From Enterprise Architecture to Cloud Computing: A

Decision-Support Model for Functional Block Outsourcing

M'barek El Haloui and Abdelaziz Kriouile

IMS Team, SIME Laboratory, ENSIAS, Mohammed V University in Rabat, Rabat, Morocco

Keywords: Cloud Computing Adoption, Information System Outsourcing, Maturity, Enterprise Architecture,

Assessment Model.

Abstract: The Information Systems opening to the cloud computing has become a strategic choice for enterprises. In

fact, the rapid evolution of competitiveness and innovation and the diversity of technologic offers incite IT

decision makers to look for decision support tools helping them for the adoption of new solutions and

services such as Cloud Computing. This article introduces a maturity assessment model of an information

system architecture functional block that can be outsourced to the Cloud. Based on the best practices of

enterprise architecture and information systems governance, the basic criteria of activities outsourcing, and

the cloud computing adoption requirements, this model is built around four modules: the block scope

identification, the outsourcing opportunity, the cloud computing architectural requirements, and governance

and control. Thus, this model will provides new benefits for opened Enterprise Architectures to new

technologies.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Business-IT alignment is a key success for

companies seeking continuous improvement of

competitive advantage and service quality,

optimizing costs, and increasing productivity. In this

sense, organizations are looking to focus on their

business core and adopt task-shifting approaches

savings efforts or expense.

Outsourcing is the practice of buying a product

or a service that was produced or made internally by

a provider, or an external source (Ordoobadi, 2003).

IT outsourcing is an act of delegation or transfer of

part or all IT power as well as decision-making

related to, business processes, internal activities, and

services to external providers which develop,

manage, and administer these activities in

accordance with agreed deliverables, performances,

standards, and results (Dhar, 2012).

Considering technological market supply

multitude, core skill activities mastery concerns, and

new solutions evaluating expertise lack, enterprises

have a major challenge deciding on outsourcing a

component of their Information Systems (IS) to new

solutions such as Cloud Computing.

Constituting a new service model, cloud

computing is characterized by three service models:

SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a

Service), and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service); and

four deployment models: private cloud, community

cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud (El Haloui et

al., 2015; NIST, 2011). The cloud computing option

enables to take advantage of its benefits such as

reducing capital expenditures, efficiency of internal

processes, employees productivity increase,

customer service improvement, lower inventory

costs, and better coordination with trade partner

(Andrikopoulos et al., 2013; Gangwar et al., 2015).

That is why IT teams quickly reacted to develop

strategies that align and support the use of cloud in

the company (RightScale, 2014). The Cloud is not a

solution for everything, we need to identify the

strategic sourcing methodology according to our

maturity and our needs (Goel and Singh, 2015). We

also need to understand the compatibility level of

cloud technology with the existing architecture

(Gangwar et al., 2015).

The literature study shows that there is a lack of

support tools for the decision making about a

functional component to cloud computing

outsourcing based on the assessment of its maturity.

This article introduce a transformation model

based on the maturity of the functional block

(elementary functional component) of an IS

630

Haloui, M. and Kriouile, A.

From Enterprise Architecture to Cloud Computing: A Decision-Support Model for Functional Block Outsourcing.

In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2016) - Volume 2, pages 630-635

ISBN: 978-989-758-187-8

architecture. The remainder of this article is

organized into five sections. Section 2 presents an

overview of Information Systems Urbanization and

its connection with the maturity framework. Section

3 presents a macro classification of outsourcing

criteria identified from the literature review. Section

4 deals with the transformation concept and the

Enterprise Architecture layers impacted by the

transformation of a functional block. Section 5

presents our model. Section 6 summarizes related

works. Finally, Section 7 concludes the article and

provides some indications on future work.

2 ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE

AND CMMI

Information Systems Urbanization (ISU) or

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a concept inspired

by town planning and used in IS (El Haloui et al.,

2015; Common framework, 2012; Longépé, 2009).

