<p>Cloud computing is a new buzzword within the IT-industry, and introduces a whole new way of working with IT. The technique delivers web based services, which results in that the user no longer needs to install an application locally on a computer. Since the application no longer needs to run on a local entity, but in a datacenter located on a service provider, the users no longer need any specific hardware more than a computer with an internet connection. Cloud computing also offers IT-infrastructure and development environments as services, these three service types is better known as cloud services. Through the usage of different types of cloud services, the need for maintenance and hardware is significantly reduced. Therefore, the need for IT-competence in a company is reduced, which offers the company to focus on their core business strategy. A problem with cloud computing is that because it is such a new phenomenon, there is no established definition. This makes the subject hard to understand and easily misunderstood.</p><p>Cloud computing surely seems to solve many of the problems with reliability of systems and hardware that companies struggle with on a daily basis, but is it really that simple? The purpose of this thesis is to understand which types of company preconditions that affect the integration of cloud services in a company. We will also clarify the concept of Cloud computing by divide and describe its different components.</p><p>To investigate the different types of company preconditions and there approach to cloud services we have performed interviews at different companies in associations with our case study.</p><p>The result shows that a cloud service only can be integrated to an organization as long as the organization possesses the right preconditions. We think that cloud services can bring great advantages to organizations that meet these preconditions and that cloud services has the potential to ease the way of work for organizations in the future.</p> / <p>Cloud computing är ett nytt trendord inom IT-branschen och innebär ett nytt sätt att arbeta med IT. Tekniken bygger på att användare av en applikation inte behöver installera en applikation på sin lokala dator utan applikationen förmedlas som en tjänst genom Internet. Då applikationen inte körs på någon lokal enhet utan i en datorhall hos tjänsteleverantören behöver inte användaren ha någon mer specifik hårdvara utöver en dator och en Internetanslutning för att ta del av tjänsten. Även IT-infrastruktur och utvecklingsmiljö som tjänst erbjuds på samma sätt inom Cloud computing, dessa tre typer av tjänster kallas för molntjänster. Genom att använda olika typer av molntjänster minskar den interna driften av system, underhåll av hårdvara och således behövs minmal IT-kompetens inom företag, detta tillåter företag att fokusera på sin kärnverksamhet. Då Cloud computing är ett nytt fenomen finns det ingen erkänd definition av begreppet ännu, detta resulterar i att ämnet blir svårförstått och misstolkas lätt.</p><p>Cloud computing verkar onekligen lösa problematiken med driftsäkerhet som företag tvingas att handskas med dagligen, men är de verkligen så enkelt? Syftet med uppsatsen är att redogöra för vilka förutsättningar som företag besitter som påverkar hur bra olika typer av molntjänster kan integreras i företagets verksamhet. Uppsatsen ska även redogöra för begreppet Cloud computing genom att dela upp och beskriva de olika delar som begreppet består utav.</p><p>För att utreda detta har vi bedrivit en fallstudie genom intervjuer hos utvalda företag för att undersöka företagens förutsättningar och förhållningssätt gentemot olika typer av molntjänster.</p><p>Resultatet visar att de rätta förutsättningarna krävs för att ett företag ska kunna integrera molntjänster i sin verksamhet. Vi anser att molntjänster kan medföra stora fördelar för de företagen som besitter dessa förutsättningar, och att molntjänster har potential att underlätta verksamheten för många organisationer i framtiden.</p>

Στην παρούσα διατριβή αντιμετωπίζεται το πρόβλημα της παροχής επιστημονικού λογισμικού σαν υπηρεσία διαδικτύου, με έμφαση στις εφαρμογές χρονοπρογραμματισμού ανθρώπινων πόρων. Οι εφαρμογές αυτές χαρακτηρίζονται από ειδικές ανάγκες ως προς το περιβάλλον υλικού και λογισμικού, ανήκοντας στο γενικότερο χώρο των NP-hard προβλημάτων βελτιστοποίησης. Δημιουργήθηκαν και παρουσιάζονται δύο πλατφόρμες παροχής υπηρεσιών, SchedSP και SchedSP-WS, με στόχο να παρέχουν υπηρεσίες λειτουργικού συστήματος στους δημιουργούς εφαρμογών ιστού, ενώ παρέχονται ειδικές υπηρεσίες για την υποστήριξη εφαρμογών χρονοπρογραμματισμού. Η απαιτούμενη υπολογιστική χωρητικότητα εξασφαλίστικε αρχικά από το σύστημα PLEIADES, που επίσης παρουσιάζεται ως πάροχος υπολογιστικής υποδομής σαν υπηρεσιά, το