Survey on Scientific Data Processing Using Hadoop MapReduce in Cloud Environments

Over the past years, Thai small and medium enterprises (SME) had to deal with changing economic situations and had to adapt to new technological evolutions, representing new challenges as well as new opportunities for doing business. With the forthcoming ASEAN Economic Community 2015, Thai SMEs will face an increase in competition and, as a possible solution, may have to adopt new information systems to remain competitive. The objectives of this study are (1) to identify the factors facilitating or hindering the adoption of cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems by Thai SMEs and to (2) provide an analysis of the adoption and the implementation strategies. The research is based on a qualitative exploratory approach, relying on semistructured interviews with IT experts, IT managers and business owners to collect data, and on the template analysis method to analyze the data. Respondents have identified trust, cost control and the security of financial data as the most important factors for the adoption and selection of on-premise and cloud-based ERP systems. The adoption rate of cloud-based solutions appears to be low and local ERP providers face the challenge to discover the reasons why business owners do not adopt their solutions. First generation business owners prepare the transition to the next generation and want to better organize and structure how their businesses operates, but their own confidence in the technology still limit the adoption pace and the decision process. SMEs' strategies usually consist in a step-by-step implementation, consolidating the changes and readjusting the goals in case of setbacks, minimizing the consequences. ERP providers' strategies focus on new offerings with enhanced features and slowly integrate change management and extended support. Keywords: ERP, Cloud Computing, Small and Medium Enterprise (SME), Mobile App, Open Source, Organizational Innovation Adoption model.

Cloud computing is an emerging information technology (IT) paradigm which undoubtedly has received significant attention from different spheres of influence. The cloud computing concept entails the provisioning of computing resources from remote locations to individuals or organizations over the internet at anytime. The technology is associated with several benefits but the reduction in capital and operational expenditure is the major one. The importance of IT innovations to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the role of SMEs in economic growth have been demonstrated empirically. However, literature indicate that SMEs in developing economies are not taking the advantages of emerging technologies like cloud computing to improve operational excellence within their organizations. An in-depth review of academic publications, technical reports, and industry white papers on cloud computing has confirmed security and privacy is-sues as some of the key inhibitors to cloud computing adoption among SMEs. This is probably because the customer data is released to remote locations, which are invisible, and data is accessed over the internet, which is already over-whelmed with malicious attackers. This study explores the reasons for the lack of cloud computing adoption among SMEs in developing economies. When the rea-sons for this lag are identified, cloud computing service providers, technology policy makers, entrepreneurs and SMEs executives will be provided with the opportunity to develop appropriate solutions and strategies that will specifically meet the needs of SMEs in developing economies. This will promote and accelerate the acceptance rate of cloud services. When SMEs utilize cloud computing as an IT strategy, business growth becomes inevitable and the country's economic growth is witnessed.

With the explosion of data in the past decade, big data is becoming a research hotspot in the information field. Many cloud-based distributed data processing platforms have been proposed to provide efficient and cost effective solutions for big data query processing, such as Hadoop, Hive, Pig, etc. However, most of the current research works are focus on improving the performance of query processing based on the view of systematics while without considering the characteristics of queries themselves, such as the query similarity, which will cause large numbers of redundant computation, effect query execution efficiency, thus having an adverse impact on promotion of the multi-queries processing performance. To solve this problem, in this paper, we propose a Multi-queries optimization framework based on MapReduce-oriented cloud environment (Multi-Q), which utilizes the dependence between multiple queries to realize query results reuse. Firstly, a cluster-based partition algorithm called CPA has been exploited to conduct the logic partition of the search range of query workload. Secondly, a multi-queries reuse dependence graph (MRDG) construction method on the basis of the cluster-based partition results has been presented to depict the dependence between the multiple queries. Finally, a Multi-Q processing algorithm based on Multi-Q Reuse Dependence Graph has been put forward to achieve the query results reuse and improve the overall query processing performance. We evaluate our approach by deploying Multi-Q based on Hadoop in a real cloud environment, called SEU-Cloud, and conducting extensive experiments based on the standard TPC-H. The result verifies that compared with Hive, the performance of improvement is approximately 39.3% by using our Multi-Q.

