International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 6, Issue 1, January-2015 657
ISSN 2229-5518
Towards Cloud Adoption in Africa: The Case of
Nigeria
Akilu Rilwan Muhammad
Abstract— Advancement in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) over the years has brought about changes to dynamic business in developed societies. However, due to lack of access to ICT infrastructures, majority of under-developed and developing societies are unable to take advantage of these business opportunities. The advent of cloud computing, a recent shift in computing paradigm presents the potentials for enterprises in under-developed and developing societies to embrace new business models and explore market opportunities, as well as cost effective and delivery of efficient services to government agencies. Despite the promised business benefits of cloud computing to enterprises and government agencies, its successful adoption is full of challenges, requiring in- depth understanding of different technologies and expertise in various domains, of which guidelines are currently inadequate for adoption and building trust. The contribution of this work is to provide clear understating of cloud computing, alongside the drawbacks and challenges for its adoption in the developing economies of African states (the case of Nigeria). Though cloud adoption is foreseeable in the near future, the research sought for convergence of efforts from both government and IT practitioners to overcome the obstacles to its adoption.
Index Terms— Cloud computing, Cloud adoption, Cloud services, Cloud providers.
—————————— ——————————
OMPUTING paradigm has witnessed a shift in techno- logical innovations over the past years, from traditional distributed computing to grid computing and more re- cently the innovation of cloud computing, which is seen as the most significant trend in the IT industry and received atten- tion for the benefits it offers to industries. Enterprises and government agencies such as the US Federal IT are trying hard to adopt this emerging technology to reduce the cost of in- vestment especially on IT infrastructures. Kundra [1] notes that 30cents of each dollar spent on US Federal IT goes on to data center infrastructures, noting that by adopting cloud computing, approximately 30% of the US Government in- vestment on IT would be saved. Cloud computing would screw up IT sector to reshape organizations in ways unfore- seen. This shift in computing paradigm has received attention from both IT professionals and academicians with several re- search works [2], [3], [4] for the adoption of this on-demand
service.
The adoption of cloud computing technology in developing countries is increasing. Cloud computing has open up ways for greater business opportunity for the developing countries [5], [6]. However, with all the benefits that cloud computing has to offer, its understanding is quite low even among IT pro- fessionals in developing societies not alone the decision- makers. IT managers in developing societies need to be edu-
————————————————
• Akilu Rilwan Muhammad is currently a lecturer with the Department of Computer Science, Federal University Dutse, Nigeria. E-mail: akilril- wan@gmail.com
cated about the vast opportunity for the adoption of cloud
service. Recently, the global cloud computing service provid- ers have given considerable attention to developing economies such as China, India and Brazil [7].
African economy is fast developing and the adoption of cloud computing technology in Nigeria will mark an im- provement to the country’s economic growth, especially with the recent reports that Nigeria will emerge as Africa’s largest economy overtaking South Africa by the year 2025. This paper aims to explore the meaning and benefits of cloud computing to decision-makers and IT managers, to enable decision mak- ers and government agencies take positive decision when planning to adopt the cloud services to boost their business strategies.
Cloud computing has brought about a number of changes to the IT industry [8]. However, the rate of the adoption of this shift in computing paradigm is low in developing societies especially in Africa. This research therefore, will explore the meaning and benefits of cloud computing and discuss on the following research questions:
What is cloud computing? And what are the driving forc- es behind cloud computing?
What are the benefits for the adoption of cloud services and what factors hinder its adoption in Nigeria?
What are the factors that decision-makers should consider when deciding to migrates organisation’s IT services to cloud?
The main aim of this research work is to understand the thought of IT professionals and decision-makers about cloud computing, draw upon the contexts of the existing literature on previous research, and explore the factors that influence its adoption in Nigeria. To achieve the research aim, the re-
IJSER © 2015 http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 6, Issue 1, January-2015 658
ISSN 2229-5518
searcher outlines the following objectives:
1. To examine the concept and trends that bring about
cloud computing.
2. To investigate the benefits and drawbacks for the adop-
tion of cloud computing in IT industry.
3. To explore the factors that hinders the adoption of
cloud computing in Nigeria.
4. To identify the factors that decision-makers should
evaluate in preparation to migrate IT services to cloud.
