running a business in the cloud · categorised as a micro enterprise, it must have a headcount...

Running a Business

in the Cloud

Student: Sean Reilly Supervisor: John Sutherland Moderator: Tom Caira

BSc (Hons) Business Technology University of the West of Scotland

Declaration

This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Business Technology (Honours) in the University of the West of Scotland.

I declare that this dissertation embodies the results of my own work and that it has been

composed by myself. Following normal academic conventions, I have made due

acknowledgement to the work of others.

Name:

Signature:

Date:

Surname: Reilly

First Name: Sean Initials: M

Borrower ID Number: B00221402

Course Code: COMPOIS

Course Description: Business Technology

Project Supervisor: John Sutherland

Dissertation Title: Running a Business in The Cloud

Session: 2012/2013

Business Technology Honours Project Specification

Running a Business in the Cloud

Student: Sean Reilly Banner ID: B00221402

Supervisor: John Sutherland

Moderator: Tom Caira

Outline of Project: The student for this project will investigate if an SME (Small Medium

Enterprise) can run their business entirely through the use of Cloud Computing services.

The key aim of this project is to investigate the benefits and issues of using Cloud

Computing services by reviewing literature and produce guidelines for SMEs who wish to

fully utilise the technology. The research findings will be discussed with conclusions and

guidelines produced.

A Passable Project will:

Carry out a literature review relevant to this project

Send out surveys to a number of SMEs

Produce conclusions based on the research findings

A First Class Project will:

Carry out a literature review which displays a critical understanding of the subject

area.

Undertake exemplary primary research with a number of SMEs and contrast the

research findings with the findings of the literature review by way of critical

discussion.

Produce conclusions and potential guidelines which can assist SMEs in utilising

Cloud services in their business.

Reading List:

Sultan, N. (2011) “Reaching for the “cloud”: How SMEs can manage”, International Journal of

Information Management, Volume 31, Issue 3, June 2011, Pages 272–278.

Lin, A. and Nah-Chou, C. (2011) “Cloud Computing as an innovation: Perception, attitude, and

adoption”, International Journal of Information Management,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2012.04.001

Neves, F., Marta, F., Correia, A., Castro Neto, M. (2011) “The Adoption of Cloud Computing by

SMEs: Identifying and Coping with External Factors” http://hdl.handle.net/10362/6166

Ahmed, A., AlKutbi, G. (June 2011) “The Cloud Computing: Emerging Business and Security

Concerns” Available at:

http://www.academia.edu/1229548/The_Cloud_Computing_Emerging_Business_and_Security_Con

cerns

Caroll, M.; van der Merwe, A.; Kotze, P. “Secure cloud computing: Benefits, risks and controls”,

Information Security South Africa (ISSA), 2011, Pages 1 - 9

BCS The Chartered Institute for IT (19 Mar 2012) Cloud Computing: Moving IT out of the office,

Kindle, Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.

W. Rittinghouse, J and F. Ransome, J (2010) Cloud Computing: Implementation, Management, and

Security, Boca Ranton: CRC Press

F. A. Alvi, , B.S Choudary ,N. Jaferry , E.Pathan (2011) “A review on cloud computing security

issues and challenges” Available from:

http://www.pbltt2011.mfu.ac.th/download/full_paper/C3_Fizza%20Abbas-TTPBL-

Full%20paper_A%20Review%20on%20cloud%20computing%20security%20issues%20and%20chal

lenges.pdf

Resources Required:

(University Library, Internet, Workstation)

Marking Scheme:

Introduction 10%

Literature Review 25%

Research Methodology 10%

Primary Research 20%

Discussion of Findings 10%

Conclusion and Recommendations 10%

Production of Guidelines 10%

Critical Appraisal 5%

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02684012/31/3


http://hdl.handle.net/10362/6166

http://www.academia.edu/1229548/The_Cloud_Computing_Emerging_Business_and_Security_Concerns

http://www.academia.edu/1229548/The_Cloud_Computing_Emerging_Business_and_Security_Concerns

http://www.pbltt2011.mfu.ac.th/download/full_paper/C3_Fizza%20Abbas-TTPBL-Full%20paper_A%20Review%20on%20cloud%20computing%20security%20issues%20and%20challenges.pdf



1 BSc (Hons) Business Technology

Sean Reilly

Table of Contents I. Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... 3

II. Abstract .............................................................................................................................. 4

Chapter 1 – Project Overview ................................................................................................... 5

1.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 5

1.2 Background on SMEs ....................................................................................................... 5

1.3 Research Questions ......................................................................................................... 6

1.4 Project Objectives ............................................................................................................ 6

1.4 Scope and Limitations ..................................................................................................... 7

1.5 Structure ........................................................................................................................... 8

Chapter 2 – Defining Cloud Computing ................................................................................... 9

2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 9

2.2 Overview – What is the Cloud? ....................................................................................... 9

2.3 Defining the term “Cloud Computing” ......................................................................... 11

Chapter 3 – Composition of the Cloud .................................................................................. 17

3.1 Characteristics ................................................................................................................ 17

3.1.1 On-demand Self-service ............................................................................................. 17

3.1.2 Broad Network Access ................................................................................................ 17

3.1.3 Resource Pooling ....................................................................................................... 17

3.1.4 Rapid Elasticity ........................................................................................................... 17

3.1.5 Measured Service ....................................................................................................... 18

3.2 Service Models ............................................................................................................... 18

3.2.1 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) .................................................................................. 18

3.2.2 Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) .................................................................................. 20

3.2.3 Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) ........................................................................... 20

3.2.4 Service Models Conclusion ..................................................................................... 20

3.3 Deployment Models ...................................................................................................... 21

3.4 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 21

Chapter 4 - Running a Business in the Cloud ........................................................................ 22

4.1 Benefits and Drawbacks ................................................................................................ 22

4.2 What can you do on the Cloud? ................................................................................... 24

4.3 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 28


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Chapter 5 - Research Methodology ....................................................................................... 29

5.1 Objective ........................................................................................................................ 29

5.2 Secondary Research ....................................................................................................... 29

5.3 Research Methods ......................................................................................................... 29

5.3.1 Quantitative Research ............................................................................................. 30

5.3.2 Qualitative Research ............................................................................................... 31

5.4 Chosen Research Method ............................................................................................. 32

5.4.1 Survey ...................................................................................................................... 32

5.4.2 Semi-structured Interview ...................................................................................... 33

5.5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 33

Chapter 6 – Primary Research Results .................................................................................... 34

6.1 Objectives ....................................................................................................................... 34

6.2 Interview ........................................................................................................................ 34

6.3 Survey ............................................................................................................................. 36

6.3.1 Small Experiment .................................................................................................... 45

6.4 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 46

Chapter 7 – Primary Research Discussion .............................................................................. 47

7.1 Objectives ....................................................................................................................... 47

7.2 Discussion ...................................................................................................................... 47

Chapter 8 - Project Conclusions ............................................................................................. 49

8.1 Recommendations ......................................................................................................... 51

8.1.2 Scope for further investigation .............................................................................. 52

Chapter 9 - Guidelines ............................................................................................................ 53

Chapter 10 - Critical Appraisal ................................................................................................ 55

References ............................................................................................................................... 57

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 60

Appendices .............................................................................................................................. 61

Appendix 1 ........................................................................................................................... 61

Appendix 2 ........................................................................................................................... 65

Appendix 3 ........................................................................................................................... 67


Sean Reilly

I. Acknowledgements

I would like to thank John Sutherland for guiding me throughout this dissertation

and making it a positive learning experience that I will never forget. I would also like to

thank Tom Caira for moderating this dissertation.

I would like to thank University of the West of Scotland for giving me this

opportunity.

I would also like to thank Gordon Dow and the 22 SMEs who took their time to

assist me with my primary research.

Further thanks to my friends Andy, Andrew, Billy and Martin who put up with me

through this whole process. Additionally, I give thanks to my girl Brooke for putting up

with my ramblings late at night when things got on top of me.

Lastly, thanks to my family who supported me throughout the process and also

supporting me throughout University.


Sean Reilly

II. Abstract

The rise of Cloud Computing in recent years has sparked interest in many small

businesses to take advantage of cloud-based services for their business’ operations. The

Cloud Computing model promises a shift from a small business required to heavily invest

in limited resources that are managed internally, to a model where a small business can

out-source their business operations to a Cloud service provider and gain access to

powerful tools at a much lower cost.

Noticing this trend in the IT world raised the question, is it possible for an SME to

run their business operations entirely in the Cloud? This dissertation aims to answer this

question, through secondary research, by investigating:

The definition of the Cloud,

The composition of the Cloud,

What SMEs can do in the Cloud,

The benefits and drawbacks of running a business in the Cloud.

Primary research is also presented. This focuses on gathered data from interviews,

a survey and a small implementation experiment to provide further data to answer the

main research question

Guidelines have also been created. These guidelines provide advice for SMEs to

help guide them, should they wish to implement Cloud-based services in the future.


Sean Reilly

Chapter 1 – Project Overview

1.1 Introduction

Over the past five years, the popularity of Cloud Computing has dramatically grown.

Since 2008, when a number of Cloud services emerged, it has become part of many

people’s lives. Cloud Computing is a new way of delivering computer resources, ranging

from data storage (Dropbox, Google Drive) to Software (Microsoft Office), which are now

available instantly, commitment-free and on demand (ENISA, 2009). Since 2008, cloud

services have had time to mature and become more reliable, making it more attractive for

SMEs to adopt these services. However, a number of SMEs are not aware of the benefits

of cloud services and do not have the technical knowledge to fully utilise them. According

to a survey carried out by E.ON, 1.1 million SMEs (86%) in the UK do not recognise that

cloud computing could possibly have an impact on an SME’s energy expenditure.

Additionally, over a third (39%) of SMEs in the UK admitted to not knowing what Cloud

Computing is – specifically in the property and financial sectors in the UK, with only 28%

(in total) knowing what it is (Ponton, 2012). These facts show that SMEs who currently use

Cloud services - and those who do not - are not fully aware of the benefits it can provide.

This project aims to create a set of guidelines for SMEs who have yet to fully utilise cloud

services in their business. This project also aims to answer whether it is possible for an

SME to run its entire business operations through the use of cloud-based services.

1.2 Background on SMEs

According the European Commission of Enterprise and Industry, there are a number

of factors which determine whether or not a company is an SME. For a business to be

categorised as a micro enterprise, it must have a headcount (employees) of below 10; a

headcount of 50 or less employees is classed as a small enterprise; and a headcount of

250 employees or less is a medium-sized enterprise. However, headcount is only a small

factor in the categorisation of an SME. The turnover or the balance sheet totals of a

business also help define an SME (ECEI, 2012). Recent studies (DBIS, 2012) show that

SMEs account for 99.9% of all private sector businesses in the UK, and employ over 14

million people. Due to SMEs having a smaller form factor compared to their large

enterprise counterparts, SMEs have a distinct advantage and have a greater deal of

flexibility when it comes to implementing new technologies into their systems. This is the

main reason why SMEs are the most ideal candidates for investigation.


