År 2020 meddelade Europeiska domsstolen den så kallade Schrems II-domen som komplicerar hur europeiska verksamheter får använda amerikanska molntjänstleverantörer på grund av oförenliga lagar och regleringar mellan USA och EU vid hantering av känsliga uppgifter. Eftersom amerikanska molntjänstleverantörer dominerar den europeiska marknaden lever många verksamheter i en osäkerhet om de kan fortsätta använda deras verksamhetskritiska molntjänster. Denna studies syfte är att bidra med kunskap kring vilka möjligheter som finns för dessa verksamheter, samt undersöka vilka kontraster det finns mellan den svenska privata och offentliga sektorn efter Schrems II-domen. Den primära empiriska datan har samlats in genom kvalitativa intervjuer med totalt elva respondenter. Åtta intervjuer genomfördes med respondenter från svenska verksamheter från både privat och offentlig sektor med olika perspektiv och arbetsbakgrund inom IT med fokus på att identifiera de utmaningar som upplevs under molnmigrationer. Tre intervjuer genomfördes sedan med respondenter som är insatta i Schrems II-frågan för att identifiera möjligheter och bringa ytterligare klarhet på studiens frågeställningar. Studiens resultat visade att den offentliga sektorn har påverkats avsevärt mer än den privata sektorn av Schrems II-domen och identifierade följande möjligheter: En juridisk bedömning på nationell nivå inom Sverige för användande av amerikanska molntjänster skulle klargöra och underlätta för framförallt mindre myndigheter som i dagsläget måste göra bedömningen själv. Resultatet av den nya rättsliga ramen Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework som eventuellt ersätter den ram som Schrems II-domen ogiltligförklarade skulle ge ny klarhet i vad som gäller juridiskt för verksamheter. Ett beslut av EU-kommissionen förväntas komma till sommaren 2023. Licensering av amerikanska molntjänstleverantörers produkter som bedrivs av svenska IT-leverantörer. / In 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union announced the so-called Schrems II-ruling, which complicates how european businesses can use American owned cloud service providers due to incompatible laws and regulations between the US and the EU regarding sensitive data. Since American cloud service providers dominate the european market, many businesses are uncertain about whether or not they can continue to utilize their business-critical cloud services. The purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge about the possible opportunities for these affected businesses and to examine the contrast between the Swedish private and public sectors after the Schrems II-ruling. The primary empirical data was collected through qualitative interviews with a total of eleven respondents. Eight interviews were contucted with respondents from both the private and public sector with different perspectives and work background within IT, with a focus on identifying the perceived challenges during cloud migrations in the public and private sectors. Three interviews were then conducted with respondents who are knowledgeable about the Schrems II-issue to identify opportunities and gain further clarity on the study's questions. The study's results showed that the public sector has been significantly more affected by the Schrems II-ruling than the private sector and identified the followning possible opportunities: A legal assesment at the national level in Sweden for the use of American cloud services would clarify the uncertainty businesses experience today. It would esspecially aid smaller agencies that currently have to make the assessment themselves with limited resources. The outcome of the new legal framework, the Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework, which may replace the framework invalidated by the Schrems II ruling, would provide new clarity on what is legally applicable to businesses. A decision by the EU Commission is expected in the summer of 2023. Licensing of American cloud service providers products operated by Swedish IT providers.

Studien syftar till att utreda frågeställningen “Vilka hinder har Stockholms läns kommuner vid implementering av externa molntjänster?”. Målet är att skapa en grund för att kunna adressera dessa problem och skapa förbättrade förutsättningar. Problemet bottnar i en eftersläpande digital utveckling inom Sveriges offentliga sektor och kommuner, vilken inte är i linje med Sveriges digitaliseringsvision. Forskningsfrågan undersöks genom en kvalitativ fallstudie där data genereras från intervjuer med sju av kommunerna i Stockholms län. Genom en tematisk analys har fem olika teman identifierats. Resultaten visade att kommunerna upplever hindrande faktorer såsom begränsade lagar, ekonomiska aspekter, brist på kompetens, motivation och ledarskap, samt hur det kommunala självstyret hindrar samarbete och gemensamma lösningar kring molntjänster. / The study aims to investigate the question “What obstacles do the municipalities in Stockholm County face when implementing external cloud services?”. The problem is based on insufficient digital development in Sweden's public sector and municipalities that is not aligned with Sweden's digitalization vision. The research question is explored through a qualitative case study, with data generated from interviews conducted with seven municipalities in Stockholm County, where five different themes have been identified through thematic analysis. The results showed that municipalities face hindering factors such as conflicting laws, economic aspects, lack of competence, motivation and leadership, as well as how municipal self-governance hinders collaboration and shared solutions regarding cloud services.

