For most of organizations initiating IT projects to improve the business performance, they could possibly face an opportunities lost and spend a huge project cost resulting in losing competence in making profit simply due to IT project failure. The senior managers in the organization need fully understand what kind resources and capabilities are required for the project team to ensure the success. As value proposition addressed by ASP (application services provider), Software as a Service or on-demand application, it will allow organizations to only focus on the business needs and redesign the cross-functional and cross-organizational processes. Also the IT project could quickly show its striking value in a shorter time frame by outsourcing the technical works to application service provider. In other words, ASP business model provide customers a new choice to access the system services via the internet. These solution providers not only develop the product and upgrade roadmaps but also operate and maintain the systems on behalf of the customers. It¡¦s also a method for the customers to enjoy the latest technology and professional services in an economical way. The value of this research work is to analyze how the senior managers of the enterprise making the choices over different alternatives under the organizational constraints comprising successful stories, personal own experiences and used operational practices in the past. A case study of B2B supply chain collaboration project is used to revisit the managers¡¦ assumptions and elaborate how these organizational constraints are exercised in the project evaluation, decision and implementation cycle based on a generic evaluation and decision framework of B2B collaboration solutions. This report intends to provide some insight and suggestions for the senior managers to take advantage of the opportunities and advantage, like the Software as a Service or On-demand applications, enabled by the internet world. An optimized decision can be possibly achieved only if the managers are aware of the invisible organizational constraints.

Detta projekt undersöker en praktisk lösning av virtualisering i Ubuntu-server med kvm och virt-manager för användning i en moln- eller Network-as-a-service-miljö. Projektet inkluderar även en jämförelse mellan webbservermjukvaran NginX och Apache2 och en jämförelse mellan videokonferensmjukvaran BigBlueButton och OpenMeetings genom att mäta CPU, Minnes och Nätverksbelastning till de virtuella servrarna vid 1 till 20 uppkopplingar från en klientmaskin. Utifrån projektets resultat rekommenderas Apache2 som webbserver då installationen är enklare och skillnaden i resursanvädning är försummbar och Openmeetings som videokonferesserver då detta alternativ är det mer kompletta.

Fierce competition in the market is driving software vendors to rely on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) strategies and to continuously match new software versions with customers’ needs and competitors’ moves. Although release management as a recurrent activity related to SaaS arguably shapes how a vendor services its customers, the literature is surprisingly limited on how software releases are managed to support SaaS strategies. Against this backdrop, we present a collaborative action-research study with Software Inc., a large multi-national software provider, focused on improving the release cycle management process for a complex security software service. The study is part of a comprehensive intervention into Software Inc. that combines a perspective rooted in software process improvement and engineering practices with one rooted in service delivery and customer interactions. The part that is reported in this dissertation draws on the service-dominant logic framework to analyze how the release cycle management process was organized to improve Software Inc.’s ongoing value co-creation with its customers. As a result, the study contributed to improving release cycle management at Software Inc. and it expands industry knowledge about the challenges and opportunities for software vendors to manage releases and improve the value delivered to and co-created with their customers. This added knowledge is of interest to both practitioners and researchers as SaaS strategies increasingly shape the industry with important implications for how software is released.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / A adoÃÃo de serviÃos em nuvem està aumentando exponencialmente, e uma das razÃes à porque a sua arquitetura salienta os benefÃcios de serviÃos compartilhados e com pagamento baseado no uso. A computaÃÃo em nuvem possui o foco de proporcionar uma economia em grande escala, possibilitando o acesso a diversos recursos computacionais em tempo real, como serviÃos de aplicaÃÃes, infraestrutura e armazenamento, de modo que estes possam ser obtidos de modo dinÃmico, elÃstico, escalÃvel e rÃpido na medida em que forem consumidos, independente de quem os administra e onde estes recursos estejam alocados. Dentre esses serviÃos, o gerenciamento e armazenamento de dados sÃo componentes crÃticos na pilha de software da nuvem, pois a maioria das aplicaÃÃes sÃo orientadas a dados. Esse serviÃo, conhecido por Database as a Service (DBaaS), nasce como um paradigma de gestÃo de dados, onde um provedor hospeda e gerencia todo ambiente necessÃrio ao funcionamento dos sistemas de banco de dados e o terceiriza como um serviÃo para um ou mais consumidores. PorÃm, ainda hà problemas que impedem a sua adoÃÃo generalizada dos DBaaS. Fornecer serviÃos em nuvem requer procedimentos sofisticados de gestÃo por parte do fornecedor para garantir robustez, desempenho, confiabilidade, seguranÃa, elasticidade e qualidade. Portanto, os consumidores esperam que provedores de DBaaS garantam a qualidade do serviÃo, e lidem com padrÃes dinÃmicos de carga de trabalho e elasticidade, pois à fundamental para garantir que os acordos de nÃvel de serviÃo (SLA) sejam atendidos. No entanto, prover mecanismos de elasticidade, escalabilidade, qualidade de serviÃo e disponibilidade em ambientes em nuvem à um grande desafio. Claramente isto à um desafio tambÃm na disponibilizaÃÃo dos DBaaS, e para se alcanÃar essas funcionalidades e princÃpios à necessÃrio um monitoramento detalhado e preciso. Com isso, esta dissertaÃÃo tem por objetivo a proposta de um framework open-source para o monitoramento de serviÃos de DBaaS, denominado MyDBaaS, cuja finalidade à possibilitar a criaÃÃo de soluÃÃes de monitoramento personalizÃveis e eficientes atravÃs de um modelo de programaÃÃo abrangente e extensÃvel, que disponibiliza desde a definiÃÃo das mÃtricas, procedimento de coleta, recebimento e armazenamento atà mecanismos para consumo das informaÃÃes coletadas em tempo real.

