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Proceedings of IEEE CCIS2011
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IN THE CLOUD: A CASE
OF PAKISTAN
Surat khan, Bin Zhang, Faizullah Khan, Siqi Chen
School of Economics & Management Sciences
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications Beijing, China
suratkhan@yahoo.com, binzhang@bupt.edu.cn, khan_kakar@yahoo.com , chensiqi@bupt.edu.cn
Abstract
To predict the market trends, to improve enterprise
performance, and for the smarter business
outcomes, Business intelligence (BI) "an
integrated set of tools, technologies and
programmed products that are used to collect,
integrate, analyze and make data available",
become the basic need for the businesses. Due
Economic, technological and human resource
constraints, the SMEs are not able to achieve the
benefits of BI. In this paper we proposes, firstly
Bl-in-Cloud computing Model for SMEs , to meet
their goals for profitability, revenue, cost reduction,
and risk management, Secondly the regional
telecom operator as Bl-in-Cloud platform and
Service provider, under the supervision of
regulatory authorities, with the support of
government and concerned bodies.
Keywords: Business Intelligence, Cloud
Computing, Small and Medium sized Enterprises,
Pakistan
1 Introduction
With the increasing competition, market pressure
and rapidly changing customer needs, most
companies face the challenges of processing and
analyzing enormous amounts of data and to turning
it into profits. In order to transform these existing
data into knowledge, and help the enterprise
decision maker to make the wise decisions of
operation management, Gartner group introduce
the business Intelligence (BI) ,It is defined as the
application of a set of methodologies and
technologies, such as J2EE, DOTNET, Web
Services, XML, storage technologies (data
warehouse), analysis technologies (OLAP, Data
Mining), representation technologies, etc, to
improve enterprise operation effectiveness, and
support management decision to achieve
competitive advantages. According to Reinschmidt
and Francoise [1], BI is "an integrated set of tools,
technologies and programmed products that are
used to collect, integrate, analyze and make data
978-1-61284-204-2/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE
536
available". Stated simply, the main tasks of a BI
system include "intelligent exploration, integration,
aggregation and a multidimensional analysis of
data originating from various information
resources"
The role of BI is becoming more pervasive and is
affecting the way information is used, analyzed
and applied. As a result, organizations can lead,
decide, measure, manage and optimize
performance to achieve greater efficiency and
financial benefits. BI is now becoming key to the
better management of performance associated with
multiple dimensions of an organization and its
business processes. [2]
The BI system software scale is huge and complex,
the development and maintenance is expensive and
required skill human capital, SMEs are not been
able to afford the high cost and complexity of BI .
However, with the emergence of cloud computing
and Software as a Service (SaaS), BI solutions no
longer have to be unmanageable, risky and
prohibitively expensive affairs. [3] [4]
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing
power over the internet. It turns software into a
service where customers don't pay for a license but
for how much they use; it makes computing power
and storage space a commodity, bought when
needed and scaled up when necessary. [5]
According to a new global study by IBM, more
than 60% of organizations plan to "embrace cloud
computing over the next five years" to boost their
"competitive advantage." Marc Benioff, chief
executive of Salesforce.com and one of the
pioneers of cloud computing, speaks of a
"fundamental shift, the move of computing
resources into the cloud that gives small and large
companies access to the same resources. [6]
In this paper we propose the provision of Business
intelligence in cloud to SMEs, in Developing
countries, by regional telecom operator, with the
monitoring of concerned regulatory and with the
support of government and related bodies.
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This paper is organized as follows, Section 2,
discusses the Business intelligence (BI)
Architecture, BI stages, and BI application Area,
Section 3 introduces Cloud computing , its
essential characteristics , service and deployment
Models, section 4 describes an implementation of
Bl-in-Cloud computing for the SMEs , and the
regional telecom operator as a service provider.
and Section 5, gives the final conclusion of this
Paper.
2 Business intelligence architecture
The BI architecture is built on a three-layer
Platform (see Fig-1).
BI applications (BI solutions), which include the
ability to deliver informational views , queries,
reports , and modeling capabilities that go away
beyond current offering.
