vi fastställa orsaken bakom varje Hypervisors prestanda. Resultaten visade att det fanns en korrelation mellan hur väl en Hypervisor presterat och vilken typ av dataöverföring som den utsätts för. Den Hypervisor som uppvisade goda prestandaresultat i samtliga dataöverföringar är ESXi. Resultaten av den kvalitativa undersökningen visade att den Hypervisor som offererade mest funktionalitet och minst begränsningar är Hyper-V. Slutsatsen blev att ett mindre datacenter som inte planerar en expansion bör lämpligtvis välja ESXi. Ett större datacenter som både har behov av funktioner som gynnar molnbaserade tjänster och mer hårdvaruresurser bör välja Hyper-V vid implementation av molntjänster. / A growing trend of cloud-based services can be witnessed in todays information society. To implement cloud-based services a method called virtualization is used. This method reduces the need of physical computer systems in a datacenter and facilitates a sustainable environmental and economical development. Cloud-based services create societal benefits by allowing new operators to quickly launch business-dependent services. Virtualization is applied by a so-called Hypervisor whose task is to distribute cloud-based services. After evaluation of existing scientific studies, we have found that there exists a discernible difference in performance and functionality between different varieties of Hypervisors. We have chosen to perform a functional and performance analysis of Hypervisors from the manufacturers with the largest market share. These are Microsoft Hyper-V Core Server 2012, Vmware ESXi 5.1.0 and Citrix XenServer 6.1.0 Free edition. Our client, the Swedish armed forces, have expressed a great need of the research which we have conducted. The thesis consists of a theoretical base which describes techniques behind virtualization and its applicable fields. Implementation comprises of two main methods, a qualitative and a quantitative research. The basis of the quantitative investigation consists of a standard test system which has been defined by the limitations of each Hypervisor. The system was used for a series of performance tests, where data transfers were initiated and sampled by automated testing tools. The purpose of the testing tools was to simulate workloads which deliberately affected CPU and I/O to determine the performance differences between Hypervisors. The qualitative method comprised of an assessment of functionalities and limitations for each Hypervisor. By using empirical analysis of the quantitative measurements we were able to determine the cause of each Hypervisors performance. The results revealed that there was a correlation between Hypervisor performance and the specific data transfer it was exposed to. The Hypervisor which exhibited good performance results in all data transfers was ESXi. The findings in the qualitative research revealed that the Hypervisor which offered the most functionality and least amount of constraints was Hyper-V. The conclusion of the overall results uncovered that ESXi is most suitable for smaller datacenters which do not intend to expand their operations. However a larger datacenter which is in need of cloud service oriented functionalities and requires greater hardware resources should choose Hyper-V at implementation of cloud-based services.