A revised model of the cloud computing ecosystem

Abstract

Cloud computing breaks up the traditional value chain of IT provisioning and leads to new roles of market players acting in the ecosystem. Although there exist few publications on modeling the cloud computing ecosystem, each contains a different number and various types of roles. The goal of this research paper is, therefore, to perform a comparative analysis of the dominating cloud computing ecosystem models in order to develop a revised, more comprehensive model. After having excluded several roles assessed as being irrelevant and included the findings of eight interviews with experts from cloud computing service providers, the Passau Cloud Computing Ecosystem Model (PaCE Model) comprises 18 roles. This model serves as a basis to investigate whether each role can actually be covered by real actors and which typical role clusters prevail in practice. Practitioners can gain a deeper understanding of the ecosystem’s complexity and recognize where they are situated and how they are related to each other.