These are the costs for adding new capacities and features to a given application. These also include minor and major updates, in addition to the costs of integration on-premise or cloud applications to legacy systems (Julie, Schuff, Robert, 2002)
For on-premise applications with heavy requirements for BPM and BPR custom programming professional services, funding is treated as a capital expense (CAPEX). CAPEX-based spending on a project requires approval not just of the CEO but of the board of directors of a corporation as well (Katzan, 2010)
As a result, the command and control of this data is significantly diffused. This technological diffusement gives rise to new problems as well, including the need for managing security more effectively than has been the case in the past with enterprise applications (Kaufman, 2009)
In addition to the lack of enforceability of SLAs often cloud computing and SaaS-based enterprise software companies rely extensively on maintenance fees and annual maintenance contracts to generate the case they need to operate on a daily basis. The reliance on maintenance fees within enterprise software is commonplace and often doesn't lead to greater innovation in new product development, instead making the enterprise software companies even more complacent over time due to the lack of urgency of generating revenue (Leavitt, 2009)
The ease of configuring cloud-based applications is one of the key determinants of their ability to gain greater adoption in the enterprise. This agility and permeability of cloud-based applications also allow the CIO to more precisely align these specific systems and their features to the process needs in their business (Ledford, 2004)
This technological diffusement gives rise to new problems as well, including the need for managing security more effectively than has been the case in the past with enterprise applications (Kaufman, 2009). The most impactful concern dealing with cloud computing services is the customers' concerns dealing with the potential limitations that this trend leans towards including confidentiality of data and the need for greater fidelity of data platforms and their underlying technologies (Lin, Fu, Zhu, Dasmalchi, 2009)
The argument focuses upon previous research and personal experimentation in designated cloud computing scenarios. Ultimately, the goal is to distinguish the specific contributions affecting performance and, simultaneously provide some possible recommendations or solutions or to potential cloud users that might affect performance problems that are all initially defined through SLA benchmarks and continually monitored through real-time analytics of service performance including reliability and security metrics of performance (McQueen, M
Solution or Approach to Solving the Problem What is needed to alleviate the obfuscation and confusion that enterprise software vendors are propagating on this issue is an independent entity such as a standards organization to benchmark the SLAs of enterprise cloud computing vendors and report the results publically. This index needs to also take into account customer satisfaction levels and show how cloud computing, when properly implemented, can lead to significant gains in enterprise performance from a profitability and workflow perspective as well (O'Bryan, 2006)
Even with all these commitments to deliver a continual stream of new product and feature updates seamlessly over the Web via their cloud platforms, many cloud computing software companies still are not keeping the majority of commitments to their customers. Also, the SLAs they promise are not legally binding given the complexity of wording and lack of accountability and traceability of results (Pronto, JP (2008)
, 2009). The continued growth of cloud computing is also driving more digital content and information into data centers and the cloud than has ever been the case in the past, completely redefining the development methodologies of applications as well (Rajkumar, Yeo, Venugopal, 2008)
For cloud-based applications however, enterprises pay subscription fees and consulting fees for business process reviews. An emerging best practice today by early adopters of cloud computing in the enterprise is to use the implementation of a cloud-based application to also completely redefine several business processes that the new cloud-based system will automate (Read, 2011)
Many differing expectations and opinions must be explored to fully grasp the relative perspectives that arise from this idea. The thesis of this exploration deals with the legal, technical and economic viewpoints of cloud computing (RN Calheiros, et al
Given the wealth of CRM use cases, this area of enterprise software is the basis of this TCO and SLA analysis. on-premise enterprise software companies have long relied on BPM and BPR-based projects to increase the size and profitability of sales for on-premise applications (Shackleton, Saffre, Tateson, et
com, who relies on a subscription-based business model. Large-scale enterprise deployments that are on-premise often take several months to gain funding approval of, and in the case of 400 seat implementations or more, must also go through a rigorous budgeting process (Stanic, 2003)
These factors taken together leave the enterprise software buyer with little protection from cloud computing-based software vendors from delivering on their commitments to increased levels of application performance and greater availability of enterprise-grade applications over the Internet. Today the economics of cloud computing are compensating for the lack of accountability of long-term performance (Stoddard, M
Even the most well-known enterprise software companies who have cloud computing applications running on the Software as a Service (SaaS) platform are not offering legally binding SLA contracts, and this includes Salesforce.com (Stolfo, et al
1) It is reported that a survey conducted by Frost and Sullivan demonstrated "that the degree of interest in security metrics among many companies (sample consisted of over 80) was high and increasing (Ayoub, 2006); while, in a global survey sponsored by ISACA, dependable metrics were perceived to be one of the critical elements of information security program success by many security professionals and executives, though, they were also deemed difficult to acquire (O'Bryan, 2006)." (Barabanov, Kowalski and Yngstrom, 2011, p
4) Business goal alignment includes the defining of required measures and the mapping of business processes to define metrics as well as understanding the motivation for the metrics. (Pronto, 2008, paraphrased) The baseline framework of metrics is inclusive of "people, processes, procedures, technology and compliance" and include value provided vs
2 which is based on Security Standard Function plus Assurance and defines the robustness of security control as basic medium or high; (4) IDS Comparison metrics which are comparison metrics which serve to "enable comparison of IDS products based on performance and other measures"; (5) SAMATE technical assurance providing ongoing effort to define metrics for software security assurance tools; (6) ISECOM Risk Assessment Values technical assurance that defines level of risk associated with a system or application and prioritizes testing level of effort; (7) OWASP DREAD metric technical assurance for definitive level of risk associated with a Web application and for prioritizing the level of effort in assuring its security. (Stoddard, 2005, p
Conceptual framework To begin any work of this nature, it is important to clarify important terminology and concepts. First, an information technology (IT) system is also known as an application landscape, or any organism that allows for the integration of information and communication technology with data, algorithmic processes, and real people (Beynon-Davies, P