The shift in computing paradigm is putting steps forward to address such huge computing power demands, with three (3) technological developments emerging over the past two dec- ades: the cluster computing, grid computing, and more recently the innovation of cloud computing. Cloud computing is envi- sioned to mark the next generation architecture of IT enter- prise, enabled by the notion of virtualization, where high power computing resources from cloud service providers are pooled to consumers over the Internet servicing multiple of consumers, with the underlying infrastructures hidden from the cloud consumer without the consumer’s control or knowledge of the resource location (data centers). These virtu- alized computing resources are characterized by the ability to quickly scale out and to rapidly scale in when released [9] in response to changing consumer needs.
Computing resources will in the near future be consumed as the fifth utility; after water, electricity, gas and telephony [4] providing basic level of computing resources not only to en- terprise, but the community as well, to meet individual’s daily needs of computing on a pay-as-you-use basis.
The innovation of cloud computing can be traced back to the advancement in various technologies [9] most notably the ad- vances in hardware technology (e.g. virtualization and multi- core chips), systems management (e.g. data center automation), advances in Internet technologies (Web services, service- oriented architecture and Web 2.0) and the notion of distributed computing (cluster computing and grid computing). This sec- tion examines the shift in these technologies and how they converge and eventually result to the emergence of cloud computing.
2.1.1 Hardware Virtualization
The concept of virtualization dates back to the introduction of virtual machines (an instance of a physical machine) by IBM in
1960s [10]. The notion behind using virtual machines (VM) is that VM enables time and computing resource-sharing (hard- ware). Thus virtual machines promote reduction of hardware cost and yet improving productivity by allowing multiple us- ers simultaneous access to instance of a computing resource [11]. Hardware virtualization gives users the ability to run multiple software and systems on same physical machine, concealing the detailed characteristics of the physical machine to the users.
2.1.2 Autonomic Computing
The ultimate goal of autonomic computing is the provision of self-managed computing systems “using the technology to man-
age technology” [12], with little or no human interventions to tackle the complexity of systems integration and management, and total cost of ownership (TCO). Autonomic computing is characterized by four significant features: self-configuration, self-optimization, self-healing, and self-protection, [9]. Autonomic computing depends on the basis of monitored probes and sen- sors, and the autonomic computing that is equipped with some form automated management function.
2.1.3 Web Services and Service-Oriented Architecture
(SOA)
The evolution of Web Services (WS) open standards has par- ticularly contributed to the advances and support for business systems integration. These advances in Web services enable sharing of information between applications that run on dif- ferent messaging platforms, thus making one application’s internal information available to others over the Internet [9]. Web services were developed over existing well-known tech- nologies (HTTP and XML for instance) and hence, are capable for provision of mechanisms to convey services and easier to implement Service-Oriented architecture (SOA).
Service-Oriented Architecture aimed to address require- ment of loosely coupled, standard-based and protocol inde- pendent distributed computing [13]. The development of Web services enables the production of powerful services support- ing ease of access on-demand in a consistent way.
2.1.4 Cluster Computing
Supercomputers have played a leading role for calculation- intensive purposes such as quantum physics and weather forecast applications [14], however, deploying supercomput- ers to carry out such tasks is not cost effective, thus the devel- opment of cluster computing. Computer clusters consist of a group of parallel and distributed computers working closely together to accomplish a task that would normally not be achieved with a single computer. Cluster computers are most- ly linked over a fast Local Area Network (LAN). The main advantage of clusters over single computer is the provision for high availability, load-balancing and reduced-cost of deploy- ment [15] compared to deploying a supercomputer. High availability of cluster computers is achieved through the use of redundant nodes such that the nodes can provide for services in the event of system failure.
2.1.5 Grid Computing
Started in the early 1990s, as a result of the need for compu- ting systems to accommodate the then increasing need for very fast calculations and data-intensive scientific applica- tions. The ultimate goal of grid computing is to bring together large distributed compute and storage resources and connect remotely located computers via a large network, thereby elim- inating the geographical barriers and ensuring that idle re- sources are utilize to the best [16]. Thus, grid computing in- corporate multiple administrative domains from different ge- ographical locations to solve a single task [15] and are released quickly. The evolution of standard protocols from various grid computing processes provided the conveyance of computing resources over the Internet on-demand [9]. However, the real- ization of quality of service (QoS) in grids is the major chal- lenge. Grid computing differs from cluster computing in the sense that grid resources are designed to be loosely coupled.
IJSER © 2015 http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 6, Issue 1, January-2015 659
ISSN 2229-5518
The foregone advances in computing technologies bring about the need for the delivery of computing-as-a-service, rather than computing-as-a-product. Fig. 1 below depicts the conver- gence of these technologies and the emergence of cloud com- puting.