Enabling technologies, such as data mining, query
processing, and result distribution infrastructure,
which include the ability to store data in multi
dimensional cube format for On-Line Analytical
Processing (OLAP), to enable rapid data
aggregation and drill down analysis.
Core technologies, mainly responsible for data
transfer, such as data warehouses and data Mart ,
which include the ability to extract , cleanse, and
aggregate (Extraction-Transformation-Load )data
from multiple operational system into a separate
and drill-down analysis. [7] [8]
Figure 1 Three layer BI solution architecture in
cloud computing, adapted from Kalakota, &
Robinson,
2.1 BI Stages
Data Warehousing.
A data warehouse is a relational database that is
designed for query and analysis rather than for
transaction processing. It usually contains
historical data derived from transaction data, but it
can include data from other sources. It separates
analysis workload from transaction workload and
enables an organization to consolidate data from
several sources. In addition to a relational database,
a data warehouse environment includes an
extraction, transportation, transformation, and
loading (ETL) solution, an online analytical
processing (OLAP) engine, client analysis tools,
and other applications that manage the process of
gathering data and delivering it to business users.
[9]
Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL).
The data warehouse should be loaded regularly so
that it can serve its purpose of facilitating business
analysis. To do this, data from one or more
operational systems needs to be extracted and
copied into the warehouse. The process of
extracting data from source systems and bringing it
into the data warehouse is commonly called ETL,
which stands for extraction, transformation, and
loading.
On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP).
On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) describes
an approach to decision support, which aims to
extract knowledge from a data warehouse, or more
specifically, from data marts. Its main idea is
providing navigation through data to non-expert
users, so that they are able to interactively generate
ad-hoc queries without the intervention of IT
professionals. [10]
Data Mining.
The process of extracting previously unknown ,
valid and actionable information from large
databases and the using the information to make
crucial business decision and the science of
extracting useful information from large data set or
databases. [11].
2.2 BI Application Areas
Financial Analyses that involve reviewing of
costs and revenues, calculation and comparative
analyses of corporate income statements, analyses
of corporate balance sheet and profitability, cash
flow statement, analyses of financial markets and
sophisticated controlling;
Marketing Analyses that involve analyses of sales
receipts, sales profitability, profit margins, meeting
sales targets, time of orders, actions undertaken by
competitors, stock exchange quotations, and
market identification and segmentation.
Customer Analyses that concern time of
maintaining contacts with customers, customer
profitability, modeling customers' behavior and
reactions, customer satisfaction, churn analysis etc.;
Production Management Analyses that make it
possible to identify production 'bottlenecks' and
delayed orders, thus enabling organizations to
examine production dynamics and to compare
production results obtained by departments or
plants, etc.
Logistic Analyses that enable to identify partners
of supply chain quickly, reverse logistics analysis
and handling.
Wage analysis, analyses of wage related data
including wage component reports made with
reference to the type required, reports made from
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the perspective of a given enterprise, wage reports
distinguishing employment types, payroll
surcharges, personal contribution reports, analyses
of average wages, etc.
Personal data analyses that involve examination
of employment turnover, employment types,
presentation of information on individual
employee's personal data, etc. [11] [12]
3 Cloud computing
Cloud computing is a model for enabling
convenient, on-demand network access to a shared
pool of configurable computing resources (e.g.,
networks, servers, storage, applications, and
services) that can be rapidly provisioned and
released with minimal management effort or
service provider interaction. This cloud model is
composed of five essential characteristics, three
service models, and four deployment models.
3.1 Essential characteristics
On-demand self-service. A consumer / subscriber
can unilaterally provision computing capabilities,
such as server time (CPU time) and network
storage, as needed automatically (conveniently,
self serve method) without requiring human
interaction with each service's provider.
Broad network access. Capabilities (resources)
are available over the network (e.g. internet) and
accessed through standard mechanisms that
promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client
platforms (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, and
personal digital assistants).