In the EU market small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) represent the greater part of the food industry, specially with regard to traditional food products (TFPs). However, the growth of competition, connected mainly to globalisation, is making it very difficult for SMEs to survive. On the other hand, market opportunities for SMEs are connected to the evolution of consumer preferences toward food quality. To profit from such opportunities and to survive on the market, SMEs need to adapt their strategies, focusing on innovation aspects in order to meet consumer requirements and to compete on the market. The literature shows that firms’ market orientation and marketing capabilities are very important for innovation in food industries to guarantee that innovation reflects market needs. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the level of firm innovativeness and the different stages of marketing management process, in order to understand if good results in marketing management can affect firm innovation. An interactive questionnaire available on the web has been used for the data collection, with the aim of evaluating SME marketing management capabilities and innovation development. The survey was conducted on 468 EU country SMEs producing TFPs. Linear Regression was run to assess the link between marketing activities and the level of firm innovation. Our empirical analysis reveals that SME marketing management capabilities show significant and positive relationships with a firm’s innovation. This aspect reinforces our assumptions on the strategic role of marketing activities on a firm’s capacity to understand consumer needs, and thus its need to be innovative and market oriented.

This paper explores the emergence and adoption of cloud computing by small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and points towards its implications for developing countries in sub‐Saharan Africa. Several studies have shown the importance of technologies to SMEs and the potentials of SMEs for economic growth. Using qualitative techniques we obtained and analysed data from ten SMEs that have adopted cloud computing as an IT strategy. These SMEs span across various sectors including finance, information and communication technology (ICT), and manufacturing in Nigeria, a developing country in sub‐Saharan Africa. We found that, contrary to the literature on cloud computing adoption in the global north, these SMEs are less concerned with challenges like security, privacy and data loss rather; they continue to show optimism in using the potential opportunities that cloud computing presents to them. We envisage that as cloud computing evolves, more SMEs in sub‐Saharan Africa will adopt it as an IT Strategy. This could positively contribute to the successes of these SMEs and consequently contribute to the economic growth desired by these developing countries.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the suitability of cloud computing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India.Design/methodology/approachLiterature review is used to identify benefits, challenges, and factors concerning usage and adoption of cloud computing by SMEs. A conceptual framework was developed based on the existing theoretical models and factors identified from the literature. A survey based on questionnaire method was followed to collect data from 121 manufacturing SMEs in India. The conceptual framework was refined by using factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsMajor benefits of cloud computing for SMEs include cost advantage, easy deployment process, easier access to latest information and communication technologies, automatic updates and upgrades, scalability, flexibility, and improved disaster recovery and back-up capabilities. The concern area includes perceived loss of control, vendor lock-in, security issues, reliability and availability issues, and internet connectivity and speed. The factors that are found significant include perceived benefits, top management support, competitive pressure, and perceived concerns. The model explained 73 percent of cloud computing adoption.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is expected to make significant contribution toward body of knowledge pertaining to information technology adoption in SMEs.Practical implicationsThe study is expected to provide SMEs an insight into real benefits and challenges associated with adopting cloud computing. The model can help SMEs in evaluating their readiness for adopting cloud computing and can ensure successful outcome of cloud computing adoption in SMEs. Providers are also going to be benefited through their enhanced understanding of SMEs’ requirements.Originality/valueThe proposed framework incorporates all the relevant factors including perceived benefits, perceived concerns, and other organizational and environmental factors to improve model’s predictive power.