οποίο αργότερα αντικαταστάθηκε από την υποδομή του ευρωπαϊκού έργου υποδομής EGEE. Επίσης, παρουσιάζεται ένα μοντέλο κατανεμημένης εφαρμογής χρονοπρογραμματισμού, το οποίο αποτελεί τη βάση του πλαισίου SchedScripter. Το πλαίσιο SchedScripter που επίσης παρουσιάζεται, επιτρέπει τη δημιουργία κατανεμημένων εφαρμογών χρονοπρογραμματισμού, βασισμένων στο υπολογιστικό πλέγμα. / This PhD dissertation deals with the provision of scientific software as Internet service, with emphasis on human resources scheduling applications. These applications have special needs from the computational environment, in terms of software and hardware, as they are NP-hard optimization problems. Two application service provider platforms have been created and presented, SchedSP and SchedSP-WS, aiming to offer operating system like services to web application developers, while they offer special support for scheduling applications. The required computational capacity initially was provided by PLEADES, which is also presented as a computational infrastructure service provider, to be substituded later by the EU infrastructures project EGEE. A distributed scheduling application model is presented, which is the foundation of the SchedScripter framework. The SchedScripter framework, which is also presented, enables the creation of distributed scheduling applications, running on a computational grid.

A computação em nuvem é considerada um paradigma computacional da atualidade. Sua adoção vem crescendo nos últimos anos, contudo ainda é incipiente nas organizações brasileiras. Por ser uma tecnologia inovadora, a computação em nuvem vem recebendo maior atenção da academia nos últimos anos, contudo a abordagem do assunto na literatura de Sistemas de Informação ainda é considerada baixa, apesar de crescente. A presente dissertação tem o objetivo de analisar os fatores de adoção da tecnologia, estabelecendo uma relação entre elementos de teorias de base e fatores de adoção. Foram identificados na literatura elementos teóricos e fatores relacionados à computação em nuvem, sendo realizadas associações entre tais fatores e elementos. Os elementos teóricos identificados na revisão da literatura são oriundos da teoria dos custos de transação, teoria da dependência de recursos e teoria de difusão da inovação. A pesquisa realizada é de caráter exploratório, por meio de estudos de casos múltiplos, realizados em três empresas que já adotaram computação em nuvem. O estudo utilizou como fontes de evidências entrevistas semiestruturadas, documentos e consulta a sites corporativos das organizações pesquisadas. Para análise das entrevistas foi utilizada a técnica de análise de conteúdo, com o auxílio do software MAXQDA10. Os resultados do estudo apresentaram como fatores de adoção de computação em nuvem: confiabilidade, escalabilidade, economia, privacidade e segurança. A pesquisa também contribui para o preenchimento da lacuna na literatura de Sistemas de Informação, oferecendo subsídios para estudos quantitativos que confirmem os fatores levantados. / Cloud computing is considered a new computational paradigm for many researchers and practitioners. The adoption of this technology has been arisen in the last few years by the organizations, nevertheless it is still emerging in Brazil. As considered an innovative technology, cloud computing adoption has been gathering more attention in the academy. However, this subject in the Information Systems literature still has little attention, although increasing. This dissertation intends to analyze the adoption factors of cloud computing and establish associations between technology adoption factors and theory elements. Initially were identified in the literature of economic and organizational theories some elements related to the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, Transaction Cost Economics and Resource Dependency Theory. Then, the technology adoption factors were related directly to the cloud computing features. Consequently the theory elements were associated with the technology adoption factors. This research was exploratory, through multiple case studies in three companies that already adopted cloud computing. The data collection was made by interviews and documents analysis. To analyze the seven interviews this research used the content analysis method, using the software MAXQDA10. Thereafter, was conducted an association between the theory elements and the technology adoption factors. As main results, were confirmed as adoption factors in cloud computing: reliability, scalability, security, privacy and economy. This study also contributes for fill in a lack in the literature, as well as offer information for future quantitative researches about the technology adoption factors.