Cloudonomics: The Business Value of Cloud Computing, + Website

Summary

End-to-end linkages exist beginning with business goals and objectives which—based on competencies, competitive positioning, regulatory constraints, and the like—drive business strategy, which is enabled by a business system that may incorporate information technology, which may be partly or completely delivered via the cloud. These linkages are important, because an action or capability can be evaluated only in the context of a strategy. As seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza observed, “[M]usic is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.”56 Different competitors can—and must—pursue unique strategies to carve out sustainable niches within that industry competitive ecosystem, just as, for example, Hyundai, Toyota, Ford, Lamborghini, and Tesla have implemented different strategies to participate in the same market.

The cloud may sometimes be a commodity, it may sometimes merely be a tactical means of cost reduction or scalability, but at its best, it may well be a source of strategic competitive advantage, whether due to many small things done well or larger-scale initiatives focused on customer intimacy, product differentiation, operational excellence, or the innovation cycles that drive them.