IT Demand Research Articles

Energy-Aware Cloud Computing Simulators: A State of the Art Survey

Cloud computing is an emerging technology that offers pay-per-use IT services around the world. The daily increase in Cloud infrastructures and modern IT demands (such as web applications, scientific, and business) results in large-scale data centers that lead to additional electricity consumption. The high energy consumption causes a high operating cost and involves a large amount of carbon dioxide emissions that are harmful to the atmosphere. Many academic, governmental, and industrial studies show that energy consumed by computers and different communication units in a data center plays a significant role in the increase of data center operating costs. It is difficult to calculate the performance, security problems, and energy consumption in a true Cloud computing infrastructure. Therefore, in recent years, several simulation tools have been introduced to help researchers for the analysis of a Cloud computing environment. Cloud simulators need to perform simulation tests to reduce the various complexities in Cloud computing environments. Some Cloud simulators have been specially created to test the performance of Cloud computing environments. This study presents the comparative analysis of the state-of-the-art energy aware Cloud simulators. For comparison, several characteristics, functions, and models are employed for most famous energy aware Cloud simulators such as Green Cloud, CloudSim, iCanCloud, Cloud Analyst, Network CloudSim, and CloudReport.

Universal Cooling of Data Centres: A CFD Analysis

At present, cooling of data centres efficiently is proving a challenging feat for many companies. With constantly increasing server size and IT demand, combined with the ever increasing energy consciousness of the world, many cooling systems are no longer up to the task of effectively cooling these Data Centres while maintaining an energy efficient environment. A review of journal papers, white papers, and information from companies who manufacture data centre cooling solutions was undertaken. The literature reviewed shows that any solution to this increasing problem needs to be flexible. Investigation was carried out on two different types of cooling system which showed the most promise within the literature review. An air-cooled type (hot aisle containment air cooling) and a liquid-cooled type (single-phase liquid immersion cooling) were the two types of data centre cooling systems selected. 2D simulation of each of these systems, using ANSYS© Fluent 17.2 Academic, was carried out to demonstrate the flexibility of each system when rack density is increased from 15kW to 30kW. Conclusions were drawn that air was not a flexible cooling method if changes were to be made to the IT equipment, with a maximum outlet temperature of 324K (51°C) for the 15kW system rising to 342K (69°C) when changed to a 30kW system. It was also found that liquid immersion cooling was flexible and maintained an average outlet temperature of 298K (25°C) even when the IT equipment was uprated to 30kW.

Perceived barriers and facilitators to Risk Based Monitoring in academic-led clinical trials: a mixed methods study

BackgroundIn November 2016, the ICH published a requirement for sponsors to develop a systematic, prioritised, risk-based approach to monitoring clinical trials. This approach is more commonly known as risk-based monitoring (RBM). However, recent evidence suggests that a ‘gold standard’, validated approach to RBM does not exist and it is unclear how sponsors will introduce RBM into their organisations. A first step needed to inform the implementation of RBM is to explore academic trialists’ readiness and ability to perform RBM. The aim of this paper is to identify the attitudes and perceived barriers and facilitators to the implementation of RBM in academic-led clinical trials in Ireland.MethodsThis is a mixed-methods, explanatory sequential design, with quantitative survey followed by semistructured interviews. Academic clinical researchers (N = 132) working in Ireland were surveyed to examine their use and perceptions of RBM. A purposive sample of survey participants (n = 22) were then interviewed to gain greater insight into the quantitative findings. The survey and interview data were merged to generate a list of perceived barriers and facilitators to RBM implementation, with suggestions for, and solutions to, these issues.ResultsSurvey response rate was 49% (132/273). Thirteen percent (n = 18) of responders were not familiar with the term risk-based monitoring and less than a quarter of respondents (21%, n = 28) had performed RBM in a clinical trial. Barriers to RBM implementation included lack of RBM knowledge/training, increased costs caused by greater IT demands, increased workload for trial staff and lack of evidence to support RBM as an effective monitoring approach. Facilitators included participants’ legal obligation to perform RBM under the new ICH-GCP guidelines, availability of RBM guidance and perception of cost savings by performing RBM in future trials.ConclusionThe results of this study demonstrate a need for training and regulatory-endorsed guidelines to support the implementation of RBM in academic-led clinical trials. The study provides valuable insights to inform interventions and strategies by policy-makers and clinical trial regulators to improve RBM uptake.

