Risk-based Design for Sustainability in Cloud Systems: Insights from an Experts' Survey

2026-07-21

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenge of identifying sustainability risks in cloud systems during early development stages, where complexity and performance considerations often obscure such risks. To tackle this issue, the work proposes an integrated approach that combines multi-industry expert surveys with thematic analysis, grounded in Risk-Based Design (RBD) methodology, to systematically identify and categorize cloud sustainability risks. The research establishes a multi-layered risk classification framework that delineates key influencing factors for each risk category and maps them to corresponding mitigation strategies. By doing so, it offers practitioners actionable guidance and fills a critical gap in systematic risk governance for cloud system sustainability.

Abstract

Cloud Systems' Sustainability is critical in Cloud Computing, especially with the growing demand in many industries. Sustainability risks in Cloud Computing can be tricky, mostly because of system complexity and their impact on performance. Thus, this research focuses on Risk-based design (RBD) and how it can support the early identification of possible risks for Cloud System Sustainability, as well as respective mitigation strategies of each risk. In order to successfully identify risks of Cloud System Sustainability, an Expert Survey is conducted including experts with different roles from different industries, to identify possible sustainability risks of a Cloud System on all different levels. Thematic analysis of the responses resulted in a categorization of risks, as well as in the identification of mitigation strategies and factors affecting each risk. Such findings can be helpful for researchers and practitioners that utilize RBD when building sustainable Cloud systems.

Problem

• Cloud Systems
• Sustainability
• Risk-based Design
• Sustainability Risks
• Cloud Computing

Innovation

• Risk-based Design
• Cloud Sustainability
• Expert Survey
• Thematic Analysis
• Risk Mitigation