With the increase of iOS applications on the market the demand and use of Backend as a Service (BaaS) providers also increase. In an early phase of the development it is beneficial for a potential application publisher to use a BaaS to quickly reach the market. Over time the provided services may be inadequate which make many BaaS users migrate to a custom developed backend. This paper intends to investigate which BaaS provider gives the least dismissed effort when making a transition to a custom developed backend with the purpose of providing basis for potential application publishers in the selection of a provider, given that a future transition to a custom backend will occur. From a population of ten providers, five were randomly selected – Firebase, Kinvey, CloudMine, Kumulos and Kii. In order to measure required effort for each provider, code that is tightly coupled to each provider’s SDK was implemented, according to provider guidelines and documentation. The implementations were measured with the COCOMO II model which gives a result in terms of required person months (PM). The measured PM of each implementation was compared. The hypothesis of the study could be rejected if the resulting PM of two implementations were disjointed. The result and analysis show difference in PM which lead to a rejection of the hypothesis. Whether the assumptions of the organization, product and project affected the results were analysed and the hypothesis was rejected regardless of these assumptions. If the organization of a potential application publisher resembles the one in the research Firebase is the recommended choice of BaaS provider.

Cloud computing Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) has gained momentum in the cloud computing research field due to its ability to provide efficient infrastructures. Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) are striving to offer Quality of Service (QoS)-guaranteed IaaS services while also improving their resource utilization and maximizing profit. In addition, CSPs are challenged by the need to manipulate diverse and heterogeneous resources, realizing multiple objectives for both customers and CSPs, and handling scalability issues. These challenges are the motivations behind this work which aims at developing a multi-layered framework for constructing and managing efficient IaaS. The fundamental layer in this framework, the Virtual Infrastructure (VI) composition layer, is dedicated to composing and delivering VIs as an IaaS service. This framework relies on a preparatory step that is defined when all the available resources in the managed space are collected in a large repository, the Virtual Resource Pool (VRP). The VRP creation process unifies the representation of all the diverse and heterogeneous resources available. Subsequently, the proposed framework performs various resource allocation approaches as working solutions through the VI composition layer. These approaches adopt efficient techniques and methodologies in performing their operations. The working solutions are initiated by designing a composition approach that relies on an ontology-based model representation. The composition approach exploits semantic similarity, closeness centrality, and random walk techniques for efficient resource allocation. As a result, it provides an efficient solution in a reasonable computational time with no guarantee for the optimality of the obtained solutions. To achieve an optimal solution, the composition approach uses a mathematical modeling formulation. In this solution, the concepts of the composition approach have been integrated into a multi-objective Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model that has been solved optimally. Despite the optimality of the resulting solution, the MILP-based model restricts IaaS resource allocation to a computational running-time challenge, and the issue of limited-size datacenters. To circumvent these issues, a cost-efficient model is proposed. The new model introduces a Column Generation (CG) formulation for the IaaS resource allocation problem in large datacenters acquainted with QoS requirements. Furthermore, this formulation is realistic, adopts large-scale optimization tools that are adequate for large datacenters, and ensures optimal solutions in a reasonable time. However, growing costs in large datacenters in accordance with the growth of recent large-scale application demands, makes large datacenters economically inefficient. Thus, we advocate a distributed framework for IaaS provisioning that guarantees affordable, scalable, and QoS-assured infrastructure for hosting large-scale applications in geo-distributed datacenters. The framework incorporates two decentralized resource allocation approaches, hierarchical and distributed, that use efficient economic models. These approaches are quite promising solutions for the scalability and computational complexity issues of existing centralized approaches. Finally, the cost-efficient model has been extended to fit the distributed infrastructure by considering additional constraints that impact CSP revenue. Simulation results showcase the effectiveness of the presented work along with the potential benefits of the proposed solutions in terms of satisfying the customers’ requirements, while achieving a better resource utilization and CSP payoffs.