Business activities such as human resources management, payroll, finance, and accounting are crucial for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, adopting technologies such as cloud computing is expected to improve SMEs’ efficiency. The migration from current business practices to cloud computing amongst SME entrepreneurs remains a challenge. Therefore, this study presents a short review of cloud computing concepts, the characteristics, types of cloud computing service models, and also cloud computing deployment models. This study highlights the benefits and challenges faced by SMEs entrepreneurs in adopting cloud computing. Also, this study explores the existing cloud computing services provided for SMEs. The present study aims to provide a better understanding of cloud computing’s potential to be applied in helping SMEs manage their business activities.

In today's digital era and globalization, many small and medium business (SME) businesses are adopting cloud computing for the company's operations. Cloud computing is a growing data center technology in line with increas-ing traffic on the internet in the era of the Internet of Things (IoT). This technology overcomes the weaknesses of conven-tional servers for speed, scalability, and efficiency. However, there are still SMEs who are not sure of the benefits of cloud services. Therefore, this research is conducted to explore the opinions of SMEs about the benefits of cloud computing ser-vices in their business operations that encourage them to adopt this service. The qualitative research method is conducted by interviewing the top management of a number of SMEs engaged in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry. SMEs are domiciled in Jakarta and Bandung, Indonesia and have been using cloud computing platform services. The results found that the most perceived benefits of cloud computing are cost savings because it can reduce cap-ital expenditures, such as procurement of computers with high performance and purchase their own server by SMEs. On the other hand, the service enhances the company's internal organizational processes to accelerate decision making, expand markets, and speed up communication with customers. However, the security aspect and the limited provision of infrastructure remain a challenge for the adoption of cloud computing in SMEs in Indonesia. The company's effective strategy is considered to be able to minimize the negative impact of this challenge.

One of alternative ways to maintain the existence of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) is to keep the financial institutions exists since MSMEs still have difficulty in accessing the formal bank loans. The respondents of this study are the staff from financial institutions, MSMEs, community leaders, NGOs and related institutions. This study used descriptive analysis which involved two analysis models: Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM). The results show that there are three effective key elements for development of financial institutions in agricultural sector which are precise target, which means that the loan is given to the MSMEs who really need and satisfy the requirements; in time which means the loan is given when the MSMEs are needed; and an exact amount which means that the total loan which is given is based on the needs. Furthermore, this study recommends three model alternatives in order to fix the effectiveness of financial institutions in financing the MSMEs in agricultural sector at the boundaries of Kalimantan Barat province; (1) develop the existing financial institutions through improvement of rules system and regulations; (2) establish new institution which can be the activator of all existing financial institutions; (3) combine the positive aspects of all existing financial institutions. Keywords: Financial Institutions, Effectiveness, Boundaries

The purpose of this paper is to do a comprehensive analysis of Cloud based Big Data challenges and opportunity for SMEs in India. Big Data (BD) are big buzz words, and many large enterprises are making significant advances in their product development, customer relations, and increasing profitability by targeting specific customers. Therefore, it has generated interest for both the academic and industry world as it has the potential to enhance the decision making process by providing valuable insights. The large organisations are benefiting from using BD as a tool to gain a competitive edge over rivals by driving new revenue streams and improving internal operational efficiency. The large organisations are already investing as well leveraging BD. On the contrary, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in India are slow adopters of new technologies due to many factors and pose to lose their competitive edge on the world stage. SMEs can also leverage BD to gain a strategic competitive advantage but are resource poor in terms of investment in manpower and financial resources. Major challenges still exist in the adoption of BD especially in information technology architecture. Cloud Computing (CC) can eliminate the need to maintain expensive computing hardware, software, and networking resources. CC can also provide a solution to scalability issues, high speed performance, and fault tolerance for using BD. With CC usage, SMEs can take advantage of BD without significant investment in information technology and manpower. This research uses secondary data as a research data collection technique, which is its limitation. However, a quantitative research methodology using statistical surveys is planned to be conducted in the near future to understand the factors impacting on the adoption of Cloud based Big Data for Indian SMEs. This paper contributes to exploring and enhancing the understanding of the challenges and opportunities for SMEs in India for adopting BD. This study will also have both industrial implications for practitioners in India, as well as those in other developing countries, and academic implications for researchers who are interested in BD adoption in developing countries.
 Keywords: Cloud Computing (CC), Big Data (BD), Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Challenges, Opportunities, India.