Fig. 1. The emergence of Cloud computing from the advancement in computing technologies. (Source: Voorsluys, Broberg and Buyya
2011)
As cloud computing is fast gaining popularity, a number of researchers have given several definitions of cloud computing [18], [19]. However, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology NIST [20] provides a more comprehensive work- ing definition of cloud computing, which describes cloud computing to have five (5) essential characteristics, three (3) ser- vice models and four (4) deployment models”. Cloud computing is closely related to cluster and grid computing [16], however, differs or build upon these technologies in some respects.
According to the NIST definition of cloud computing, the cloud model promotes the availability of the following five (5) characteristics.
1. On-demand self-service: that is the provision of compu- ting facilities to consumers (e.g server time and net- work storage) automatically as when they need it, without need for human interaction with cloud service providers.
2. Broad network access: this enables applications be ac- cessed through a heterogeneous platforms (such as mobile phones, PCs, & PDAs)
3. Resource pooling: location independent pooling of com- puting resources for serving multiple consumers in a
multi-tenant fashion, these resources are assigned and reassigned to consumer dynamically according to their demand, without the consumer having control or knowledge about the location of the provided re- sources.
4. Rapid elasticity: allows for scalability of the services provided, (which often appear to be unlimited) to quickly scale out and released to quickly scale in.
5. Measured Service: cloud computing provide automatic control and optimized resource use, metered in a pay- per-service use manner for the type of service provid- ed. Resources used are thus monitored and control providing transparency to both provider and consum- er.
Cloud computing service model refers to the type of service that cloud providers deliver to the consumers. Cloud compu- ting basically provides the following three (3) service models.
1. Software as a Service (SaaS): the provision of software ap- plications to customers by the cloud service providers typ- ically running on the provider’s infrastructures. The cus- tomer need not install the application on local machine, instead accessed the application via web browsers, thus save customer from purchasing the application, or be con- cern about future upgrades. Good examples of SaaS pro- viders include Rackspace, Google Apps and Sale- force.com.
2. Platform as a Service (PaaS): this involves delivering to the customer the ability to create and deploy owned applica- tion using programming languages and tools from the provider’s cloud infrastructures, such as servers, network and operating system, without the customer taking full control of the underlying infrastructures. Well known ex- amples of PaaS providers include Google App Engine and Microsoft Windows Azure.
3. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): provisioning of fundamen- tal computing resources such that customer can run own application, or store data to cloud provider’s infrastruc- tures in a manner that the customer has control of owned application, operating system or stored data. IaaS service providers include Amazon EC2 and GoGrid.
The NIST definition identifies four (4) models of cloud computing deployment [20]. These models according to NIST include:
1. Private cloud: this is a type of cloud deployment model that is operated by an organization, although might be managed by third party.
2. Community cloud: this is a type of cloud infrastructure that is shared by many organizations.
3. Public cloud: is a cloud computing deployment model in which infrastructures is made available to general pub- lic.
4. Hybrid cloud: this deployment model consist of two or
IJSER © 2015 http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 6, Issue 1, January-2015 660
ISSN 2229-5518
more type of the above models.
Although cloud computing is seen to be a technology that is not yet matured, a significant number of cloud services espe- cially SaaS are in used, without the users realizing that is based on cloud technology [21]. A survey of technology ex- perts and stakeholders predicts that by 2020 majority of users will be accessing software and information exchange online and applications running from Smartphone using remote servers instead of investing and depending on installed appli- cation running on their PCs [22].
Notwithstanding, cloud computing is not a threat to tradi- tional desktop computing. To support this, Jackson and Phil- pott [22] recognize that traditional desktop computing will be enhanced in a manner driven by remote computing (desktop- cloud hybrid) doing much of the task locally and utilizing the cloud for computing-intensive mission.
In spite of its possible security and privacy concerns, cloud computing has the potentials to accelerate business strategies to both the public sector (enterprise) and government agen- cies. Table 1 summarizes the major benefits of cloud compu- ting to business.
TABLE 1
Business benefits of Cloud computing.
In order to achieve the research objectives set out in Section
1.3, the researcher employs both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The two approaches were employed in the re- search process to complement each other [23] p.151, enabling the researcher to gather hard data earlier on, to serve as input in collecting soft data. The survey was administered online over a period of three weeks, using Google Docs Form. A total of 109 survey invitations were sent through email and 45 peo- ple responded to the survey invitations. Thus, the survey questionnaires received 41.3% responses from IT professionals working either in IT firms, employed in IT department of or- ganisations or are actively involved in research and graduate studies in IT mostly from universities in Nigeria, the UK and Middle East. 80% of the respondents indicated interest to par- ticipate in the next stage of the research (interview).
