Readiness Assessment of Cloud-Computing Adoption within a Provincial Government of South Africa

127 Pages·2014·8.95 MB·English

Readiness Assessment of Cloud-Computing Adoption within
a Provincial Government of South Africa

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Master‟s degree in Information
Management
Department of Information Systems
Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences
University of the Western Cape

Liya Xi
2869651

Supervisor:
Dr Zoran Mitrovic

July 2014
ABSTRACT  

Cloud computing, as a shifting paradigm, is expanding its “bandwagon effect” across
industries worldwide. This is due to the sever al advantages of cloud computing that have
been revealed by the public sectors (empiric al setting of this study), including improved
levels of flexibility and mobility, lower total cost of ownership, reduced energy savings and
carbon missions. Most importantly, cloud computing can free government from building,
maintaining and upgrading its infrastructures and technologies, and focus more on serving
the citizens with optimised resources. Hence, this paper focuses on the readiness assessment
of cloud-computing adoption within a Provincial Government of South Africa, which is in its
cloud-computing embryonic phase. An extensive study of the literature on cloud-computing
concepts, its characteristics, the possible non-technological readiness indicators for
cloud-computing adoption, was conducted. This led to the identification of three main groups
of readiness indicators: (i) Infrastructural indicators; (ii) organisational indicators; and (iii)
environmental indicators. A conceptual model was then developed, according to these three
main groups, with twelve sub-indicators. This model was subsequently tested in the empirical
setting of the studied Provincial Government of South Africa by using the qualitative
approach through the case-study methodology. The intended audience for this study are both
academic and practitioners as it brings a conceptual model and the guidelines for assessing
the government‟s readiness for the adoption of these cloud-computing technologies and
services.

Keywords: Cloud-computing adoption, government, readiness indicators, developing
economies, Africa, South Africa
II
DECLARATION  

I, Liya Xi, hereby declare that “Assessing readiness for Cloud Computing within a
Provincial Government in South Africa” is  my own original work, that it has not been
submitted before for any degree or examinat ion in any other university, and that all the
sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by way of complete
references.

Signed Date
_________________ _______________

III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Zoran
Mitrovic, for his guidance and assistance throug hout this study.

Additionally, I would like to thank Dr James Njenga, for his support and advice on the
research process; as well as Mr Roscoe Adams, for his recommendations and advice in the
field of cloud-computing practices.

My appreciation is also extended to the Department of Information Systems, and all the staff
members, lecturers and professors, who have been there for me – ever since my
undergraduate studies. A special word of thanks goes to Ms Womba Mwaba, Ms Lydia
Kimani, and Ms Albertina Mujawamilya. I am grateful for all your support, encouragement,
and inspiration. Thank you all for believing in me.

I am sincerely grateful to all my friends, who have always been there for me, Ivana, Chipo,
Chong, Vivian, Hanna and Jared. Special thanks go to James, for all your kindness, patience
and encouragement. I would not have come this far without all your support.

Last, but not least, to my dearest parents, your love, unconditional support and
encouragement have given me the necessary strength to carry on.

IV
LIST OF FIGURES  

Figure 2-1 The NIST cloud-computing definition framework (Mell & Grance, 2009) .. 11
Figure 2-2 Example of service available to  a cloud consumer (Liu et al., 2011) ............ 17
Figure 3-1 Research-design steps (Source:  Author) ........................................................ 56

V
LIST OF TABLES  

Table 2-1 Cloud-computing definitions (Vaquero et al., 2008)....................................... 11
Table 2-2 Comparison of cloud-computing  deployment models (Shoshatari, 2013) ...... 19
Table 2-3 Areas of concern in SLA (Bollin eni & Kumar, 2011) .................................... 37
Table 2-4 A research-conceptual model of readiness indicators for e-Government
cloud-computing adoption (Source: Author) ........................................................... 49
Table 3-1 Strengths and weaknesses of CSM (Jabar, 2009) ............................................ 60
Table 4-1 Background information of participants (Source: Author) ............................. 71
Table 4-2 Literature review of cloud-computing readiness factors (Source: Author) ..... 92
Table 4-3 The final proposed cloud-computing adoption readiness indicators model
based on the study's outcome (Source: Author) ....................................................... 95
Table 4-4 Extent of readiness of a studied Provincial Government for cloud-computing
adoption (Source: Author) ....................................................................................... 96