Knowledge exchange is a prerequisite for learning and consequently for innovation. Through open innovation, the innovating firms establish ties with other organizations, in order to innovate. At the baseline, open innovation is thus the exchange of knowledge through in- and out-flows of the knowledge at a company. Formal networks can provide access to other organizations and otherwise unavailable knowledge and resources and are seen as the locus of innovation. Four main categories of knowledge exchange can be distinguished: socialization, combination, articulation, and internalization. Within these categories, distinct but interdependent processes of knowledge exchange take place as described in the innovation production process (IPP) which consists of three main steps, knowledge accumulation, knowledge transformation, and knowledge exploitation (Roper et al., 2008). The objective of this paper is to explore how formal networks contribute to the categories of knowledge exchange and to each of the three steps of the IPP in order to conclude on how networks can facilitate open innovation among their members. Data are collected by means of three case-studies conducted in three Flemish formal networks which focus on enhancing the innovativeness and learning capabilities of micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Our findings confirm the importance of networks in the process of knowledge exchange and innovation for SMEs in the food sector. The most important role of the networks is to create the appropriate environment according to the type of knowledge and the step(s) in the innovation production process focused on. Furthermore, it appears to be a very important task of the network to stimulate actively knowledge transformation into innovation outputs such as new or improved technology or product prototypes. Thereby, not only short-term effects should be aimed at, but also long-term effects e.g. for organizational innovation, should be taken into account. In conclusion, all three networks follow very different approaches in order to facilitate, stimulate and support knowledge exchange and innovation among their members. Based on the results, managerial as well as policy implications are posed towards network members, i.e. the SMEs, network coordinators and researchers.

Modern High Performance Computing (HPC) applications, such as Earth science simulations, produce large amounts of data due to the surging of computing power, while big data applications have become more compute-intensive due to increasingly sophisticated analysis algorithms. The needs of both HPC and big data technologies for advanced HPC and big data applications create a demand for integrated system support. In this study, we introduce Scientific Data Processing (SciDP) to support both HPC and big data applications via integrated scientific data processing. SciDP can directly process scientific data stored on a Parallel File System (PFS), which is typically deployed in an HPC environment, in a big data programming environment running atop Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). SciDP seamlessly integrates PFS, HDFS, and the widely-used R data analysis system to support highly efficient processing of scientific data. It utilizes the merits of both PFS and HDFS for fast data transfer, overlaps computing with data accessing, and integrates R into the data transfer process. Experimental results show that SciDP accelerates analysis and visualization of a production NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS) climate and weather application by 6x to 8x when compared to existing solutions.

Cloud computing can reduce cost significantly because businesses can share computing resources. In recent years Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) have used Cloud effectively for cost saving and for sharing IT expenses. With the success of SMBs, many perceive that the larger enterprises ought to move into Cloud environment as well. Government agency's stove-piped environments are being considered as candidates for potential use of Cloud either as an enterprise entity or pockets of small communities. Cloud Computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than as a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network. Underneath the offered services, there exists a modern infrastructure cost of which is often spread across its services or its investors. As NASA is considered as an Enterprise class organization, like other enterprises, a shift has been occurring in perceiving its IT services as candidates for Cloud services. This paper discusses market trends in cloud computing from an enterprise angle and then addresses the topic of Cloud Computing for NASA in two possible forms. First, in the form of a public Cloud to support it as an enterprise, as well as to share it with the commercial and public at large. Second, as a private Cloud wherein the infrastructure is operated solely for NASA, whether managed internally or by a third-party and hosted internally or externally. The paper addresses the strengths and weaknesses of both paradigms of public and private Clouds, in both internally and externally operated settings. The content of the paper is from a NASA perspective but is applicable to any large enterprise with thousands of employees and contractors.