3.1 Participants
The participants involved in the research were drawn from two categories: 1) IT professionals working in either IT firm as CEO, Business Executives or Technical Officers (in Nigeria) with years of IT experience; or IT professionals employed in organisations’ IT department, mostly telecommunications companies, 2) IT professionals currently involved in research and graduate studies from universities in Nigeria, the UK, and Middle East. Table 2 shows participants’ years of IT experi- ence.
TABLE 2
IJSER © 2015 http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 6, Issue 1, January-2015 661
ISSN 2229-5518
Participants’ years of IT experience.
Age Range | Frequency | Percentage |
Less than 5 years | 12 | 26.7% |
6 - 10 yrs | 18 | 40.0% |
11 - 15 yrs | 6 | 13.3% |
16 - 20 yrs | 0 | 0.0% |
21 - 30 yrs | 6 | 13.3% |
31 - 40 yrs | 3 | 6.7% |
Above 40 yrs | 0 | 0.0% |
The primary data used for the conduct of the research are: questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire (Appendix A) was administered online using Google Docs Form. The inter- view on the other hand was also conducted online, making use of the Interview Guide (Appendix B) and a digital voice recorder. Moreover, Skype, a free video/voice internet call software was used to conduct the interview sessions. The pro- ceeding of the interview sessions was then recorded using the digital voice recorder to ease with data analysis.
The survey questionnaire made up of 20 questions was de- signed to understand the participants’: 1) knowledge of vari- ous technologies that form the bedrock of cloud computing, 2) perceptions of cloud computing and its adoption in Nigeria. Tables 3 and 4 depict a summary of the survey findings.
TABLE 3
Participants’ knowledge of cloud-related technologies and
service models
Cloud-related technologies | Technology/service model | frequency |
Cloud-related technologies | Virtualization | 33 |
Cloud-related technologies | Cluster computing | 27 |
Cloud-related technologies | Grid computing | 21 |
Cloud-related technologies | SOA | 18 |
Cloud-related technologies | Web 2.0 | 21 |
Cloud services | IaaS | 39 |
Cloud services | Paas | 30 |
Cloud services | SaaS | 42 |
TABLE 4
Participants’ perceptions about cloud computing
An interview was conducted among ten interviewees selected from the survey participants based on their years of experi- ence in IT and relevance of workplace. The interview guide focuses on determining interviewees’ perceptions towards slow adoption of cloud computing in Nigeria. Results from the interview are summarized in the following subsections.
The rate of adoption of innovation is affected to a large extent by level of knowledge and recognition. Most of the respond- ents (interviewees) labelled the lack of in-depth understanding of cloud computing and cloud related technologies among IT practitioners as barriers to its adoption.
According to the results, respondents attributed the inade- quate supply of electricity as a major factor to determine the successful adoption and implementation of cloud computing in the present state of the country’s IT industry. This was per- ceived by participants to be responsible for the poor growth of IT industry in general and the inefficient internet services.
One of the major hindrances to the adoption of cloud compu- ting is building trust for organisations outsourcing their data and security intensive resources over the hand of cloud pro- viders or a third-party. Moreover, respondents’ perception towards the security issues and trust in services offered poses fear of known and security breach even among IT profession- als.
Respondents reflected upon the need for legal framework for data protection and addressing the issue of cyber crimes, and how such framework can help IT industry towards the devel- opment of cloud computing. However, there is an argument about how the framework should be drawn to tackle the drawback in the growth of IT industry. Some of the respond-
IJSER © 2015 http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 6, Issue 1, January-2015 662
ISSN 2229-5518
ents consider that government should be responsible to enact
appropriate law addressing the problems, others consider it a proper collaboration of the country’s IT industry leaders to promote the level of trust in cloud computing among potential adopters
The adoption of cloud computing in the enterprises particu- larly organisations and government agencies in developing countries is a major challenge. Cloud computing is a recent innovation in computing technology and still under develop- ment. Though it received considerable attention of research in industrialized countries, and envisioned to be the next genera- tion architecture of IT enterprise, its understanding and recognition is quite low even among IT practitioners in devel- oping countries, this eventually leads to organisations and government agencies not exploring its full benefits. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed in the research process to explore the factors responsible for slow adoption of cloud computing, data were collected and ana- lysed and the findings led to the conclusion that though cloud adoption is foreseeable in near future, efforts are required from both government and IT service providers to overcome the obstacles to its adoption.