Resource pooling. The cloud service provider's
computing resources are pooled to serve multiple
consumers using a multi-tenant model, with
different physical and virtual resources
dynamically assigned and reassigned according to
consumer demand. There is a sense of location
independence in that the subscriber generally has
no control or knowledge over the exact location of
the provided resources but may be able to specify
location at a higher level of abstraction (e.g.,
country, state, or datacenter). Examples of
resources include storage, processing, memory,
network bandwidth, and virtual machines.
Rapid elasticity. Capabilities can be rapidly and
elastically provisioned, in some cases
automatically, to quickly scale out and rapidly
released to quickly scale in. To the consumer, the
capabilities available for provisioning often appear
to be unlimited and can be purchased in any
quantity at any time.
Measured Service. Cloud systems automatically
control and optimize resource use by leveraging a
metering capability at some level of abstraction
appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage,
processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts).
Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and
reported providing transparency for both the
provider and consumer of the utilized service. [13]
3.2 Cloud computing service models
Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS), the
capability provided to the consumer is to use the
provider's applications running on a cloud
infrastructure. The applications are accessible from
various client devices through a thin client
interface such as a Web browser (e.g., Web-based
email, Sales force CRM, Google Docs, etc). The
consumer does not manage or control the
underlying cloud infrastructure including network,
servers, operating systems, storage, or even
individual application capabilities, with the
possible exception of limited user-specific
application configuration settings.
Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS), the
capability provided to the consumer is to deploy
onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or -
acquired applications created using programming
languages and tools supported by the provider. The
consumer does not manage or control the
underlying cloud infrastructure including network,
servers, operating systems, or storage, but has
control over the deployed applications and
possibly application hosting environment
configurations. Examples are Microsoft Azure,
Force and Google App engine.
Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), the
capability provided to the consumer is to provision
processing, storage, networks, and other
fundamental computing resources where the
consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary
software, which can include operating systems and
applications. The consumer does not manage or
control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has
control over operating systems, storage, deployed
applications, and possibly limited control of select
networking components (e.g., host firewalls ,
Amazon EC2 and S3, Terremark Enterprise Cloud,
Windows Live Skydrive and Rackspace
Cloud.).[13][14]
3.3 Deployment models
Private Cloud. The cloud infrastructure is
operated solely for an organization. It may be
managed by the organization or a third party and
may exist on premise or off premise.
Community Cloud. The cloud infrastructure is
shared by several organizations and supports a
specific community that has shared concerns (e.g.,
mission, security requirements, policy, and
compliance considerations). It may be managed by
the organizations or a third party and may exist on
premise or off premise.
Public Cloud. The cloud infrastructure is made
available to the general public or a large industry
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group and is owned by an organization selling
cloud services.
Hybrid cloud. The cloud infrastructure is a
composition of two or more clouds (private,
community, or public) that remain unique entities
but are bound together by standardized or
proprietary technology that enables data and
application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for
load-balancing between clouds).
[14][15][16][17]
3.4 Business challenges
The European Network and Information Security
Agency, a cross-border organization formed by the
European Union to address IT security for all
member states, has summarized the unique security
issues raised by cloud computing:
•Loss of Governance- Data processed outside the
enterprise brings with it an inherent level of risk,
because the organization may not have direct
control of the infrastructure, trust in the provider
and its own ability to provide proper security is
paramount.
•Compliance Risk- Customers are responsible for
the security and integrity of their own data. The
cloud provider impacts the organization's ability to
comply with regulations, privacy expectations and
industry standards, because data and systems may
exist outside the organization's direct control.
•Isolation Failure- Data in the cloud is in a
shared environment alongside data from other
customers. Multi-tenancy and resource sharing are
defining characteristics of the cloud. It is entirely
possible for competing companies to be using the
same cloud services, in effect running their
workloads shoulder-to-shoulder. Keeping memory,
storage and network access separate is essential.
•Data Protection- In the cloud, the organization
doesn't know where his data hosted. The
ubiquitous nature of data in the cloud raises
unprecedented identity and access management
threats. Because the organization relinquishes
direct control over data, it relies on the provider to
keep that data secure and, when it is deleted,
ensure that it is permanently destroyed.
