Cognitive mapping the topic of cloud computing

Cognitive mapping the topic of cloud computing

Joseph Kim-keung Ho

Independent Trainer

Hong Kong, China

Abstract: The topic of cloud computing in the subject of Information Systems Management is complex. By making use of the cognitive mapping technique to conduct a brief literature review on the cloud computing topic, the writer renders a systemic image on the topic of cloud computing. The result of the study, in the form of a cognitive map on cloud computing, should be useful to those who are interested in the topics of cognitive mapping, literature review and cloud computing.

Key words: Cloud computing, cognitive mapping, literature review

Introduction

As a topic in Information Systems Management, cloud computing is complex. It is thus useful to employ some learning tool to conduct its study, notably for literature review purpose. For a teacher in research methods, systems thinking and management, the writer is specifically interested in finding out how the cognitive mapping technique can be employed to go through a literature review on  cloud computing. This literature review exercise is taken up and reported in this article.

On the cognitive mapping exercise for literature review

Literature review is an important intellectual learning exercise, and not just for doing final year dissertation projects for tertiary education students. On these two topics of intellectual learning and literature review, the writer has compiled some e-learning resources. They are the Managerial intellectual learning Facebook page and the Literature on literature review Facebook page. Conducting literature review with the cognitive mapping technique is not novel in the cognitive mapping literature, see Eden and Simpson (1989), Eden, Jones and Sims (1983), Open University (n.d) and the Literature on cognitive mapping Facebook page. In this article, the specific steps involved in the cognitive mapping exercise are as follows:

Step 1: gather some main points from a number of academic journal articles on Cloud computing. This result in the production of a table (Table 1) with the main points and associated references.

Step 2: consolidate  the main points from Table 1 to come up with a table listing the cognitive map variables (re: Table 2).

Step 3: link up the cognitive  map variables in a plausible way to produce a cognitive map (re: Figure 1) on the topic under review.

The next section applies these three steps to produce a cognitive map on cloud computing.

Descriptions of cognitive map variables on the cloud computing topic

From the reading of some academic articles on Cloud computing, a number of main points (e.g., viewpoints, concepts and empirical findings) were gathered by the  writer. They are shown in Table 1 with explicit referencing on the points.