V současném ekonomickém prostředí je velmi silný tlak na inovace jednotlivých softwarových výrobců, poskytovatelů služeb v oblasti IT či systémových integrátorů. Předmětem konkurenčního boje se nestává produkt nebo služba jako taková, ale i forma jejího zajištění a obchodní model, který definuje kvalitu a cenu pro zákazníka. V posledních letech zaznamenáváme vzestupnou tendenci výrobců / dodavatelů softwaru nabídnout dodávku software přímo formou služby tzv. Software as a Service neboli on-demand. Primárním cílem této diplomové práce je přispět k rozvoji teoretické základny modelů Software as s Service s hlavním zaměřením na oblast kancelářských aplikací pro segment malých a středně velkých firem.

This work is focused on the problematics of ERP as a Service and its main goal is to identify opportunities for new Czech providers of ERP as a Service. In theoretical part of this work at first is described that, what is provided by ERP as a Service. Further off is this part focused on that, how and under which terms can be and should be ERP as a Service provided. In last chapter of this part are presented world IT trends (for example Lean IT) and its relation to ERP as a Service. In second part of this work was documented the analysis of selected providers of ERP as a Service. That analysis helped to identify opportunities for new providers of ERP as a Service and also determine advices for new or selected providers of ERP as a Service. Creation of the method of the analysis was based on ideal of the provider of ERP as a Service and its product, which is described in first part of this work. In the analysis was also found some characteristics of Czech market of ERP as a Service and its providers. Benefits of this work are not only pointed at providers of ERP as a Service, but also at its potential customers. They can for example find out in this work on what they should focus on or what they should beware of when choosing ERP as a Service.

The thesis deals with the field called Integration as a Service (IaaS), where the essence is to provide integration functionality in cloud computing environment. The goal of the thesis is to research from the publicly available sources, whether capabilities of the services in the field of application integration, which are labeled as integration as a service, match by the market leaders functionality of middleware. In order to achieve the goal Integration as a Service is defined and the key capabilities for these kinds of services are found. It's followed with identification of the main providers and analysis of their services. Capabilities, which should be achieved by the IaaS services, are based upon the definitions and characteristics of middleware, cloud computing and services in general. Together they create a standard, which can be used to evaluate these services. That's utilized in the practical part, where the analysis of the particular IaaS services takes place. Also the questions regarding expected capabilities of the services, their fulfillment and the level of publicly available information about the services are answered in this part.

Social media data can be collected and analyzed during and after crisis events to aid in disaster relief efforts. Setting up a system to perform this analysis is associated with various technical challenges. This thesis presents the design and implementation of a social media analysis as a service system. This system is hosted on cloud infrastructure and allows for on demand collection, processing, and delivery of social media data via an intuitive web interface. The service model and cloud infrastructure allow the system to be highly scalable and produce near real time analysis data. A cost evaluation of the system was performed and presented in this thesis. The SMAS system was evaluated through a user study and participants found the system unique, interesting, and easy to understand and use. The usability of the system was also evaluated during the user study and resulted in a system usability score of 79.25 out of 100. Suggestions to improve the system and increase its adoptability are also discussed. The thesis concludes with suggestions for future work.