Evaluation Study of an ICT Company to Use Cloud Computing : Cloud Provider Perspective

This Master’s Thesis investigates, evaluates, and proposes options for using cloud service provider’s own services internally. The focus of the thesis is on evaluating the possibility of moving traditional IT environment into cloud-based computing, and it suggests methods for safe and effective working on a distributed and scalable environment. Global demands of new network services were the initial reason for the evaluation. Demands came from employees as well as business partners and customers. The thesis measures and analyses different cloud solution candidates which could meet these requirements. The thesis approach is a case study research with empirical and qualitative analyses. End users’ questionnaire response data was collected in data set files, which were further analysed and used to collect network services for testing. The test results were compared for proposing cloud solutions. The reliability and validity of the results were verified by expert judgements with methodological and environmental triangulation. Based on the analysis of the business needs, three cloud solution candidates were suggested for the company use: FS4O, Elastic Cloud Server, and Flexible Workspace