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:06:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6616.pdf: 3224245 bytes, checksum: 3bea5c064e483543e0961a78c51613d2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-10-20 / Software as a Service (SaaS) represent a form of software distribution on demand and accessible via the Internet. The development of SaaS enables service users (tenants) to benefit from the low cost of deployment and maintenance. The Multi-Tenant (MT) architecture is often used in the development of SaaS, it allows the sharing of software and hardware resources, providing cost savings to the costumers and the service provider. A challenge that the SaaS developer has is to keep sharing the instance of the software in scenarios with tenants who have differing needs. In this project, to address the variability of tenants in SaaS MT were set some patterns, based on Software Product Lines techniques for customizing user interfaces, data, processes and permissions. A framework called FoSaaS (Framework of Software as a Service) has also been developed to support the use of patterns, providing support to developers in SaaS MT coding. In addition to allowing the customization of SaaS MT, experiments in this project indicated that patterns improve reuse, quality and productivity in developed SaaS MT. The applicability of the patterns was evidenced through real projects in developing commercial applications. / Softwares como um Serviço (SaaS) representam uma forma de distribuição de software sob demanda e acessíveis via Internet. O desenvolvimento de SaaS possibilita aos consumidores do serviço (tenants) se beneficiarem do baixo custo de implantação e manutenção. A arquitetura Multi-Tenant (MT) é frequentemente utilizada no desenvolvimento de SaaS, pois permite o compartilhamento de recursos de software e hardware, proporcionando a redução de custos ao consumidor e ao fornecedor do serviço. Um desafio que o desenvolvedor de SaaS tem é o de manter o compartilhamento da instância do software em cenários com tenants que possuem necessidades divergentes. Neste projeto, para tratar a variabilidade dos tenants em SaaS MT foram criados alguns padrões, com base em técnicas de linhas de produtos de software, para customização de interfaces de usuários, dados, processos e permissões. Um framework denominado FoSaaS (Framework of Software as a Service) também foi desenvolvido para apoiar o uso dos padrões criados fornecendo apoio aos desenvolvedores na codificação de SaaS MT. Além de permitir a customização de SaaS MT, experimentos realizados neste projeto indicaram que os padrões melhoram o reúso, a qualidade e a produtividade dos SaaS MT desenvolvidos. A aplicabilidade dos padrões foi evidenciada por meio da realização de projetos reais no desenvolvimento de aplicações comerciais.

A computação em nuvem é considerada um paradigma computacional da atualidade. Sua adoção vem crescendo nos últimos anos, contudo ainda é incipiente nas organizações brasileiras. Por ser uma tecnologia inovadora, a computação em nuvem vem recebendo maior atenção da academia nos últimos anos, contudo a abordagem do assunto na literatura de Sistemas de Informação ainda é considerada baixa, apesar de crescente. A presente dissertação tem o objetivo de analisar os fatores de adoção da tecnologia, estabelecendo uma relação entre elementos de teorias de base e fatores de adoção. Foram identificados na literatura elementos teóricos e fatores relacionados à computação em nuvem, sendo realizadas associações entre tais fatores e elementos. Os elementos teóricos identificados na revisão da literatura são oriundos da teoria dos custos de transação, teoria da dependência de recursos e teoria de difusão da inovação. A pesquisa realizada é de caráter exploratório, por meio de estudos de casos múltiplos, realizados em três empresas que já adotaram computação em nuvem. O estudo utilizou como fontes de evidências entrevistas semiestruturadas, documentos e consulta a sites corporativos das organizações pesquisadas. Para análise das entrevistas foi utilizada a técnica de análise de conteúdo, com o auxílio do software MAXQDA10. Os resultados do estudo apresentaram como fatores de adoção de computação em nuvem: confiabilidade, escalabilidade, economia, privacidade e segurança. A pesquisa também contribui para o preenchimento da lacuna na literatura de Sistemas de Informação, oferecendo subsídios para estudos quantitativos que confirmem os fatores levantados. / Cloud computing is considered a new computational paradigm for many researchers and practitioners. The adoption of this technology has been arisen in the last few years by the organizations, nevertheless it is still emerging in Brazil. As considered an innovative technology, cloud computing adoption has been