Cloud-based support for global software engineering: potentials, risks, and gaps

Global Software Engineering (GSE) aims at utilizing global expertise and reducing time-to-market and costs for software development. However, GSE faces serious challenges related to the communication, coordination and provision of development environments for geographically distributed GSE sites, resulting in increased costs. Nowadays, cloud computing offers a cost-effective and a handy solution to provide computing support for global business. In particularly, it provides potential and viable solutions to address concerns and challenges in GSE. We have reviewed the relevant literature on cloud-based support for GSE and identified a set of pros and cons for supporting GSE with cloud services. We also present some recommendations to increase the trustworthiness and productivity with cloud-based support for GSE. This paper outlines the potential benefits and risks of cloud computing to GSE and identifies some gaps that need to be addressed by cloud-based support towards more trustworthy and productive work environment for GSE. This will open windows of opportunities for tailoring the solution utilizing cloud-based support for GSE.