Cloud Computing Tipping Point Model

Abstract

Recently a continuing trend toward IT
industrialization has grown in popularity. IT services delivered
via hardware, software and people are becoming repeatable
and usable by a wide range of customers and service providers.
This is due, in part, to the commoditization and standardization
of technologies, virtualization and the rise of service-oriented
software architectures, and (most importantly) the dramatic
growth in popularity/use of the Internet and the Web. Taken
together, they constitute the basis of a discontinuity that amounts
to a new opportunity to shape the relationship between those who
use IT services and those who sell them. The discontinuity implies
that the ability to deliver specialised services in IT can be paired
with the ability to deliver those services in an industrialised and
pervasive way. The reality of this implication is that users of ITrelated
services can focus on what the services provide them, rather
than how the services are implemented or hosted. Analogous to
how utility companies sell power to subscribers, and telephone
companies sell voice and data services, some IT services such
as network security management, data centre hosting or even
departmental billing can now be easily delivered as a contractual
service. This notion of cloud computing capability is gathering
momentum rapidly. However, the governance and enterprise
architecture to obtain repeatable, scalable and secure business
outcomes from cloud computing is still greatly undefined.
This paper attempts to evaluate the enterprise architecture
features of cloud computing and investigates a model that an IT
organisation can leverage to predict / evaluate the ‘tipping point’
where an organisation can make an objective decision to invest
in cloud computing. Current research results are attempting to
build a quantitative and qualitative service centric framework
by mapping cloud computing features with ValIT and COBIT
industry best practices.