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1.3 Research Questions

The research questions were inspired by a situation in my personal life. Myself and a

friend want to set up a personal website, but due to the distance between us it is very

difficult for us to meet physically on a daily basis. We know what the cloud is and we use

services such as Dropbox – but we were not fully aware of the benefits and drawbacks

that come with using the cloud. This situation inspired me to seek answers for the

following questions:

What benefits can cloud services provide?

What are the drawbacks of using cloud services?

Can SMEs run their business operations using cloud-based services?

1.4 Project Objectives

To answer these questions, secondary and primary research methods will be used to

gather information so that the following objectives will be met:

Present Literature Review – the Literature Review will set the foundations for the

primary research, and will bring readers who may not be familiar with the subject

up-to-date on the current body of knowledge on Cloud Computing. Additionally,

the results from the literature review will be used to produce guidelines which

SMEs can use to assist with their move to the Cloud.

Primary Research – this section follows on from the literature review and will

present an appropriate research methodology to best fit the research objective.

Once an appropriate methodology is chosen, primary research will be taken and

the results from the primary research will be presented to the reader. A discussion

of the findings will also be presented.

Guidelines – with information gathered in the literature review and primary

research, a set of guidelines will be presented to the reader. These guidelines can

be used as a reference for SMEs who wish to move their business operations to

the Cloud.


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1.4 Scope and Limitations

Scope

This project will produce a literature review that covers the benefits and drawbacks

of using Cloud Computing. It will also cover the different types of model and service that

are currently available at this time of writing. The literature review carried out will display a

critical understanding of the subjects previously mentioned. Also, information gathered

through the use of primary research mentioned in section 1.4 will be used to achieve the

objectives listed in section 1.3.

Limitations

Due to limitations such as limited finances and time constraints, a much larger and

rigorous implementation of the cloud within an SME could not be completed. It would

have been ideal to implement the research on a larger scale; however a small

implementation has been completed.


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1.5 Structure

The structure of this project will be split into chapters. Below are the descriptions of what

each chapter will cover:

Chapter 1 – Provides a brief introduction to the subject area of the project; presents the

research questions/aims of the project; presents the objectives; and presents the scope

and any limitations faced during the project.

Chapter 2 – Introduces the reader to the first section of the literature review.

Chapter 3 – Introduces the reader to the second section of the literature review.

Chapter 4 – This chapter focuses on the information from the previous chapters and

concludes the literature review.

Chapter 5 – Details the primary research methods and techniques that are available, and

identifies the methods and techniques used for primary research.

Chapter 6 – This chapter introduces the primary research and presents the details of the

primary research results, such as surveys, interview and a small experiment.

Chapter 7 – Presents the discussion of the primary research results.

Chapter 8 – This chapter focuses concluding the dissertation.

Chapter 9 – This chapter is contains the guidelines.

Chapter 10 - This chapter focuses on what the writer has learned throughout the process

of writing this report.

References and Bibliography are also provided.


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Chapter 2 – Defining Cloud Computing

2.1 Introduction

To understand Cloud Computing as a whole, research was undertaken to fully

understand the main subject area. The purpose of this section of the literature review is to

provide an insight into the different perspectives of Cloud Computing, characteristics,

service models and infrastructure models. This part of the review also aims to set the

scene, highlighting questions like “What is the Cloud?” by presenting some perspectives

from large organisations within the IT industry.

2.2 Overview – What is the Cloud?

There are countless definitions to answer the question, “What is the Cloud?” Most

of the definitions are fairly common points; however, most of them elaborate on the

different capabilities of Cloud Computing.

The purpose of this overview is to provide the reader with different viewing angles

of Cloud Computing based on the standpoints expressed by large organisations within

the IT industry. Note that each of the definitions expressed are from organisations that

provide different types and therefore, we will be able to see different aspects of Cloud

Computing.

Microsoft

“We at Microsoft think about cloud computing as using computing not literally in a cloud,

for obvious reasons, but running software in a data center. Therefore, instead of running

software that resides only on a device, whether it’s a laptop or a phone, or sitting on a

server on premise, it is possible to run software that sits in a data center. Connectivity and

computing power in data centers has grown to the point that it's feasible for individuals

and institutions to move virtually all of their computing work out of their server rooms and

into somebody else's data center, whether it's a data center run by Microsoft, Google,

IBM, Amazon, or somebody else.” Microsoft (2012)


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It is clear that Microsoft’s approach to Cloud Computing is based on SaaS

(Software-as-a-Service). To summarise, SaaS is a service based on internet-accessible

service and using computer applications within the Cloud rather than using the software

on a local desktop. SaaS will be investigated in further detail in later studies.

IBM

“Cloud computing is a term used to describe both a platform and type of application. A

cloud computing platform dynamically provisions, configures, reconfigures, and

deprovisions servers as needed. Servers in the cloud can be physical machines or virtual

machines. Advanced clouds typically include other computing resources such as storage

area networks (SANs), network equipment, firewall and other security devices.

Cloud computing also describes applications that are extended to be accessible through

the Internet. These cloud applications use large data centers and powerful servers that

host Web applications and Web services. Anyone with a suitable Internet connection and

a standard browser can access a cloud application.” IBM (2007)

IBM’s view on Cloud Computing, despite it being a number of years old, is very

similar to Microsoft’s perspective. However, in IBM’s definition, cloud infrastructure

operations are mentioned. IBM is one of the leading companies who provide IT

infrastructure, and this definition shows that Cloud Computing provides reliable and

dynamically scalable cloud infrastructures to their clients.

Lastly, Oracle’s definition of Cloud Computing:

Oracle

“Cloud Computing is the convergence and evolution of several concepts from

virtualization, distributed application design, grid, and enterprise IT management to

enable a more flexible approach for deploying and scaling applications. Cloud enablers,

such as virtualization and grid computing, allow applications to be dynamically deployed

onto the most suitable infrastructure at run time.” (Oracle, 2010)

It is clear that Oracle’s approach to Cloud Computing is focusing on the flexibility

of the Cloud, and the scalability provided by virtualisation and grid computing. Oracle

specialise in selling virtualisation products, hence the larger focus on virtualisation

compared to IBM or Microsoft.


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All of the previous points contain different yet common viewpoints on Cloud

Computing, but now an overall definition of Cloud Computing will be presented. To help

readers understand the concept of “Cloud Computing”, the term should be defined.

2.3 Defining the term “Cloud Computing”

The term “Cloud Computing” is fairly new in the computing world. The term

“Cloud Computing” is most likely derived from notations from books that help define the

Internet. When most internet users see a Cloud icon, they understand that it is the

internet.

This gives average users a very basic understand of how things connect together,

such as computers and mobile phones - but for the Cloud Computing world, the Cloud is

a “commonly used definition describes it as clusters of distributed computers (largely vast

data centres and server farms) which provide on-demand resources and services over a

networked medium (usually the Internet).” (Sultan, 2010)

Cloud Computing Notation

Fig.1 Cloud Computing (2012)


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There are countless definitions of what the Cloud is, many of which a number of

experts disagree with. Sultan’s (2010) definition gives a very basic definition, but it is very

easy to understand, as it only defines the hardware and what the user requires to access

the data and software on said hardware. Due to the large number of definitions, it is

difficult to find a true, comprehensive definition that gives a clear idea of the different

concepts of the Cloud.

A number of experts in Cloud Computing have varied opinions on how to truly

define Cloud Computing. Many focus on the business models, others focus on user-

friendliness, and others focus purely on the types of services offered. Markus Klems

believes that immediate scalability and the optimisation of resource usage are key

elements for the Cloud:

“You can scale your infrastructure on demand within minutes or even seconds,

instead of days or weeks, thereby avoiding under-utilization (idle servers) and over-

utilization (blue screen) of in-house resources.” (Klems, 2008)

Kelms is referring to rapid elasticity, which is essentially a ‘rename’ of scalability. To

summarise, rapid elasticity is the ability to scale resources as needed. A common example

of scalability is the ability to add or remove capacity to or from an IT environment when

needed (Schouten, 2012).

However, Brian de Haaff disagrees that scalability is a key requirement for an

infrastructure to be considered as a Cloud:

“There really are only three types of services that are cloud based: SaaS, PaaS, and

Cloud Computing Platforms. I am not sure being massively scalable is a requirement to fit

into any one category” (Haaff, 2008).

Jeff Kaplan (2008) prefers to define the cloud based on the business model and

the reduction of expenditure, compared to Brian de Haff and Markus Kelms who define

the cloud based on the types of service model and the scalability. Jeff Kaplan defines

Cloud Computing as:

“A broad array of web-based services aimed at allowing users to obtain a wide

range of functional capabilities on a 'pay-as-you-go' basis that previously required

tremendous hardware/software investments and professional skills to acquire”

(Kaplan, 2008).


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If you combine these three definitions into one, Cloud Computing appears a

concept which provides a number of service models (SaaS, PaaS), computing resources

and software resources. Correspondingly, using the Cloud for resources depending on

demand (scalability) brings another concept to clients, a web-based “pay-as-you-go”

business model, which can also be defined as utility computing. All the points mentioned

are parts of the cloud; nevertheless, it still is not a comprehensive definition.

With the varied definitions from a number of experts it is difficult to piece together

any actual definitions that make sense. One of the biggest issues is vagueness and lack of

precision in detailing these complex topics. Figure 2 provides a summarised list of

definitions from prominent figures in Cloud Computing, summarised by Luis et al. (2009).

The figure shows the scope and variety of definitions within the Cloud Computing world

and also shows how exasperating it is to find a general definition.


Sean Reilly


Sean Reilly

Table 2-1: List of definitions adapted from Luis et al. (2009)

From the previous adapted list it is very difficult to identify a ‘true’ definition of

Cloud Computing. Most experts seem to take a biased approach to the Cloud; therefore

there is no comprehensive definition. However, The National Institute of Standards and

Technology (NIST) have taken the task of publishing a new definition for Cloud

Computing for a number of years to cover all the opinions and the characterisations of

Cloud Computing. They realise that Cloud Computing is an “evolving paradigm”, and

actively seek comments from experts to help further define the Cloud. NIST defines Cloud

Computing as a:

“Model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of

configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and

services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or

service provider interaction.” (NIST, 2011)

NIST’s aim is to provide a definition that covers the characterisation and opinions

that exist. The previous quote is from their 16th final edition of “The NIST Definition of

Cloud Computing” (NIST, 2011) which covers the characteristics and service models

available. It covers the main characteristics and services; however, an expert disagrees

with their deployment model definition. Yung Chou (2011) states that the NIST (2011)

definition presents “a conceptual model envisioning what Cloud Computing is and about”.


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Conversely, he then notes that the deployment model definition is “inconvenient” and

does not accurately describe the deployment models decorously.

What we can take from this is that defining Cloud Computing properly is very

difficult to achieve, if not nearly impossible. This section has given some viewpoints of

large IT organisations on what Cloud Computing is, and also a number of experts’ views

to demonstrate how complicated it is to achieve a comprehensive definition. This is

unfortunate, since the lack of a comprehensive definition means that businesses need to

seek products and services that work for them, many of which may not effectively provide

the benefits that businesses are seeking, all because of the lack of an accepted definition.

Many IT experts will continuously argue over a comprehensive definition, but that does

not mean that they have to be listened to. It is best to find a service in the cloud that

works for each particular business, and let the experts argue over the true definition.