An adaptive task allocation technique for green cloud computing

The rapid growth of todays IT demands reflects the increased use of cloud data centers. Reducing computational power consumption in cloud data center is one of the challenging research issues in th...

Factors Influencing Cloud Computing Adoption for Higher Educational Institutes in India: A Fuzzy AHP Approach

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are changing the ways of imparting education, providing learning opportunities and enhancing institutional performance. Cloud computing (CC) helps in lightening the burden of massive technology investments required for improving performance. However, CC adoption in higher educational institutes in India is still in nascent phase. Therefore, the objective is to identify and rank the factors enabling CC adoption in the context. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) has been applied. Time to cater IT demand, security and relative advantage are found as the most critical factors. The findings will aid other institutes in adoption decision and gain competitive advantage.

Description of the structure of the IT demand management process framework

IT demand management is considered as one of the key IT governance processes for business success and that actually it is not managed properly from a strategic point of view for achieving the objectives of the business in the organizations, this paper presents the structure of the IT demand management process framework, called integral IT demand management process framework. This description provides a strategic level view of the phases, main activities, and sub-activities of each IT demand management phase. This framework is the result of the combination of conceptual models and standards related to IT and business currently there is a lack of frameworks or methodological guides to assist senior executives and IT professionals in the organization to manage the IT demand and help them to bridge the gap that exists between business and IT. To evaluate the proposed framework, we conducted an additional survey taken by forty two respondents. The contribution of our research is twofold: IT artifact design. Second is the positive IT artefact evaluation.

Organizational Creativity and IT-based Support

The main aim of this paper is to provide a theoretically and empirically grounded discussion on IT-based organizational creativity support. This study attempts to answer the following questions: (1) what is the issue of organizational creativity and its IT-based support, (2) what is the demand for IT –based organizational creativity support; (3) what are the main determinants and barriers to IT-based organizational creativity support; and (4) what success factors are crucial for IT-based organizational creativity support. This paper presents the analysis results of a survey conducted in 25 selected organizations. The paper provides valuable information on the possibilities of IT applications in organizational creativity support as well as the associated success factors. It makes useful contribution to our better understanding of IT-based organizational creativity support issues.

The Characteristics of New Business Models in Consulting: An Analysis of Practice

Just like other sectors, the consulting sector is changing under the influence of IT and new client demands. Some authors suggest that new business models are disrupting the sector. There is howeve...

OBJECT-ORIENTED APPROACH TO IDENTIFYING THE RELEVANCE OF IT-EDUCATION TO THE LABOR MARKET DEMAND

The paper deals with the issues of human resources development and IT-staff training. The authors put a special emphasis on bringing the IT-staff training system in line with the labor market demands both in quantitative and qualitative terms. Based on the object-oriented approach, the authors explore the reasons behind the existing imbalance between the markets of IT-education services and IT-specialists in Azerbaijan, the challenges facing the IT education and specificity of the IT-specialists market being described. For overcoming the above gap between the IT labor market supply and demand, the authors put forward a model of professional competences, reflecting the real-life requirements for a specialist’s quality. Additionally, the paper outlines the recommended trends of IT-sector development in Azerbaijan, which include organization of innovative research and education centers for specialists’ training and retraining, legislative and institutional coordination of the IT industry and education, development of new educational standards, increase in the number of IT-profile students.

