How to Build Successful Cloud Computing Relationships

Abstract

A company has to operate with flexibility and cost-efficiency due to the continuously competitive business environment. Nowadays, cloud computing (CC) plays an essential part in flexibility and cost-efficiency of IT infrastructure. Companies using CC have to know how different types of contracts and their terms, modes of relationships, contract quality, and relationship management influence their CC activities. This article discusses how to build successful relationships in CC. The field of this study is CC from a service buyer perspective. The applied research strategy was survey research and the data was collected through interviews with IT managers in different medium-sized companies in Sweden. To identify and analyse the influencing factors of relationships in CC this research has used Transaction Cost Theory. The findings of this research are the identified influential factors to improve a cloud computing relationship like asset specificity, fee-for-service contracts, contract length, provider/buyer organisation sizes and the number of providers including guidelines for decision makers to strengthen this CC relationship.