For this dissertation, a set definition from one of the experts listed will not be

followed. However, for the sake of informing readers about what the Cloud is composed

of, it will follow some aspects of the NIST definition document to aid in the structure and

to help inform readers of the composition of the Cloud.


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Chapter 3 – Composition of the Cloud

As previously discussed in section 2.3, it is very difficult to provide a true definition

that provides enough detail on what the Cloud really is. The purpose of this section is to

detail the main compositions of the Cloud to help gain a basic understanding of what it is

composed of before detailing the benefits of using the Cloud and the potential drawbacks

of running a business in the Cloud.

3.1 Characteristics

As previously mentioned, it is very difficult to define Cloud Computing properly.

Now, to help understand the capabilities of Cloud Computing, the characteristics will be

identified. The NIST has published its final definition of Cloud Computing and it has

identified five essential characteristics of Cloud Computing (NIST, 2011):

3.1.1 On-demand Self-service – Allows provisioning of computing capabilities. Example of

this is provisioning of network storage, as needed automatically. Provision can be

accomplished without requiring human interaction with each service provider.

3.1.2 Broad Network Access – Cloud capabilities are available over the network and using

standard mechanisms provided by thin or thick client platforms heterogeneously. An

example of this is accessing cloud capabilities through the use of tablets or mobile

phones.

3.1.3 Resource Pooling - The provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple

consumers using a multi-tenant model. Different physical and virtual resources are

assigned and reassigned in a dynamic way in harmony with the consumer’s demand. The

consumer has no knowledge or control over which location the resources are provided

from. However, consumers may be able to identify the location at a higher level of

abstraction. An example of this is a country, state, or a datacentre. Examples of the

resources include storage, processing, memory, and network bandwidth.

3.1.4 Rapid Elasticity – This allows for rapid elastically provisioning and release; in some

cases this is done automatically. It also allows for to quick scaling outward and inward to

be commensurate with consumer demand. From the consumer standpoint, the

capabilities of the service appear to be unlimited and are appropriated by the consumer

as demanded.


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3.1.5 Measured Service - Systems automatically control and optimise resources using

metering capabilities which are appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage,

processing, and bandwidth.) Measured service allows for transparency between the

service provider and the client. The usage of resources demanded by the consumer can

be monitored, controlled, and reported.

3.2 Service Models

The National Institute of Standards and Technology state that a cloud

infrastructure is a collection of hardware and software, both of which enable the

characteristics detailed in the previous section. NIST also note that the infrastructure of the

Cloud can be regarded as comprising both a physical layer and an abstraction layer. The

physical layer consists of hardware resources to support the services offered, and the

abstraction layer consists of the hardware deployed on the physical layer. In order for

end-users to access services, three service models must be in place:

o Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

o Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

o Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

There is a multitude of service platforms including Storage-as-a-Service, Security-

as-a-Service, Data-as-a-Service, and Backend-as-a-Service. For this study only the three

service models previously mentioned will be investigated. Each of the three service

models will be detailed to give a basic understanding of each service model.

3.2.1 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Traditionally, software is distributed in the form of a physical format medium (CD,

DVD) and the software is installed on a personal computer, often referred to as Software-

as-a-Product. SaaS is a service model in which applications are hosted by vendors and

made available to end-users over the Internet. (Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2010).

SaaS is typically implemented to provide software to the end-user at a low cost

whilst allowing the end-user access to the same benefits of a physical product, without the

complexities of sourcing the product, installing and the high cost of purchasing. Many

types of software are well suited to the SaaS model, such as word processing, email clients

and video communication software. The difference between SaaS and other applications

delivered over the Internet is that SaaS products are specifically developed to work in an

end-user’s web browser. This allows the end-user to use the software without the worry of


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not having the most up-to-date hardware components in their computer (Rittinghouse &

Ransome, 2010).

SaaS applications are not locally installed on PCs like physical products are, with

the SaaS-based applications architecture designed to support a multitude of customers

using the application at once. However, traditional desktop software (e.g., Microsoft

Office) can be converted to work as a SaaS model.

To summarise SaaS as a whole, John Rittinghouse and James Ransome (2010) detail a

few key characteristics which only specify a few key points and are not suitable to give a

basic summary of SaaS. To provide a more full view of SaaS, Barrie Sosinsky (2011) details

a list of key characteristics which is more suitable to give a basic summary of SaaS. The

characteristics are as follows:

The software from SaaS services is made available over the Internet through a

browser on demand.

The license for the software is typically subscription or usage-based and end-users

are billed on a recurring basis e.g., monthly, annually.

The service and the software are monitored by the service provider, regardless of

whether all of the software components are running. The service provider also

maintains the software and service.

Due to the reduced distribution, maintenance costs and minimal end-user system

costs typically make SaaS applications cheaper than locally installed software.

SaaS applications typically feature automatic upgrades, updates and have much

faster roll-out changes.

SaaS applications tend to have a lower barrier of entry than locally installed

software, since the end-user is aware of the recurring costs and the services can

scale on demand.

All end-users have the same version of the software to allow compatibility between

other end-users’ software.

SaaS also supports multiple users and provides a shared data model through

single-instance and multi-tenancy models.

Now that the basics of the SaaS model have been identified, the Platform-as-a-Service

(PaaS) will be detailed.


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3.2.2 Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

Platform-as-a-Service is essentially an extension of the SaaS application delivery

model. It is a software environment that allows businesses to create custom solutions

within the context of the development provided within the platform, such as virtualised

servers and operating systems. It is also a way for businesses to rent virtualised servers

and services associated with the platform for running their existing applications. (Sosinsky,

2011) Using the PaaS model allows end-users to interact with the software to perform

actions, get results, and to the degree that the service provider allows it, customise their

platform. However, the end-user is not responsible for maintaining hardware, software, or

developing applications and is only responsible for their interaction with the platform.

Only the service provider is responsible for the maintenance (Sosinsky, 2011).

3.2.3 Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

Infrastructure-as-a-Service is the first major layer in Cloud Computing architecture.

IaaS is basically the delivery of Infrastructure-as-a-Service, and leverages technology,

services and data centres to deliver IT as a service to end-users. The service providers

manage the transition and the hosting of the applications selected by the end-user. The

end-users maintain ownership and the management of how their application works;

however, the operations and the infrastructure management are maintained by the IaaS

provider. IaaS providers typically provide the computer hardware for the end-users, the

network (routers, firewalls, etc.) internet connectivity, the virtualised environment and the

service level agreements (Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2010).

End-users rent the storage space, servers and network equipment rather than

purchasing them. Typically, these types of service are billed on a monthly basis and are

charged based on the amount of resources consumed by the end-user. Using these types

of service allows businesses to run without the worry of maintaining hardware

(Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2010).

3.2.4 Service Models Conclusion

For an SME, depending on what its needs are, SaaS would be the most realistic

approach. It allows the service providers to handle all hardware and software

maintenance; however, these services come at a price, many of which will be detailed in

the section on the benefits and drawbacks of using Cloud Computing.


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3.3 Deployment Models

The characteristics and service models have been detailed. To gain a further

understanding before the benefits and drawbacks are discussed, the NIST (2011) have

defined four deployment models, which Cloud Computing is composed of, and

represents a specific type of cloud environment. The deployment models are as follows:

3.3.1 Public Cloud

The public cloud infrastructure is accessible to the general public and typically has

a pay-as-you-go model of payment. The infrastructure may be managed, owned, etc. by

businesses, academic institutions, or the government. The infrastructure exists on the

service provider’s premises.

3.3.2 Private Cloud

The private cloud infrastructure is exclusively used by a single organisation,

typically embracing multiple users (e.g., departments). The infrastructure may be located

within the organisation’s premises or managed by a third party. The organisation may

also own, manage or operate the infrastructure or it may be a combination of the

organisation’s infrastructure and third-party infrastructure.

3.3.3 Community Cloud

The community cloud infrastructure is exclusively used by a community of end-

users from multiple organisations who share the same concerns for their business (e.g.

their mission, security, policy). Like the private cloud, it may be managed by one, or more

than one of the organisations, or can be exclusively managed by a third party.

3.3.4 Hybrid Cloud

The hybrid infrastructure combines two or more cloud infrastructures (community,

private, or public) and they are “bound together by standardised or proprietary

technology that enables data and application portability” (NIST, 2011).

3.4 Summary

This section has examined the various compositions of the cloud to gain a basic

understanding of the characteristics, service models and the deployment models that

exist. With this knowledge, the benefits and the drawbacks of Cloud Computing will be

discussed in the next section to gain a further understanding and to also help with

producing a set of guidelines.


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Chapter 4 - Running a Business in the Cloud

In the previous sections, the definition of the Cloud was discussed to demonstrate

the confusion and lack of a standard definition. Discovering this inspired later sections,

such as describing the characteristics, service models and deployment models to

understand what the Cloud is composed of. It is easy to understand why there is lack of a

standard definition, specifically due to the myriad of service model types. However, this

section focuses on the benefits and drawbacks an SME could face if it wishes to run its

business in the Cloud. An overview of the benefits and drawbacks will be discussed, which

could potentially aid in creating the guidelines for SMEs to follow if they wish to make full

use of the Cloud within their business. Additionally, a section named “What can you do in

the Cloud?” discusses the opportunities and the challenges an SME has to consider before

moving to the Cloud, and also the types of service available for SMEs. Fundamentally, this

final section is the conclusion to the literature review.

4.1 Benefits and Drawbacks

The main reason why SMEs wish to utilise cloud services is both for the financial

savings and resource management (Lin & Chen, 2012). For SMEs, an obvious financial

benefit is the savings from purchasing, maintaining and running hardware and software

infrastructures. Thus, their capital investment in hardware and software is reduced. This

introduces an opportunity for SMEs to acquire IT capabilities they may not have been able

to afford previously (Lin & Chen, 2012). SMEs have taken notice of this and this is

demonstrated in research conducted by Easynet Connect, which shows that SMEs are

eager to adopt cloud services. 47% plan to do so within the next five years, with 35% of

them showing that cost savings are a major factor for utilising cloud services (Stening,

2009).

Furthermore, universal access to software applications and services hosted by

vendors can bring additional financial benefits, as SMEs would no longer need to invest

further for software license fees. Also, due to the elasticity cloud vendors provide in their

services, it could lead to further reductions in terms of resource management, and they

only need to pay for what they use.

Conversely, Sultan (2011) argues some concerns with regard to using these

services. He states that vendor lock-in and failures are two main issues to contend with.

Many service providers provide their services through proprietary interfaces, and there are

no Cloud Computing standards for APIs (Application Programming Interface), the storage

of business data for recovery, and the import and export of data if businesses wish to


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change vendors. Additionally, the failure of a cloud vendor that stores the information

can have solemn ramifications for the end users who trusted their data with their selected

vendor.

Sultan (2011) does say that there are some efforts to address these issues which

have come into fruition. With regard to the issues mentioned previously, a body such as

the Cloud Security Interoperability Forum was created for the sole purpose of promoting

the creation of a set standardisation of application program interfaces and platform

technologies. Setting this standard would allow companies to easily transfer their data

from one cloud service provider to another, thus preventing vendor lock-in.