•Management Interface and Role-Based
Access- Cloud applications are accessed and
managed through the Internet, and involve deep
and extensive control. The risk associated with a
security breach is therefore increased and proper
access authorization must be care-fully considered.
[18]
4 Business intelligence in the cloud
computing
Globally, it is recognized that approximately 80%
of the economic growth comes from the SME
sector. Ninety-nine percent of all businesses in
North America and Europe are SMEs. Small and
Medium Enterprises (SMEs) constitute Ninety
percent of businesses in Pakistan., According to
more recent estimates there are approximately 3.2
million business enterprises in Pakistan, (44%
Rural & 56% Urban), , SMEs account for about
30% of Pakistan's GDP, 15% of investment, and
78-80% of employment of non agriculture labor
force. They also play a prominent role as existing
or potential producers of export goods. . [19]
BI on the Cloud computing means , to move of
computing resources into the cloud giving small
and large companies access to the same resources.
Keeping in view the resource poverty of SMEs
(Economic, Technological and human skill) and
barriers to the innovation (i.e. low internet user,
lack of education, lack of use of information and
communication technology), the Bl-in-Cloud
Model allow the SMEs to have access to powerful
tools and services without having to purchase the
solution or infrastructure needed to host it on-
premise. Thus the SMEs can reduce the invest cost,
reduce the project risk, and reduce the operation
and maintenance cost.
There are number of companies that offer cloud
computing services like Amazon offers Amazon
Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Google with its
own cloud computing offering, Google App
Engine and Microsoft offers Microsoft Azure. [20]
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited
(PTCL) is providing Data Centre services (DC) in
Pakistan , DCs are Located in Karachi and Lahore.
The data centers are designed to be consistent with
international standards (TIA 942 compliant) and
data center certification bodies.
PTCL is moving beyond being only an information
transport provider by extending their offering in
the direction of services on the Internet. As the BI
on the Cloud is new opportunity for business, the
PTCL can provide the BI platform, according to
the Businesses need and requirement. PTCL gains
economies of scale in production and distribution
leads to reduce the cost.
While reducing cost is a primary motivation for
moving towards a cloud provider, reducing
responsibility for security or privacy should not be.
[21].Cloud Service providers need to protect the
privacy and security of personal data that they hold
on behalf of organizations and users. Responsible
management of personal data is a central part of
creating the trust that underpins adoption of cloud
based services - without trust, customers will be
reluctant to use cloud-based services. Privacy
protection builds trust between service providers
and users: accountability and privacy by design
provide mechanisms to achieve the desired end
effects and create this trust. [22]
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The Government should develop and implement
Up-to-date and adequate policies, regulations and
laws, to protect the interests of consumers and
cloud computing providers Govt should ensure the
viability and reliability of Cloud Service Providers.
Clod computing provider should be able to meet
the international regulatory requirement. The
Cloud Computing Provider should provide the
comprehensive SLA (Service Level Agreement),
i.e. level of service they will provide, how will the
Cloud Provider respond to disaster recovery, to the
security breach and to the Data loss ?
Cloud Service provider should train their
employees, about the service provisioning, security,
privacy and regulatory requirement,
Government, Concerned authorities and
developing bodies should arrange training program
for the business community, to educate them about
the use of cloud computing, economic gain, and
on-line services, and teach them security measured.
5 Conclusions
Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)
constitute ninety percent (90%) of businesses in
Pakistan, SMEs facing the challenges of
processing and analyzing the business data, to
predict market trends and to improve enterprise
performance. Business intelligence "an integrated
set of tools, technologies and programmed
products that are used to collect, integrate, analyze
and make data available" is the remedy. Due to the
resource (Economic, technological and Human
Skill) poverty the SMEs, are not capable to enjoy
the benefits of BI. To address this gap a BI in the
Cloud Model is proposed. Local telecom operator
like PTCL in case of Pakistan, can launch the BI
on cloud services, The Govt. should develop and
implement Up-to-date, and adequate policies,
regulations and laws, to protect the interests of all
stakes holders.
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