Publications
Software-as-a-Service Business Models
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering is beneficial to both SMEs and corporations, who wish to outsource software-related activities and use simple and low-cost software systems. The expected pros and cons of SaaS offering and technological details are well represented in the contemporary academic and trade literature. However, comprehensive understanding on SaaS as a business model seems to be missing. By synthesizing existing literature and using survey data collected from Finnish software industry, this article reveals two different configurations and the typical factors of SaaS business model. The resulting classification contributes to understanding how software companies need to align and balance otherwise separate business model elements in order to run successful business.
TOWARDS MOBILE DEVICE CLOUD
Although cloud computing has established itself as a novel paradigm, mobile devices have unique characteristics and capabilities that are not made part of a cloud. This paper presents the notion of a mobile device cloud: mobile devices become active members in the cloud, sharing content, resources, and services with each other. We discuss how the concepts of cloud computing could be applied to mobile device clouds. Further, the implementation of some key components in a mobile device cloud is discussed.
THE IMPACT OF USER EXPERIENCE WORK ON CLOUD SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Cloud computing is getting more popular means to provide software to end users. However, little is known about how to develop Cloud software that provides good user experience. This paper introduces an Agile software development model where a product owner and user experience specialist work closely together from the beginning. We followed a distributed project team consisting of a product owner, user experience specialist, technical specialist, scrum master, and five developers for eleven weeks. We observed that the project benefitted in several ways from the close cooperation between the product owner and user experience specialist. The project team was able to dramatically shorten their lead time, improve user satisfaction and decrease the amount of work in progress.
Cloud and Lean Transformation from Capabilities Viewpoint
Today, the cloud phenomenon is challenging companies’ product and service development and also their business and revenue models. Many companies are in the middle of a fundamental change – transformation – in order to benefit from the opportunities that the cloud offers. At the same time, interest in lean thinking has grown in industries and research communities. Lean paradigm is assessed as a potential means to help companies pursue efficiency and better organizational performance. This paper discusses cloud and lean transformation in a large Information and Communication Technology (ICT) company, which has risen to the challenge of the cloud. This paper studies if organizational learning, which is one corner stone of lean thinking, has impact on the company’s capabilities. This paper proposes a revised transformation framework with the new aspect of capabilities.
Security Testing of Web Browsers
Web browsers have an enormous install base and vulnerabilities in them can result in wide-spread infections. In this paper we describe efforts made in 2010-2011 to systematically test for vulnerabilities in web browsers. The work was done with Radamsa, a black-box fuzzer that automatically generates test cases based on samples. Approximately 60 bugs were found in widely used browsers, about half of which had potential security impact.
Designing IDE as a Service
While the popularity of web applications is growing, most of the software is still developed using desktop tools. Nevertheless, a browser-based development environment could offer a multitude of advantages. For example, only an up-to-date web browser is needed and therefore the user has no need to carry out complex tool installation and update procedures. Furthermore, publishing the applications to the web is easy to offer as a feature of IDE, and since the users are already connected via server, collaborative features are easier to implement. For beginning business, effortless publishing offers new possibilities. In this paper, we present Arvue, a browser-based tool that enables simple development and publishing of web applications. Arvue applications are created on the browser using an UI designer and an integrated code editor. The applications are stored in a version control system provided by Arvue and they can easily be published to the cloud. Publishing the user-created applications may impose resource usage and security issues, which are also addressed in this paper.
Elastic Build Service
Linux-based operating systems such as MeeGo consist of thousands of modular software packages. Compiling and packaging source code is an automated but computationally heavy task. As the load on a build farm can vary greatly, a local infrastructure is difficult to provision efficiently. In this paper we present the elastic acquisition of cloud resources as a means to ensure sufficient computing capacity for a software build system. This system is Open Build Service, a centrally managed distributed build system capable of building packages for several distributions and architectures. Main concerns were the technical feasibility, security and cost-efficiency of the proposed solution. A script was implemented to autonomously manage the elastic cloudbursting, monitoring resource usage and demand and making decisions whether new machines should be requested or idle ones terminated. The latencies incurred by the physical distance to the cloud were not insurmountable and the system scaled up in a matter of minutes. The main advantage achieved with cloud usage in this work was the advent of seemingly infinite number of resources on-demand, ideal for building taking care of sudden bursts of packages that can be built in parallel.
TRANSFORMATION TOWARD A CLOUD BUSINESS MODEL
Cloud technologies have widely been discussed within telecommunications research and practice. Compared to traditional software product business, the cloud enabled service business can be significantly different in nature. Therefore the transformation resulting in the implementation of cloud technologies can be drastic. There are gaps in current literature in the business implications of cloud technologies as well as cloud driven business model transformation. Drawing on business model, change and cloud literature, as well as on a single case study, this paper investigates the cloud business model transformation of an incumbent company. The results of the research indicate that Cloud as a business environment places specific demands for incumbents. This results in step-by-step planning and implementation of business model changes. In addition, customer value related phenomena value co-creation, co-capture and co-opetition appear as key elements in planning and implementing business model transformation toward the Cloud.