As stated by Sarna (2011) and Sosinsky (2011), an additional advantage of using

cloud services is the reduced cost of IT staff within the business. Because the infrastructure

and hardware is located on the service provider’s service, the business no longer needs

dedicated in-house IT staff to maintain an infrastructure. However, Khajeh-Hosseini et al.

(2012) argue that an organisational change associated with moving to the Cloud is

difficult. They argue that it will take a great deal of management effort to fully move to

the Cloud, and project managers should be put in place to maintain the use of cloud

services within the business. Additionally, Khajeh-Hosseini et al. (2012) say that, due lack

of IT staff; end-users have to depend on IT staff from the cloud service to fix potential

issues. They do not have the ability to tell their service provider to prioritise their issues as

they could before with IT staff in their own department.

An advantage identified by Sosinsky (2011) is reliability. Due to the scale of the

computing network and the abilities they have, such as load-balancing, it makes cloud

services highly reliable. Typically, cloud services are more reliable than what can be

achieved within a single organisation.

Conversely, Sultan (2011) and Lin and Chen (2012) argue that reliability can also

be a major disadvantage. The uncertainty of availability of services and reliability,

especially concerning unexpected downtime and disruption, could possibly deter SMEs

from using cloud services as it could potentially increase project and business risk. An

example of this situation is the downtime of Saleforce.com services. Customers had no

access to the service for six hours due to a system upgrade. Additionally, Amazon EC2

experienced outages in one of their East Coast facilities because of a power failure in their

data centre (Khajeh-Hosseini et al., 2012). For SMEs, these situations could be calamitous

for their businesses. Having no access to their data of applications could result in the loss

of a day’s work.


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There is a myriad of third-party cloud storage services available for regular

consumers or businesses to use. An SME may upload word documents to Dropbox, for

example, which then allows employees to access these documents from home.

Additionally, it eliminates dead time since employees can continue writing up reports from

home without physically being present in the office. However, this does raise the question

of whether or not data is secure in the Cloud. The ENISA (2009) has stated that utilising

cloud services can have additional security benefits. Due to the larger scale nature of

cloud services, security services are much cheaper to implement and have better

protection. Also, they stated that data can be stored in multiple locations. This, however,

raises other concerns about the Cloud. Data Protection of business documents is a

drawback, as Cloud Computing potentially poses several risks for businesses (ENISA

2009). Businesses may be unaware of where their data is held or who is controlling their

confidential data. Various government bodies are trying to address these issues, such as

the European Union, and to place privacy regulations that prohibit transmission of various

types of personal file outside of the EU. They have also prompted cloud service providers

to give users the option to choose the geographical location of where to store their files

(Sultan, 2011).

The previous points discussed clearly demonstrate the number of benefits the

Cloud can have to businesses, and also the potential drawbacks they could face. With the

benefits and drawbacks stated by Sultan (2011), Sarna (2011), Sosinsky (2011), Lin and

Chen (2012), ENISA (2009) and Khajeh-Hosseini et al., (2012), the points made assisted

with the increase of knowledge on the subject at hand. With the knowledge gained in this

section, primary research can now be undertaken to gain further knowledge on how to

produce guidelines that would be suitable for SMEs.

4.2 What can you do on the Cloud?

Now that the characteristics, service models, deployment models and benefits and

drawbacks have been discussed, we have a greater understanding of what the Cloud is

composed of and the benefits and drawbacks it can bring to an SME if it wishes to run its

business in the cloud. This section will detail what SMEs could potentially use in the Cloud,

while incorporating some of the points made in previous sections to summarise the

literature review in relation to the main research question.

Motahari-Nezhad et al. (2009) state that the idea of a company running a business

online is not new. With the popularity of Cloud Computing, more businesses have taken

advantage and are now outsourcing their business processing to cloud services.

Motahari-Nezhad et al. (2009) refer to this as a “virtual business” in which a majority or all


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of small businesses’ functions are outsourced to online services. Like in previous sections

of this literature review, Motahari-Nezhad et al. (2009) identified elements of the Cloud

such as SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, and DaaS (Database-as-a-Service, which was not described in

detail in this literature review.) With SaaS, SMEs can use software applications that are

offered as a service over the Internet instead of an individual software package purchased

by an individual customer to be used on one computer. Miller (2009) details a myriad of

examples that could be used in SMEs, some even for free. Web-based products like

Google Calendar can be used in an organisation to create both personal and shared

organisational calendars for the business. Due to the nature of SaaS, businesses can use

products like Google Calendar on multiple devices instead of being restricted to one

device. Small businesses can even use word processing software on the Cloud using

Office 365. Office 365 allows small businesses to create Word documents, PowerPoint

presentations, email and calendars online for a fixed monthly price through an internet

web browser. This means that end-users within the business no longer need to purchase

a full licence to use the Office suite for a single computer. The only requirement to access

Office 365 is a web browser and a monthly subscription based on a per-month, per-user

basis. This allows end-users to access their documents from any device at any time,

allowing end-users to work from home or on the move. However, calendars and word

processors are only a couple of examples. Small businesses can use services in the Cloud

to collaborate on event management, contact and customer relationship management,

databases, project management, file storage and file sharing (Miller, 2009).

If the small business’s focus is on development of software applications, PaaS

provides facilities for businesses to help support the entire development lifecycle including

the design of the application, implementation, debugging, testing, deployment, operation

and support entirely on the Cloud. Services from Salesforce.com, Microsoft and Google

App Engine enable PaaS and SaaS users to develop add-ons and standalone applications

collaboratively as a team (Motahari-Nezhad et al., 2009). This enables the developers in

the company to create their applications from different locations, which is helpful if some

members of the development team are unable to meet physically, thus reducing dead

time.

With IaaS, businesses can rent hardware resources (storage) and computing power

as a service, instead of spending money to purchase dedicated servers and networking

equipment (Motahari-Nezhad et al., 2009). Services like Amazon EC2 offer businesses

virtual environments where they can deploy and run their programs. Typically, this type of

cloud architecture is aimed at larger enterprises with a large consumer base that use the


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application provided by the business. For smaller businesses, SaaS or PaaS are more likely

to be used.

From the examples discussed previously, it is clear that there is a range of choices

for SMEs to run their businesses in the Cloud. Moving all business processes into the

Cloud can have a number of advantages that are attractive for smaller businesses, like

financial savings. By using these services, it allows small business to perform some basic

business processes free of charge or at a low monthly price. Furthermore, Google Drive

allows users to store their data for free. Previously, businesses would need to purchase

hardware to store their data locally; however, using cloud services allows SMEs to acquire

IT capabilities they made not have been able to afford at a much lower price. The benefits

of using these types of service are obvious, but it is very important for SMEs to realise the

potential risks of moving their entire business processes into the Cloud. The recognisable

risks are security of data and loss of control. Furthermore, cloud services may have

outages which could potentially prevent the end-users in the business from working.

Another great concern is the unknown of where data is actually stored. If governments

decided to shut down cloud services in the US, this could potentially threaten small

businesses in the UK.

Even though the benefits are obvious, it is very important for small businesses to

strategise their implementation of the Cloud. Some of the drawbacks mentioned can be

reduced if a strategy is used to implement the Cloud into a business. To allow businesses

to run in the Cloud, Motahari-Nezhad et al. (2009) have created a strategy to aid in the

development of a virtual business operating environment, where businesses have their

own secure environment which allows them to use the Cloud services in an interoperated

manner. This means that all of the cloud services used in the business is in an easy-to-

access, secure environment where all the services used work together with ease. However,

this framework will not be used here due to the limitations of this dissertation and the fact

that each business is unique and may need a custom solution to implement the Cloud. In

the Motahari-Nezhad et al. (2009) example business, they identified two issues of their

exemplary business, and designed the framework around this type of environment. The

two issues were, ensuring a smooth migration process of legacy applications within the

business environment to the Cloud, and to find and select a service that meets the

business requirements and ensures that the services interoperate. Due to the limitations of

this dissertation, a virtual business environment solving the types of issue mentioned

cannot be created for an SME. Unfortunately, this cannot be fully implemented due to

time and financial constraints in the primary research section. Instead, a small experiment

has taken place. More of this is detailed in the next section.


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Motahari-Nezhad et al. (2009) have stated that smaller businesses tend to use the

public cloud more than the private cloud. Figure 2 shows that SaaS covers a larger

spectrum of users within the business. For the primary research experiment, SaaS will be

the main focus as it covers a larger end-user base.

Cloud Customers vs. Cloud Services

Fig.2: Cloud customers vs. Cloud Services (2009)


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4.3 Conclusion

From the previous sections, it is clear that there is no set definition for the Cloud. A

number of experts have specified their own delineation of what they consider to be “the

Cloud”, yet each definition provided makes the Cloud more mystifying and mysterious.

This inspired further research of the composition of the Cloud to help find out exactly

what it is composed of. With this information we can get an idea of how the Cloud

functions, and also see why it is easy to find no simple definition of what the Cloud is. The

benefits and drawbacks of the Cloud were also investigated once the composition of the

Cloud was clear. It was obvious that moving to the Cloud does have its benefits, yet a

number of drawbacks may hold back SMEs from fully moving to the Cloud. This

information will assist with the production of the guidelines, and will also help with further

research in the primary research section. With these findings, it may also be possible to

answer the main research question.

For this dissertation, no set definition from any of the experts mentioned will be

followed. The main objective of this dissertation is to find out whether or not it is possible

for an SME to run its entire business in the Cloud. The reason for this is due to the

multitude of options and services available for businesses. It is hoped that the guidelines

will provide clear and concise advice on how to prepare and make the right choices that

are suitable. In other words, instead of following a definition of what the Cloud is, a set of

guidelines will be made which will allow businesses to make their own definition based on

services that suit their needs.


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Chapter 5 - Research Methodology

5.1 Objective

The objective behind this chapter is to present an overview of the different types of

research methods to the reader. This section will also detail what method was chosen and

why it was chosen. Following this, a section detailing the analysis of the primary research

data will be presented.

5.2 Secondary Research

Before fully executing primary research, pieces of literature were obtained. To

accomplish the secondary research for this dissertation a number of academic journals,

books and articles were sourced for review and to extract information that is deemed

relevant to answering the research question. When sourcing these documents, care was

taken when reading them to make sure that the sources and information was credible.

However, from the secondary research it is very difficult to fully answer the

research question. There is an added benefit of also conducting primary research, and this

dissertation will attempt to perform effective primary research with a number of SMEs.

5.3 Research Methods

To progress with the primary research, a type of research methodology must be

chosen. In the early stages of the dissertation, it was decided that surveys and interviews

would be used as a form of primary research. Further research was taken to fully

understand quantitative research, qualitative research and mixed method research.


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5.3.1 Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is “Explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that

are analysed using mathematically based methods (in particular statistics)” (Muijs, 2004).

The aim of using quantitative research is to be as objective as possible by discovering and

basing the conclusions on the statistical findings. Whatever is being researched, it must be

capable of being expressed in terms of numbers, for example, percentages and averages

(Greetham, 2009). An example of quantitative research is a survey. These are made up of

pre-determined response categories, with the responses to the questions fitting into the

pre-determined set of categories (Patton, 2002). Surveys can be used to get a general

picture of a situation, which then in turn can support and illustrate this data with data that

comes from qualitative research (Greetham, 2009).