Table 1: Main points from the cloud computing literature and referencing

Main points from the cloud computing literature	Referencing
Point 1: "Cloud technology solutions offer a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g. network, servers, storages, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction (Han 2010 p.1). Cloud technology enhances a self-service solution, through innovative communication channels between the business and  customers and also provides customers with effective marketing messages straight to their mobile device. This new technology can enable organisations to target new markets and provide opportunities to attract new segment of  customers, who have unique needs throughout the purchase process utilising cloud technology (Gopalani and Shick 2011; Salmon 2011)".	Chen, L.C. and C.Y. Tseng. 2013. "Managing service innovation with cloud technology" Glob Bus Perspect November 12, Springer (DOI 10.1007/s40196-013-0027-2).
Point 2: "Cloud service solution has met the requirements of value co-creation opportunities as this new technology provides a new way of interaction with customers that is developed based on the changes in customers’ preferences and lifestyles. This solution allows service providers to increasingly utilise direct one-to-one marketing and customises their promotion programmes to meet the needs of each individuals. This solution is also planned and implemented based on the perspective of outside-in customer value, which is created and delivered over time as the relationship develops".	Chen, L.C. and C.Y. Tseng. 2013. "Managing service innovation with cloud technology" Glob Bus Perspect November 12, Springer (DOI 10.1007/s40196-013-0027-2).
Point 3: "Cloud computing is quickly changing the nature of business and represents a projected $3.3 trillion transformation in the computing environment (Ballmer, 2010). A large number of organizations and government agencies are expected to rely on the cloud for more than half of their IT services by 2020 (Gartner, 2011). About 90% of business and technology leaders expect to implement some type of cloud computing by 2015 (Berman, Kesterson-Townes, Marshall, & Srivathsa, 2012) leaving many organizations scrambling to develop coherent plans for successful cloud deployment (Windstream,2014). Cloud computing represents a transformational shift in IT that is rapidly changing the way in which organizations man-age and deliver IT services over the internet (Shawish & Salama,2014)".	Garrison, G., R.L. Wakefield and S. Kim. 2015. "The effects of IT capabilities and delivery model on cloud computing success and firm performance for cloud supported processes and operations" International Journal of Information Management 35, Elsevier: 377-393.
Point 4: "As organizations move more of their business functions into the cloud, some are reporting benefits like geographic expansion, better collaboration among business units, improved customer service and increased agility, as well as time to market and pro-cess efficiency (Windstream, 2014). However, despite the cloud’s promise to enable organizational flexibility and agility, many organizations face challenges developing a strategy for the execution and deployment of cloud resources (e.g., internal assessments, vendor selection) (Windstream, 2014)".	Garrison, G., R.L. Wakefield and S. Kim. 2015. "The effects of IT capabilities and delivery model on cloud computing success and firm performance for cloud supported processes and operations" International Journal of Information Management 35, Elsevier: 377-393.
Point 5: "Cloud computing is defined as a shared pool of on-demand computing resources that are accessible over the internet and dynamically configured to optimize resource utilization (Garrisonet al., 2012; Shawish & Salama, 2014). Cloud computing offers users ubiquitous and convenient access to a shared pool of computing resources consisting of networked servers, storage and software applications that are configured based on user requirements, rapidly provisioned to correspond with demand, and made available on a pay-per-use basis (Garrison et al., 2012; Mell & Grance, 2011)".	Garrison, G., R.L. Wakefield and S. Kim. 2015. "The effects of IT capabilities and delivery model on cloud computing success and firm performance for cloud supported processes and operations" International Journal of Information Management 35, Elsevier: 377-393.
Point 6: "The impetus for change right now is seen predominantly from a costs perspective (even though, as we discuss later in the document, the promises from a technological functionality perspective are equally attractive), as organizations increasingly discover that their substantial capital investments in information technology are often grossly underutilized".	Marston, S., Z. Li, S. Bandyopadhyay, J. Zhang and A. Ghalsasi. 2011. "Cloud computing - The business perspective" Decision Support Systems 51, Elsevier: 176-189.
Point 7: "Cloud computing represents a convergence of two major trends in information technology — (a) IT efficiency, whereby the power of modern computers is utilized more efficiently through highly scalable hardware and software resources and (b) business agility, whereby IT can be used as a competitive tool through rapid deployment, parallel batch processing, use of compute-intensive business analytics and mobile interactive applications that respond in real time to user requirements".	Marston, S., Z. Li, S. Bandyopadhyay, J. Zhang and A. Ghalsasi. 2011. "Cloud computing - The business perspective" Decision Support Systems 51, Elsevier: 176-189.
