Information systems

management

Lecture 8
 Cloud computing provides the means through which
everything – from computing power to computing
infrastructure, applications, business processes to
personal collaboration – can be delivered to the user
as a service wherever and whenever it is required.
 The cloud itself is a set of hardware, networks,
storage, services and interfaces that enable the
delivery of computing as a service. Cloud services
include the delivery of software, infrastructure and
storage over the internet (as separate components or
a complete platform) based on user demand
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 Definition by Gartner: Cloud computing is a style of
computing, where massively scalable IT –related
capabilities are provided as a service across the
Internet multiple external customers

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 Cloud computing is a model of computing where
computer processing, storage, software and other
services are provided as a pool of virtualised
resources over the network, primarily Internet.
 These clouds of computing resources can be
accessed on an ‘as needed basis’ from any connected
device or location.

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The participants of cloud are
 End user – who doesn't really have to know anything

about underlying technology

 Business management – needs to take responsibility
for overall governance of data or services living in the
cloud. Cloud service providers must provide a
predictable and guaranteed service level and security
to all their constituents
 The cloud service provider – responsible for IT assets

and maintenance. It must enable multi-tenancy.

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 US National Institute of standards and technology
(NIST) defines following essential characteristics for
cloud computing
 On demand self-service

 Ubiquitous network access – including mobile

platforms
 Location independent resource pooling – the

sources tailored to serve multiple users

 Rapid elasticity: resources can be rapidly

provisioned
 Measured service: charges based on amount of

resources actually used 6

 On demand self-service: consumer can request and
receive access to a service offering, without an admin
or any support staff having to fulfill the request
manually. User self-service allows customers to
quickly procure and access services. It also reduces
administrative burden on the provider. While
providing user self-service potential compliance and
regulatory issues need to be considered.
 Broad network access: cloud services should be
easily accessed and the users should require only
basic network connection and a browser.
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 Cloud services should require either no client or a
lightweight thin client. Services should be accessible
by a wide variety of client devices
 Resource pooling: helps to save cost and allows
flexibility on the provider side. Providers can provide
service to many more customers instead of providing
dedicated resources. Resource pooling is often
achieved using virtualisation which allows providers
to increase the density of the system. They can host
multiple virtual sessions on a single system

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 Rapid elasticity: ability of cloud environment to easily
grow to satisfy user demand. Usually accomplished
through the use of automation and orchestration. It
enables users to handle burst capacity (increased
capacity needed only for a short period of time)
 Measured service: ability to measure usage. It
enables pay-as-you-go feature.

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Cloud embodies following for basic characteristics
 Elasticity and the ability to scale up and down

 Self-service provisioning and automatic

deprovisioning
 Application programming interfaces (API’s)

 Billing and metering of service usage in a pay as you

go model.

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 Cloud computing consist of three different types of
services:
 Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): customers use
processing, storage, networking and other computer
resources from cloud service providers to run their
information systems
 Platform as a service (PaaS): customers use
infrastructure and programming tools supported by
the cloud service provider to develop their own
applications example salesforce.com

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 Software as a service (SaaS) customers use software
hosted by the vendor on the vendors cloud
infrastructure and delivered over a network example
Google apps and salesforce.com

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It is offered in different forms
 public clouds

 private clouds

 hybrid clouds which combine both private and

public
 Community clouds

 Public cloud is owned and maintained by cloud

service provider such as Amazon Web services

 Private cloud is operated solely for an organisation. It
may be managed by the organisation or third-party.
It can be on the premises or off the premises.
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 Companies that want flexible IT resources and a
cloud service model while retaining control over their
own IT infrastructure are gravitating towards private
clouds
 Large firms adopt a hybrid cloud computing model
where they use their own infrastructure for most
essential core activities and adopt public cloud for
less critical systems or for additional processing
capacity during peak business periods
 Community clouds are semipublic clouds that are
shared between members of a select group of
organisations. Generally having a common purpose 14
 Cloud drivers: system drivers that are steering
organisations to the cloud
 Agility: cloud environments offer great agility.

Easily the appropriate resources when needed. A

cloud infrastructure that uses virtualisation can
help increasing density and percentage utilisation
of infrastructure
 Reliability: disaster recovery and continuity

planning is built in cloud services

 Scalability and elasticity: cloud allows automatic

scaling up to meet customer needs

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 Performance: performance and cloud systems is
constantly measured and monitored. Presence of
service level agreement is the benefit
 Ease of maintenance: very attractive benefit of cloud
computing
 Security and compliance: administrators and
engineers who run cloud environment are specialist
and often offer much better security and compliance

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 Business drivers: Cloud helps in getting applications
up and running faster, improved manageability, less
maintenance and enables organisation to more
rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and
unpredictable business demands
 Cost: cloud environments can be source of reduced
cost. Transition from capital expense to operational
expense
 Consumerism: is the focus on the needs and wants of
the consumer. Consumers are not bound to a single
touchpoint and are free to choose the access
methods and applications. This requires flexible IT
environments 17
Advances in technology:
 Virtualisation: big driver in the moment towards
cloud. With virtualisation organisation is able to host
multiple virtual systems on one physical system
which cuts down implementation costs. Virtualisation
allows for resource pooling and increase utilisation of
physical system
 Application architecture: multiple customers can

access a single instance of an application but their

interactions are segmented. Service oriented
architecture allows applications to be broken down
into components which can be accessed
independently 18
 Bandwidth increases: Internet access speeds have
increased dramatically, allowing increased overall
speed of application access
 Economies of scale

