Cloud Computing Despite Enterprises Being

Cloud Computing Despite enterprises being reluctant to pilot their business processes and systems across public and hybrid cloud configurations, private cloud configurations are proliferating. Private clouds have security innate within their structure as they are entirely behind the firewall of organizations. These private cloud configurations are the basis of pilots used for determining cost and performance advantages of virtualization, multi-tenant application performance and cloud infrastructure reliability.

When the roles within the organization are integrated into the pilots so real-world workflows can be measured, the need for external integration, outside the company to distributors, dealers and suppliers becomes evident. While these external links present significant security risk, a recent study shows that the greater level of external integration, the higher the Return on Investment (ROI) (Brynjolfsson, Hofmann, Jordan, 2010). The combination of role-based workflows and integration to external channel partners, suppliers and the data they have presents a challenge to companies however.

Given the fact that many analysts, line-of-business users and executives need role-based data from outside the company to do their jobs the need for a secure approach to public cloud integration is clear. The use of the Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) Model is a potential solution to this dilemma (Bertino, Sandhu, 2005). Just using this model however may not be enough, as the roles that many executives have in logistics and supply chain-oriented industries require massive amounts of data located with channel partners and suppliers.

The question then is how to make the extended network of a company more secure and effective in its use of third-party systems data and information, whether it is located in a cloud configuration or not. The research question centers on how best to implement role-based access to public- and hybrid-cloud-based data so logistics and supply chain centric businesses can achieve their goals of transaction velocity and profitability while keeping their information assets secure.

Logistics and supply chains require inordinate amounts of data often sent at a very high rate of speed between suppliers and manufacturers, which makes the structure of this industry ideal for an analysis of its effectiveness using cloud computing as a data-sharing platform (Hopp, Iravani, Xu, 2010).

RESEARCH QUESTION: Can private Cloud Computing architectures securely supporting integration to external databases, data marts and external systems located within logistics, supply chain and distributor businesses using the RBAC Model be more profitable based on integration to these external sources of information? Hypotheses Null Hypothesis: Companies relying on the Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) Model alone, as a single variable, are not more profitable than those relying on more traditional approaches to defining integration including EDI and FTP integration.

Alternative Hypothesis: The financial performance of firms that use the Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) Model for managing secured access to data throughout their supply chains is enhanced and statistically significant relative to those who do not adopt. The dependent variable is the level of adoption of the Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) Model throughout logistics and supply- chain-based business. The independent variables are the financial results of having greater integration with suppliers.