Point 8: "While the evolution of cloud computing will take several years or even a decade to fully unfold, the three core technologies that will enable it – virtualization, multitenancy and Web services – are rapidly taking shape".	Marston, S., Z. Li, S. Bandyopadhyay, J. Zhang and A. Ghalsasi. 2011. "Cloud computing - The business perspective" Decision Support Systems 51, Elsevier: 176-189.
Point 9: "Cloud computing refers to the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, i.e., shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over the Internet [1–3]. It has five essential characteristics: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service".	Wang, N., H. Liang, Y. Jia, S. Ge, Y. Xue and Z. Wang. 2016. "Cloud computing research n the IS discipline: A citation/ co-citation analysis" Decision Support  Systems 86, Elsevier: 35-47.
Point 10: "The rapid development of cloud computing markets has attracted much attention from information systems (IS) academics [6]. In recent years, some attempts have been made to summarize existing cloud computing research, map its intellectual structure, and predict its future directions".	Wang, N., H. Liang, Y. Jia, S. Ge, Y. Xue and Z. Wang. 2016. "Cloud computing research n the IS discipline: A citation/ co-citation analysis" Decision Support  Systems 86, Elsevier: 35-47.
Point 11: "Cloud computing research resides in an interdisciplinary area that includes technological, behavioral, managerial, and social dimensions".	Wang, N., H. Liang, Y. Jia, S. Ge, Y. Xue and Z. Wang. 2016. "Cloud computing research n the IS discipline: A citation/ co-citation analysis" Decision Support  Systems 86, Elsevier: 35-47.
Point 12: "Over the last decade, cloud computing has gained prominence and popularity as an innovative means of provisioning, utilizing, and managing information technology (IT) resources. Cloud computing is a new paradigm of computing where users employ third-party, Internet-hosted software applications, data storage, and computing services for their computing needs rather than applications on their local computers".	Bhattacherjee, A. and S.C. Park. 2014. "Why end-users move to the cloud: a migration-theoretic analysis" European Journal of Information Systems 23: 357-372.
Point 13: "Cloud computing has many benefits for both organizations and individual end-users. First, it provides users with universal (anytime/ anywhere) access to cloud-hosted resources and processing power (Rayport & Heyward, 2009). Second, it generates significant cost efficiencies for users from economies of scale as well as from the inherent cost advantages of Internet-based computing. Third, the cloud based architecture shields users from the risk and responsibility of owning and operating their own IT infrastructure or software....".	Bhattacherjee, A. and S.C. Park. 2014. "Why end-users move to the cloud: a migration-theoretic analysis" European Journal of Information Systems 23: 357-372.
Point 14: "Empirical studies on cloud adoption have relied heavily on IT adoption theories such as the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the technology acceptance model (TAM) or their extensions. For example, Taylor & Hunsinger (2011) observed that TPB constructs – attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control – influenced endusers’ intention of cloud adoption, in addition to their affect toward the cloud".	Bhattacherjee, A. and S.C. Park. 2014. "Why end-users move to the cloud: a migration-theoretic analysis" European Journal of Information Systems 23: 357-372.
Point 15: "The cloud market has grown considerably in recent years. Currently, the customer can choose among many cloud providers. The provider selection is challenging and it is difficult to match individual customer requirements with provided service characteristics. In addition, the absence of common provider properties and standards as well as individually differing perceptions complicate the process of adopting certain cloud solutions".	Repschlaeger, J., K. Erek and R. Zarnekow. 2013. Cloud computing adoption: an empirical  study of customer preferences among start-up companies" Electron Markets 23, Springer: 115-148.
Point 16: "In an attempt to assess the factors of influence referring to cloud adoption, Martens et al. (2011) develop a maturity model for the qualitative evaluation of cloud services. In this context, the relationships between cloud services, service level agreements (SLAs), aspects of technical implementation and characteristics of cloud providers are described in detail".	Repschlaeger, J., K. Erek and R. Zarnekow. 2013. Cloud computing adoption: an empirical  study of customer preferences among start-up companies" Electron Markets 23, Springer: 115-148.
Point 17: "Most researchers [12,18,20], users and professional public [4,7,8,10] define commercial computer clouds as a set of network services intended for providing IT services, wherein their usage:  * can be characterised as being performed on the on-demand self-service basis, * is available through standard network technologies and protocols, * is based on resource virtualization, * enables rapid elasticity, that is ,scalability of provided services and available resources in accordance with the user’s current business requirements, and  * is charged on the pay-as-you-go basis, like conventional utilities".	Brumec, S. and N. Vrček. 2013. "Cost effectiveness of commercial computing clouds" Information Systems 38, Elsevier: 495-508.
Point 18: "On their portals, commercial cloud providers offer a calculator for estimating the costs of leased cloud IT resources which, however, fail to address two crucial questions: what is the amount of IT resources that a particular application will use? and What is the cost of maintenance of those applications of on-premise computers within a conventional server farm?".	Brumec, S. and N. Vrček. 2013. "Cost effectiveness of commercial computing clouds" Information Systems 38, Elsevier: 495-508.

