Cloud Computing's Impact on Systems Analysis and Design

Introduction

Both information systems and information technology infrastructure have been incorporated into business procedures for at least two decades. In the initial development of information technology, organizations that invested heavily in IT infrastructure achieved strong growth in market shares and returns. Given that IT is now the core of businesses, nearly all organizations own their own IT infrastructures to manage their daily business activities. In the event of malfunctions in the information systems, regular business operations can be seriously disrupted. Though the majority of companies are not IT companies, they must invest a significant share of resources in IT in order to run their business operations smoothly (Chou & Chou, 2011).

Information technology has become a necessary infrastructure that organizations need to possess; however, it does not inherently offer strategic benefits for business. According to Carr (2003), the growth of the power and ubiquity of information technology has relatively undermined its strategic significance. He compared the status of information technology to electricity: both are significant for a business's survival, but neither offers unique strategic value. Information technology is now a utility for many organizations, just like electricity. The rising use of the internet has resulted in the progression of internet applications. The work and lives of individuals are now deeply integrated into the computer network. Today, the Web is not merely a means of communication but also serves as a platform for business and society. To reach the vast number of users or prospective users, organizations need to deliver their content and business processes online. This newly established trend has led to increased demand for distributed computing power, which in turn has triggered a new paradigm — cloud computing.

Cloud computing is a means for organizations to deliver their content and business procedures online with the flexibility of computing resources (Armbrust et al., 2010). From a business perspective, cloud computing is an on-demand access to virtualized information technology resources housed by a third party, utilized by multiple users, easy to use, paid for through subscription, and accessible via the web (Brynjolfsson, Hofmann, & Jordan, 2010). The offering of cloud computing has presented organizations with opportunities to review their IT infrastructure. Given that various cloud computing vendors are capable of providing scalable IT resources based on subscription, cloud computing can be regarded as a utility model. With the pay-as-you-go design, organizations consume IT resources just as they consume water or electricity.

Cloud computing comprises both the applications delivered over the internet and the hardware and systems software in data centers that provide those services. These services are known as Software as a Service (SaaS). Additionally, cloud computing offers other kinds of services: Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). With the major advances in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) over the last half century, there is a possibility that computing will one day become the fifth utility (Sasi & Larance, 2014).

Information system analysts normally develop information systems based on the differing activities in the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). These particular system development activities are founded on the assumption that information systems will be developed in-house. Due to cloud computing, some new system development activities require modification or renewal. The aim of this paper is to discuss how system development activities must be altered to respond to the emergence of the cloud computing model, together with the concerns associated with applying that model.

Cloud Computing Overview

Cloud computing is essentially a new platform of computing in which software and hardware are delivered to users in a manner that resembles the way utilities like electricity are supplied to households. The term "cloud" originates from the use of a cloud image to symbolize the internet or a large networked environment. In cloud computing, however, the cloud does not simply entail routers, servers, and data pipes; it also entails providing capabilities and services to develop applications (Hartig, 2009). The cloud computing phenomenon is still evolving. The cloud computing industry involves various levels of vendors as well as various kinds of services for different market functions. Therefore, it is difficult to describe cloud computing precisely.

The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defined cloud computing as a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources — such as servers, applications, and networks — that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal service provider engagement or management effort. According to NIST, this cloud model is composed of five essential characteristics (broad network access, measured service, on-demand self-service, rapid elasticity, and resource pooling), three service models (Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, Cloud Software as a Service, and Cloud Platform as a Service), and four deployment models (private cloud, hybrid cloud, public cloud, and community cloud) (Mell & Grance, 2009).

According to Pallis (2010), wireless network ubiquity, progressive advancement in internet computing software and mobile computing, and declining storage and mobile device costs are the driving forces behind cloud computing. Some of the benefits for cloud users include the ability to enhance efficiency by adding capacity at peak demand, lowering costs, and eliminating unnecessary capacity easily.

Cloud Infrastructure: SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS

A cloud system generally entails elements such as network, storage, and processing. Thus, a cloud's architecture can be observed from three different layers: application, platform, and infrastructure. Cloud services can accordingly be divided into distinct groups: Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS) (Chou & Chou, 2011).

SaaS

SaaS allows the user to utilize the provider's applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications can be accessed from user devices through an interface such as a web browser. The SaaS model offers the user minimal or no influence over how input data is processed, but provides confidence in the cloud provider's duty of care and compliance. First, the user can avoid transmitting sensitive information to SaaS providers. Second, the user may be able to secure sensitive information before deploying it into the SaaS environment. In the SaaS model, software applications are presented as services on the internet rather than as software packages purchased by individual clients (Motahari-Nezhad et al., 2009). The SaaS model permits vendors to create, host, and operate software for client use. Instead of purchasing the software and hardware to manage an application, clients simply need a computer and internet access to use the software. A well-known example of SaaS is Google's suite of web-based office applications, such as spreadsheets and word processors.