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Cloud adoption inhibitors

 Drawbacks of cloud computing

 Responsibility for data storage and control is in

the hands of the cloud service provider. Security

risks related to interesting critical data and
systems to an outside vendor can be high
 Internet connectivity is a must

 Ambiguity: lack of understanding causes fear

around potentially hidden cost, lack of control,

integration issues and security concerns
 Concerns over maturity

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 Services are not robust enough yet
 SLA’s: service guarantees may not be suitable for
many organisations
 Integration: as companies do not have direct access
to the systems, sort of interfaces will be required to
allow for integration. Both data integration and
application integration required. Integrating data
between on premises and cloud-based systems can
be costly. Bandwidth required for copying of data can
be expensive

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 Security: risk mainly comes from the fact that
companies do not have direct control over the
systems and the data
 Ownership of data: what happens if the service
provider goes out of business? Can your data be held
hostage?
 Auditing: depending on implementation, companies
may not have direct access to systems or applications
for auditing
 Privacy, legal and compliance issues: cloud service
providers have direct access to your organisation’s
data 22
 Lack of customisation: there is a limit to the amount
of customisation that may be allowed

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Knowledge Management

 Knowledge management is a set of processes to

create, store, transfer and apply knowledge in the
organisation
 Organisations value depends on its ability to create
and manage knowledge.
 Knowledge management promotes organisations
learning by increasing its ability to learn from
environment and incorporate knowledge into its
business processes

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 Knowledge management and collaboration are
closely related. Knowledge which cannot be
communicated and shared is nearly useless.
 To transform information into knowledge, it must
have additional resources to discover patterns, rules
and context.
 Knowledge is both an individual attribute and the
collective attribute of the company. It is cognitive.
Documented knowledge is explicit knowledge.
Undocumented knowledge is tacit knowledge

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 Knowledge is an intangible asset
 Knowledge is not subject to the law of diminishing
returns. Instead “experiences network” effects as its
value increases as more people share it
 Knowledge involves knowing how to follow
procedures
 Knowledge is cognitive event involving mental
models and maps of individuals
 Knowledge is sticky (hard to move), situated
(enmeshed in firm’s culture) and contextual.

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 Communities of practice (COPs) are informal social
networks of professionals and employees within and
outside the form who have similar work-related
activities and interests. Members can create
document repositories, filter information for
newcomers, act as facilitators, encourage
contributions in discussions and reduce learning
curve for new employees

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 Three major types of knowledge management
systems
 Enterprise-wide knowledge management system

 Knowledge work system

 Intelligent techniques

 Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems:

organisation-wide efforts to collect, store, distribute
and apply digital content and knowledge. It provides
databases and tools for organising and storing
structured documents and tools for organising and
storing semistructured knowledge such as
emails/Rich media 28
 Knowledge network systems: provide directories and
tools for locating organizational employees with
special expertise, who are important sources of tacit
knowledge. These systems often include group
collaboration tools, portals to simplify information
access, search tools and tools for classifying
information based on appropriate taxonomy.
 Enterprise wide knowledge management systems can
provide considerable value if they are well designed
and enable employees to locate, share and use
knowledge more efficiently
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 Knowledge workers include researchers and
designers architects scientists and engineers. They
perform 3 key tasks
 Keeping the organisation current in knowledge as it
develops in the external world – in technology,
science, social thought and the arts
 Serving as internal consultants regarding the areas of
their knowledge, the changes taking place, and
opportunities
 Acting as change agents, evaluating, initiating, and
promoting change projects.
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 Knowledge work systems (KWS): support creation of
new knowledge and its integration into organisation.
It requires easy access to external knowledge base,
powerful computer hardware with intensive graphics,
analysis, document management and communication
capabilities and a user-friendly interface.
 KWS for financial professionals, provides access to
external databases and ability to analyse massive
financial data quickly.

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 Artificial intelligence lacks the flexibility, breadth and
generality of human intelligence but it can be used to
capture, qualify and extend organisational
knowledge.
 Expert systems capture tacit knowledge from a
limited domain of human expertise and express it in
the form of rules. Expert systems are most useful for
problems of classification or diagnosis.
 Case-based reasoning represents organisational
knowledge as a database of cases that can be
continually expanded and refined.
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 Fuzzy logic is a software technology for expressing
knowledge in the form of rules that use approximate
or subjective values. It can be used for controlling
physical devices
 Machine learning is the ability of, programs to
automatically learn and improve the experience.
 Neural Networks consist of hardware and software
that attempt to mimic the thought processes of
human brain.
 Neural Networks have ability to learn without
programming and recognise patterns that can be
easily described by humans 33
 Genetic algorithms developed solutions to particular
problems use genetically-based processes for
generating optimal solution
 Intelligent agents are software programs with built-in
or learning knowledge bases that can carry out
specific tasks for individual users, business processes
or software applications. They can be programmed to
navigate through large amounts of data to locate
useful information and also act on the information on
behalf of the user.

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