Research and commercial efforts are currently addressing challenges and providing solutions in cloud computing. Business models are emerging to address different use case scenarios of cloud computing. In this paper, we present the evaluation of a virtual enterprise (VE)-enabled cloud enterprise architecture for small medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) against EC2 pricing model to prove that our pricing model is more suitable for small medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs). This model is based on the realization that it is not economically viable for SMMEs to acquire their own private cloud infrastructure or even subscribe to public cloud services as a single entity. In our VE-enabled cloud enterprise architecture for SMMEs, temporary co-operations are created to realize the value of a short term business opportunity that the partner SMMEs cannot (or can, but only to a lesser extent) capture on their own. The pricing model obtained from our proposed business model shows the benefits that are derived from using the VE cloud model over subscription to a public cloud as a single business enterprise. The pricing structure of our VE cloud model is up to 17.82 times economical compared to the equivalent Amazon EC2 instance type pricing model.

Research on firm internationalisation has tended to focus on Large Enterprises(LEs), with relatively less focus on Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), despite the importance of SMEs in generating national employment and economic development. In many countries the government has acknowledged SMEs as a key source of domestic income growth and employment creation, most particularly from export activities. Studies on internationalisation of SMEs, however, have been predominantly focused on developed countries. This study therefore is focused on the internationalisation of SMEs from Indonesia, which represents developing countries. Most studies of exporting SMEs focus on macroeconomic factors such as regulation, infrastructure and programs which assist SME development. On the other hand, management literature has recognised the important roles of senior managers in terms of their management know‐how and international business skills as human capital which can influence the export activity of the firm. At the same time, social capital is also recognised a further resource needed for SME internationalisation. Therefore this research will address this gap in order to examine the role of entrepreneur’s human and social capital in internationalisation of the firm. Further to this, findings on the relationship between firm internationalisation and firm performance are mixed. More specifically, the effect of internationalisation of SMEs on business performance has not been seriously investigated. This study therefore seeks to fill this gap by examining the unique effect of different dimensions of internationalisation on business performance. Overall, this study has three purposes: the first is to measure company resources (Human and Social Capital) influencing Indonesia’s manufacturing exporting SMEs in their internationalisation process; the second is to examine the effect of human and social capital in relation to three dimensions of internationalisation (international performance, number of markets and time to internationalise); and the third is to assess the effect of the aforementioned internationalisation dimensions on firm financial performance. This study used a mixed method combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative data was drawn from 241 SMEs’ managers and/or owners who have exporting activities from a total of approximately 3 million SMEs based on the Indonesian government database. The qualitative data was collected through interviews with ten SMEs owner‐managers who were participating in the survey. Using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique, the findings suggest that Management Know‐How have no positive relationship with any dimension of internationalisation, but, interestingly, it has a negative relationship with time for internationalisation; suggesting that it delays the internationalisation of the firms. The findings also show that both International Business Skills and Social Capital skills have a positive relationship with international performance and number of exporting markets, but not with time for internationalisation. With regard to the effect of internationalisation on business performance, the findings show that international performance has no effect on business performance, but the number of export market has a positive relationship with business performance. On the other hand, the time for internalisation has a negative effect on business performance, meaning that the later the SMEs internationalise, the better their performance. Qualitative findings indicate that good networks with competitors, suppliers and government will help a firm to serve the international market successfully. From theoretical perspectives, the findings support the Resource‐Based View theory as international business skills have positive relationships with two dimensions of internationalisation. The findings of this study also support the traditional view of incremental internationalisation advanced by Stage Theory. Consequently, the findings imply that International New Venture Theory, which supports born‐global or leap‐frog approach in internationalising SMEs, is not appropriate for Indonesian context. Finally, this study also supports the Network Perspective which suggests that the relationships built by firms with other businesses, community leaders, and government have significant effect on internationalisation of SMEs. Overall, this study demonstrates the unique effect of different organisational capitals (i.e. human and social) as key resources for facilitating internationalisation.