Surveys have many advantages. Producing a survey can be cheap in terms of time

and cost, and can also have the possibility to cover large numbers of potential

organisations. Additionally, the respondent does not feel under pressure to complete the

survey as they can complete it in their own time (Greetham, 2009).

Surveys can also have disadvantages. The most common limitation with surveys is

that it is difficult to receive a high response rate. If surveys are submitted online, the

response rate could be as low as 10%. Greetham (2009) has produced a table detailing

the advantages and disadvantages.

Table 5-1: Quantitative Research

Advantages Disadvantages

1 Cheap in terms of time and cost 1 Low rate of response

2 Possible to cover large number of

potential respondents

2 Tend to favour the more literate

respondents

3 Not limited to geographic area 3 Simple questions limit the depth of

response

4 Reliable and objective

5 Questions are the same for all

respondents

6 They can work at their own pace

7 Can cover the most sensitive

question


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5.3.2 Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is the collection of data which is analysed and interpreted by

what people do or say. This type of research is much more subjective compared to

quantitative research, as it uses different methods for collecting information (Anderson

2006). The data taken from qualitative research cannot be converted into numerical form

since the data is based on attitudes or feelings towards the subject matter. However, this

sort of material is rich with insights into human behaviour and attitudes (Greetham, 2009).

Using qualitative research can have its benefits. For example, interviews give the

researcher the chance to “probe deeper” compared to using surveys (Greetham, 2009).

They also give you the chance to explore issues which may not have been anticipated

based on the question created for the interview.

Qualitative research can also have its disadvantages. If multiple interviews are

conducted it can be difficult to set the time to transcribe. Additionally, it can take time to

analyse what is being said, and attempting to draw comparisons between interviews can

also be difficult. Bryan Greetham (2009) has produced a table displaying the advantages

and disadvantages.

Table 5-2: Qualitative Research

Advantages Disadvantages

1 Flexibility to probe deeper 1 Difficult to make comparisons

2 Explore unanticipated issues 2 Difficult to generalise

3 See when someone doesn’t

understand the question

3 Time needed to transcribe

and draw out implications

4 Non-verbal communication 4 Biased opinion of the subject

5 Interviewees have more

control of their responses

6 Richer and deeper material


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5.4 Chosen Research Method

For this dissertation, it has been decided that a mixed research method will be

used. A mixed method research means “adopting a research strategy employing more

than one type of research method” (Brannen, 2005). Typically, a mixed method research is

the mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Using mixed method research also means

working with different types of data, for example, surveys and interviews (Brannen, 2005).

Using this type of method allows the researcher to balance trends from the quantitative

data with the data from the qualitative research; for example, people’s attitudes towards a

trend within Cloud Computing. Essentially, mixed methods research allows the researcher

to triangulate findings from different sources (Greetham, 2009).

The reason for choosing this type of research method for the dissertation is that it

allows a more broad view of people’s opinions. For example, if a survey was to be

conducted it would limit the types of question and response received. Combining a survey

with interviews allows for richer data to be captured and analysed.

Cloud Computing is such a large area (as shown in the literature review), and

limiting the type of research would not provide beneficial results to fully answer the

research question. To cover a large spectrum of users, a survey was created to obtain a

large number of quantitative data for analysis.

5.4.1 Survey

It was decided early in the survey creation process that a mix of open-ended and

closed questions would be created. By doing this it allows the respondents to give their

own opinion or additional option to the question asked. This allows access to richer

information that would not have been available if closed questions were exclusively used

throughout the survey. Ideally, the primary research for this dissertation would include a

rigorous structured observation of an SME over a significant time-frame over the course

of this dissertation, but unfortunately, due to the time constraints, it was not possible.

However, a small experiment set over a number of days has taken place, which will be

discussed further in the primary research section.


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5.4.2 Semi-structured Interview

For the interviews a semi-structured method was followed. This allowed the

interviewer to ask open-ended question and discuss matters further which would not be

possible through a survey (Saunders et al, 2012). Semi-structured interviews can be

carried out in a number of ways, such as face-to-face, group interviews, telephone

interviews, video conference interviews and over email. For this dissertation, face-to-face

interviewing was chosen. Saunders et al. (2012) states that seeing the body language and

reactions to questions allows the interviewer to gauge certain gestures and tones of voice

which otherwise would not have been possible to gauge using other interview methods.

5.4.3 Small Experiment

As mentioned previously, originally the primary research would entail a rigorous

observation of an SME over a number of weeks. However, due to the time constraints this

was not possible. Fortunately, a small business kindly offered assistance with the primary

research. This small experiment took place over the course of five days, from April 1st,

2013, to April 5th, with April 6th being the day that the results were measured. This

experiment did not necessary follow a set methodology due to the limited available time

of the small business and the time constraints of this dissertation. Before the experiment

was conducted, a small interview took place. Once the experiment was over, an additional

interview took place with the business owner to allow him to give his opinion on using the

Cloud. This interview will also allow the researcher to see the impact of the

implementation and to see if it would be possible for this small business to run its business

operations in the Cloud. Further details of this experiment can be found in the primary

research section.

5.5 Conclusion

A mixed method approach for research has been espoused to obtain information

to help answer the main research question. The use of a mix of open-ended and closed

questions in the survey, mixed with a semi-structured interview and a small experiment

allows for deeper understanding and a greater insight to build upon the outcomes of the

secondary research and answer the main research question, ‘Is it possible for SMEs to run

their business operations entirely in the Cloud?’.


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Chapter 6 – Primary Research Results

6.1 Objectives

The objective of this chapter is to provide the reader with the results of the semi-

structured interview, survey, and the small experiment with a local SME. For the semi-

structured interview, the main points discovered will be highlighted. The survey results will

be presented to the reader along with justification for each question asked. Details of the

small experiment will also be presented.

6.2 Interview

As mentioned in the previous section, it was decided early on in the dissertation

process that an interview and a survey would take place. To assist with creating questions

for the survey, an interview took place first to help with creating survey questions. An

interview was arranged with Gordon Dow, CEO of the Power Lunch Club. The interview

took place on February 15th, 2013, at Waverly Gate, Edinburgh. This section will feature

the main points that are considered to be important in relation to the other primary

research results and the literature review. However, the full transcript for this interview can

be found in Appendix 1.

The first question asked was “How would you define The Cloud?” This is perhaps

the most appropriate first question to ask as it was the starting point for this dissertation

and uncovered some interesting results. Before asking this question, it was expected that

the answer would most likely entail the storage and accessing of documents. What we

have learned from the literature review is that the Cloud is much more than just a virtual

place to store documents and access from any computer. Gordon Dow defined the Cloud

as:

“An area where you would store business documents. The Cloud is a generic area

where you access your business information - such as databases or texts without being

tied to an individual computer - whilst also having the ability to access it anywhere in the

world.”


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It is clear that Dow has an understanding of what the Cloud is capable of and

some of the literature agrees with this viewpoint. For example, McFedries (2008) agrees

that documents can be stored but also that software can be accessed on a range of

devices. Dow also identified this point when asked about his view on the positives and

negatives of the Cloud. He said that the Cloud

“allows you to work anywhere remotely on a range of devices, such as an iPad and

iPhone. The ease of access to your information and software is much greater since you

no longer need to carry large laptops to access information”.

However, when asked about what he thinks the negatives of the cloud are, he

states that the major downside of the cloud is data ownership. For Dow, this is major

sticking point as there is still “a lot of unanswered questions” when it comes to data

ownership. Once again, the literature also agrees with his concerns. As discussed in the

benefits and drawbacks section, the ENISA (2009) believe that data protection is a major

drawback and poses several risks for businesses. Most small businesses are unaware of

where their data is held or who is controlling their confidential data. This concern that

Dow has is a recurring theme throughout the interview, and it is also the primary reason

he does not use cloud-based services due to all the unanswered questions. Dow also

believes that small businesses that do use cloud-based services have not “fully thought

through what the implications of using the Cloud are for their data, should anything go

wrong.” Due to this recurring theme throughout the interview, it was decided that this

particular issue will be mentioned in the guidelines. It is important for small businesses to

consider this, as Dow states that “an iPad, iPhone etc. can be easily replaced; however, if

you lose your data this could be costly. This is what small businesses don’t think about”.

Additionally, this issue will also be an option in one of the questions in the survey to see if

this is also an issue for other small businesses.

When asked “Do you think that a business can run exclusively using the Cloud?”

this garnered similar details which have been mentioned in the literature review. As

identified in the literature review, small businesses can use tools through web browsers,

such as “analytical tools to produce management and financial reports”. He believes that

businesses can exclusively run their day-to-day business operations in the Cloud with

relative ease; however, once again the issue of who owns the data, also discovered in the

literature review, is still a concern.

Due to this response, and mostly out of curiosity, Dow was asked “How has the

Internet changed the way you have done business over your career?” Dow said that it has

made “it easier to communicate with other businesses” using email services, for example.


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To also further communicate with businesses, bi-weekly email newsletters are also

sent out to confirm appointments with the Power Lunch Club. To create the invoices, Dow

is currently using a Microsoft Access database to create the invoices and to store

customer data. He noted that in the future he is considering looking into online database

alternatives to create invoices and store this customer data through a web browser

instead of a desktop application. Furthermore, all of the marketing for the Power Lunch

Club is done through social media, such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. The

interesting point to take away from this question is that he does in fact use cloud-based

services for some of his business operations. Dow defines the cloud as a storage service

where you can access documents from any device, but the Cloud provides much more

than that. Technically, he has contradicted himself by saying that he does not use the

Cloud, but in fact, for some of the business operations for the Power Lunch Club he does

use cloud-based services. This is perhaps due to the fact that he perceives the Cloud as

his own definition and does not perceive that the other services he uses are cloud-based.

Furthermore, despite saying that he does not trust the Cloud due to all of the unanswered

questions regarding data protection, he is still considering moving his local database to an

online service to produce invoices on a web browser. Again, this may be due to him not

defining the Cloud as an online database to store and create invoices online, but only to

access and store the data without being tied to an individual computer.

With the responses Dow has given it has inspired some key questions in the

survey. It is hoped that with the questions created, similar responses may be given in

terms of how businesses define the Cloud and what cloud-based services they use for

their day-to-day business operations. With this survey and the small experiment, it is

hoped that the research question can be answered.

6.3 Survey

From the start of this dissertation, a survey and an observation of an SME using

cloud-based services was the main aim for the primary research. As mentioned in section

5.4.3, only a small experiment can take place due to time and financial constraints, but the

data collected from this experiment is still valuable. To create this survey, two existing

surveys from ENISA (2009) and Bournemouth University (2009) were used for some of the

options and questions within this survey. In terms of the survey it has been very

successfully. At the time of writing, 22 respondents have completed the survey. With the

open-ended nature of the survey, it has allowed access to some very interesting pieces of

data. Gordon Dow kindly offered to send out the survey to his clients, so the data

collected has been completed by SMEs.


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1) Do you know what the Cloud is?

This question was asked to purely gauge how many of the respondents know what the

Cloud is. In some respects, it was asked to trick the respondents to see if whoever selected

“No” or “Not Sure” would answer the next question.

