Cloud Computing Organizational Benefits : A Managerial concern

Abstract: Context: Software industry is looking for new methods and opportunities to reduce the project management problems and operational costs. Cloud Computing concept is providing answers to these problems. Cloud Computing is made possible with the availability of high internet bandwidth. Cloud Computing is providing wide range of various services to varied customer base. Cloud Computing has some key elements such as on-demand services, large pool of configurable computing resources and minimal management effort to the users. The software organizations are looking for cloud benefits to address the project management problems. Objectives: The study is to identify various cloud benefits for addressing project management problems faced by software industry. The study is also investigates various challenges or problems faced by the organizations while using cloud computing environment. The solutions or suggestions to overcome these identified cloud challenges are also produced in this study. Cloud benefits across different cloud types also found during this study. Methods: Systematic literature review is conducted across eight databases to find different cloud benefits and challenges for the organizations to address the project management problems. Interview study is conducted across industrial experts working in cloud computing environment. Interview study is to check the status of cloud benefits and challenges found through systematic literature review and find new additions. The solutions and suggestions are also found to address the cloud challenges through both methodologies. Results: A total of 21 cloud benefits and 12 challenges found across 43 primary studies through systematic literature review. 26 cloud benefits and 14 cloud challenges found through interview study among 7 cloud computing industry experts. 6 cloud benefits and 2 cloud challenges found through this study are not available in existing literature. Cloud benefits across different types are also discussed in this study. Conclusion: This study identifies various cloud benefits and cloud challenges for organizations to address project management problems. Cloud utilizing organization has to differentiate its project management problems for identifying cloud type. Cloud utilizing organization has to take care of the challenges at the time of writing Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with the help of third party organization.