M. Tech. (Department of Information Communication Technology, Faculty of Applied and Computer Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / Virtualization is the main technology that powers today’s cloud computing systems. Virtualization provides isolation as well as resource control that enable multiple workloads to run efficiently on a single shared machine and thus allows servers that traditionally require multiple physical machines to be consolidated to a single, cost-effective physical machine using virtual machines or containers. Due to virtual machine techniques, the strategies that improve performance like hardware acceleration, running concurrent virtual machines without the correct proper resource controls not used and correctly configured, the problems of scalability as well as service provisioning (crashing response time, resource contention and functionality or usability) for cloud computing, emanate from the configurations of the virtualized system. Virtualization performance is a critical factor in datacentre and cloud computing service delivery. To evaluate virtualization performance as well as to determine which virtual machine configuration provides effective performance, how to allocate and distribute resources for virtual machine performance equally is critical in this research study. In this study, datacentre purposed servers together with Type 1 (bare metal hypervisors), VMware ESXi 5.5, and Proxmox 5.3 were used to evaluate virtualization performance. The experimental environment was conducted on server Cisco UCS B200 M4 which was the host machine and the virtual environment that is encapsulated within the physical layer which hosts the guest virtual machines consisting of virtual hardware, Guest OSs, and third-party applications. The host server consists of virtual machines with one operating system, CentOS 7 64 bit. For performance evaluation purposes, each guest operating system was configured and allocated the same amount of virtual system resources. Various Workload/benchmarking tools were used for Network, CPU, Memory as well as Disk performance, namely; Iperf, Unibench, Ramspeed, and IOzone, respectively. In the case of Iozone, VMware was more than twice as fast as Proxmox. Although CPU utilization in Proxmox was not noticeably affected, considerably less CPU utilization was observed in VMware. While testing the memory performance with ramspeed, VMware performs 16 to 26% better than Proxmox. In the case of writing, VMware observed 31 to 51% better than Proxmox. In a network, it was observed that the performance on Proxmox was very close to the level of bare metal setup. The results of the performance tests show that the additional operations required by virtualization can be confirmed utilizing test programs. The number of additional operations and their type influence specifically to performance as overhead. In memory and disk areas, where the virtualization procedure was clear, the test outcomes demonstrate that the measure of overhead is little. Processor and network virtualization, then again, was more perplexing. Hence the overhead is more significant. At the point when the overall performance of a virtual machine running in VMware ESXi Server is contrasted with a conventional system, the virtualization causes approximately an increase of 33% in performance.Because of the difficulty in providing optimal real system configurations, workload/benchmarks could provide close to real application systems for better results. The tests demonstrate that virtualization depends immensely on the host system and the virtualization software. Given the tests, both VMware ESXi Server and Proxmox are capable of providing Optimal performance.

Designing, building, and implementing a private cloud hosting solution can be challenging. This report aims to unify research in multiple areas within cloud hosting to simplify the process by presenting a comprehensive ground-up approach. The proposed approach includes methods used to decide which models and paradigms to be used, such as abstraction level and infrastructure scale. A step-by-step guide is presented, with all considerations made along the way. The result is a platform accessible from a web browser or through a command-line interface and hosts services such as servers for machine learning and containerized applications in Kubernetes. Further work includes increasing the abstraction layer and enabling hardware enrollment over the network. Moreover, whether this implementation will scale in an intended way remains to be examined. / Att designa, bygga och implementera en privat plattform för molntjänster kan vara utmanande. Den här rapportens mål är att sammanställa forskning inom flera olika områden av cloud-hosting genom ett omfattande och grundligt tillvägagångsätt. Det förslagna tillvägagångsättet inkluderar metoder för att bestämma vilka modeller och paradigmer som ska användas, såsom abstraktionsnivå och skala av infrastruktur. Rapporten presenterar en guide till processen, med alla överväganden som gjordes längs vägen. Resultatet är en plattform som är tillgänglig från en webbläsare eller via en kommandotolk, och agerar värd för tjänster som servrar för maskininlärning och containeriserade applikationer i Kubernetes. Ytterligare arbete inkluderar att abstrahera bort fler aspekter och möjliggöra registrering av ny hårdvara över nätverket. Det återstår att undersöka om denna implementering kommer kunna skala på tänkt sätt.