gathering more attention in the academy. However, this subject in the Information Systems literature still has little attention, although increasing. This dissertation intends to analyze the adoption factors of cloud computing and establish associations between technology adoption factors and theory elements. Initially were identified in the literature of economic and organizational theories some elements related to the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, Transaction Cost Economics and Resource Dependency Theory. Then, the technology adoption factors were related directly to the cloud computing features. Consequently the theory elements were associated with the technology adoption factors. This research was exploratory, through multiple case studies in three companies that already adopted cloud computing. The data collection was made by interviews and documents analysis. To analyze the seven interviews this research used the content analysis method, using the software MAXQDA10. Thereafter, was conducted an association between the theory elements and the technology adoption factors. As main results, were confirmed as adoption factors in cloud computing: reliability, scalability, security, privacy and economy. This study also contributes for fill in a lack in the literature, as well as offer information for future quantitative researches about the technology adoption factors.

A computação em nuvem é considerada um paradigma computacional da atualidade. Sua adoção vem crescendo nos últimos anos, contudo ainda é incipiente nas organizações brasileiras. Por ser uma tecnologia inovadora, a computação em nuvem vem recebendo maior atenção da academia nos últimos anos, contudo a abordagem do assunto na literatura de Sistemas de Informação ainda é considerada baixa, apesar de crescente. A presente dissertação tem o objetivo de analisar os fatores de adoção da tecnologia, estabelecendo uma relação entre elementos de teorias de base e fatores de adoção. Foram identificados na literatura elementos teóricos e fatores relacionados à computação em nuvem, sendo realizadas associações entre tais fatores e elementos. Os elementos teóricos identificados na revisão da literatura são oriundos da teoria dos custos de transação, teoria da dependência de recursos e teoria de difusão da inovação. A pesquisa realizada é de caráter exploratório, por meio de estudos de casos múltiplos, realizados em três empresas que já adotaram computação em nuvem. O estudo utilizou como fontes de evidências entrevistas semiestruturadas, documentos e consulta a sites corporativos das organizações pesquisadas. Para análise das entrevistas foi utilizada a técnica de análise de conteúdo, com o auxílio do software MAXQDA10. Os resultados do estudo apresentaram como fatores de adoção de computação em nuvem: confiabilidade, escalabilidade, economia, privacidade e segurança. A pesquisa também contribui para o preenchimento da lacuna na literatura de Sistemas de Informação, oferecendo subsídios para estudos quantitativos que confirmem os fatores levantados. / Cloud computing is considered a new computational paradigm for many researchers and practitioners. The adoption of this technology has been arisen in the last few years by the organizations, nevertheless it is still emerging in Brazil. As considered an innovative technology, cloud computing adoption has been gathering more attention in the academy. However, this subject in the Information Systems literature still has little attention, although increasing. This dissertation intends to analyze the adoption factors of cloud computing and establish associations between technology adoption factors and theory elements. Initially were identified in the literature of economic and organizational theories some elements related to the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, Transaction Cost Economics and Resource Dependency Theory. Then, the technology adoption factors were related directly to the cloud computing features. Consequently the theory elements were associated with the technology adoption factors. This research was exploratory, through multiple case studies in three companies that already adopted cloud computing. The data collection was made by interviews and documents analysis. To analyze the seven interviews this research used the content analysis method, using the software MAXQDA10. Thereafter, was conducted an association between the theory elements and the technology adoption factors. As main results, were confirmed as adoption factors in cloud computing: reliability, scalability, security, privacy and economy. This study also contributes for fill in a lack in the literature, as well as offer information for future quantitative researches about the technology adoption factors.

