IJAHP ARTICLE: News/Editor-In-Chief Enrique Mu Uses AHP to Help City of Pittsburgh Move 
to the Cloud 

International Journal of the 
Analytic Hierarchy Process 

88 Vol. 3 Issue 1 2011 
ISSN 1936-6744 

 

AHP NEWS 
 
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ENRIQUE MU USES AHP TO HELP CITY OF 
PITTSBURGH MOVE TO THE CLOUD  

 

Professor Enrique Mu, Editor-in-Chief 
of the International Journal of the AHP 
(on the right), honored by Mayor Luke 
Ravenstahl for helping the City of 
Pittsburgh select the best technology to 
move its Information Technology 
functions to the Cloud, a tough decision 
that had to be made by city officials. 
Professor Mu used AHP (the Analytic 
Hierarchy Process for decision-making) 
to guide the process, facilitating it over a 
period of months.  

Cloud Computing provides resources 
using a computer network as opposed to 
reliance on an individual computer’s 
operating system, software or data. 
When using “The Cloud” the individual 
computer serves only as a means of 
displaying information processed on a 

network of computers far away. The 
City of Pittsburgh required a Cloud 
Computing Internet Technology 
solution. 

Due to the high cost, complexity and 
public nature of this requirement it was 
imperative that the decision-making 
process be accurate, transparent and 
open to the views of different city 
information system stakeholders. For 
assistance with this high-priority 
decision, the City of Pittsburgh turned to 
Dr. Enrique Mu, Ph.D., Carlow 
University associate professor and 
specialist in AHP-based decision-
making and information technology 
management. 

The group participating in the decision 
process consisted of approximately 12 



IJAHP ARTICLE: News/Editor-In-Chief Enrique Mu Uses AHP to Help City of Pittsburgh Move 
to the Cloud 

International Journal of the 
Analytic Hierarchy Process 

89 Vol. 3 Issue 1 2011 
ISSN 1936-6744 

 

specialists in finance, technical issues 
and administration from the city 
information systems department. The 
AHP model was a combination of the 
requirements that had been developed 
by the city for the system and judgments 
input by the participants with the 
participants giving judgments in the 
parts of the hierarchy in which they 
were expert. Each such meeting to 
collect judgments was finished in about 
one session. 

In his recognition of Professor Mu, 
Mayor Ravenstahl said he had made an 
invaluable analytical contribution in the 
help he gave the city in the quest to find 
a suitable Cloud Computing Solution, 
and he went on to say the success by the 
decision-making team led to the solution 
of a real and urgent city problem. 

 

Rob
Typewritten Text
http://dx.doi.org/10.13033/ijahp.v3i1.92