The purpose of this thesis was to analyze the problem of resource load balancing in virtualization clusters. Another aim was to implement a pilot version of resource load balancer for the VMware vSphere Standard-based virtualization cluster. The thesis also inspected available commercial and open source resource load balancers and examined their usability and effectiveness. While designing the custom solution, a modification of the greedy algorithm has been chosen to be used to determine which virtual machines should be migrated and to select their target hosts. Furthermore, experiments have been conducted to determine some parameters for the algorithm. Finally, it was experimentally verified that the implemented solution can be applied to effectively balance virtualization server workloads by live migrating virtual machines running on these hosts.

The decision to adopt cloud computing services should involve business units of an insurance company as well as information technology (IT) because cloud computing services are viewed as both a technology offering and business alternative. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore the strategies used by IT architects of an Illinois-based insurance company when adopting cloud computing services. The theory supporting this study was the technology acceptance model. The study's population consisted of IT architects from an Illinois-based insurance company that have used strategies to adopt cloud computing services. This study's data collection included semistructured interviews and review of organizational documents. Member checking with each participant increased the validity of this study's findings. Four major themes emerged from this study: strategies to adopt cloud computing services, strategies to adopt cloud services models, strategies to adopt cloud computing models, and concerns affecting the strategies to adopt cloud computing services. The study findings may assist IT architects in developing effective strategies to adopt cloud computing services for their respective business unit. This study might serve as a foundation for positive social change by decreasing customer concerns regarding critical information being compromised when adopting cloud computing services.

Health care leaders lack the strategies to implement cloud security for electronic medical records to prevent a breach of patient data. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore strategies senior information technology leaders in the healthcare industry use to implement cloud security to minimize electronic health record cyberattacks. The theory supporting this study was routine activities theory. Routine activities theory is a theory of criminal events that can be applied to technology. The study's population consisted of senior information technology leaders from a medical facility in a large northeastern city. Data collection included semistructured interviews, phone interviews, and analysis of organizational documents. The use of member checking and methodological triangulation increased the validity of this study's findings among all participants. There were 5 major themes that emerged from the study (a) requirement of coordination with the electronic health record vendor and the private cloud vendor, (b) protection of the organization, (c) requirements based on government and organizational regulations, (d) access management, (e) a focus on continuous improvement. The results of this study may create awareness of the necessity to secure electronic health records in the cloud to minimize cyberattacks. Cloud security is essential because of its social impact on the ability to protect confidential data and information. The results of this study will further serve as a foundation for positive social change by increasing awareness in support of the implementation of electronic health record cloud security.

Information technology (IT) in the recent decades has showcased immense evolution. This evolution has impacted not only the technological sector of the society but also the socio-political and economic sectors. One such archetype that has gained popular momentum in the recent years is cloud computing. Still in its developmental stages, cloud computing is the latest offspring of computing services and has invariably challenged the traditional aspects of computing services across the IT Organizations in the world. Thus, adopted by a number of developed as well as developing countries, cloud computing has played a crucial role in decreasing the overall cost pertinent to hardware, software and other services in organizations. However, issues such as data security and confidentiality, data availability, legal issues and unintelligent Service Level Agreements (SLAs) have questioned the reliability and credibility of cloud computing. This has resulted in lack of potential investments from major companies. The main aim of this research is to provide concrete reasons for the actively implementing cloud computing in IT Organizations. Qualitative approach and exploratory design are extensively used for data collection and analysis. Primary data is collected based on the views and opinions of IT experts and secondary data is collected from literary sources which invariably supports the primary data and maintains the credibility of the research.