The students mostly use web based services for achieving their goals in education. They need these services for different purposes. The usability aspect is a need to design these services to be more interactive in order to support the students at their work. Google Docs is the link to the concept Software as a service i.e. a type of cloud computing. A web based application that provides online resource to the users for creating, editing and storing their documents online. The author particularly discusses it from the Student’s perspective. Usability evaluation of the Google Docs is to find the students needs and requirements and also to investigate the usability issues in Google Docs. In this thesis the author is trying to uncover the usability and privacy related problems faced by the students. This is helpful in analyzing the Google Docs (Software as a service) and its importance, by considering the students perspective. Different usability methods and techniques are available for usability evaluation. The author adopted Think Aloud (TA), questionnaires and interview to evaluate the usability of Google Docs.

Tjänstefierade IT-system (Software as a Service) växer kraftigt med 50 % per år samtidigt som produktifierade IT-system (Software as a Product) håller på att dö ut. Nya tjänster etableras på ett effektivt sätt för att möta fler behov med färre resurser och leverantören blir delaktig under hela produktens livscykel. Tjänstefierade IT-system förknippas ofta med molntjänster där både lagring och mjukvara erbjuds över nätverk. Dessa tjänster kan erbjudas från datacenter där leverantören sköter driften av IT-infrastruktur. Tjänstesystem säljs främst via två olika intäktsmodeller, användarbaserad intäktsmodell eller uthyrning av mjukvara. Genom att sälja IT-systemet som en tjänst kan leverantören bredda sin kundbas till kunder som inte har det finansiella kapitalet som krävs för att köpa ett IT-system via en mjukvarulicens. Mycket tyder på att en transformation från produkt till tjänst behöver ske för IT-systemleverantörer då efterfrågan inom detta segment ökar. Sveriges näringsliv består till 99 % av små och medelstora företag men det finns ingen tidigare forskning om vilka problem som kan uppkomma under transformationen och vad en liten eller medelstor IT-systemleverantör kan uppnå med ett tjänstesystem. Intresset ligger i att undersöka små och medelstora IT-systemleverantörers erfarenheter kring transformationen och dess hinder och fördelar. Studien har genomfört en teoretisk undersökning för att få en förståelse kring tjänstefierade IT-system och produktifierade IT-system, denna förståelse har legat till grund för den empiriska undersökningen. Eftersom tidigare forskning kring små och medelstora IT-systemleverantörer saknas har studien utgått från empiri för att ta reda på vilka huvudsakliga hinder och fördelar som bör beaktas. Insamling av empiriskt material skedde genom kvalitativa intervjuer och teoretiska underlaget via litteraturstudier. Studien har därefter besvarat vilka huvudsakliga hinder och fördelar en liten eller medelstor IT-systemleverantör bör beakta vid transformation från produktsystem till tjänstesystem. / Software as a Service is growing fast by 50 % per year, while Software as a Product is dying. New services are established in an effective way to meet more needs with fewer resources and suppliers become involved during the entire product life cycle. Software as a Service is often associated with cloud services, where both storage and software are offered through network. These services can be offered from data centers where the provider operates IT-infrastructure. Service systems are sold primarily through two different revenue models, Pay as you Go-model or rental-model. By selling IT-system as a service, providers can expand their customer base to customers who do not have the financial power needed to purchase an IT-system software license. A lot suggests that a transformation from product to service is needed for IT-system suppliers, as demand in this segment is increasing. Swedish trade and industry consists of 99 % of small and medium-sized enterprises, but there is no previous research on the problems that may arise during the transformation and what a small or medium-sized IT-system vendor can achieve with a service system. The interest lies in investigating small and medium-sized IT-systems vendors' experiences of the transformation, including its barriers and benefits. The study conducted a theoretical study to get an understanding of Software as a Service and Software as a Product, this understanding has been the basis for the empirical study. Since previous research on small and medium-sized IT-systems suppliers are missing the study has been based on empirical data to find out what the main barriers and benefits that should be considered. Collection of empirical material was done through interviews and theoretical material through literature studies. The study subsequently responded to the main barriers and benefits a small or medium sized IT-system supplier should take into consideration before the transformation from product system to service system.The thesis is written in Swedish.