Yes / The Stream X-Machine (SXM) testing method provides strong and repeatable guarantees of functional correctness, up to a specification. These qualities make the method attractive for software certification, especially in the domain of brokered cloud services, where arbitrage seeks to substitute functionally equivalent services from alternative providers. However, practical obstacles include: the difficulty in providing a correct specification, the translation of abstract paths into feasible concrete tests, and the large size of generated test suites. We describe a novel SXM verification and testing method, which automatically checks specifications for completeness and determinism, prior to generating complete test suites with full grounding information. Three optimisation steps achieve up to a ten-fold reduction in the size of the test suite, removing infeasible and redundant tests. The method is backed by a set of tools to validate and verify the SXM specification, generate technology-agnostic test suites and ground these in SOAP, REST or rich-client service implementations. The method was initially validated using seven specifications, three cloud platforms and five grounding strategies. / European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 328392, the Broker@Cloud project [11].

雲端運算為近年來新興的熱門話題，強調只要透過網路就可以讓使用者依據實際需求彈性地使用計算資源並按照使用量的多寡計費。許多研究報告認為這種將計算、儲存資源以服務形式提供給使用者的租用模式，將有助於節省資訊投資成本而備受企業主矚目；除了節省成本誘因之外，採用雲端運算服務後可能衍生資訊安全、保密的疑慮，也是大家所關注的焦點，因此使用者如何於採用雲端運算服務的決策過程中取得利弊的平衡點相當重要。 本研究將以企業使用者的觀點，探討影響其使用雲端運算服務的決定因素內涵，範疇侷限於台灣的進出口業者。研究根據過去文獻資料，彙整出五個影響使用者決策因素的構面：知覺效益、安全與信任、創新認同程度、知覺有用性以及知覺易用性，並以問卷調查方式進一步瞭解影響企業使用決策的因素；經由問卷調查的結果發現，上述考量構面足以解釋台灣進出口業者使用雲端服務意願百分之六十的變異，而其中影響業者使用意願程度最高的因素為知覺有用性。 / Cloud computing which emphasizes cloud users can elastically leverage computing resources on demand through the internet has recently become a hot issue. Many studies claimed that this rental model of providing storage resources as a service to users would be good for business to save the cost of investing in information technology which attracts lots of business owners. On the other hand, adoption of cloud computing service may arise several concerns like data security, service reliability and so on. In all, it is really hard to strike a balance during the decision-making process whether should business adopt cloud services. In this research, we explored the determinants of using cloud service form business users’ viewpoints which limited to the import/export industry in Taiwan. Based on past literature, we adopted five dimensions in decision-making: perceived benefits, security and trust, recognition of innovation, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Investigating the findings through questionnaire survey, we found that the above dimensions can explain 60% variation of the causes of adopting cloud services to business users and the most sufficient impact factor is perceived usefulness.

During the past decade, advances in information technology have facilitated the rapid international expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Cloud computing has enabled a new wave of firms to offer services on the web regardless of geographic distances. The aim of this study is to explore how cloud computing affect the external variables network and culture in the internationalization process of an SME. In order to explore the impact on these external variables, a qualitative case study is carried out on a business-to-business SME offering cloud services within small and open economies. The findings explain why closeness was important and why the cloud service firm was limited to a gradual internationalization process although the technology has the potential to break this pattern or accelerate it. The results from this study are valuable for scholars since the internationalization process of cloud service firms is an under-researched area. It is also useful for cloud service SMEs when making strategic decisions in the internationalization process.

