A contingency lens on cloud provider management processes

Abstract

Traditional ways of managing information technology (IT) service providers are no longer applicable as companies use more and more services provisioned in the cloud. Therefore, organizations are looking for new ways to manage their relationship with cloud providers. The shift from IT-as-a-product to IT-as-a-service puts clients in a continued dependency on cloud service providers (CSPs), making provider management a critical factor for companies’ success. In this paper, we (1) identify cloud-specific challenges in managing CSPs, (2) develop a corresponding process framework for CSP management, and (3) discuss and extend this framework. Our final cloud management framework comprises ten processes for effective CSP management based on a literature study and twelve expert interviews. Furthermore, we unpack three major contingency factors, i.e., client–provider ratio, specificity, and service delivery model, which influence the reasonability and configuration of the cloud management processes. Drawing on two specific cases from our interview study, we explicate the contingency factors’ influence. Thus, our paper contributes to cloud sourcing research by deepening the understanding of client–provider relationships and by introducing a viable CSP management instrument contingent on three salient factors of cloud service provisioning.

A New Adoption of Cloud Computing Model for Saudi Arabian SMEs (ACCM-SME)

“…In addition, Services Level Agreements (SLAs) may help the provider to achieve success and avoid violations [71]. However, the management of Cloud service providers is usually confronted with issues when it comes to renewable management techniques such as agile project management [72]. Moreover, the physical location of the Cloud provider is an influential matter regarding where the data is stored by the service providers.…”

A Comparative Analysis of different Vehicular Fog Computing Scheduling Algorithms

“…CC has shifted the phenomena of IT-as-a-product to IT-as-a-Service. With the help of CC, a product-centric IT provisioning model is transformed into a distributed, global, service-centric model, which plays an adequate role in the provision of ease and comfort to end-users in terms of accessibility, availability, and productivity [2]. CC advent has altered the way in which services of IT are developed, invented, deployed, updated, scaled, paid for, and maintained.…”