Introduction to Transformation Towards Cloud Computing Minitrack

According to Makhlouf & al (2016), to survive the multidimensional changes in markets related to frequent evolution of national and international regulations, consumers’ behavior, information and communications technologies (ICT) and the globalization phenomenon, companies have constantly to reinvent themselves. They seek to transform their information systems in order to integrate quickly the technological and sociological mutations such as cloud computing, big data or mobility (Hashem & al, 2015). These frequent changes and their induced reconfigurations are accelerating. In this new era of Internet of Everything (IoE), managers are increasingly aware of the necessity for transformation and rapid innovation. In this context of disruptive innovations, such organizational transformations involve deep changes of business processes. It is therefore essential for these companies to find transformation models enabling them to lower costs and drive transitions, without hindering their development and degrading their quality of service, the customer satisfaction, or the level of security (Tiers & Al, 2013). Cloud computing provides the ability to conduct ambitious transformation programs currently hampered by the need to overcome huge investments in Information Systems. Actually, cloud computing allows to significantly reduce financial and human investments required for a company to take advantage of new technologies, fostering access to modern and powerful information systems (Ambrust & al 2010). In this perspective, cloud computing represents a major evolution in the industry of ICT. Nevertheless, it is essential to distinguish the reality of cloud computing from an idealized vision that is not consistent with field observations Venters & Whitley, 2012) Indeed, cloud computing is not a magic solution that will solve at once all IT problems, even though the concept is often presented as such. Cloud computing is not intended for specific sectors: this concept has become almost unavoidable for all sizes and types of businesses. In this track, we are looking for innovative, theoretical, experimental, or applied researches, from the behavioral as well as design science epistemological and methodological perspectives. We seek papers with either in-depth exploration of some particular aspects of the transformation towards cloud computing, or that study this transformation in its entirety.