Cloud-Technologien ermöglichen Endnutzern das flexible und bedarfsgerechte Beziehen von IT-Leistungen über das Internet. In einer Public Cloud können die Dienste oder Ressourcen von beliebigen Unternehmen und Endnutzern zeit- sowie ortsunabhängig verwendet werden. Nutzer von Cloud-basierten Softwareanwendungen haben keinen Einfluss auf die sachgerechte Verwaltung und Überwachung der darunterliegenden Cloud-Infrastruktur. Infolgedessen haben sie zunehmend Bedenken hinsichtlich der Sicherheit ihrer Daten oder in Bezug auf die Performance bzw. Verfügbarkeit des Dienstes. Um diese Bedenken abzubauen, müssen die nichtfunktionalen Eigenschaften eines Dienstes betrachtet werden, da sie dessen qualitative Wahrnehmung beeinflussen. Derzeit steht Endnutzern weder ein vollständiger Kriterienkatalog zur Bewertung von Cloud-Diensten als Orientierungshilfe zur Verfügung noch sind Cloud-Gütesiegel oder Zertifikate ausreichend verbreitet. Mangelnde Fachkenntnisse und verstreute oder nicht verfügbare Qualitätsinformationen führen dazu, dass Endnutzer die Dienstqualität nur erschwert oder gar nicht bewerten können. Das Ziel der Dissertation ist, Cloud-Nutzer bei der schnellen und umfangreichen Überwachung und Bewertung der Qualität ihrer Public-Cloud-Dienste zu unterstützen. Die Berücksichtigung der Nutzerinteressen und -bedürfnisse in Bezug auf die Dienstqualität steht dabei im Vordergrund. Die Untersuchung der verwandten Cloud-spezifischen Qualitätsmodelle hat gezeigt, dass die Modelle unvollständig sind und keine Aussagen zu deren Eignung und Akzeptanz aus Nutzersicht getroffen werden. Folglich werden in der Arbeit zunächst die nichtfunktionalen Qualitätsattribute von Softwareanwendungen identifiziert und nutzerfreundlich kategorisiert. Das daraus abgeleitete Modell bildet die Grundlage für ein Qualitätsinformationssystem, das Endnutzer künftig bei der kontinuierlichen Einschätzung der Qualität ihrer Dienste unterstützen soll. Darüber hinaus wird ein Konzept zur nutzerfreundlichen visuellen Aufbereitung der Qualitätsinformationen entwickelt. Es werden Empfehlungen zur Darstellung, Strukturierung und Verknüpfung der Informationen innerhalb des Systems gegeben. Jeder Nutzer kann individuell festlegen, über welche Qualitätseigenschaften er informiert werden möchte und wann die Qualität eines Dienstes als hoch eingeschätzt werden soll. Mit der prototypisch technischen Realisierung des Qualitätsinformationssystems werden die praktische Eignung des Qualitätsmodells und Konzeptes demonstriert. Ferner belegen die Ergebnisse von zwei Nutzerbefragungen, dass Cloud-Nutzer durch das Informationssystem bei der Qualitätsbewertung unterstützt werden und mit dem System grundsätzlich zufrieden sind.

Cloud computing has a significant impact on information and communication technology (ICT) and is one of the most important technological drivers of the digitalization of enterprises. However, due to the increasing dissemination of cloud services and the growing number of cloud service providers (CSPs), the uncertainty and risks for user companies in adopting cloud services have also increased. In this paper, we address those aspects from the perspective of the CSPs. We identified relevant literature and studies and conducted interviews with business experts from 16 German CSPs. In our results, we present current customer requirements and barriers to using cloud services from a provider’s viewpoint and identify the actions of and obstacles for CSPs in meeting the needs and constraints of the customers. Finally, we identify current and future challenges for CSPs in dealing with customer requirements and barriers by addressing their root causes. One of the main challenges from the CSPs’ perspective is addressing customers appropriately and building relationships of trust. This also “forces” changes in the sales processes. In this process, the essential challenges can be identified as an increase in complexity and a simultaneous simplification of specific sales activities. Therefore, the necessity arises for the continuous support of business relationships through value-adding and additional services. However, this results in another challenge for the CSPs – Namely, to find the right balance between standardization and meeting customer-specific requirements. In our paper, we show that the perspective of the CSPs is rarely discussed in the literature. Nevertheless, understanding the perceptions of the providers and their actions and measures is essential for future research activities in the field of cloud service selection. Comparing the customers’ perspectives and viewpoints with the CSPs’ actions will enhance the development of a holistic selection approach for future cloud projects. Therefore, our paper’s contribution to research is also the identification of this missing integration.