VI
ABBREVIATIONS  

CapEx: Capital Expenditure
CC: Cloud Computing  
CEGP: Carbon-Efficient Green Policy  
DaaS: Desktop as a Service
E-Commerce: Electronic Commerce
E-Government: Electronic Commerce
G2B: Government-to-Business
G2C: Government-to-Citizens
G2G: Government-to-Government
IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service
ICT: Information and Communications Technology
IT: Information Technology
OPaaS: Office Productivity as a Service
OpeEx: Operating Expenditure
PaaS: Platform as a Service
SaaS: Software as a Service
SLA: Service Level of Agreement
TCO: Total Cost of Ownership
VM: Virtual Machine

VII
TABLE OF CONTENTS  

ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. II

DECLARATION ..................................................................................................................... III

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... IV
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. V
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... VI
ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................... VII
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY ................................................................. 1
1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Background of research problem ................................................................................. 1
1.3 Statement of the research problem ............................................................................... 3
1.4 Research question and sub-questions........................................................................... 4
1.5 Research objectives ...................................................................................................... 5
1.6 Research methodology ................................................................................................. 5
1.7 Scope and limitations of the study ............................................................................... 6
1.8 Contributions of this study ........................................................................................... 6
1.9 Chapter outline ............................................................................................................. 7
1.10 Chapter summary ..................................................................................................... 8
2 CHAPTER 2: THE LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................... 9
2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 9
2.2 Cloud computing .......................................................................................................... 9
2.2.1 Characteristics of cloud computing .................................................................... 14
2.2.2 Business models of cloud computing ................................................................. 16
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2.2.3 Service-deployment model of cloud computing ................................................. 18
2.2.4 Benefits of cloud computing ......... ...................................................................... 19

2.3 Cloud computing in the e-Government context ......................................................... 21

2.3.1 International government cloud (G-Cloud) adoptions ........................................ 22

2.3.2 Drivers of change ................................................................................................ 24
2.4 Government-Cloud Computing readiness analysis .................................................... 25
2.4.1 Infrastructural indicators ..................................................................................... 26
2.4.2 Organisational indicators .................................................................................... 30
2.4.3 Environmental indicators .................................................................................... 44
2.5 Literature review summary ........................................................................................ 48
3 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY..................................... 51
3.1 Introduction to the chapter ......................................................................................... 51
3.2 The research assumptions .......................................................................................... 51
3.3 The research paradigms ............................................................................................. 53
3.3.1 Positivism ............................................................................................................ 53
3.3.2 Interpretivism ...................................................................................................... 54
3.3.3 Locating the study within the interpretive paradigm .......................................... 55
3.4 The research design.................................................................................................... 55
3.5 The research methodology ......................................................................................... 57
3.5.1 Quantitative methodology ................................................................................... 57
3.5.2 Qualitative methodology ..................................................................................... 57
3.5.3 Rationale for a qualitative study ......................................................................... 58
3.6 The Case-Study strategy ............................................................................................ 59
3.6.1 Categories of case studies ................................................................................... 60
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3.6.2 Limitations in the qualitative case-study method ............................................... 61
3.6.3 Case-study design in this research  ...................................................................... 62

3.7 The sampling design .................................................................................................. 62

3.8 The data collection ..................................................................................................... 63

3.9 The data analysis ........................................................................................................ 65
3.10 Research evaluation: trustworthiness, validity and reliability ................................ 66
3.11 Ethical considerations ............................................................................................. 68
3.12 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 68
4 CHAPTER 4: CASE-STUDY FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .................................... 70
4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 70
4.2 Organisational characteristics .................................................................................... 70
4.3 Background of the participants .................................................................................. 70
4.4 The current state ......................................................................................................... 72
4.5 Cloud-Computing adoption readiness factors in the investigated province .............. 72
4.5.1 Emerging concept: Attitudes towards cloud computing ..................................... 73
4.5.2 Infrastructural indicators ..................................................................................... 75
4.5.3 Organisational indicators .................................................................................... 78
4.5.4 Environmental indicators .................................................................................... 88
4.6 Conclusion: The answer to the research question ...................................................... 91
5 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.................................... 98
5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 98
5.2 Research objectives revisited ..................................................................................... 98
5.3 Recommendations ...................................................................................................... 99
5.3.1 Infrastructural Indicators ..................................................................................... 99
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