Rays of uniqueness-cloud in multinational organisations: Challenge to traditional business system alignments

Abstract

Cloud computing initiatives support multinational corporations in optimizing resource utilisation and at the same time provide ubiquitous capacity to satisfy expectations of users within it. However, research carried out in the early 1990s demonstrated consequences when there were mismatches between business and IT strategies. The advent of utility computing through cloud based resource development seems to have altered both the perception of IT resources as well as the expectations of their use. In this paper by using a resource based view of cloud computing we examine the nature of unique capacity development in multinational organisations. Evidence for the research was gathered through interviews conducted in two well-known multinational companies in the oil and natural gas and the car manufacturing sectors respectively. The lessons drawn in this research is likely to be beneficial for organizations implementing Cloud based solutions.