Business Process on‐Demand; Studying the Enterprise Cloud Computing and its Role in Green IT

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

1.1. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS

CHAPTER 2 - CLOUD COMPUTING FUNDAMENTALS

2.1. HISTORY

2.2. DEFINITION

2.3. KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF CLOUD COMPUTING

2.4. CLOUD DELIVERY MODEL (CLOUD SERVICES)

2.5. CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MODEL (CLOUD TYPES)

2.5.1. Private Cloud (Internal Cloud or Corporate Cloud):

2.5.2. Public cloud or external cloud:

2.6. CLOUD TECHNOLOGIES

2.6.1. VIRTUALIZATION

2.6.2. SERVICE ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE AND WEB SERVICES

2.6.3. MASHUP AND WEB 2.0

CHAPTER 3 - GREENING THE IT AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

3.1. GREEN IT

3.1.1. ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN DATA CENTERS

3.1.2. HOW ENERGY WILL BE USED IN A DATA CENTER

3.2. MEASURING DATA CENTER EFFICIENCY

3.2.1. SPEC STANDARD

3.2.1.1. SPEC FOR VIRTUAL SERVERS

3.2.2. EPA METRICS

3.2.3. LEED RATING SYSTEM

3.2.4. GREEN GRID POWER EFFICIENCY METRICS

3.2.5. POWER USAGE EFFECTIVENESS (PUE)

3.2.6. DATA CENTER PRODUCTIVITY (DCP)

3.3. MODULARITY OF DATA CENTERS

3.4. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

3.5. REGULATIONS AROUND THE WORLD

3.5.1. KYOTO PROTOCOL

3.6. CLOUD COMPUTING

CHAPTER 4 - ORGANIZATIONS AS SYSTEMS

4.1 BUSINESS FUNCTIONS

4.1.1 BUSINESS FUNCTIONS ONTOLOGY

4.2. BUSINESS PROCESSES

4.5. BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT

4.6. BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (BPMS)

4.7. BUSINESS PROCESS DISCOVERY

4.8. BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT IN THE CLOUD

4.9. BUSINESS PROCESS CLASIFICATION FRAMEWORKS

4.10. INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN AN ORGANIZATION

4.10.1 Office Automation (OA) and Personal Information Management Systems (PIM)

4.10.2. Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

4.10.3. Functional Area Information Systems (FAIS)

4.10.4. Enterprise and Inter-organizational Information Systems (IOS)

CHAPTER 5 - COMPREHENSIVE MARKET ANALYSIS

CHAPTER 6 - CLOUD ONTOLOGY

6.1. WEB ONTOLOGY LANGUAGE (OWL)

6.2. PROTÉGÉ- A SEMANTIC EDITOR

6.3. CLOUD ONTOLOGY

6.3.1 DEFINING CLASSES

6.3.2 OBJECT PROPERTIES

6.4. SEMANTIC REASONER

CHAPTER 7 - MOVING INTO THE CLOUD

7.1. CONSIDERATIONS BEFORE MOVING INTO THE CLOUD

7.1.1. CLOUD COMPUTING BENEFITS

7.1.2. CLOUD COMPUTING CHALLENGES AND RISKS

7.1.3. SECURITY ISSUES IN CLOUD COMPUTING

7.1.3.1. SECURITY ADVANTAGES

7.1.3.2. SECURITY CHALLENGES

7.1.4. INTEGRATION WITH LAGACY SYSTEMS

7.2. CLOUD ADOPTION DECISION MAKING

7.2.1 CLOUD DECISION AND AHP

CHAPTER 8 - EVALUATION OF THE WORK

8.1. FIRST USE CASE

8.2. SECOND USE CASE

CHAPTER 9 - CONCLUSIONS

CHAPTER 10 - APPENDIXES

10.1. APPENDIX I

10.2. APPENDIX II

REFERENCES

Research Objectives and Themes

This thesis investigates the potential efficiency and benefits of cloud computing for individual organizations, with a specific focus on environmental impact and energy consumption. The core research question addresses how organizations can effectively map their business processes and functions to appropriate cloud services available on the market, thereby navigating the complex landscape of cloud offerings through the development of a specialized cloud ontology.