Molntjänster är något som på senare år blivit allt mer populärt. Det finns många fördelar med användandet av molntjänster, så som flexibelt arbete och rörliga kostnader. Vilka risker finns det då när en kund går från en molntjänstleverantör till en annan? I denna studie identifieras och analyseras olika risker vid byte av molntjänstleverantör. Studien undersöker även vilka åtgärder som kan utföras för att minimera dessa risker. Under studien utförs tre olika intervjuer med respondenter som har olika roller inom olika organisationer. Resultatet från intervjuerna analyseras därefter mot tidigare forskning. I studien identifieras och fastställs många risker som kan uppstå vid byte av molntjänstleverantör, bland annat leverantörsinlåsningar. I studien konstateras det att det är möjligt att minska många av riskerna genom universella standarder för molntjänster samt tydliga avtal mellan kund och leverantör. / In recent years cloud services have become increasingly popular. There are many advantages to using cloud services, such as flexible work and variable costs. But what risks are there when a customer switches from one cloud service provider to another? In this study, different risks regarding the exchange of one cloud service provider for another are identified and analyzed. The study also examines what measures there are to minimize these risks. During the study, three different interviews are conducted with respondents who all have different roles within different organizations. The result of the interviews is then analyzed in relation to existing research. During the study multiple risks that may arise when switching cloud service providers are identified and defined, such as vendor lock-in. The study found that many of the risks can be reduced through universal cloud service standards as well as well-defined agreements between customer and supplier.

There were many technical events held in 2017, like 2017 COMPUTEX, Google I/O, Microsoft Design Forum…etc., and Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most concerned and hottest topics in these events. There is no doubt that in the next few years, AI technology and its further developments will be the major focus in the science and technology industry. As AI technology brings in a lot of new applications and develops commercial values, for the server industry and corresponding supply chain, it will lead to a new wave and benefit the whole ecosystem. Although the growth rate of desktop and laptop computer slows down and smartphone market starts to saturate, the demand for data processing and computing continues to grow. Large datacenter, server hardware and cloud applications supported at the back-end could still keep their momentum of growth. Taiwan-based original design manufacturers (ODMs) maintain a stable growth rate in 90% of the worldwide server manufacturing and many new business models evolved in order to fulfill the demands brought by artificial intelligence (AI). The aim of this study is to analyze the positive and negative impacts of AI technology on server industry, and will focus on four major groups in the industry: datacenter customers, OEM, ODM and component suppliers.

In today’s computer environments the systems are getting bigger and more complex for each day that passes by. The motivating factor for this is that the customer wants to achieve more and more with their computer systems than before. The only way to really solve this task is to use even more APIs (Application program interfaces) in their systems.     When using more APIs in a system, there is a chance that the specific system provides the same type of API twice, which of course, is a waste of storage and resources. In addition, the more APIs a system contains, the bigger the risk is for mismanagement of these APIs. In the worst case, this can result in security breaches or data leaks.  This thesis investigates specific APIs provided for a customer of Sigma IT Consulting. The aim is to evaluate and organize the APIs according to their usability criteria. The main focus of the evaluation is the available documentation which will be evaluated by a questionnaire survey distributed to senior software developers at Sigma IT Consulting in Växjö. Conclusions will then be drawn depending on the result from the survey, and we can then see if Azure API management (which is a service to make a system more user – friendly) is accurate in its way of organizing with the API usability as the main focus! Unfortunately, Azure API management did not have any possibility what so ever to customize the API placement in a system, and the only way the APIs are organized is in alphabetical order. Therefore, a prototype with even more sorting functionality than Azure API management will also be presented in this thesis.