Cloud Computing for Green Construction Management

Norshakila Muhamad Rawai 1,a, Mohamad Syazli Fathi 2,b, Mohammad Abedi 1,c, , Shuib Rambat 3,d

1Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM Johor Bahru, 81310, Johor, Malaysia

2UTM Razak School of Engineering & Advanced Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Semarak, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

3UTMSPACE, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Semarak, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

anorshakila3@live.utm.my; bsyazli@utm.my camohammad22@live.utm.my, and dshuram@ic.utm.my

Abstract---Integrated information, innovation and collaboration are the key factors for the sustainable development of construction organizations nowadays. The advancement of cloud computing technology offers construction organizations great potential for developing a collaborative and integrated environment for construction management. This paper presents an in-depth literature review of cloud computing in construction management. Findings from this review have shown that the benefit of using cloud computing technology for construction collaboration will reduce both energy consumption and CO2 emissions; indeed, it is more towards a green mission as it also provides both a financial return and a tangible environmental benefit. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to investigate the most valuable construction collaboration tools as the cloud computing technology along with the main concepts of sustainable project management. The findings in this research illustrate that with implementing the cloud computing in construction industry; it will facilitate the construction processes, collaborations, communications, relations and networks through the construction industry. Firstly, it is hoped that this study will contribute on improvements in construction industry collaboration which could ultimately improve and enhance the competitive advantages within the construction industry. Secondly, it introduces the new visions of construction industry integration and most significantly collaboration in an efficient way that will eventually maximise the productivity, enhance the efficiency and improve the effectiveness towards a green construction industry.

Keywords-- Construction Collaboration; Cloud Computing; Green Construction; Sustainable Project Management; Collaborations;

I. INTRODUCTION Incorporating sustainability as a major objective of the

construction process is a strategic, competitive factor in today’s construction industry. Fragmentation, poor integration and the complexities of activities associated with construction projects, makes the managing task increasingly complex [1]. Additionally, same information is manipulated and exchanged within the construction industry Such as drawings are re-drawn and lists are re-entered. This similar information can eventually lead to unproductivity of construction projects. Hence, the major effort will be to improve the coordination, collaboration and communications within the construction project supply chain at early stages

of planning and design. Otherwise, any variation and revisions by supply chain parties within the construction projects could indeed rise up many communications contributing to inefficiencies and less productivity [1].

Nowadays, the critical factors in designing, planning and

developing a project need to be more focused on sustaining and protecting natural and human resources. Hence, the major effort will be to improve the coordination, collaboration and communications within the construction project management at the early stages of planning and design. These factors could have negative consequences for the project objectives which could influence the time of completion, cost, quality and safety [1]. While as, clients as major parties within the construction projects are demanding for cost efficient, higher quality, shorter construction time and achieving accurate and up to date information within the construction projects will lead to the uprising of innovative collaborative technologies for the construction industry [2,3]

Even though there have been different implementations

of technological tools within the construction industry [4,5], there are still numerous challenges in the current construction processes which have contributed to poor-quality projects [4]. Therefore, one of the main concerns within construction projects is to enhance the collaboration and integration of the construction industry parties by the implementation of cloud computing in order to overcome the difficulties and hazards inherent in dynamic and information-intensive construction projects and ultimately to improve their efficiency, effectiveness and productivity, which will lead to greener construction management [6].

According to [7], cloud computing is an extensive

distributed computing standard whereby a pool of virtualized, scalable, vastly available and manageable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, software, hardware, applications, data) could be achieved, utilised and managed with minimal effort. Therefore, this research aims to discover the concepts and benefits of cloud computing applications for the green construction industry. Cloud computing is a significant potential tool to support the construction industry and its currently available collaboration tools include desktops, internet networks, tablets, smartphones and laptops [6]. Consequently, it is hoped that recommending the implementation of cloud

2013 Third International Conference on Intelligent System Design and Engineering Applications

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DOI 10.1109/ISDEA.2012.107

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computing (a shared collaborative information technology system) rather than conventional methods of construction management will help all the construction project parties including consultants, contractors, designers, the owner, architects, suppliers and engineers to cooperate and collaborate with high efficiency and productivity leading to a greener construction industry. Firstly, this paper presents the variety definitions, delivery models and types of cloud computing. The second part of this research demonstrates the integration concepts of green, sustainability and cloud computing within the construction industry. Finally, the conclusion develops ways to enhance the potential opportunities offered to the construction industry by collaborative technologies and tools.

II. CLOUD COMPUTING Cloud Computing is the most recent technology which has been established by the IT industry. Its revolutionary impact provides a timely, cost effective and energy-efficient technology that supports access to applications, information and services, such as storage, networks, hardware infrastructures and servers, without restrictions of time and place using only an internet connection. Additionally, the fundamental concept of cloud computing can be described as the accessing, sharing and implementation of applications, services, information and resources via a network environment which enables the business to operate without any concerns regarding the ownership, management and maintenance of the network’s resources, applications and services[6].