With a set of main points collected, the writer produces a set of cognitive map variables. These variables are informed by the set of main points from Table 1. These variables are presented in Table 2.

Table 2: Cognitive map variables based on Table 1

Cognitive map variables	Literature review points
Variable 1: Drivers of interest in cloud computing	Point 3: "Cloud computing is quickly changing the nature of business and represents a projected $3.3 trillion transformation in the computing environment (Ballmer, 2010). A large number of organizations and government agencies are expected to rely on the cloud for more than half of their IT services by 2020 (Gartner, 2011). About 90% of business and technology leaders expect to implement some type of cloud computing by 2015 (Berman, Kesterson-Townes, Marshall, & Srivathsa, 2012) leaving many organizations scrambling to develop coherent plans for successful cloud deployment (Windstream,2014). Cloud computing represents a transformational shift in IT that is rapidly changing the way in which organizations man-age and deliver IT services over the internet (Shawish & Salama,2014)". Point 6: "The impetus for change right now is seen predominantly from a costs perspective (even though, as we discuss later in the document, the promises from a technological functionality perspective are equally attractive), as organizations increasingly discover that their substantial capital investments in information technology are often grossly underutilized". Point 12: "Over the last decade, cloud computing has gained prominence and popularity as an innovative means of provisioning, utilizing, and managing information technology (IT) resources. Cloud computing is a new paradigm of computing where users employ third-party, Internet-hosted software applications, data storage, and computing services for their computing needs rather than applications on their local computers".
Variable 2: Improve intellectual understanding of cloud computing	Point 5: "Cloud computing is defined as a shared pool of on-demand computing resources that are accessible over the internet and dynamically configured to optimize resource utilization (Garrisonet al., 2012; Shawish & Salama, 2014). Cloud computing offers users ubiquitous and convenient access to a shared pool of computing resources consisting of networked servers, storage and software applications that are configured based on user requirements, rapidly provisioned to correspond with demand, and made available on a pay-per-use basis (Garrison et al., 2012; Mell & Grance, 2011)". Point 7: "Cloud computing represents a convergence of two major trends in information technology — (a) IT efficiency, whereby the power of modern computers is utilized more efficiently through highly scalable hardware and software resources and (b) business agility, whereby IT can be used as a competitive tool through rapid deployment, parallel batch processing, use of compute-intensive business analytics and mobile interactive applications that respond in real time to user requirements". Point 9: "Cloud computing refers to the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, i.e., shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over the Internet [1–3]. It has five essential characteristics: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service". Point 11: "Cloud computing research resides in an interdisciplinary area that includes technological, behavioral, managerial, and social dimensions". Point 14: "Empirical studies on cloud adoption have relied heavily on IT adoption theories such as the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the technology acceptance model (TAM) or their extensions. For example, Taylor & Hunsinger (2011) observed that TPB constructs – attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control – influenced endusers’ intention of cloud adoption, in addition to their affect toward the cloud". Point 16: "In an attempt to assess the factors of influence referring to cloud adoption, Martens et al. (2011) develop a maturity model for the qualitative evaluation of cloud services. In this context, the relationships between cloud services, service level agreements (SLAs), aspects of technical implementation and characteristics of cloud providers are described in detail". Point 17: "Most researchers [12,18,20], users and professional public [4,7,8,10] define commercial computer clouds as a set of network services intended for providing IT services, wherein their usage:  * can be characterised as being performed on the on-demand self-service basis, * is available through standard network technologies and protocols, * is based on resource virtualization, * enables rapid elasticity, that is ,scalability of provided services and available resources in accordance with the user’s current business requirements, and  * is charged on the pay-as-you-go basis, like conventional utilities".
Variable 3: Effective cloud computing practices	Point 1: "Cloud technology solutions offer a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g. network, servers, storages, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction (Han 2010 p.1). Cloud technology enhances a self-service solution, through innovative communication channels between the business and  customers and also provides customers with effective marketing messages straight to their mobile device. This new technology can enable organisations to target new markets and provide opportunities to attract new segment of  customers, who have unique needs throughout the purchase process utilising cloud technology (Gopalani and Shick 2011; Salmon 2011)". Point 2: "Cloud service solution has met the requirements of value co-creation opportunities as this new technology provides a new way of interaction with customers that is developed based on the changes in customers’ preferences and lifestyles. This solution allows service providers to increasingly utilise direct one-to-one marketing and customises their promotion programmes to meet the needs of each individuals. This solution is also planned and implemented based on the perspective of outside-in customer value, which is created and delivered over time as the relationship develops". Point 8: "While the evolution of cloud computing will take several years or even a decade to fully unfold, the three core technologies that will enable it – virtualization, multitenancy and Web services – are rapidly taking shape". Point 13: "Cloud computing has many benefits for both organizations and individual end-users. First, it provides users with universal (anytime/ anywhere) access to cloud-hosted resources and processing power (Rayport & Heyward, 2009). Second, it generates significant cost efficiencies for users from economies of scale as well as from the inherent cost advantages of Internet-based computing. Third, the cloud based architecture shields users from the risk and responsibility of owning and operating their own IT infrastructure or software....". Point 15: "The cloud market has grown considerably in recent years. Currently, the customer can choose among many cloud providers. The provider selection is challenging and it is difficult to match individual customer requirements with provided service characteristics. In addition, the absence of common provider properties and standards as well as individually differing perceptions complicate the process of adopting certain cloud solutions".
Variable 4: Learn from cloud computing practices	Point 4: "As organizations move more of their business functions into the cloud, some are reporting benefits like geographic expansion, better collaboration among business units, improved customer service and increased agility, as well as time to market and pro-cess efficiency (Windstream, 2014). However, despite the cloud’s promise to enable organizational flexibility and agility, many organizations face challenges developing a strategy for the execution and deployment of cloud resources (e.g., internal assessments, vendor selection) (Windstream, 2014)". Point 10: "The rapid development of cloud computing markets has attracted much attention from information systems (IS) academics [6]. In recent years, some attempts have been made to summarize existing cloud computing research, map its intellectual structure, and predict its future directions". Point 18: "On their portals, commercial cloud providers offer a calculator for estimating the costs of leased cloud IT resources which, however, fail to address two crucial questions: what is the amount of IT resources that a particular application will use? and What is the cost of maintenance of those applications of on-premise computers within a conventional server farm?".