모듈러 데이터 센터에 적용된 다양한 외기냉방 시스템의 급기 조건 및 지역별 에너지 절감효과 분석

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze energy saving potentials of various economizers in modular data center by thermal conditions and locations in response to explosive IT demand and data centers' energy consumption increase. To investigate holistic energy saving potentials, various server thermal characteristics, economizers, and locations are analyzed on a modular data center. As a results, economizers can save cooling coil load 75-100% according to their running conditions, and indirect air-side economizer showed better performance than direct air-side economizer. Even though there is more chiller energy saving with server inlet temperature increase, total energy saving decreased more sharply due to fan energy increase. Furthermore, there should be more energy saving potentials in high latitude climates regardless of type of economizers.

Português

The Warehouse Management System is an Information Technology (TI) which helps companies in their warehouse operations and inventory, giving a more appropriate use to the space of distribution centers (DCs). Even though the operational and financial results of the implementation of IT, such as the WMS, are positive and clear, results related to safety and other technical issues need to be assessed more accurately, considering that IT demands high investments. Thus, to evaluate the WMS, this paper presents a literature review on technologies, IT, IS, and WMS, and then applies the method of Ribeiro and Carvalho to companies that offer logistics services such as Logistics Operators. A case study method will be used for that, following a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with Logistics Operators. Among the results, it was found that these companies still give greater emphasis to the economic analysis of IT and must therefore improve the assessment of new software by involving variables that account for organizational, safety and other technical issues, in addition to the financial variables currently in use.

Research on Control System of Tropical Intelligent Agriculture in Hainan

Research on intelligent agriculture in our country has attracted great attention of the researchers now, but it is still under discovery. According to tropical agriculture in Hainan to IT's demand, the paper studies the key technology in the development of tropical intelligent agriculture, including automatic test technology, automatic control technology, Internet of Things and so on. This paper analyzes factors that affect tropical intelligent agricultures development, which include agricultural program, agricultural policies and regulations, agricultural technology situation, infrastructure construction, field management and other factors. The thesis builds a model between the development of tropical intelligent agriculture and its affecting factors. A developmental idea of tropical intelligent agriculture in Hainan is proposed on the basis of the model. The thesis analyzes the construction of intelligent agriculture control system in Hainan from the angles of data acquisition, data transfer, data analysis and data feed.

Case Study of Strategic IT Demand Management in Organizations – Exploratory Results

Strategic IT demand plays an important role in the success of a business. This process must be addressed at the strategic level by the board of directors and senior executives. This paper describes the results of an exploratory case study conducted to ascertain the status of strategic IT demand management in organizations. This case study indicates whether organizations have clear and well-defined processes and whether these processes are allocated the necessary resources, for example, whether demand interacts with the project portfolio, what use is made of this portfolio, and also what types of standards and methodologies are used for strategic IT demand management process. The results of the study provide a basis for the design of a global framework covering all three levels of the IT demand management process (strategic, tactical and operational), which we intend to use to design a methodology for strategic IT demand management.

Renewable and cooling aware workload management for sustainable data centers

Recently, the demand for data center computing has surged, increasing the total energy footprint of data centers worldwide. Data centers typically comprise three subsystems: IT equipment provides services to customers; power infrastructure supports the IT and cooling equipment; and the cooling infrastructure removes heat generated by these subsystems. This work presents a novel approach to model the energy flows in a data center and optimize its operation. Traditionally, supply-side constraints such as energy or cooling availability were treated independently from IT workload management. This work reduces electricity cost and environmental impact using a holistic approach that integrates renewable supply, dynamic pricing, and cooling supply including chiller and outside air cooling, with IT workload planning to improve the overall sustainability of data center operations. Specifically, we first predict renewable energy as well as IT demand. Then we use these predictions to generate an IT workload management plan that schedules IT workload and allocates IT resources within a data center according to time varying power supply and cooling efficiency. We have implemented and evaluated our approach using traces from real data centers and production systems. The results demonstrate that our approach can reduce both the recurring power costs and the use of non-renewable energy by as much as 60% compared to existing techniques, while still meeting the Service Level Agreements.