It refers to a meta-model allowing describing all the

knowledge of an IS. It allows a company to develop

an evolution plan of its IS in short, medium or long

terms. ISU approach defines five views to the IS:

 A Strategy View, describing strategic missions

and objectives of the IS;

 A Business View, describing processes,

activities, and organization penetrated;

 A Functional View, describing IS use cases

and information manipulated independently of

technological choices;

 An Applicative View, describing software

components (e.g., applications) kept as well as

their interdependencies (flux, software

architecture, etc.);

 An Infrastructure View, describing the

physical resources and the deployment.

As an aerial city view, the functional layer of this

framework is structured into zones (Domains) which

are subdivided into neighborhoods (Functional

areas) that are composed by blocks. A block is a

uniform and consistent set of business objects and

features. The block is a functional element whose

granularity is the thinnest of the IS. It corresponds to

a functional entity replaceable, modular information

system (Common framework, 2012; Longépé,

2009). The Block is the basic functional component

of a functional IS architecture.

The Capability Maturity Model Integration

(CMMI) models are collections of best practices that

help organizations improve their processes. These

models are developed by a group of experts from

industry, the US government, and the Software

Engineering Institute (SEI) (CMMI, 2010). The

CMMI model is presented in staged or continuous

representations. Continuous representation use

allows to reach "capacity levels" while staged

representation use allows to reach "maturity levels"

(Basque, 2010). CMMI enables an organization to

identify the areas that will bring the greatest return

on investment and show where immediate action

will have an impact (Kent Crawford, 2006).

For our purposes, the aim is to measure the

maturity of a functional block to be outsourced to

cloud computing. The qualification criteria of this

basic component will be identified through the

following sections.

3 ACTIVITIES OUTSOURCING:

LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature study on activities outsourcing

approaches and models enabled to identify the key

factors and the criteria adopted for an activity

outsourcing. Table 1 summarizes the main

characteristics extracted from studied activities

outsourcing models helping an organization to make

a decision.

The review of different factors and criteria of

outsourcing leads to identify the major points of

view on which an activity outsourcing should be

based on. These criteria can be categorized into four

main groups as follows:

 At the strategic view: Need to examine the

strategic importance of the activity as well as

its competitive value (an activity in the

business core must remain internal).

 At the economic view: The cost of external

production must be competitive compared to

internal one. Also, it is important to address the

hidden costs.

 At the environment and quality view: Need for

availability of providers, competition,

technology efficiency, skills and expertise of

external providers, and therefore market

maturity to be able to outsourcing,

 At the risk view: requirement to master risks of

subcontracting dependency, competition,

information security, loss of management

control, and outsourcing process in general.

The criteria families identified may be

supplemented or adapted depending on the context

and according to the company's business.

From Enterprise Architecture to Cloud Computing: A Decision-Support Model for Functional Block Outsourcing

631

Table 1: Activities outsourcing factors and criteria.

Analyze view

point

Outsourcing Factors and Criteria References

Strategic Company’s Competitive advantage Wernerfeldt, 1989;

Barney, 1991

Business core activities compared to non-business core activities Gardiner and Monroe,

1994; Ordoobadi, 2003

Activity strategic importance Brandes, 1994

Outsourcing as a mode of governance Jahns et al., 2006

Operational feasibility study, strategic analysis Lakhal, 1998

Economic Policy approach and the cost-based approach Ford et al., 1993

Saving production and transaction costs Quinn and Hilmer,

1994; Dartina, 1994

Carrying out activity cost Brandes, 1994

Cost and return on investment analysis Lakhal, 1998;

Ordoobadi, 2003

Risk Risk costs involved in outsourcing. Williamson, 1975;

Williamson, 1985

External provider(s) dependency Risk Brandes, 1994

Information security, Concerns and loss of management control Wang et al., 2008

Environment

and quality

R & D capacity, managing capacity, and competition degree. Kurokawa, 1997

Outsourcing proper implementation Lankford and Parsa,

1999

Volume and company experience, change in product specifications

frequency, and market suppliers competition

Walker and Weber,

1984

Quality and maturity of technological process and its role in the

competitiveness

Welch et al., 1992;

Kurokawa 1997

Case-Based Reasoning Mclover and

Humphreys, 2000

Good quality of service and good relationship Wang et al., 2008

The literature review of outsourcing of activities

has identified a set of methods, models and factors.

