Using Cloud Computing in Software Firm:A Strategy to Improve Agility in the Current Financial Crisis

Abstract

Software industry is a growing sector in economy and in the present financial crisis, software firms are facing problems in providing necessary support for research and development activities. The objective of this paper is to find alternatives to the use of IT (information technology) solution of software firm development. Agile development methodologies are very promising in the software industry. Agile development techniques are such a way of developing environment such that it is very practical and viable in understanding the flow of business environment changes constantly. Agile development processes optimize the opportunity provided by cloud computing by doing software releases iteratively and getting user feedback more frequently. The research methodology depends on Cloud Computing as an alternative to IT provision, management and security. It also took into account the best practices for Cloud Computing usage within software firms and software developers experience in IT. The strategy includes five stages, with emphasis on the evaluation of data and processes/functions/applications from several major software firms based on some key criteria, while creating a correspondence between these aspects and the models/services/applications that exist on the Cloud market. The outcome of using Cloud solutions in software firms by improving knowledge is impressive.

Keywords: Agile Methodologies, Cloud Computing, Software Development, Information Technology

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