The majority of the respondents chose the “Yes” option, indicating that they are

aware of what the Cloud is and do have some knowledge. 19 (86%) of 22

respondents chose this option.

2 (9%) of the 22 respondents selected the “Not Sure” option, indicating that they

may have some partial knowledge but perhaps cannot fully define the Cloud.

1 (5%) of the 22 respondents selected the “No” option, indicating that they have

no idea what the Cloud is.

86%

5%

9%

Do you know what the Cloud is?

Yes

No

Not Sure


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2) Based on your current knowledge of the Cloud, how would you define it?

This question was asked based on the research on defining the Cloud. As noted in the

literature review, it is very difficult to define the Cloud. The conclusion of the defining the

Cloud section, was that individuals perhaps define it by the services they use.

Furthermore, by asking this question it enables comparison of the different definitions

between SMEs, and potentially identifies some trends. As mentioned in the previous

question, the answer for this question depends on what was selected from the previous

question. To identify who selected “Yes", “No” and “Not Sure” a table has been created for

each of these responses to identify how each respondent defines the Cloud.


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Table 6-1: Question 2

Respondent 18 selected the “No” option in Question 1, and, as predicated, skipped the

second question.

3) Does your business solely utilise cloud-based services for business operations?

This is the most important question in this survey. Not only is it obviously related to the

research question, but it is also a question that defines how the respondents complete the

rest of the survey. The reason for asking this question is get a sense of how many of the

SMEs use cloud-based services for their day-to-day business operations.

The majority of the respondents chose the “Only Specific Business Operations”

option. This means that they only use specific services and do not run their entire

business in the Cloud. 14 (64%) of the 22 respondents chose this option.

6 (27%) of the 22 respondents chose the “No – (Not Yet Implemented)” option.

Surprisingly, 2 respondents (9%) of the 22 selected the “Yes- (All business

operations)” option. This indicates that the 2 respondents run their business

operations solely using cloud-based services.

9%

64%

27%

Does your business solely utilise cloud-based services for

business operations?

Yes - (All business operations)

Only Specific Business Operations- (Email, Data Backup, etc.)

No - (Not Yet Implemented)


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4) What were the predominant reasons for implementing the use of cloud-based

services for your business operations?

This question was asked to measure the reasons why SMEs adopted cloud-based services

for their day-to-day business operations, and to also gauge what they perceive as

beneficial for adopting such services. This will enable the comparison between the

findings from the literature review and the results for this question.


This question also featured an essay box to allow respondents to enter their own options

which may not have been available. Four of the respondents took advantage of this and

provided the following:

“To access software and data from any location”

“My business is virtual so my systems need to be too”

“We host Clients websites on external servers therefore they are cloud

based. We do not store any of our business function in the cloud, we are a

single site company so why would I want to?”

“kinda falling further into the hole without thinking seems to be the

strategy”


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5) If your business does not solely utilise cloud-based services for all business

operations, what are the predominant reasons? (Only answer if 'Specific' or 'No'

was selected in Question 3.)

This question was asked to measure the reasons why SMEs only use cloud-based services

for their specific day-to-day business operations or why an SME has yet to implement it.

The question would also gauge what they perceive as a drawback for adopting such

services. This will enables the comparison between the findings from the literature review

and the results for this question. Unfortunately, only 14 responses were received for this

question. 8 respondents skipped this question despite the fact that based on their

previous answer from Question 2, they qualified for this question. Perhaps this was due to

confusion of the question or layout of the survey.



which may not have been available. Eight of the respondents took advantage of this and


“My business is very small and I don't see any major advantages in using cloud-

based services yet”

“I like to have a physical back-up device (i.e. an external hard drive on my desk) as

well as a virtual one”

“Gradual change requiring the right software”

“Concern over the security of information - can other people get access?”

“We do not store any of our business functions in the cloud, we are a single site

company so why would I want to?”

“Ownership issues”

“The US Patriot Act worries us”


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6) If your business does utilise cloud-based services for business operations, what do

you use them for?

This question was asked to measure what type of cloud-based services SMEs use for their

specific day-to-day business operations. This would enable the comparison between the

findings from the literature review and the results for this question.



which may not have been available. Two of the respondents took advantage of this and


“sharing documents”

“e-learning”


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7) When implementing cloud-based services into your business, was an

implementation strategy created to evaluate the benefits and risks of using cloud-

based services for your business operations?

In the literature review a strategy to create a virtual business environment was referenced.

This question was asked to see how many SMEs used any form of implementation

strategy to successfully implement the Cloud into their business.

The majority of the respondents chose the “Yes” option. This means that they

perhaps created a strategy to implement the Cloud into their business. 8 (36%) of

the 22 respondents chose this option.

7 (32%) of the 22 respondents chose the “No” option. This means that the

respondents have cloud-based services implemented; however, they did not use a

strategy to do this.

7 respondents (32%) of the 22 selected the “No - (Not Yet Implemented)” option.

This indicates that the 7 respondents do not use any form of cloud-based service

for their business operations.

36%

32%

32%

Was a strategy used to implement the cloud?

Yes

No

Not Yet Implemented


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8) If all business operations have yet to be solely cloud-based is this something you

will consider in the future?

This question was asked to see how many of the respondents who do not fully run

their business operations in the Cloud would consider it in the future.

The majority of the respondents chose the “Yes” option. This means that they are

considering moving their business operations to the Cloud in the future. 9 (45%) of

the 22 respondents chose this option.

4 (20%) of the 22 respondents chose the “No” option. This means that they will not

move their business operations to the Cloud, perhaps due to the reasons they

selected in Question 5.

7 respondents (35%) of the 22 selected the “Not Sure” option. This indicates that

the 7 respondents are unsure but may consider it in the future.

45%

35%

20%

Will you consider implementing the Cloud in the

future?

Yes

No

Not Sure


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6.3.1 Small Experiment

As cited in the previous section, originally this experiment was meant to be the

main research focus but due to the constraints this was not possible. However, the ability

to perform a small experiment (lasting 5 days) was granted in addition to the main

research. This small experiment is only a sub-section of the survey; nevertheless, this is still

valuable data as it gave an opportunity to see if it is possible for an SME to solely use

cloud-based services to run its business. It should be noted that the original intention was

to use a detailed strategy, but due to restrictions this was not possible.

JTC specialise in training Judo at local living centres in central Scotland. To

Andrew Doolan, this is more of a hobbyist business than his main job. Doolan kindly

offered to use his business for this small experiment. Before starting this experiment a

number of questions were asked to give the researcher the ability to measure the success

or failure of the experiment. The first interview before the experiment took place on

March 28th, 2013. This can be found in Appendix 2.

Currently Doolan uses an HP G72 laptop with Wi-Fi capability to perform his

business operations within different healthy living centres. Microsoft Excel is used to

calculate his takings for his training sessions and he also uses Microsoft Word to produce

reports to present to the local healthy living centres. For advertisements, he uses Adobe

Illustrator CS6 to make posters to attract new members. Additionally, to store his

documents he uses a 1TB External Seagate Hard Drive.

With knowledge gained about his business environment and current set-up, a

range of cloud services were sought. Since Doolan is familiar with Microsoft Office and the

Adobe Illustrator CS6 package, cloud-based alternatives to these packages were sought.

Currently, Microsoft and Adobe offer cloud alternatives to the products that Doolan uses.

Additionally, Dropbox will be used to allow him to store his documents in the Cloud free

of charge. Obviously, it was not possible to purchase the full versions of these products;

however, it was decided that free trails would be used for this experiment.

Since these products are web-browser-based, the implementation of the software

was not necessary. Free Trail accounts were created for Doolan to access from his laptop

within the local healthy living centres. Fortunately, all of these centres have free Wi-Fi so

connecting to the Internet was not an issue. Connection to these services was

demonstrated to Doolan to allow him to access them without any assistance. Once this

was completed, he was left to himself to perform his business operations from April 1st to

April 5th.


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On April 5th, he was asked a number of questions, to measure the success or

failure of the experiment, which can be found in Appendix 3. Based on the questions

asked, the experiment was successful. Doolan liked the freedom of using these software

packages on a web browser as it allowed him to use them on his home computer.

Furthermore, having the ability to store documents and access them from any of the

devices he uses is appealing. He felt that having these services helped improve his

business processes as it allowed him to work on more than one computer. However, he

did note that the dependence on an internet connection is an issue as his internet

connection is not always reliable. He noted that he had no issue when using these

services, but expressed some concern over the security of storing some of his personal

information on services that could be taken down at any point in time. The results from

this experiment have demonstrated that, in this case, it is possible to run a small business

in the Cloud.

6.4 Conclusions

This section presented the primary research gathered from this dissertation.

Numerous points came to light from the responses from the survey. However, due to the

restrictions of not being able to create logical questions within the survey, this resulted in

some confusion for the respondents filling out the survey. The interview was very

beneficial for helping create the survey questions and to also gain some information to

use within the guidelines. The small experiment, despite some restrictions, demonstrated

that, in this case, it is possible for an SME to run its business operations on cloud-based

services. The following chapter will discuss the results in further detail and the guidelines

for SMEs will be provided.


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Chapter 7 – Primary Research Discussion

7.1 Objectives

In this chapter, the primary research results will be discussed further and in some

relevance to the literature review. Finally, conclusions are laid down and a set of

guidelines for SMEs to follow will be presented.

7.2 Discussion

From the responses of the survey, it was demonstrated that most businesses that

completed the survey have some form of knowledge as to what the Cloud is. Interestingly,

when asked how they define the Cloud, the responses were fairly similar to each other.

Some of the definitions given by the respondents were fairly similar to some given by

experts. For example, respondent 8 defines it as “using the internet to host all your data /

no need for so much hardware / software - access anywhere you have internet access

and a device to access it tablet / smartphone / pc etc.”, which is similar in some respects

to McFedries’s (2008) definition, which also notes that you can use smartphones to access

the Cloud. The respondents tended to focus on the storage of documents and

applications, but the literature does not necessarily agree with all the definitions provided.

The literature also demonstrated that the Cloud can be used as a platform to program

and deploy applications, but perhaps most of the SMEs surveyed have no use for this.

Since all of the SMEs surveyed have similar definitions, how the Cloud is marketed could

be the reason for similar definitions. Gordon Dow brought this point up in the interview

(Appendix 1), stating that the Cloud is marketed in such a way that it makes SMEs think

that their businesses can change overnight. Furthermore, he noted that perhaps SMEs

have not fully thought through the implications of using the Cloud. Because of this point

noted by Dow, the guidelines will highlight these points to ensure that SMEs make the

right choice if they wish to implement the Cloud successfully.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of the respondents for this survey (64%) only use

cloud-based services for specific business operations. This is not too surprising given the

fact that, when asked how they define the Cloud, all the responses purely focused on the

hosting of software and documents, which can also be called Software-as-a-Service. This

point agrees with an aspect of the literature, which highlighted that SMEs are more likely

to use SaaS compared to other platforms available on the Cloud. Furthermore, this also

agrees with another point made in the literature review. From the results, it is obvious that


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SMEs tend to define the Cloud by the services they use the most. 59% of the total number

of respondents use some form of cloud storage service to store their business documents.