ADDING A NEW TEAM IN THE CLOUD-BASED DISTRIBUTED SOFTWARE PROJECT: A CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS OF KEY CHALLENGES
Distributed Software Development (DSD) in the cloud is rapidly increasing. Ramping up cloud infrastructure is inherent to cloud-based services, but adding a new offshore team to the existing cloud-based DSD project may pose several technical and non-technical challenges. In particular, effective ways to set up and integrate new teams for DSD projects on cloud-based platforms is insufficiently understood. This paper presents a qualitative case study that examines a cloud-based DSD project in which a new team from a development site in Helsinki is added in an ongoing project with two sites in Madrid. The focus of the analysis is to examine the key challenges when adding a new team in a cloud-based DSD project. A cross-case qualitative analysis is performed based on the focus group conducted at the Helsinki and Madrid sites. Participant observations and selective e-mail logs were also used as supplementary data for the analysis. The study reveals that ramping up cloud infrastructure in the cloud-based DSD with a new team is particularly challenging from three perspectives: 1) exchanging cloud-based project’s architecture with a new team, 2) determining the right cloud access controls for a newly added team and 3) developing scalable team design parallel to cloud infrastructure for future team ramp-up.
COLLABORATION IN CLOUD BUSINESSES – VALUE NETWORKS AND ECOSYSTEMS
Cloud computing businesses are coined by broad and intense company collaboration. There is a growing need for clarification of the types of collaborative structures. In this conceptual paper, we draw on existing scientific discussions from the fields of value networks and business ecosystems and provide a typology of organisational collaboration concepts for the cloud computing business. By suggesting a distinction between Cloud Value Networks and Cloud Ecosystems this paper lays the foundation for a more precise scholarly discussion on organisational collaboration.
CLOUD BASED CONCEPT FOR A FUTURE CONTACT BOOK
People are using several different devices and services for communication purposes. Managing and synchronizing contact information within these is challenging. In this paper we describe the development of a future contact book concept that utilizes the possibilities of cloud computing. A cloud based contact book can serve various devices and applications. Contact information can be updated automatically. The cloud based contact book could indicate availability of people and it could help in selecting the preferred communication channel. It also enables people to have different identities in their daily lives. The identities determine who is able to reach the person at any given moment and what communication channel is used. The contact book concept was co-created with potential users in different ideation activities. We describe the concept and initial user evaluation results.
What is "Cloud"?
This paper follows the history of the term “cloud” from the beginning of the Internet to the era of cloud computing, and ponders its past and current meaning. We argue that outsourcing is the primary meaning of “cloud”. We discuss elasticity and its significance in cloud computing. Elasticity is a key cost-cutting measure, especially for startup companies, but is not a requirement for cloud systems. We discuss the simple service layer model and the role of software components on different layers. We refine the model to better capture real-world use cases. This is achieved by dividing the layers into solutions and solutions further into components. Finally, we define a new computing business model. In this model, a company manages the entire computing experience of users. We conclude with discussion of the new business model and the possibilities it offers for users of the cloud.
Towards trust management for cloud-based ecosystems
Inter-enterprise collaborations allow service providers to focus on their key competences while providing a composed service to end customers. The actors involved must determine whether the gains from participating outweigh the risks of depending on other autonomous collaboration participants, in order to make trust decisions on their willingness to collaborate. We define trust as the extent to which an actor is willing to participate in a given action with a given partner, considering the risks and incentives involved. In this paper, we present two high-level alternatives for trust management architectures for cloud-based service ecosystems: closed collaboration environments and open service ecosystems. Closed environments, such as traditional virtual organization breeding environments, are often built around a hub actor, centrally managed and apply pre-formed trust relationships in determining who is allowed into the breeding environment. Open service ecosystems, in contrast, allow service providers to enter the ecosystem by publishing a valid service offer, and trust relationships are formed and evolve within the ecosystem. We discuss the implications these choices have on further architecture refinement, and compare the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches, including their infrastructure needs, viability and ability to scale up in size.
WHAT CLOUD USERS (SaaS PROVIDERS) SHOULD KNOW ABOUT DISECONOMIES OF SCALE?
This paper identifies potential diseconomies of scale for cloud users. The paper questions if the scale benefit currently available to cloud users is sustainable for long term. The paper highlights specific economies and diseconomies across supply-side savings, demand-side savings and multi-tenancy efficiency from cloud user perspectives. The paper argues that diseconomies will kick in if cloud users do not maintain scale benefit. The paper offers concrete recommendations for cloud users to maintain the scale benefit by offsetting sources of diseconomies. Finally, implications for future from potential diseconomies are presented.
Open Telco Ecosystem
Internet companies have utilized the benefits of open innovation and open APIs for a long time, but mobile operators are just entering the open domain with a concept referred here as Open Telco. This paper investigates how open APIs can be applied to mobile networks in order to transform them from a one-sided into a two-sided platform where new business models can be utilized. The Open Telco concept creates a new ecosystem that offers completely novel services for end users. The main characteristics of the service, mobile and Open Telco ecosystems are reviewed. The Open Telco ecosystem must meet a few prerequisites for being successful. First of all, the service must have at least national coverage to gain positive network effects. Secondly, developers want innovative pricing schema and on the other hand, regulation must be reviewed to allow novel payment services. Thirdly, the open APIs must accumulate a positive business case to the service providers, the operators. The discussion section summarizes the Open Telco ecosystem evaluation, expresses the limitations and proposes the next steps. Finally, conclusions are drawn.
A MODEL FOR RISK MANAGEMENT IN AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
This paper researches risk management in agile software development. In traditional waterfall-model risks were usually managed by using project risk management frameworks. Nowadays agile methods have started replacing the traditional models. One of the reasons was old models inability to respond constantly changing business requirements. Agile development is based on short iteration cycles, which allow them to respond to changes in business environment. Using agile development is itself risk management at project level. Problems started arising, when people tried to merge the old school heavy project risk management models with agile models. One of the key principles in agile development is to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy and documentation. The traditional risk management is heavily centered around documentation. Two companies were interviewed during the making of this paper. The goal was to address the issues which arose during the interviews. The suggested model is based on existing models and interviews.