Options, forwards and provision-point contracts in improving cloud infrastructure utilisation

Cloud computing takes away much of the need to plan future IT demands from the consumer, and puts it in the hands of the provider. Consumers don’t need to give advance notice to start or terminate virtual machines, and can do so in real time to reflect changing business objectives. It is the task of the cloud IaaS provider to optimise the use of her infrastructure, and ensure there are enough resources available. Achieving optimum server utilisation in the data centre is particularly challenging – advance notification can help the provider to schedule workloads more efficiently, but this is at odds with one of the key benefits of cloud computing. In this paper, we propose a pricing method that combines options contracts with on-demand purchasing. We show that the method can provide consumers with the flexibility and cost-benefits afforded by cloud computing, and can benefit the provider by improving server utilisation and therefore reducing energy costs. Furthermore, we show how provision-point contracts, often used by deal-of-the-day websites such as Groupon, can further improve the method, making it even more attractive to the provider.

Solutions and Strategies for IT Recruitment and Retention: A Manager's Guide

There is some debate as to exactly how big the IT talent gap is in America. Information varies according to the source and time of individual reports. A 1998 report by the Information Technology Association of America estimated the gap at 190,000 unfilled core information technology positions.1 Just two years later, however, that same organization predicted that there would be demand for 1.6 million general (as opposed to core) IT workers in the United States in the year 2000 and that half of those positions would go unfilled. This study estimates the gap at 843,328 unfilled information technology positions.2 Recent economic trends have invalidated these early predictions and demand has gone down considerably. But the unstable nature of IT demand simply creates more problems. How does a public sector manager maintain a system that is flexible enough to move with market forces?

Implementing an IT concentration in a CS department

The increasing use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software has created a demand for IT professionals —people that build and manage systems assembled from COTS components. In Fall 1999, the ETSU Dept. of CIS started a program of study for training IT professionals. This IT concentration differs from existing concentrations in four key ways: The IT concentration emphasizes VB instead of C++. It emphasizes web, database, and networking applications instead of systems software; It puts more emphasis on human issues in computing: ethics, computer-assisted instruction, and systems analysis and specification; It deemphasizes science and math, giving students more opportunity to complete a minor of their choosing. Key design criteria for the concentration included making the content practical and attractive; teaching short-term and long-term skills; and minimizing the need for additional faculty. This final concern was addressed by reworking selected courses in computer organization, databases, networking, and software engineering for the concentration. The new concentration should meet the needs of students and employers while improving retention and increasing enrollment. Preliminary indications suggest that the IT will become the department's most popular concentration.

Platform to Publish and Retrive Multilinguil Information on the WWW

Asia, today, is the fastest growing economic region in the world. With the booming economy in Asia, there is a growing demand for IT and the use of the Internet/World wide Web in the region. Although over 80% of all content presently on the Internet and World Wide Web are western-focused, a few - but growing explosively - web sites which host native languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) are now emerging. As more and more end-users in this region are introduced to the Internet, inevitably there will be a stronger demand for non-English information online. Star+Globe Technologies, Pte. Ltd., is a Singapore software company with a mission to be the preferred supplier of multilingual products to information providers and consumers to enable information sharing and retrieval in a multitude of languages.

The successful use of IT in SMEs on Merseyside

This paper describes a study of the use of IT in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) on Merseyside, a metropolitan area of north-west England around the city of Liverpool. Through a series of structured interviews, the IT selection procedures, plans and achievements of thirty firms were explored. The paper presents a review of the relevant literature and then goes on to discuss the study sample, the interview process and the results obtained. The findings suggest that small firms are more successful with IT than is generally believed and that successful use of IT demands innovative management skills in order that the information generated is used creatively.

IT demand continues to boom

Demand in software market balances cutback in recruitment in the computer and electronics industries.