• The evaluation of cloud computing as a means to transition from capital expenditure (CAPEX) to operational expenditure (OPEX).
• An in-depth market analysis of cloud providers and their specific service offerings.
• The development of a cloud ontology to simplify the identification of suitable cloud solutions based on organizational requirements.
• A detailed study of green IT principles, focusing on energy efficiency and carbon footprint reduction in data centers.
• The implementation of decision-making strategies, such as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), to guide organizations in cloud migration.

Excerpt from the Book

Summary of Chapters

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION: This chapter introduces the research context, highlighting the role of cloud computing in business optimization and outlining the structure of the thesis.

CHAPTER 2 - CLOUD COMPUTING FUNDAMENTALS: This section explores the history, definitions, key characteristics, delivery models, and supporting technologies such as virtualization and SOA that underpin cloud computing.

CHAPTER 3 - GREENING THE IT AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: This chapter analyzes the impact of IT on the environment, specifically focusing on data center energy efficiency, metrics for measurement, and the role of cloud computing in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

CHAPTER 4 - ORGANIZATIONS AS SYSTEMS: This section defines organizations through the lens of systems, business functions, and business processes, detailing classification frameworks like BFO, e-TOM, and APQC.

CHAPTER 5 - COMPREHENSIVE MARKET ANALYSIS: This chapter provides a detailed analysis of the current cloud market, presenting a matrix of business functions mapped to cloud providers and services.

CHAPTER 6 - CLOUD ONTOLOGY: This section explains the development of a cloud ontology using Protégé and OWL, describing classes, object properties, and the role of semantic reasoners.

CHAPTER 7 - MOVING INTO THE CLOUD: This chapter discusses decision-making strategies for cloud migration, including risks, benefits, and the application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP).

CHAPTER 8 - EVALUATION OF THE WORK: This chapter demonstrates the practical application of the developed cloud ontology through two use cases using SPARQL queries.

CHAPTER 9 - CONCLUSIONS: This chapter summarizes the findings of the thesis, confirms the effectiveness of the proposed ontology-based mapping, and suggests future research directions.

CHAPTER 10 - APPENDIXES: These sections provide technical snippets of the OWL source code and ontology structure used in the research.

Keywords

Cloud Computing, Ontology, OWL, Business Process, Business Function, SPARQL, Green IT, Data Center Efficiency, PUE, DCiE, Cloud Migration, Decision Making, AHP, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the primary focus of this thesis?

The thesis focuses on how organizations can bridge the gap between their business requirements and the vast array of available cloud services by creating a systematic mapping solution.

What are the central themes discussed in the work?

The work covers cloud computing fundamentals, the relationship between green IT and data center energy efficiency, business process management frameworks, and the application of ontology and semantic web technologies to cloud service discovery.

What is the main goal or research question?

The primary research goal is to answer how business processes and functions can be accurately mapped to appropriate cloud services, addressing the complexity of the current market.

What scientific methods are applied in the research?

The research utilizes market analysis to map services, develops an OWL-based ontology for classification, and employs the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for decision-making support in cloud migration.

What topics are covered in the main body of the thesis?

The main body covers a comprehensive market analysis, the creation of a cloud ontology, decision-making frameworks for cloud adoption, and empirical evaluations through two use cases using SPARQL.

Which keywords best describe this research?

Key terms include Cloud Computing, Ontology, OWL, Business Process, Green IT, Data Center Efficiency, and Cloud Migration strategy.

How does the Cloud Ontology assist organizations?

The ontology acts as a navigational tool that allows organizations to search for specific cloud services that match their precise business requirements, reducing time and complexity in the selection process.

What is the role of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in this work?

AHP is used as a structured decision-making method to evaluate whether specific enterprise applications are suitable candidates for migration to the cloud based on business value, technical fitment, and risk exposure.