How Fluffy is the Cloud ?: Cloud Intelligence for a Not-For-Profit
📝 Abstract
Business Intelligence (BI) is becoming more accessible and less expensive with fewer risks through various deployment options available in the Cloud. Cloud computing facilitates the acquisition of custom solutions for not-for-profit (NFP) organisations at affordable and scalable costs on a flexible pay-as-you-go basis. In this paper, we explore the key technical and organisational aspects of BI in the Cloud (Cloud Intelligence) deployment in an Australian NFP whose BI maturity is rising although still low. This organisation aspires to Cloud Intelligence for improved managerial decision making yet the issues surrounding the adoption of Cloud Intelligence are complex, especially where corporate and Cloud governance is concerned. From the findings of the case study, a conceptual framework has been developed and presented which offers a view of how governance could be deployed so that NFPs gain maximum leverage through their adoption of the Cloud.
💡 Analysis
Business Intelligence (BI) is becoming more accessible and less expensive with fewer risks through various deployment options available in the Cloud. Cloud computing facilitates the acquisition of custom solutions for not-for-profit (NFP) organisations at affordable and scalable costs on a flexible pay-as-you-go basis. In this paper, we explore the key technical and organisational aspects of BI in the Cloud (Cloud Intelligence) deployment in an Australian NFP whose BI maturity is rising although still low. This organisation aspires to Cloud Intelligence for improved managerial decision making yet the issues surrounding the adoption of Cloud Intelligence are complex, especially where corporate and Cloud governance is concerned. From the findings of the case study, a conceptual framework has been developed and presented which offers a view of how governance could be deployed so that NFPs gain maximum leverage through their adoption of the Cloud.
📄 Content
Australasian Conference on Information Systems
Koparkar & MacKrell
2015, Adelaide
CI for NFPs
1
How Fluffy is the Cloud?: Cloud Intelligence for a Not-for-profit
Organisation
Purva Koparkar
Faculty of Business Government & Law
University of Canberra
Canberra, Australia
Email: purva.koparkar@canberra.edu.au
Dale MacKrell
Faculty of Business Government & Law
University of Canberra
Canberra, Australia
Email: dale.mackrell@canberra.edu.au
Abstract
Business Intelligence (BI) is becoming more accessible and less expensive with fewer risks through
various deployment options available in the Cloud. Cloud computing facilitates the acquisition of
custom solutions for not-for-profit (NFP) organisations at affordable and scalable costs on a flexible
pay-as-you-go basis. In this paper, we explore the key technical and organisational aspects of BI in the
Cloud (Cloud Intelligence) deployment in an Australian NFP whose BI maturity is rising although still
low. This organisation aspires to Cloud Intelligence for improved managerial decision making yet the
issues surrounding the adoption of Cloud Intelligence are complex, especially where corporate and
Cloud governance is concerned. From the findings of the case study, a conceptual framework has been
developed and presented which offers a view of how governance could be deployed so that NFPs gain
maximum leverage through their adoption of the Cloud.
Keywords Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Cloud Governance, Not-for-profit
1 Introduction
Cloud computing is a relatively recent term initiated by industry practitioners. It is a facility which
promotes on-demand, ubiquitous, and secure networked access to a shared pool of configurable
computing resources for rapid provisioning and release, with minimal managerial effort and service
provider interaction (Mell and Grance 2009). The Cloud is becoming an attractive option for small to
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small not-for-profit (NFP) organisations for whom even basic
information technology (IT) remains an obstacle. For these firms, hardware and software
infrastructure is not sufficiently funded and often out-dated with a heavy reliance on non-IT staff for
IT operations (Lacity and Reynolds 2014; Strickland et al. 2010). Business Intelligence (BI) in the
Cloud, as Cloud Intelligence, integrates BI systems with Cloud computing architecture as an adaptable
and affordable computing platform to improve the quality and speed of business decisions (Baars and
Kemper 2010).
This paper examines deployment options for migration to the Cloud as well as security, governance
and risk management aspects for consideration before a Cloud Intelligence solution is selected and
adopted. Cloud-oriented concepts are operationalised in a case study of a small Canberra-based NFP
organisation which is steadfastly moving its data, technical and business processes to the Cloud. The
case study aids in comprehending the cautious but determined steps of a NFP in implementing Cloud
Intelligence along with the outcomes, both expected and unexpected.
Findings from the paper are both practical and theoretical. They demonstrate how a NFP organisation
relies on the Cloud provider to shoulder governance responsibilities when the significance of
developing Cloud governance policies in-house is not well appreciated. A conceptual framework is
presented which suggests a possible option for how governance responsibilities could be shared with
the Cloud provider allowing the NFP to gain maximum leverage from their adoption of the Cloud.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
For the literature review, we draw from scholarly and industry literature which together form a holistic
background of the research domain and practice setting in which the study took place.
Australasian Conference on Information Systems
Koparkar & MacKrell
2015, Adelaide
CI for NFPs
2 2.1 Overview Business Intelligence in the Cloud (Cloud Intelligence) represents the coming together of two key IT trends: Cloud computing architecture as a flexible and cost effective computing platform and BI technology as a support for swift organisational decision making (Goel 2010). Cloud Intelligence promises the delivery of business and consumer services over the Internet in a responsive, scalable and economical manner. The Cloud computing environment enables BI to be distributed as three main delivery service models: Software as a Service (SaaS) whereby software applications run in the Cloud; Platform as a Service (PaaS) which provides shared development and run-time platforms and manages underlying software and hardware layers; and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) such that storage and computing power are offered on-demand as a service (Lacity and Reynolds 2014; Marston et al. 2011). The virtual environment provides users with the capability to access computing power which they may not have been able to access earlie
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