Figure 1: Cloud Computing Types (Adopted from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing )[17]

There are four types of cloud computing delivery (Fig 1): public cloud, private cloud, community cloud and hybrid clouds. Armbrust defined a public cloud as a pay-as-you-go implementation for the public while a private cloud is not made available to the public [8]. A community cloud is utilised via a collection of organisations which have common interests and a hybrid cloud is a combination of a public and private cloud [9,10].

Figure 2: Cloud Computing

Three broad types of cloud computing (shown in fig 2) defined by [4,9] are as follows:

(1) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): It is the lowest layer of the network which the user via the cloud providers uses fundamental computing resources such as processing power, storage, memory, operating system and networking components such as firewalls or middleware.

(2) Platform as a Service (PaaS): The users build their own applications based on the infrastructure service providers. They control the applications but they do not have control over the operating system, hardware or network infrastructure and;

(3) Software as a Service (SaaS): The consumer uses an application, but does not control operating system, hardware or network infrastructure on which it's running.

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Cloud computing implementation will assist individuals and organisations to access the resources and services within the information technology (IT) domain. It is a combination of hardware and software which organizations or individuals can use, anywhere in the world through the internet. Additionally, it will ground the opportunity to penetrate and disseminate the computing resources and information technology (IT) services through the world industries such as construction industries that if appropriately implemented and adapted it will ultimately enhance the productivity, efficiencies and the effectiveness of the construction industry [9]. Thus, allowing IT departments to reduce the need of powerful processors and the use of large quantities of paper-based data, which will contribute to an increasingly green technology [9] and give more attention to the core organisational strategies rather than putting their efforts into operating and maintaining datacentres.

III. CLOUD COMPUTING AND THE CONSTRUCTION

INDUSTRY

While the physical presence were needed in client’s meeting, site meeting or site job; Cloud technologies help to balances the back offices function such as billing, payrolls, logistic planning and running a financial report. This technology provides a solution which is able to serve users in both work settings.

Cloud technology making business applications available

remotely is an advantage in construction management. This remote access allows staff to work from any location without being tied to a specific physical location. Without to have the decentralization of offices and travel-based positions, even if the project work being done in different regions of the country or even internationally, cloud system were be able to offer solid remote access technology to employees is critical for a construction company’s success [11].

IV. CLOUD COMPUTING AND SUSTAINABILITY The main advantages of using cloud computing, besides

the efficient collaboration throughout the development process, is its contribution to a healthy environment [1]. The healthy environment regards to human activities such as development projects, commuting from place to place, farming, and other sorts of activities that cause the increasing of air pollution thus affect the ability of the project team and organisation to comply with the concept of green construction [12] and in Malaysia the deterioration of air quality is increasing [13]. Therefore, taking positive action by implementing the cloud computing can be an effort to reduce the use of transportation and thus, reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Most of the organizations are aware of sustainability and

realise that it should be a part of their strategy. The integration of sustainability should be implemented in the

concepts and methodologies that the organization is using. Practical tools are needed to align business methodologies with the principles of sustainable development, which systematically include sustainability within the evaluation process [14]. It should be signified that the innovative and practical tools such as cloud computing technologies should be aligned with the principles of sustainable development in order to implement the business methodologies of sustaining a systematic evaluation process [15]. Whilst, the success and health of an organisation measured by ‘triple bottom line’ (TBL) [16] also can be integrated in the cloud computing technology for best result in managing the construction projects.

Cloud computing systems should begin in the early stage of the process in the management strategy such as when the concepts of the project are decided. Therefore, this system will become an essential tool that makes managing a project much more efficient, throughout the development process. The last part of this research will set out a brief overview of the significant points within this research

V. CONCLUSION The complexity of construction processes within the

construction projects necessitates the exchange of increasing amounts of data and information. Overall, this paper has reviewed valuable collaborative tools and technologies as a significant and valuable subclass of information and communication technology (ICT) including cloud technology. Consequently, cloud technology provides the ability to communicate and exchange data and information easily, efficiently, effectively and accurately independent of time and place, thereby providing major benefits for the construction management.

This valuable technology could result in better green

construction management which will eventually ensure the delivery of applicable and reliable information to enhance collaboration within the construction supply chain and with project stakeholders. Finally, the study presented in this paper is a preliminary survey and is a part of an on-going research, which will eventually attempt to further enhance the practices and implementation of cloud computing technology as one of the significant innovative construction collaboration tools towards a greener construction industry.

VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank UTM Razak School of Engineering & Advanced Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia for sponsoring this research under research grant number 4B012.

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