An exploration of high performance computing cloud contract for SMEs: a systematic literature review
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-11-2020-0163 |
| Published date | 08 September 2022 |
| Date | 08 September 2022 |
| Pages | 525-540 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information policy |
| Author | Qin Lu,Nadja Damij,Jason Whalley |
An exploration of high performance
computing cloud contract for SMEs:
a systematic literature review
Qin Lu, Nadja Damij and Jason Whalley
Abstract
Purpose –High performance computing (HPC) is used to solve complex calculations that personal
computingdevices are unable to handle. HPC offers the potentialfor small- and medium-size enterprises
(SMEs) to engagein product innovation, service improvementand the optimization of resource allocation
(Borstnar and Ilijas, 2019). However, the expensive infrastructure, maintenance costs and resource
knowledge gaps that accompanythe use of HPC can make it inaccessible to SMEs. By moving HPC to
the cloud, SMEscan gain access to the infrastructure withoutthe requirement of owning or maintainingit,
but they will need to accept the terms and conditions of the cloud contract. This paper aims to improve
how SMEs access HPC through the cloud by providing insights into the terms and conditions of HPC
cloud contracts.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper adopts a systematic literaturereview by implementing a
four-step approach. A comprehensive search was undertaken and results synthesized to enable this
paper’sobjectives to be met.
Findings –This paper proposesthat SMEs could gain competitive advantage(s) by understandingtheir
own needs and improving their contract negotiation abilities, service management skills and risk
management abilities before accepting the terms and conditions of the cloud contract. Furthermore, a
checklist,service-level agreement, easily ignoredelements and risk areas are presented as guidance for
SMEs when reviewingtheir HPC cloud contract(s).
Originality/value –While HPC cloud contracts are a niche research topic, it is one of the key factors
influencing the ability of SMEs to access HPC through the cloud. It is, however, by no means a level
playfield withSMEs at a distinct disadvantage because of not influencingthe writing up of the HPC cloud
contract. Theadded value of the paper is that it contributes to our overallunderstanding of the terms and
conditionsof HPC cloud contracts.
Keywords High performance computing, Cloud computing, Cloudcontract, Systematic review, SMEs
Paper type Literature review
1. Introduction
High performance computing (HPC) is a cluster of computers carrying out parallel process
work at teraflop or petaflop processing speeds as it aggregates multiple central and
graphics processing units (Maayan, 2020). HPC, therefore, has the potential to resolve
complex problems at greater speeds that personal computers cannot compete with,
particularly when applied to product innovation, responding time and the optimization of
resource allocation, etc. (Borstnar and Ilijas, 2019). However, HPC mainly depends on in-
house hardware and infrastructure (Monteiro et al.,2015); it is expensive to purchase and
maintain (Sajay and Babu, 2016), especially for small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs)
(Botelho and O’Gorman, 2021). In addition, because of limited resources, those SMEs
considering the large investment cannot afford the infrastructure to be either underutilized
or overloaded (Mauch et al., 2013). On the other hand, SMEs can benefit from accessing
Qin Lu, Nadja Damij and
Jason Whalley all are based
at Newcastle Business
School, Northumbria
University, Newcastle Upon
Tyne, UK.
Received 16 November 2020
Revised 8 February 2022
14 July 2022
Accepted 16 August 2022
This paper forms part of a
special section “The power of
High-performance computing
infrastructure for small and
medium sized enterprises”,
guest edited by Nadja Damij,
Markus Abel, Bill O’Gorman
and Sergio Botelho Junior.
DOI 10.1108/DPRG-11-2020-0163 VOL. 24 NO. 6 2022,pp. 525-540, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2398-5038 jDIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE jPAGE 525
HPC through the cloud (Gas
ˇperlin et al.,2019) in terms of improving performance,
expanding business and sustaining their development (Botelho and O’Gorman, 2021), as
the providers could provide pay-as-you-go costing options for SMEs, faster corresponding
time, greater efficiency andunlimited storage space (Sajay and Babu, 2016) without owning
the infrastructure (Gas
ˇperlin et al., 2019). To save cost and improve performance, SMEs are
exploring the potential of accessing HPC through the cloud (Monteiro et al.,2015). HPC
cloud market was worth $4.3bn in 2020, and it is anticipated to grow at an annual rate of
17% (Shah, 2021) which gives huge incentives for SMEs to explore the possibility of
accessing HPC through the cloud.
To access cloud HPC, the SMEs need to agree to the HPC terms and conditions of the cloud
contract which are normally complex and prepared by and favour cloud pr oviders (Lundqvist,
2019). The contract imposes considerable restrictions onto SMEs ( Burden, 2014). Because of
their flawed understanding of the contract and their inability to clarify the asso ciated risks to
the business emanating from the contract, the understanding of a cloud contr act can be an
issue for SMEs (EC2IT, 2017). The European Commission has published a study regarding t he
unfair and unbalanced cloud contract for SMEs (Justice and Cons umers, 2019). It indicated
that the core of the problem arises from the SMEs’ lack of knowledge on how to use cloud
services, lack of attention during signing the contract, lack of transparency of cloud issues and
unbalanced liability between the SMEs and the cloud providers (Just ice and Consumers,
2019). Furthermore, additional damage could be imposed onto S MEs because of the contract-
related problems, such as unsatisfied availability, low speed of service , forced updates that
remove a necessary function and service discontinuity (Justice and C onsumers, 2019). More
than half of the SMEs that participated in their study implied that the y needed clear guidance
on how to tackle the contract-related problems (Justice and Consumers, 20 19), contributing
that those challenges that can be alleviated by negotiating a clou d contract (Opara-Martins
et al.,2015
).
The state-of-the-art research of HPC cloud contract for SMEs is in its initial stage. With
limited skills, reduced maturity and fewer resources than large organizations (Bochicchio
et al.,2011
), SMEs require clear guidance when reviewing HPC cloud contracts (Justice
and Consumers, 2019) which would identify the requirements, check the policy
(Reantongcome et al.,2020), offer the optimized deployment and pricing mechanism
(Asthana et al.,2019;Wang et al., 2013;Dierks et al.,2019), take precautionary measures
to counteract risks (Lin et al.,2018;Cho et al.,2017) and provide penalty measures if
violations happens (Hwang et al.,2020). In the case of HPC cloud adoption by SMEs, the
cloud contract has barely been investigated before. This paper aims to fill in this gap by
conducting a systematic literature review of HPC cloud contract-related publications with
the aim of answering the following researchquestions:
RQ1. How can small- and medium-size enterprises be better prepared before signing
high performancecomputing cloud contract?
RQ2. What cloud issues can small- and medium-size enterprises focus on during a high
performancecomputing cloud contract review?
This paper is structured as follows: the systematic review methodology is discussed in
Section 2. Sections 3 and 4 answer thetwo research questions, namely: How can the SMEs
be better prepared before signing the HPC cloud contract? And what cloud contract issues
can SMEs focus on during a HPCcloud contract review?
Conclusions and areas for future study avenue are then discussed in the final section of the paper.
2. Methodology
The paper follows the systematic literature review method with the aim to provide robust
evidence to answer the research questions by covering the majority of the relevant papers
PAGE 526 jDIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE jVOL. 24 NO. 6 2022
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