eThesis - Kauppakorkeakoulun sähköiset gradut

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The purpose of the study was to explore financial aspects of cloud computing business models from information technology (IT) services provider’s perspective. The financial aspects were divided into revenue model and related pricing mechanisms and cost structure and related cost accounting mechanisms according to business model ontology.

Cloud computing is a new computing paradigm and the latest megatrend in IT industry developed as a result of the convergence of numerous new and existing technologies. It is characterized by provision of rapidly scalable and measurable IT capabilities as a service on on-demand and self-service basis over the network from common resource pool.

The study was carried out as a single case study in a global company offering IT services for large enterprises and public organizations and currently preparing to introduce its own cloud services. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers of the case company for exploring the financial aspects of cloud services. Qualitative data analysis was employed for processing and summarizing the findings.

Findings of the study suggested that each cloud service should have a distinct business model. The business model is a mediating construct that translates the new technology to the service’s value proposition. The business model also defines appropriate pricing and cost accounting mechanism for a service. The business models are based on services provider’s position in cloud computing value chain. A cloud computing business logic framework was created to illustrate the interaction between the value chain, business models and its elements.

The key cost types of services do not necessarily change much with cloud computing. Cloud computing has still potential to significantly reduce services provider’s costs through reengineering of production architecture. A cloud computing cost accounting model was created to illustrate how production costs should be aggregated and distributed.

Pricing of services changes with cloud computing and pay per use and subscription-based pricing mechanisms are most typical for cloud services. The pricing should be based on customer’s perceived value instead of production costs of services. A generic cloud computing pricing mechanism that combines pay per use and subscription mechanisms was created to better balance risk sharing between services provider and customer.

The main contributions of the study were the establishment of services provider focus in cloud computing literature and discussion of financial aspects of cloud computing.