Civil Report-{Cloud

Collaboration in Civil
Engineering}

Made By- Ayush Kumar Mishra

Abstract
Cloud computing technologies have revolutionised several industries
for several years. Although the construction industry is well placed to
leverage these technologies for competitive and operational
advantage, the diffusion of the technologies in the industry follows a
steep curve. This study therefore highlights the current contributions
and use cases of cloud computing in construction practices. As such,
a systematic review was carried out using ninety-two (92) peer-
reviewed publications, published between 2009 and 2019. A key
highlight of the findings is that cloud computing is an innovation
delivery enabler for other emerging technologies (building
information modelling, internet of things, virtual reality, augmented
reality, big data analytics) in the construction industry. As such, this
paper brings to the fore, current and future application areas of cloud
computing in the construction industry. The paper also identifies
barriers to broader adoption of cloud computing in the construction
industry and discusses strategies for overcoming these barriers.
 Introduction
 The construction industry is data intensive as heterogeneous
data are continuously generated as the project progresses.
The data from different stages of the project are usually stored
in silos; team server or desktop, individual desktop, laptops,
smartphones, etc. Data integration is thus required for the
overall project coordination because the inability to access a
holistic view of data often leads to wrong decisions that could
delay the project and also impact on performance and
profitability of the project [1]. The traditional Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) solution is to acquire high-
end capacity system to store, process and analyse data from
its subcontractors. Deploying on-site solutions require a
massive overhead (power, cooling, security, availability,
updates) which comes with huge operational cost burden.
Therefore, it is impractical to commission on-site ICT
infrastructure for all projects due to the huge initial investment
requirement. Besides, in-house computing provision is static in
capability and usually more expensive to upgrade to meet a
Contribution of this Study
Despite recent advances in cloud computing technologies,
existing literature shows that there is currently no comprehensive
up-to-date survey and analysis of cloud computing in the context
of the construction industry. As such, this study analyses and
categorises the use cases of cloud computing in construction.
The study also highlights challenges militating against the
broader adoption of the technology in the construction industry.
Thus, channelling a path for construction practitioners and
researchers.
Arrangement of Paper

The study is organized in ten sections: section 2 contains an overview

of cloud computing technology while section 3 detailed the need for
cloud computing in construction. Section 4 provides step by step
methods employed in carrying out the study. Section 5 discusses the
statistical and the qualitative analysis of the review. Existing use
cases of cloud computing in the construction industry was discussed
in section 6 followed by the insights from the review exercise. The
challenges for wider adoption of the technology was discussed in
section 8. Section 9 discussed future opportunities for cloud adoption.
The implications of the findings from the studies on the construction
industry was discussed in section 10 and finally the conclusions from
the study. The structure of the review is presented in Fig. 1.
Overview of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a paradigm shift in the way hardware and software

resources are managed and utilized. The emergence of Service Oriented
Architecture (SOA) which underpins cloud computing technologies, allows
organizations to share the physical and non-physical aspects of an
Information Technology (IT) infrastructure. The idea is to make computing
infrastructure to be re-usable and thus distributing the computing costs.
These capabilities significantly reduce the initial investment costs and
reduces the operational costs of computing infrastructure. Cloud computing
means different things to different people; to an e-commerce personnel, it
implies shareable Information and Communication Technology [12]. Fig. 2
depicts different more summarised definitions of cloud computing from
different studies. The most widely used definition of cloud computing is the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) definition as reported
by [13];
Cloud Characteristics
The five essential characteristics of cloud computing are: (1) The ubiquitous nature of cloud
computing that implies a broad network access as cloud services are accessible regardless
of time and location. Cloud service is accessible using any device over the internet, this is
because the underlying computing infrastructure is on multiple locations (2) The shared
pool feature implies a multi-tenancy infrastructure that can accommodate many users and
applications. This allows many users to share the same computing infrastructure with
individual privacy and security guaranteed (3) The elasticity attribute allows users to
increase or decrease the request for computing resources on demand. For example, if a
business suddenly starts to experience a high traffic, cloud infrastructure can easily scale
up to accommodate the new demand (4) The on-demand self-service facet means
computing capabilities to be provided automatically to users. In the past, users will order
for computing facilities, await the arrival and do installations to prepare the system for use.
This will take at least 24 h before the system is fully functional. Nowadays, computer users
will only enter credit card details on cloud providers’ website and within minutes computer
resources is made accessible to them for use. Cloud users can use the web service portal to
manage their services without intervention from the cloud provider and (5) the pay-as-you-
go.
Cloud Service Models
Cloud has three service models from virtual hardware provisions
to application domain-specific users; Infrastructure-as-a-Service,
also called the technology layer, provides virtual storage and
servers for data analysis. Users rent virtual storage, which are
web accessible, and can scale up and scale down based on the
customers’ need. A 2 TB portable hard disk with a warranty of
two years is selling for £58.99 at the same time, a 2 TB ready-to-
use cloud storage is rented for £13.90/yr. This implies the
traditional procurement cost alone for the hard disk is over three
times the annual cloud usage rate of the same capability. In
addition to the procurement cost is still the operational
(installation and security) cost for the portable disk to be usable.
Whereas cloud storage apart from being easily accessible at the
small price, is also highly secured. Software-as-a-Service are
cloud based construction software that can be purchased for use
on a pay as you go basis and thus at a reduced cost of
ownership. Common SaaS services are, BIM360, Primavera,
Oracle Financials, Procore, SmartnetBid [21].
Cloud Service Provider
Multi-billion dollars cloud service providers create massive data
centres containing hundreds of thousands of computers
employed virtualisation technology fortified with redundant
power, networking and connectivity [17]. These providers locate
these data centres around regions all over the world to provide
various services to users to solve problems involving massive
and distributed data. An exposition of Cloud Providers by Bello
[22] revealed the likes of Amazon, Google Inc., Microsoft Corp,
Salesforce, and Oracle as pioneer service providers. Some cloud
providers themselves do not own infrastructure instead acquire
services from other provider to build services like PivotalCRM, a
SaaS service using Amazon EC2. Cloud SaaS pricing at inception
was per unit time of consumption, incorporation of market value
brought about personalised pricing model [23]. Extension of the
personalised price model of SaaS to other cloud service models
yielded variations like, free trial, reservation, high consumption,
On-Spot price offers, to create more personalised pricing [24].
Cloud services are packaged in bundles, for example an Amazon
EC2 server instance has 16core virtual CPU and 32 Gibibyte of
The Need for Cloud Computing In
the Construction Industry
The application of cloud computing to construction is an emerging
area, which promises a number of opportunities. While not exhaustive,
some of the benefits accrued from adoption of cloud computing
technology in construction are discussed in this section:
1. Economic Benefits