Dear Respondent,
This is a research survey about the adoption of cloud compu- ting in Nigeria. Please be informed that this survey questions are meant for research purposes only, neither your name nor your organisation will be part of this publication. Data collect- ed for this survey will be used for research purposes only, as in accordance with the provision of section ISI, 4.5, 1985, of the International Statistical Institute (ISI Declaration on Profes- sional Ethics, July 2010).
Thank you.
* Required
PERSONAL BACKGROUND.
1. Which of the following best describe your age group?
*
18 - 25 years.
26 - 30 years.
31 - 35 years.
36 - 40 years
Above 40 years. Prefer not to say.
2. Which of the following best describes your years of experience in IT? *
Less than 5 years.
6 - 10 years.
11 - 15 years.
16 - 20 years.
21 - 30 years.
31 - 40 years. Over 40 years.
3. Do you have any idea about Cloud computing? * Yes. No.
Yes, I know about Cloud computing.
4. Which of the following technologies do you under- stand best? (Select all that apply) *
Virtualization. Cluster computing. Grid computing
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Web 2.0
5. Which of the following cloud services are you aware of? (Select all that apply) *
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
6. What is your opinion about cloud computing? * Quite Interested.
Beneficial.
A hype of technology.
Immature technology.
Unsecured technology.
Totally NOT interested.
HOW IMPORTANT TO YOU ARE THE FOLLOWINGS CONCERNING THE ADOPTION OF CLOUD SERVICES?
6. Reduced cost of IT infrastructure? * Very important.
Important.
Don't know.
Less important.
Not important.
8. Scalability of IT infrastructure (up and down) in re- sponse to changing customer demand? *
Very important. Important
Don't know. Less important.
IJSER © 2015 http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 6, Issue 1, January-2015 663
ISSN 5518
Not important.
9. Client data and applications security? * Very important.
Important.
Don't know. Less important. Not important.
10. ervice availability? * Very important. Important.
Don't know. Less important. Not important.
11. Cloud provider's support? * Very important.
Important. Don't know. Less important. Not important.
12. In your opinion, state any three (3) factors you con- sider most significant to be the obstacles for the adoption of Cloud services in Nigeria. *
……………………………………………………………………
13. Do you see the possibility of implementing Cloud services without getting rid of these obstacles (mentioned abo
Yes. No.
Not sure.
18. Do you agree with the quote "Cloud computing will be the next generation architecture of IT Enterprise”? *
Strongly agree. Agree.
Don't know
Disagree.
Strongly disagree.
19. Overall, what is your opinion about Cloud adoption in Nigerian IT Industry? *
Highly concerned. Concerned.
Don't know. Less concerned. Not concerned.
20. Please leave your comment (if any) on what you think about Cloud adoption in Nigerian IT Industry.
…………………………………………………………………….
Absolutely possible. Quite possible.
No Idea.
Maybe possible.
Absolutely NOT possible.
14. As an IT professional, do you consider Cloud services ap ate and fit for Nigerian IT Industry as at present? *
Absolutely appropriate. Quite appropriate.
No Idea.
Maybe appropriate.
Absolutely NOT appropriate.
15. Which Cloud service would you advise them to adopt
first
Q1. Briefly describe your understanding and meaning of the followings:
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).
Q2. Considering the possibility of Cloud adoption, what type of service would your company adopt first?
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) e.g. Google Docs and
Gmail.
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) e.g. Google App Engine
and Salesforce CRM
• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) e.g. Amazon EC2.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). None of the above.
16. Why would you suggest the above service to be adopted first?
……………………………………………………………………….
17. Do you think "Cloud computing" is an evolving con-
cept that will mature soon? *
Q3. Should your company plan to adopt Cloud services:
(i) What are the risks you might want to draw manage-
ment attention to?
(ii) What are the perceived benefits to the operations of
the company?
Q4. Highlight the internal factors the company need to consider to adopt Cloud computing.
Q5. In your opinion, how would Cloud computing affect the competition in marketplace of IT industry?
IJSER © 2015 http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 6, Issue 1, January-2015 664
ISSN 2229-5518
[1] V. KUNDRA, "Federal Cloud Computing Strategy," Washington, DC: White
House, U.S. Chief Information Officer, 2011.
