eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

Abstract This research report focuses on cloud computing. Cloud computing is considered a revolutionary change in information technology industry. Cloud computing can simply be defined as applications, data storage and computation power as services over the Internet. In practice, cloud computing represents a shift away from on-premise computing to on-demand computing and utilization of large-scale data centers. Users consume these Internet-based services at the time, in the location, and in the quantity wished, and with costs based only on resources used. Cloud computing has been a hot topic during the last few years in information technology. It has been predicted to reshape the whole value chain in the information technology industry. The study describes characteristics of cloud computing from the business perspective. The literature of the study is based on studies from entrepreneurship, innovation, business models, value chains and value networks. In particular, the study relates to business models and value networks in cloud computing. As value creation is the core element of a business model and as in cloud computing value is created in network structures, analyzing business models from a value network perspective was utmost importance. This research is conducted as a qualitative single case study. The purpose of this study was to construct and analyze the case company Gapps Oy’s business model and value chain. Three industry level specialists in cloud computing as well as two case company chief directors were interviewed. The interviews were carried out as semi-structured thematic interviews. Inductive content analysis was used in analyzing the data. Additional empirical data was also collected, mainly relating to cloud computing literature. The research findings of this study conclude that case company Gapps Oy is by nature a professional service business firm. It creates value by operating as an enabler in the Google ecosystem. In cloud computing value is commonly co-created by a combination of different actors in the value network. From the perspective of value creation Gapps Oy creates value when its customers are willing to outsource the deployment of Google tools for an authorized operator. Keywords cloud computing, business model, value network Aalto