Cloud Computing... Commoditizing It

Book excerpt: For the last twenty years, we have witnessed how new technologies have changed organizations to adapt in order to compete or face nonexistence. This book will explain how cloud computing will be the most radical transformation of business processes every organization will face to date. Is cloud computing a strategic advantage? Cloud computing will reclassify service delivery models in ways that organizations have never seen before. IT organizations will become commoditized and in the center of the new business transformation. Is cloud computing about survival, or is it in pursuit of better values? Organizations who embrace this new ecosystem, adopting cloud computing and the mind-sets it personifies, will have guaranteed their existence. Organizations are leveraging the cloud to cut costs and deliver a better customer experience rapidly and consistently. But is it working? In this book, we discuss how cloud computing is commoditizing IT and if cloud computing is a real threat or an irresistible opportunity. How is cloud computing revolutionizing the financial industry and the way we conduct business? Part I we explain how to build a successful cloud computing strategy, and also share details of the survey results we conducted in my Ph.D. dissertation on cloud computing adoption models and the decision-making variables and factors that take place. Part II of the book is ideal for graduate students and doctoral candidates who are working on empirical academic research. We discuss the cloud computing adoption life cycle, theory of innovation diffusion, research questions, hypotheses, measurement instruments, the way that emotions drive technology adoption, and dependent and independent variables. Part III of the book includes relevant case study samples, beneficial for those who are looking for writing in an academic style and case study research. Who should read this book? This book is aimed at senior leadership and information technology (IT) professionals at all levels. Also, this is a book for IT graduate students, both MBA and doctoral, who seek to learn a great deal about emerging technologies and formal research methodologies.