PaaS

PaaS provides tools supported by a cloud provider that allow developers to deploy applications — examples include Mozilla and Google App Engine. The developer bears the primary responsibility for using best practices and security tools, but must also depend on the reliability of the underlying PaaS. For example, consider a developer who has built a cloud application that encrypts all data before it is stored in the cloud storage provided by the PaaS. In this case, the developer must trust that the infrastructure and platform have not been compromised, since an attacker could otherwise access the clear text before encryption takes place. In PaaS, the user is not responsible for controlling the basic cloud infrastructure, operating systems, network, or storage; however, the user does have control over the deployed applications.

One example of PaaS is CodeRun, which is built on top of the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). It permits programmers to easily create, evaluate, deploy, and publish code online without needing complex software or powerful hardware. Google App Engine is another example of PaaS, allowing clients to manage their web applications on Google's infrastructure.

IaaS

IaaS offers the user computing resources to manage software. An example is the Amazon EC2 Web Services. An IaaS provider normally assumes responsibility for securing data centers, systems, and networks, and takes steps to ensure that its personnel and operational procedures comply with applicable laws and regulations. Nonetheless, given that an IaaS provider may have limited application-level expertise, it can be difficult for that provider to guarantee data-level compliance, such as geographic restriction of data transfers. In this case, the cloud user is accountable for maintaining compliance controls. IaaS is a model that allows more direct management but also places on the client the responsibility for applying technical and procedural security as well as resilience measures.

In the IaaS model, computing power (such as CPU) and hardware resources (such as data servers) are presented as services to the client. Rather than investing capital in networking devices and dedicated servers, IaaS clients can avail themselves of computing power and hardware resources on a rental basis. IaaS providers are able to supply hardware resources and computing power to applications on an as-needed basis (Motahari-Nezhad, Stephenson, & Singhal, 2009). With this elasticity, organizations can increase the effectiveness of IT resource utilization and thereby reduce costs. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is an example of an IaaS — a web service that offers resizable compute capacity within the cloud and is capable of rapidly scaling capacity in response to changing computing requirements (Chou & Chou, 2011).

Cloud computing is gaining popularity because it addresses the inefficiencies of the traditional computing model, in which every business unit in an enterprise maintains dedicated IT resources. The traditional computing model typically results in under-utilization of IT resources due to resource division and uneven workload allocation. Cloud computing allows organizations to virtualize their IT infrastructure and address issues of under-utilization.

The deployment models may be either private cloud or public cloud, depending on the cloud computing service model. A public cloud refers to a service provider that makes resources — such as storage and applications — available to the public via the web. Public cloud services may be entirely free or offered on a pay-per-use basis. The main advantages of using a public cloud service include: (1) simple and inexpensive setup, since hardware, bandwidth, and application costs are all borne by the provider; (2) scalability to meet demand; and (3) no wasted resources, since pricing is either free or pay-per-use.

A private cloud, on the other hand, refers to a proprietary computing architecture that provides hosted services to a restricted group of users behind a firewall. Private cloud deployment allows data center managers and corporate networks to virtualize their IT infrastructure while retaining control over their data. Some of the primary benefits of utilizing private cloud computing are: (1) high deployment speed, (2) high availability, (3) ease of monitoring, (4) optimal use of resources, and (5) hardware independence (Sintobin, n.d.).

Conclusion

Cloud computing has presented an attractive opportunity for not only small businesses but also large business enterprises. Traditional information systems were initially run on in-house physical machines. The emergence of cloud computing has made it possible to develop information systems on virtual machines hosted by cloud service providers. Cloud computing is essentially a means for organizations to deliver their content and business procedures online with the flexibility of computing resources. From a business perspective, cloud computing is an on-demand access to virtualized information technology resources housed by a third party, utilized by others, easy to use, paid for through subscription, and accessible via the web. For organizations for which cloud computing is not their core business, cloud computing offers the option of reducing costs on the development of information systems that support their main business activities.

The changes in system development activities have been triggered by the development of cloud computing. This paper has proposed some fundamental modifications to the activities at different stages of the SDLC. As the cloud computing industry continues to evolve, future studies could concentrate more on the changes to system development methods for building information systems in virtual working environments. The implementation of cloud computing also stimulates change in the activities involved in the information systems development process. The responsibilities of IT developers will undergo considerable changes as more and more business functions base their operations on cloud services. Many IT developers are likely to transition from in-house business IT departments to cloud service providers. The role of the remaining IT personnel will shift toward consultation and support for service management, engagement, and selection.

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