The next step is to relate the cognitive map variables to make up a cognitive map on cloud computing. The cognitive map and its explanation are presented in the next section.

A cognitive map on cloud computing and its interpretation

By relating the four variables identified in Table 2, the writer comes up with a cognitive map on cloud computing, as shown in Figure 1.

These cognitive  map variables, four of them altogether, are related to constitute a systemic image of cloud computing. The links in the cognitive map (re: Figure 1) indicate direction of influences between variables. The + sign shows that an increase in one variable leads to an increase in another variable while a -ve sign tells us that in increase in one variable leads to a decrease in another variable.  If there no signs shown on the arrows, that means the influences can be positive or negative.  For further information on cloud computing, readers are referred to the Literature on cloud computing Facebook page.

Concluding remarks

The cognitive mapping exercise captures in one diagram some of the main variables involved in cloud computing. The resultant cognitive map promotes an exploratory way to study cloud computing in a holistic tone. The experience of the cognitive mapping exercise is that it can be a quick, efficient and entertaining way to explore a complex topic such as cloud computing in Information Systems Management. Finally, readers who are interested in cognitive mapping should also find the article informative on this mapping topic.

Bibliography

1.      Bhattacherjee, A. and S.C. Park. 2014. "Why end-users move to the cloud: a migration-theoretic analysis" European Journal of Information Systems 23: 357-372.

2.      Brumec, S. and N. Vrček. 2013. "Cost effectiveness of commercial computing clouds" Information Systems 38, Elsevier: 495-508.

3.      Chen, L.C. and C.Y. Tseng. 2013. "Managing service innovation with cloud technology" Glob Bus Perspect November 12, Springer (DOI 10.1007/s40196-013-0027-2).

4.      Eden, C. and P. Simpson. 1989. "SODA and cognitive mapping in practice", pp. 43-70, in Rosenhead, J. (editor) Rational Analysis for a Problematic World, Wiley, Chichester.

5.      Eden, C., C. Jones and D. Sims. 1983. Messing about in Problems: An informal structured approach to their identification and management, Pergamon Press, Oxford.

6.      Garrison, G., R.L. Wakefield and S. Kim. 2015. "The effects of IT capabilities and delivery model on cloud computing success and firm performance for cloud supported processes and operations" International Journal of Information Management 35, Elsevier: 377-393.

7.      Literature on cloud computing Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/Literature-on-cloud-computing-1824464167871156/).

8.      Literature on cognitive mapping Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/Literature-on-cognitive-mapping-800894476751355/).

9.      Literature on literature review Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/literature.literaturereview/).

10. Managerial intellectual learning Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/managerial.intellectual.learning/).

11. Marston, S., Z. Li, S. Bandyopadhyay, J. Zhang and A. Ghalsasi. 2011. "Cloud computing - The business perspective" Decision Support Systems 51, Elsevier: 176-189.

12. Open University. n.d. "Sign graph" Systems Thinking and Practice (T552): Diagramming, Open University, U.K. (url address: http://systems.open.ac.uk/materials/T552/) [visited at April 10, 2017].

13. Repschlaeger, J., K. Erek and R. Zarnekow. 2013. Cloud computing adoption: an empirical  study of customer preferences among start-up companies" Electron Markets 23, Springer: 115-148.

14. Wang, N., H. Liang, Y. Jia, S. Ge, Y. Xue and Z. Wang. 2016. "Cloud computing research n the IS discipline: A citation/ co-citation analysis" Decision Support  Systems 86, Elsevier: 35-47.