Denna fallstudie har undersökt och studerat hur ett företag som arbetar med informationsteknologi (IT) hanterar problemet att anställda lagrar arbetsrelaterad information i sina privata molnlagringstjänster. En enkätundersökning gjordes för att undersöka och jämföra hur olika avdelningar på företaget bland annat använder sin privata molnlagringstjänst och om de är medvetna om risker med molnlagring. En intervju genomfördes med en informant från företaget för att kontrastera svaren från enkätundersökningen. Vidare genomfördes också en valideringsintervju med en informant från ett annat företag som arbetar inom samma bransch.Resultatet visade att anställda som arbetar inom IT-branschen faktiskt lagrar eller har lagrat arbetsrelaterade information i sina privata molnlagringstjänster. En av avdelningarna som deltog i enkäten var informationssäkerhetsteamet. Anställda som arbetar med informationssäkerhet kan antas vara mest pålästa och kunniga vad gäller säkerhet kring information, trots det så visade resultatet att dessa personer var de som använde privat molnlagring mest, i jämförelse med övriga avdelningar. Vidare så visar resultatet också att företagen arbetar med att motverka och upplysa anställda om risker med hur information hanteras, det ena företaget i synnerhet arbetar väldigt proaktivt och tar informationssäkerhet på stort allvar. / In this work, a case study was made on one company that is working with IT. The study was made to see how an IT company mitigates and handles the problem that employees use their private cloud storage to store work related information. A survey was sent to three different departments at the company to examine what employees think about private cloud storage and work related information and how and if it differs between different departments. One interview was also made with one informant from the same company to compare with the results from the survey. A second interview with another company was also made to validate the result from the first interview.The results from the survey showed that employees do store or have stored work related information in their private cloud storage, despite that the company policies forbid it. One of the departments that the survey was sent to was the information security team. It can be assumed that employees that work with information security have better understanding about security regarding information and how it should be stored. Despite that did the results show that the information security team was the department that used private cloud storage the most, compared to the other departments. The results from the interviews shows that the companies at least have policies on how and where the employees are allowed to store work related information. One company in particular works really hard and continuously to educate and enlighten its employees to take great care when dealing with work related information.

This thesis focuses on the ubiquitous cloud computing trend and particularly Software as a Service. The main goal is to specify all pros and cons of this concept for its customers and also cloud providers. The global perspective is then specified to Software as a Service and deployment of SaaS ERP products. The next goal is to define an appropriate method to analyze a company's needs prior to switching to the cloud. Furthermore, recommendations as to whether the cloud is better than an on-premise version should result from the previous analysis. Another aim is to form a process for successful switch to the cloud and ensure all important aspects of using cloud services are covered. Theoretical findings and recommendations are used in a practical example of SaaS ERP deployment. To reach all goals, a theoretical analysis of all available monograph and electronic sources, covering cloud computing and consultations with experts from the company; Algotech BSC, were used. The main added value is in the dual point of view on the topic, from customer's and provider's viewpoints with a more detailed focus on ERP. The author suggests the right procedure for switching to the cloud, guidance with calculating ROI, TCO and preparing all necessary contracts and agreements.

This work is focused on the newly emerging field of Cloud computing and view of adoption of this technology in various industrial sectors. The first section explains the concept of cloud computing, its characteristics and individual models. The following part is a brief analysis of the size and development of the current market for cloud services. Next section focuses on the creation of industry categories acording to area of their business, together with their description. The actual categories are examined in part four, along with their expenditures on IT and state of Cloud's adoption, in addition with specific advantages and obstacles. Results from previous section are summarized in part five. In conclusion, the hypothesis is verified and the main findings summarized.

Cloud computing has been given a great deal of attention during recent years. Almost all the technology market leaders and leading hosting service providers (like IBM, Microsoft and Verizon) have entered into the Cloud market as Cloud Providers. Cloud computing promises to provide highly available, secure, low cost, agile and highly scalable solution to the consumers. Scania is a global company and one of the world’s leading heavy vehicle manufacturers with 35,000+ employees. All the large organizations such as Scania, aim to constantly update themselves with the latest technology in order to meet their business requirements but, these organizations must always be convinced that there is a strong reason(s) to implement new technology. This research provides the method and criteria in relation to initiating Cloud computing. A number of Scania’s specific business requirements that it is possible to map to the Cloud are addressed in this thesis. The methodology of research is split in two parts. Firstly, the identification of business cases at Scania and their requirements with the Cloud and Secondly, the evaluation and comparison of the functionalities and capabilities of different vendors. The accumulated data is then compared and suitable vendors, according to those business requirements are suggested. This thesis also shares the experience of moving on premise applications to the Cloud. These are Scania specific applications which are currently being hosted in-house. The research also addresses the possibilities of portability between the Cloud providers. Although there is no standardization in relation to Cloud computing, some initiatives such as OpenStack are available and its current position and some application and data migration tools are also discussed. The thesis concludes with a general discussion, recommendations in relation to adapting Cloud computing and selecting the Cloud provider. This recommendation applies to every organization including Scania.