Cloud calculator: A cloud assessment tool for the public administration

Abstract

As cloud computing is becoming more popular as a way to host services and to improve businesses, its adoption still remains to be a clearly defined process. Specifically, when the adoption is to be made within the public administration (where additional constraints apply when compared to the private sector). Legislation needs to be created, standards need to be developed, and public organizations need to be in synch with their cloud goals and approaches. This paper proposes a tool that supports the architecture assessment of cloud migration or adoption initiatives. A systematic literature review is conducted to gain a better understanding of the characteristics of a system that are important to consider when analyzing the cloud viability of a system. Considering the technical aspects of cloud adoption, this paper proposes several criteria linked to software qualities. With the criteria set established, weights are then defined according to their respective importance in the system, supporting the readiness level classification that a system has regarding cloud computing, based on multi-criteria decision analysis. The developed solution is then applied in a case study, assessing the usefulness and effectiveness of the proposed tool for the cloud adoption process.