Unexpectedly, 9% of the respondents do solely use cloud-based services for their

business operations. One of the respondents even defined the Cloud as “my office

anytime, anywhere” meaning that his business is entirely virtualised. Furthermore, in

Question 4 the same respondent noted that “my business is virtual so my systems need to

be too”. When looking at the literature review as a whole, and thinking about the benefits

and drawbacks, it is entirely possible. The literature agrees with this point, as Motahari-

Nezhand et al. (2009) said that the idea of a company running a business in the Cloud is

not new. They also stated that many business have taken advantage of this and are now

outsourcing some or all business operations to the Cloud, and this point also agrees with

the results from the primary research, with 64% using the Cloud for some operations and

9% using it for all operations. The small experiment performed also backs up this point.

What was learned from the experiment is that it is probably better to ask if it is possible to

run an entire business using cloud software, and the answer in that case is ‘yes’.

In the survey, respondents were required to answer a question about why they use

the Cloud and the reasons, or, if they selected “…Specific…” or “Not yet implemented”,

why they do not use it. The highest selected answers (Question 4) involved having the

ability to access applications from anywhere in the world, and also having the ability to

back-up and store data. These highest rated options match up with their own definitions

and also the literature, which does state them as options available in the Cloud. For those

who do not use it for all business operations or none at all (Question 5), the highest

options selected were “Confidentiality of data” and “Loss of control of services and/or

data”, which both received 58% overall. The fact that these options were selected the

most is not as a surprise, as the literature also agrees with this. One of the respondents

said “Concern over the security of information – can other people get access?” One of the

major drawbacks raised in the literature was the security of the Cloud and whether or not

company data is safe. This concern was also raised during the interview with Gordon Dow,

and was the theme that rang throughout the whole interview, “Is our data safe?”

The survey also featured a question (Question 6) about what cloud-based services

they use, which allowed SMEs to define their cloud usage within their business. For this

question, all of the options were selected. The literature does tend to agree with this

point, as an array of services mentioned in “What can you do in the Cloud?” section

match up with the selections made in this question. The most common answer for this

question was the storage of data, which is not surprising based on the definitions given.

Additionally, one of the respondents said “e-learning” which was not in the survey original


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options. This quote is true as there are a number of online e-learning services available

which a University can use, such as Blackboard and Moodle, to allow students to study at

home.

When asked if a strategy was used to implement the Cloud into their business the

responses were expected – 36% said that they did use a strategy, while 32% said they did

not. The other 32% have yet to implement it. It is hoped that with the guidelines, the 64%

can use them to assist their decisions if they wish to move some or all of their business

operations to the Cloud. Furthermore, the last question asked the SMEs, if they have yet

to fully move to the Cloud, would they consider it. Collectively, 45% said “Yes”, 35% said

“No” and 20% said they are “Not Sure”. For those who said “Yes” and “Not Sure”, it is

hoped that the guidelines will be beneficial to them.

Chapter 8 - Project Conclusions

The objective of this dissertation was to see if small businesses can run their entire

business through the use of cloud-based services, which has required an investigation of

the Cloud supplemented by primary research findings. The literature highlighted that it is

very difficult to define the Cloud in a universal way that covers all aspects. Because of this,

it was decided that a set quoted definition would not be used to define the Cloud overall

as SMEs perhaps have their own definition based on the services they use. The NIST

(2011) cover many aspects of the Cloud; however, in contrast, the primary research

highlighted that SMEs tend to focus on the storage of documents and accessing software

remotely from devices compared to any of the other aspects detailed in the literature

review. These results matched a point made in the service models section, which

highlighted that SMEs are more likely to use SaaS compared to any other service models.

Furthermore, the literature highlighted several benefits of using cloud-based

services. This proved valuable when creating the survey and it also gave the researcher

the ability to gauge what SMEs perceive as beneficial. What SMEs perceive as beneficial

agrees with the literature, specifically relating to the ability to access software remotely

from any device, which also agrees with the definitions given.

An additional finding from the literature is the number of drawbacks of using

cloud-based services. Like the benefits, this proved valuable when creating the survey and

also gave the researcher the ability to gauge what SMEs perceive as a reason not to use

cloud-based services. Based on these results it also agreed with the literature. Most


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notably, it does show that SMEs have some knowledge of what the benefits and

drawbacks are.

The main finding from the primary research is that some SMEs do run their

businesses entirely in the Cloud. This was unexpected, as it was predicated that most

SMEs would perhaps only use specific operations in the Cloud. It was also unexpected

that the small experiment would work as well as it did. Perhaps these findings can be

linked back to Motahari-Nezhad et al. (2009), who said that this is not a new idea and

some businesses are currently moving their operations to the Cloud. Even though there

was no literature to answer the research question directly, investigating the composition

of the Cloud, the types of service offered, benefits, drawbacks and the primary research

results, it allows us to piece together the facts. The survey featured a question about what

small businesses use in the Cloud (Question 6). All the options that were available in the

question were selected, which all small businesses probably do not use. However, the fact

that all of the options were selected can also backup the point that it is possible to solely

use cloud-based services to run a business. From the options available in Question 6,

there are cloud-based software alternatives available. For example, Google and Microsoft

both offer email and productivity suites in the Cloud. Additionally, Salesforce.com offer

CRM, customer service and employee collaboration software also. Work.com offer

performance management for teams, too. All of the companies listed previously are used

by thousands of organisations worldwide, easy to use and integrate well with each other.

So if small businesses choose carefully and pick cloud-based services that suit their needs,

it is possible to run a business in the Cloud. The literature noted a range of services that

SMEs can use for their major business operations. This can also be backed up by the fact

that, in the survey, the results demonstrated that two SMEs use the cloud entirely to run

their businesses. Furthermore, the majority of the respondents use cloud-based services

for their specific business operations, but choose not to for all operations based on the

drawbacks of using the Cloud.


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So in technical terms, all an SME really needs is an internet-capable device and an

internet connection to access cloud services through a web browser. By looking at the

literature and primary research results as a whole, it can be concluded that it is possible

for small businesses to run business operations using cloud-based services. It does

provide a number of benefits; however it does amplify a lot more issues. Where data is

stored, and what happens if everything fails are major worries, as shown in the primary

research. Small businesses have a range of choices from powerful tools when it comes to

using the Cloud. Nevertheless, it is important to take time and fully understand the risk

and to implement the move properly. This is why guidelines will be produced to provide

advice for SMEs moving to the Cloud.

8.1 Recommendations

As a result of the primary research results the following recommendations can be made

for future research:

For future implementations, use different types of SMEs that are in unique

situations to rigorously test if it is possible for them to run their businesses on cloud-based

services.

Primarily focus on a case study with multiple SMEs to rigorously answer the

research question for future primary research.

For future experiments, use a more detailed strategy to follow. Furthermore,

gather a group of researchers to cover a larger spectrum for better results.

The researcher should also contact SMEs who do run their business operations in

the cloud to gain access to richer data. Gathering this data will enable a viewpoint into

how businesses run their operations in the Cloud.

Additionally, the researcher should also contact Cloud providers to get their

viewpoint.


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8.1.2 Scope for further investigation

There is scope for further research into this topic as small businesses (as noted in

the literature review) may be in a unique situation and may need a custom solution to

implement cloud-based services. For example, further experiments with implementing

cloud services into SMEs that are larger than the business used in the small experiment for

this research. Experimenting with more SMEs enables further analysis and segregation to

see if it is possible for an SME to run its business in the Cloud. There is also additional

scope for investigating the impact of the guidelines produced to see if it proves to be

effective in enabling SMEs to use cloud-based services. Furthermore, with the results from

that investigation, there is also scope to produce further guidelines based on the

feedback from SMEs.


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Chapter 9 - Guidelines

These guidelines will not give you a step-by-step list on how to effortlessly

implement the Cloud into your business. Every business is unique, and all have varying

capacities, skills and budgets – so your business may need a custom solution to

successfully implement cloud-based services. Nevertheless, it is hoped that guidelines will

assist your business by providing some advice on how to make the best decisions.

1. Is Cloud Computing right for my business?

Perhaps the most important thing to remember in the early stages of decision-

making is that the Cloud will not change your business overnight. It is very important to

assess your own business and identify how the use of Cloud Computing can add value to

your business. You may need to ask yourself some questions, such as:

What type of cloud-services do we need to run our business?

What is our budget to spend on these services?

Do we need to share data across these services?”

Do we have the required skills and resources to use cloud-based services?

What security and disaster recovery plans do we need in case something

malfunctions?

Do we have the internet connectivity to use these services effectively?

It is important to ask these types of question before making any radical changes.

2. Seek professional assistance

It is important to find a professional who has experience with implementing cloud-

based services in a business. By finding a professional with this experience it can help your

business through the implementation process, ensuring that you select the right vendor

and services for your business. A professional may also be able to answer some of the

questions previous listed or more likely raise other questions that were not previously

thought of.

Seeking professional assistance may be expensive but it is worth your investment.


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3. Cultural shifts within the business

It is important to understand that Cloud Computing is much more than an IT

deployment. Not only is it a technological shift implementing the Cloud, but also a cultural

shift within the business. It is essential to discuss these plans with other employees to help

them understand that they may have to re-think their roles. For example, an employee in

charge of managing infrastructure may need to re-think his or her role since cloud

infrastructure may replace the in-house infrastructure.

4. Choosing the partner that’s right for your business

There are countless Cloud Computing vendors to choose from. Before selecting

the type of applications with you wish to use, it is important to do your research on cloud

vendors. A good start is by checking out the reputation of the vendors: How long have

they been offering cloud-services? Furthermore, investigating how the vendor would

solve your security issues is vital. You should also investigate how the vendor stores your

data, backs-up your data, how you can move your data to another provider, who owns

your data, and what happens to your data if the vendor goes out of business.

It is also worth your time getting a good SLA (Service Level Agreement) to ensure

a good service. Try to negotiate with the vendors: make sure the SLA does not lock you

into their service when it fails to meet expectations, and also make sure you are not

paying for services you do not require. Many vendors offer free trials for their services

which gives you a chance to try their products before committing to their service.

Data is the most important aspect of your business, and investigating if any of the

vendors you are considering have had data leaks in the past or serious downtimes is

worth your time and money.

5. Choosing the product that’s right for your business

There is a myriad of cloud-based application suites and services to choose from,

many of which can be customised to suit your business processes. Before making a full

commitment with the vendor you have chosen, work with them to help find the right

applications that work for your business. It can be tempting to purchase a whole suite of

applications, but if they do not demonstrate an improvement for your existing business

processes, then this could result in your staff working in frustration. Pick and choose what

is suitable and try to avoid services that would not benefit your business.