[2] S. MARSTON, Z . LI, S. BANDYOPADHYAY, J. ZHANG, A. GHALSASI, "Cloud Computing — The Business Perspective," Decision Support Systems, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 176-189, 2011.
[3] A..D..H. KUYUCU, "The Playground of Cloud Computing in Turkey," Pro- cedia Computer Science, vol. 3, pp. 459–463, 2011.
[4] R. BUYYA, C.S. YEO, S. VENUGOPAL, J. BROBERG, I. BRANDIC, "Cloud Computing and Emerging IT Platforms: Vision, hype, and Reality for Deliver- ing Computing as the 5th Utility," Future Generation Computer Systems,vol.
25, no. 6, pp. 599-616, 2009.
[5] [5] R.A. PIÑA, B.RAO, "The Emergence and Promise of Cloud Computing for Under-Developed Societies," Proc. Technology Management for Global Economic Growth (PICMET), p p. 1-10, 2010.
[6] N. KSHETRI, "Cloud Computing in Developing Economies," IEEE Computer
Society, vol. 43, no. 10, pp. 47-55, 2010.
[7] N. KSHETRI, "Cloud Computing in Developing Economies: Drivers, Effects, and Policy Measures," Proc. PTC, vol. 10, 2011.
[8] A. KHAJEH-HOSSEINI, I. SOMMERVILLE, I. SRIRAM, "Research Challeng- es for Enterprise Cloud Computing," LSCITS Technical Report, 2010.
[9] L. Badger, T. Grance, R. Patt-Corner, J. Voas, "DRAFT Cloud Computing Synopsis and Recommendations," NIST Special Publication, US Department of Commerce, Report No.: 800 2011.
[10] W. VOORSLUYS, J. BROBERG, R. BUYYA, "Introduction to Cloud Compu-
ting," CLOUD COMPUTING: Principles and Paradigms, R. BUYYA, J. BROBERG, A. GOSCINSKI, eds, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc, pp. 3-
41, 2011.
[11] L.D. PAULSON, "IBM Begins Autonomic-Computing Project," Computer, p.
25, 2002.
[12] M. CAFERO, G. ALOISIO, "Grid, Clouds, and Virtualization," Grid, Clouds, and Virtualization, CAFERO M, ALOISIO eds. London: Springer-Verlag, p p.
1-21, 2011.
[13] R. STERRITT, "Autonomic computing," Innovations in Systems and Software
Engineering, vol. 1, no. 1, 2005.
[14] M.P. PAPAZOGLOU, W.J. VAN DEN HEUVEL, "Service Oriented Architec- tures: Approaches, Technologies and Research Issues," The VLDB journal, vol. 16, no. 3, 2007.
[15] B. JAVADI, K.A. MOHAMMAD, H.A. JEMAL, "Multi-Cluster Computing Interconnection Network Performance Modeling and Analysis," Future Gen- eration Computer Systems, vol. 25, no. 7, 2009.
[16] N. SADASHIV, S.M.D. KUMAR, "Cluster, Grid and Cloud Computing: A Detailed Comparison," Proc. Computer Science & Education (ICCSE)
6thInternational Conference, pp. 477-482, 2011.
[17] K. STENOEVSKA-SLABEVA, W. THOMAS, "Grid Basics," Grid and Cloud Computing, K. STENOEVSKA-SLABEVA, W. THOMAS, S. RISTOL, eds, Berlin: Springer-Verlag, pp. 23-45, 2010.
[18] L.M. Vaquero, L. Rodero-Merino, J. Caceres, M. Lindner, "A Break in the Clouds: Towards a Cloud Definition," ACM SIGCOMM Computer Commu- nication Review. vol. 39, no. 1, 2008.
[19] L. YOUSEFF, M. BUTRICO, D. DA SILVA, "Toward a Unified Ontology of
Cloud Computing" Proc. Grid Computing Environments Workshop, 2008
GCE'08, pp. 1-10, 2008.
[20] P. MELL, T. GRANCE, "The NIST Definition Of Cloud Computing," National
Institute of Standards and Technology, vol. 53, no. 6, 2009.
[21] M. MILLER, Cloud Computing: Web-Based Applications that Change the
Way you Work and Collaborate Online US: Que Publishing, 2009.
[22] K. JACKSON, D. PHILPOTT, "GovCloud: Cloud Computing for the Business
of Government," Florida: Government Training Inc., 2011.
[23] W.L. NUEMAN, Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative
Approaches. 6th ed. Boston: Pearson Education Inc, p. 151, 2006.
IJSER © 2015 http://www.ijser.org