Cloud Computing Ecosystem Model: Refinement and Evaluation

A business ecosystem has evolved in the field of cloud computing whereby new types of market actors have emerged breaking up the traditional value chain of IT service provision. In order to create a profound understanding of this ecosystem, several scholars tried to capture it in a model. However, these models differ considerably from each other. The goal of this paper, therefore, is to develop a revised and comprehensive cloud computing ecosystem model according to the design science paradigm. For this purpose, the recently published Passau Cloud Computing Ecosystem Model (PaCE Model) is developed significantly further by integrating the insights of an analysis of the existing cloud ecosystem models regarding ten criteria and by considering findings from the general cloud and business ecosystem literature. To ensure the integrity of the enhanced PaCE Model, the Internet is manually searched for companies occupying the roles of the model. As a result, the model comprises 26 roles and includes the basic service flows. Since the missing market transparency is regarded as one of the main reasons for the low cloud adoption, the intended contribution is to foster a better understanding of the cloud ecosystem and to provide a conceptual framework for further research.