Cloud computing is a new buzzword within the IT-industry, and introduces a whole new way of working with IT. The technique delivers web based services, which results in that the user no longer needs to install an application locally on a computer. Since the application no longer needs to run on a local entity, but in a datacenter located on a service provider, the users no longer need any specific hardware more than a computer with an internet connection. Cloud computing also offers IT-infrastructure and development environments as services, these three service types is better known as cloud services. Through the usage of different types of cloud services, the need for maintenance and hardware is significantly reduced. Therefore, the need for IT-competence in a company is reduced, which offers the company to focus on their core business strategy. A problem with cloud computing is that because it is such a new phenomenon, there is no established definition. This makes the subject hard to understand and easily misunderstood. Cloud computing surely seems to solve many of the problems with reliability of systems and hardware that companies struggle with on a daily basis, but is it really that simple? The purpose of this thesis is to understand which types of company preconditions that affect the integration of cloud services in a company. We will also clarify the concept of Cloud computing by divide and describe its different components. To investigate the different types of company preconditions and there approach to cloud services we have performed interviews at different companies in associations with our case study. The result shows that a cloud service only can be integrated to an organization as long as the organization possesses the right preconditions. We think that cloud services can bring great advantages to organizations that meet these preconditions and that cloud services has the potential to ease the way of work for organizations in the future. / Cloud computing är ett nytt trendord inom IT-branschen och innebär ett nytt sätt att arbeta med IT. Tekniken bygger på att användare av en applikation inte behöver installera en applikation på sin lokala dator utan applikationen förmedlas som en tjänst genom Internet. Då applikationen inte körs på någon lokal enhet utan i en datorhall hos tjänsteleverantören behöver inte användaren ha någon mer specifik hårdvara utöver en dator och en Internetanslutning för att ta del av tjänsten. Även IT-infrastruktur och utvecklingsmiljö som tjänst erbjuds på samma sätt inom Cloud computing, dessa tre typer av tjänster kallas för molntjänster. Genom att använda olika typer av molntjänster minskar den interna driften av system, underhåll av hårdvara och således behövs minmal IT-kompetens inom företag, detta tillåter företag att fokusera på sin kärnverksamhet. Då Cloud computing är ett nytt fenomen finns det ingen erkänd definition av begreppet ännu, detta resulterar i att ämnet blir svårförstått och misstolkas lätt. Cloud computing verkar onekligen lösa problematiken med driftsäkerhet som företag tvingas att handskas med dagligen, men är de verkligen så enkelt? Syftet med uppsatsen är att redogöra för vilka förutsättningar som företag besitter som påverkar hur bra olika typer av molntjänster kan integreras i företagets verksamhet. Uppsatsen ska även redogöra för begreppet Cloud computing genom att dela upp och beskriva de olika delar som begreppet består utav. För att utreda detta har vi bedrivit en fallstudie genom intervjuer hos utvalda företag för att undersöka företagens förutsättningar och förhållningssätt gentemot olika typer av molntjänster. Resultatet visar att de rätta förutsättningarna krävs för att ett företag ska kunna integrera molntjänster i sin verksamhet. Vi anser att molntjänster kan medföra stora fördelar för de företagen som besitter dessa förutsättningar, och att molntjänster har potential att underlätta verksamheten för många organisationer i framtiden.

This diploma thesis deals with a comparison of available "as a service" solutions for enterprise asset records for small and medium businesses in the Czech market. The aim is to find solutions that would best suit the needs of companies to acquire a new system as a service module such as elimination of large initial investment into selected solution and extensive funding for its maintenance. The thesis introduces concepts such as ERP ASP, SaaS, Cloud computing, SLA and their characteristics in the theoretical part of the thesis, which is in the first two chapters. The practical part -- third and fourth chapter -- deals with the practical analysis of current business process property records, finding the gaps and the call for essential criteria for the selection of a new solution. It also search for available solutions in the Czech Republic and analyzes their characteristics at the base of pre-selected criteria and peer comparison. The fifth and last chapter deals with the calculation and evaluation of the suitability and subsequent recommendations for the selection of a particular solution. The thesis draws data from publicly available information provided by suppliers of "as a service" modules solutions for enterprise asset records management.