This constitutes the basic elements for taking a

rational decision for IT outsourcing. However, these

criteria still not yet complete for global visibility for

outsourcing a component of the IS architecture to

cloud computing. Other criteria will be identified in

the following sections.

4 INFORMATION SYSTEM’S

TRANSFORMATION

A Functional block of an urbanized IS architecture is

constructed through a project which constitutes a

transformation to the target company IS architecture.

This action impacts some elements on the IS

architecture (Common framework, 2012). The

elements which are concerned by this transformation

are as follows:

• At the strategy view : financial resources and

strategic priorities

• At the business view : Business process

• At the Functional view: Functional Areas

• At the Applicative view: Applications and

associated platforms

• At the Infrastructure view: physical

equipment (hardware, network ...).

Other impacts are also cited (Common

framework, 2012; Wang et al., 2008 ) which concern

the transformation of an IS component such as legal,

political, economic, financial, and security impacts.

We identify that the transformation by internal or

external realization of a functional block requires to

take into account these elements at different layers

concerned of the target IS architecture. The aim is to

ensure the agility and the easy integration or

dissociation of each IS architecture block. It is

therefore important to help IT decision-makers

wishing to start a transformation of a part or all of

there is.

5 PROPOSED MODEL

Through the study of different outsourcing models,

cloud adopting models and IS transformation

approach we concluded that there is no one which

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support organizations decision about outsourcing a

functional component of its urbanized IS

architecture to a cloud computing platform. Figure 1

provides an overview on the position of the

proposed model. This model is a maturity

assessment and decision support tool for the opening

of enterprise IS on cloud computing (El Haloui et

al., 2015). It will assess the ability (maturity level)

of a functional block to be outsourced to Cloud as

well as the projection of its governance in a cloud

environment such as piloting its exploitation and

mastering its inter-provider migration and consider a

possible return to the inner-platform.

Figure 1: Maturity-Based Transformation Model (El

Haloui et al. 2015).

Layers and evaluation criteria that constitute this

model are based on the main factors and criteria of

outsourcing raised from the studied models and

methods (Ordoobadi, 2003; Boukherrroub et al.,

2012), joined with the good practices of EA and IS

governance (Cobit, ITIL) as well as the CMMI

Maturity repository. The objective is to provide to

enterprises a simple way helping to decision making

in order to outsource a functional block to the cloud.

Our model is structured in assessment modules,

these modules are made up of layers or views. Each

view is checked through a set of criteria. The

decision matrix will be based on the level of

coverage of assessment criteria. The identified

assessment layers are illustrated by the Figure2.

Our proposed model is structured around four

assessment modules:

 Scope identification module: this module

focuses on the verification of the correct

definition of the functional block and processes

to outsource, identifying its interactions with

other blocks and the delimitation of data

repository handled by the block.

 Outsourcing opportunity module: this module

is based on the assessment of the strategic

importance of the block-related activities,

assessment of outsourcing economic gains,

checking the context of the company and the

availability of desired suppliers as well as the

market maturity, and reviewing the risks

related to this outsourcing.

 Cloud requirement module: this module

consists of checking in advance the ability of

the block against business, functional,

applicative, and infrastructure requirements of

a cloud environment.

 Governance and control module: this module

consist in a checklist for the capacities of

monitoring, support, control of quality, and

continuous improvement by projection of

outsourcing.

At each layer of a module, the evaluation criteria

are structured on objectives to fulfill by a functional

block. It enable to measure its maturity for

outsourcing. As an example, Table 2 presents a set

of criteria required by the outsourcing opportunity

module.