Cost is a significant barrier in the adoption of IT solutions by construction

companies, because of its low-profit margin [2]. Construction companies are
seeking new ways to drive down infrastructure and operational costs. As
such, the industry is not buoyant for the massive IT infrastructure, which
requires expert human resources and training to manage. Cloud computing
technologies have therefore provided opportunity to construction
businesses especially SMEs to have access to high end computing
infrastructure and applications which could cost a fortune to acquire. This
will also undoubtedly translate to a reduction in the total cost of a project
delivery, therefore giving construction companies a competitive advantage
and operational edge. Since payment will only be for actual consumption,
the cloud computing technology provides increased agility for the
construction by the elimination of ownership and operational costs.
2. On-demand scalability of
computing resources
Cloud computing enables a construction company to purchase IT
resources as services dictated by the specific requirement at that
particular period on a construction project. A short-term need for a
higher capacity infrastructure that necessitates tying down of capitals
on computing facilities is no more economically viable. The
unexpected demand might not even give enough time for an
infrastructure purchase and installation. Cloud computing offers high-
performance servers with powerful CPUs, GPUs and super-fast SSD
drives to construction industries at affordable prices. In particular,
SMEs will be on a playing field with the larger companies without a
huge initial investment. Alreshidi et al. [51] employed the scalability
feature of cloud service to propose a BIM-Governance model.
3. Secured Platform
Cloud security has matured and popular security measures in the
cloud includes; encryption, use of up-to-date security software,
cyber insurance security cover, security audit, and so on. There
is virtually no SME in the construction sector that can afford the
level of data security found in the cloud in their in-house
infrastructure. Security threats on on-premise construction data
such as Cryptolocker and the associated ransom have further
necessitated the use of cloud for safe keeping the construction
data. It is also very costly for construction companies to
implement system availability on in-house computing
infrastructure that could to match up with the 99.99% SLA
(Service Level Agreement) and uptime provided by cloud service
providers.
Conclusion
The study has investigated the relevance of cloud computing in the last decade to the
construction industry, exploring the extent to which cloud computing has been used in
construction. Relevant up-to-date publications from SCOPUS, Science Direct and Google
Scholar that are characterised with robustness and integrity have been reviewed. This is
the first of its kind study, viewing construction industry from the inception of cloud
computing technology to the present. The study provided a rundown of cloud computing
including the underpinning technologies that has supported the development of cloud-
native services. This study analysed the existing literature and find out that cloud
computing in construction is an active area of research.
The study has revealed that the use of cloud computing in construction industry is
emerging and that opportunities there in are abound. More importantly, cloud services are
inevitable for SMEs in the sector to digitise their processes using BIM-enabled applications.
The study has brought out the core use cases of cloud computing in construction industry,
presently these are; safety system, waste minimisation system, supply chain management
system, energy management system and construction informatics. The study found out
that construction industry is benefitting computational power for data analysis.
Conclusion continue…
The study divulged that cloud computing is being used in the
feasibility study, design and construction stages of project
lifecycle. Whereas, its use in the handover and operations stages
of project construction is still unpopular. The use of cloud
computing technologies in post occupancy systems like facility
management, users comfort management, demolition and
deconstruction system etc. is not well pronounced
The study highlighted some of the challenges militating against
wider adoption of the technology and provide strategies to
survive them. The study also mentioned some of the future
benefits of wider adoption of cloud computing in construction
industry. This work is very useful for the construction
practitioners and researchers as it presents the potentiality of
cloud computing in the construction industry. Future research will
look into relevance of emerging Edge computing, fog computing,
cloudlet, mobile edge computing, etc. in the construction