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Chapter 10 - Critical Appraisal

Perhaps the biggest take away from doing this dissertation is time management,

researching skills and experience with primary research. Time management was crucial

and by preparing for my dissertation it helped map out the objectives and when they had

to be completed. Furthermore, by figuring out my research question and gathering

journals and articles early in the dissertation process, this gave me an advantage when it

came to writing my literature review. Conversely, what I found most difficult throughout

the whole dissertation was completing the literature review. I have never been tasked

with writing a literature review before, thus I felt lost and have no idea where to start the

review process. To deal with this issue I resulted to looking at previous honours

dissertation examples to get an idea on how to structure, reference and write to the

standard that is required in a dissertation. I learned a lot during this writing process,

specifically in referencing other people’s work and writing a literature review that gathers

referenced information to assist with answering my research question. In addition to the

previous point made, what I regret the most was not organising my references as I

worked on my literature review. This error resulted in a scramble to organise all the

references to a Harvard standard once the document was fully complete. Wasting many

hours late in the dissertation process could have been prevented if I organised the

references earlier in the process.

My biggest worry before doing this dissertation was the primary research stage.

During this stage I was apprehensive about interviews, surveys and experiments. However

looking back it was an enjoyable experience, especially when connecting with businesses

and gathering their thoughts on the subject. I was expecting no one to take an interest,

but I received an overwhelming response from the surveys. I developed many skills during

this process and made some business connections, which is far beyond what I originally

anticipated. Conversely, I wish that I started the primary research in the previous year to

achieve my original goal. In the future, if I were to take on a similar task, I would start the

primary research stage much earlier to achieve the goals set and to gain access richer

data that can be used to answer the research question. An additional worry was creating

a discussion about the literature review and the primary research results. Once again I

looked at previous examples to gain an understanding on how to create such a

discussion. Fortunately, because I received some excellent primary research results, it

made creating the discussion much easier since the results worked well with the literature

review. This was also an interesting experience as it required me to analyse the data

received and identify trends within the data. This skill specifically I can see being useful in


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the future, and I am grateful for having excellent primary research results to aid in

answering my research question.

This project is large in size and I realised that early on in the process that I should

re-format and re-read sections as time went on; the purpose of this was to ensure that

the content flowed together well. Once this became a habit sometimes entire sections

would be deleted and re-written to ensure that the quality was of a higher standard

compared to the previous version. In the end, I benefitted from this as the content of my

dissertation improved and I can now use this skill and apply it to other projects in the

future. This writing process also had some major drawbacks, specifically involving time

management.

In conclusion, creating this piece of work based purely from a question asked out

of curiosity and turning it into a 15,000+ dissertation was an extremely gratifying

experience that I probably will never forget; with new skills developed and new friends

were made along the way. If I have to take on a similar task, I would do so with

confidence based on the skills I gained from completing this dissertation.


Sean Reilly

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Sean Reilly

Appendices

Appendix 1

Interview Notes

Location: Waverly Gate, Edinburgh

Date: 15th February 2013

Time: 11:05am – 11:55am

Q1 - How would you define The Cloud?

A: An area where you would store business documents. The Cloud is a generic area

where you access your business information - such as databases or texts without being

tied to an individual computer - whilst also having the ability to access it anywhere in the

world.

Q2 – To you, what are the positives and negatives of The Cloud?

A: To me, the positives are that it allows you to work anywhere remotely on a range of

devices, such as an iPad and iPhone. The ease of access to your information and software

is much greater since you no longer need to carry large laptops to access information.

The downside is who controls the data stored in the cloud, who really owns the data.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions. Such as, what if the servers go down and

where are the backups held, for example.

Q3 What side are you on in terms of The Cloud?

A: I would not use it due to all of these unanswered questions. I do not feel that the cloud

is safe enough. I understand the technical ease of it all, and I understand that it is easy to

use. However, if you can’t access your data then what is the point?


Sean Reilly

Q4. Do you find others you do business with use The Cloud more than you do?

I know very few companies that use the cloud, and the ones that do rave about it because

they find it easier to use. However, I don’t think they have fully thought through what the

implications of using the cloud are for their data, should anything go wrong. The

fundamental question is, is our data safe?

Q5 Have you had speakers in the Powerlunch Club talking about The Cloud?

Yes, a former head of marketing from Microsoft Worldwide came to discuss the cloud. He

discussed the benefits of using the cloud, the way it was going and how it affects us all.

However, he did not answer the fundamental question, who owns the data? This is still a

huge sticking point for a lot of businesses.

Q6 Are members of the power lunch club interested in these types of speakers who

discuss the cloud?

It’s not something we do too often, only once in a while. The members got a lot out of it,

they saw the benefits of it but it is the unknown of the cloud that they don’t ask. However,

most business people want to be focused on running their business. They tend not to

worry too much if anything goes wrong. Those of us close to managing data understand

that an iPad, iPhone etc. can be easily replaced; however if you lose your data this could

be costly. This is what small businesses don’t think about.

Q7 After the seminar, did you notice if members of the power lunch club started using

the cloud?

Only one or two that uses it. There is still so much of the Microsoft office based office

products that is used. What they might use is an online backup system which is probably

the closest thing that they have to the cloud, so if they lose their data they can get it back.

Most of them probably work using their local machines.

Q8 Is this what you do also?

Yes, I work from home. I do not backup my data in the cloud; I store my data in an

external hard drive every day.

Q9 Do you know of any small businesses that exclusively use The Cloud?

I don’t know of any businesses that just use the cloud. Some businesses do use it, but only

for a very limited use; Backing up data, etc.


Sean Reilly

Q10 If you were to implement cloud functionality into an organisation, what would you

recommend to the business?

A strategy to identify who owns the data. This needs to be clarified for everyone in the

business. The speaker from Microsoft who discussed the cloud was asked about where

data is stored he did not give a straight forward answer; I don’t think they have an answer

because it has yet to be properly defined. They promote the benefits but do not highlight

the potential risks, which are not being answered. The cloud is market to SMEs in such a

way that they seem to think that implementing the cloud would change their business

overnight, but this is not the case.

Q11 Do you think that a business can run exclusively using the cloud?

Yes, it could be done. This could be done with ease, lots of great tools out there that can

be used through web browsers, such as analytical tools to produce management and

financial reports. However, the fundamental questions will also be who owns the data

once stored in the cloud, who controls the data and what happens if anything goes

wrong?

Q12. How has the internet changed the way you have done business over your career?

It has made it easier to communicate with other businesses. I don’t work with paper much.

Any communications or documents for the events ran in the power lunch club are

handled over the internet. Currently I do not used software online to handle creating

invoices. A local database is used to produce these. There is online software which can be

used to create invoices, so there are lots of tools out there in the cloud – like online

databases. There are also events management systems online, so everything can be done

online. Things like marketing are exclusively done online through social media, like twitter

and LinkedIn. Statistics packages online can be used to measure data.


Sean Reilly

Q13 Do you think small businesses care about these unanswered questions?

Yes, they should. Even in a small business their data is worth something. If all your clients

details were in the cloud and an error occurred, and you couldn’t contact them or send

invoices then this could be detrimental to the business. (YouTube video of interview with

head of marketing) Furthermore, most small businesses are not run that well that they

actually manage their data very well. If they are putting information up in the cloud,

chances are their book keeping is awful and their database management is awful. Having

the cloud there does not guarantee that the business will automatically run better or

providing their business. Essentially, it makes it easier to run it just does not run better. I

think the perception is that going onto the cloud makes it easier but if you don’t utilise it

properly or run your business well office, then it won’t make any difference once it is

implemented – it is not a business improvement tool. Small businesses don’t ask enough

questions about it, they are blind to the fact. They are not interested in whether or not if it

works; however the questions not being asked are the ones that could be a major

problem.


Sean Reilly

Appendix 2

Interview Notes 2 - Andrew Doolan

Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Date: 28th March 2013

Time: 12:05pm – 12:15pm

Q1 – So what is your business then?

A: I wouldn’t really describe it as a business, but more of a hobbyist business rather than

my main job. But it’s called JTC and I specialise in training Judo to all ages in local living

centres

Q2 - How would you define The Cloud?

A: Well considering I never really use it fully, I [would] probably describe it as a place

where you can store your music; pictures etc. and access them from any computer.

Q3 – Why have you never used any form of cloud service for your business?

A: I never really saw the point in it to be honest. I’m happy with using my laptop for my

day-to-day stuff, which is rarely connected to the internet anyways. I suppose using stuff

like Spotify is cool but, then again, I don’t see the point.

Q4 – Would you be willing to use cloud-based services similar to the products you use

right now?

A: Yeah I wouldn’t mind. I’m interested to see what all the fuss is about. All the living

centres I visit all have Wi-Fi, so hopefully there should be no problems using it.

Q5 - What type of laptop do you have?

A: I have a HP G72.

Q6 - What type of software do you use?

A: I use Microsoft Word to type up weekly profit reports for the living centres. I use

Microsoft Excel to manage the takings from each lesson. I sometimes use Adobe

Illustrator CS6 to create advertisements to attract new members.

Q7 - Do you back-up your data?


Sean Reilly

A: Yeah, I have a 1TB Seagate hard drive to store all my files.

Q8 – Do you have any of the software you described on a home computer?

A: No, I don’t annoying. I could only afford to purchase once licence and I wanted it on

my laptop since I’m not always at home. I would like to have them at home though.

Q9 – Is it suitable for the experiment to last all week?

Yeah, I’m out all week so I should be able to test them for you.

Q10 – Do you have any concerns about using cloud-based services?

The only concern I have really is more information getting stolen. But I don’t store any

personal things on my laptop anyway, only the stuff I described before.


Sean Reilly

Appendix 3

Interview Notes 3 – Andrew Doolan

Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Date: 5th April 2013

Time: 7:00pm – 7:10pm

Q1 – So what did you think of using the software you are used to but based in the cloud?

A: It was much better than I expected. What I liked most about it was being able to access

the software on my computer! I think I said before that I would like that, so I’m glad I

finally got to try it out.

Q2 - How did it perform compared to the software stored locally?

A: Much better. Sometimes my laptop can’t handle all the software running at the same

time. But running it through Google chrome on the internet: it had no hitches at all. I was

rather impressed.

Q3 – What do you like most about using the software on the cloud?

A: I like being able to use it on any computer and not having to worry about backing it up

on my hard drive. Dropbox was very good. It blended in well, made it look like it was part

of the file system on the computer. I loved how it synced between my laptop and home

computer, even the app on my iPhone.

Q4 – So do you think using them on the cloud improved your business processes?

A: Very much so. It allowed me to work on more than one computer, so that’s much

better. Plus running it through a web browser is much easier since it’s just a matter of

logging in and everything is there.

Q5 – Did you experience any technical issues when using these services?

A: No, not really. There was once instance when Dropbox didn’t sync but that was

because my upload speeds were too slow from home. But I was uploaded a rather large

file.


Sean Reilly

Q6 – Any concerns of using these services?

A: Well because of the ease of use of Dropbox, I decided to put a lot of information up

there as an extra backup. However I’m now slightly concerned about the security, as I’m

worried it could be taken down at any time. I do back it up on my hard drive too, though.

Q7 – Will you keep using these services?

A: Yeah probably. Most likely Dropbox though, since it’s free. Software like Word and

Illustrator I will probably go back to using my local version. I’m not sure about paying for

it monthly when I don’t use them every day. However it is tempting since I like using them

on my home computer.

Q8 – Anything else to add?

A: My internet isn’t always so reliable, especially in the upload speeds front. So I’m not so

sure about the dependence on internet connections, but I guess I’ve come round to liking

it. Which I didn’t really expect.

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