The elaborated model is a structured approach

based on standards and best practices in the field of

IT as well as the best approaches of outsourcing.

This model allows to highlight the main stages as

well as the assessment layers of a functional block

intended for cloud computing. This structuring in

assessment modules and layers adds value to

existing methods by providing a simple, global, and

proactive vision for better decision making in the

case of IS opening to Cloud.

Figure 2: Transformation Model - Assessment Layers.

The scope of this paper is limited to the

presentation of the components of our model and the

introduction of criteria check list. The identification

of maturity level, the decision matrix, and the

validation on a practical cases will be the subject of

future work.

From Enterprise Architecture to Cloud Computing: A Decision-Support Model for Functional Block Outsourcing

633

Table 2: Example of criteria check list.

Module

Layer

Criterion

Criteria

Outsourcing

Opportunity

2.1

Strategic

View

2.1.1 The sub-process is qualified not core of competency

activity

2.1.2 Product or service outsourcing added value to customers is

identified

2.1.3 Outsourcing is aligned with the strategic choice of the

company

2.2

Economic

View

2.2.1 External realization (acquisition) cost is qualified cheaper

than internal one

2.2.2 Declining fixed costs is enhanced

2.2.3 Technologies, material, and human resources investment

optimization is projected

2.3

Environment

View

2.3.1 Checked outsourcing market maturity (availability of

suppliers, competition, ..)

2.3.2 Production process more developed than the internal one

(technology, skills, resources, ..)

2.3.3 Mature regulatory and legal context

2.4 Risk View

2.4.1 Information security controlled

2.4.2 Handled management control loss risk

2.4.3 Managed skills and expertise loss risk

2.4.4 Mastered employees trade union or moral risk

2.4.5 Mastered response flexibility to product / service request

fluctuations risk

6 RELATED WORKS

(Khajeh-Hosseini et al., 2011) proposes a decision

support model that focuses on potential cost saving

from using Public IaaS. This tool enables to get a

vision on cost gains in terms of price and indirect

costs generated by profit and risk management.

However, it does not deal with the functional aspect

of a company IS architecture and it does not address

organizational and piloting aspects of an activity in

Cloud Computing.

(Gangwar et al., 2015) propose a model that

aims to identify factors influencing the adoption of

cloud computing in organizations based on the

integration of TAM (Technology Acceptance

Model) and the Framework TOE (Technology

Organizational Environmental). This approach

enables to identify that the competitive advantage,

the technological compatibility, the complexity, the

organizational structure, the preparation, the

engagement of top management, and the resources

training are the main factors influencing the

adoption of Cloud Computing. However, this model

focuses on factors influencing the adoption of cloud

computing but do not address a partial IS

outsourcing or the maturity of an IS system

component candidate for Cloud outsourcing.

(Wang et al., 2008) proposes a multi-criteria

method based on AHP and ELECTRE III method

developed for IS outsourcing. This approach uses

economic, strategic, quality assurance, and risk

management criteria to classify potential providers.

But it does not address the organizational aspect nor

cloud computing requirements.

Most of available works are interested in cloud

adoption or applications migration to cloud and the

different types of solutions available. However, they

have very little interest to a prior assessment of the

ability of an IS functional block to be outsourced to

the cloud and that by offering organizations a

proactive visibility on this transformation.

7 CONCLUSIONS

The elaboration of the functional architecture of the

information system is an essential step in the system

evolution and the integration of new technologies.

The outsourcing of an information system

component or the adoption of a solution such as

cloud computing requires a prior evaluation of this

action in order to retain a thoughtful and flexible

choice. The model presented constitutes a

conceptual basis of a simple and convenient tool

helping professionals to assess a building block of

the information system. The purpose is to identify

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this block’s maturity to be outsourced to the cloud.

Future work will include the finalization of

evaluation criteria completion, maturity matrix and

decision-making and the evaluation of the model on

practical cases.

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