A Methodology for the Impact Assessment of a g-Cloud Strategy for the Italian Ministry of the Economic Development

The paper has the objective to provide a methodology for the socio-economic, technological and environmental impact assessment of a Cloud Computing strategy for the Italian Ministry of the Economic Development and more specific at the service of the Department for Communications. In order to develop a detailed and tailored model for implementing the g-Cloud strategy, we analyse the current services and functions performed by the Department for Communications of the Italian Ministry of the Economic Development, showing the current ways of managing information flows within and outside the administration. Starting from the available background analysis on the current state of the art of the adoption of g-Cloud services in Europe and USA, we provide assumptions and hypotheses for the definition of the g-Cloud Strategy. We then compare the requirements provided by the General Directorates of the Department for Communications of the Italian Ministry of the Economic Development in order to validate the hypotheses previously defined. By reviewing the approaches for the impact assessment available from literature review, we define the best effective methodology for assessing the potential impacts of g-Cloud strategies. The methodology considers four areas of impact: economic, social, legal and environmental impacts. For each area of impact we identify specific indicators for the assessment of efficiency and effectiveness of Cloud Computing initiatives in the Italian PA that have been validated by a set of Cloud Computing experts.