• How can the dependency on suppliers be eliminated?

• How can the complexity of the interfaces be reduced?

• How can IT prepare the way for new business ideas?

• How can the service quality of the applications be improved?

• How can the rate of innovation be accelerated?

• How precisely can capacities be planned?

The questions raised above cannot be weighted by a uniform ranking because the IT strategy and orientation must be designed in accordance with the specific business requirements for every single company (J. Henderson, N. Venkatraman: Strategic Alignment: Leveraging Information Technology for Transforming Organizations, IBM Systems Journal 32, 1993 ;  P. Coleman, P., R. Papp: Strategic alignment: analysis of perspectives,Proceedings of the 2006 Southern Association for InformationSystems Conference, 2006). However, an analysis of the cloud computing services being offered today leads to the conclusion that some of the issues are being influenced in the wrong direction. Just one example: an extensive use of applications as cloud computing services (software as a service, SaaS) increases the complexity of the interfaces. After all, the software systems being used here are highly standardized and permit only a loose, asynchronous coupling via the Internet. The utilization of an infrastructure cloud (infrastructure as a service, IaaS) is concomitant with an undesirable bond to the particular service provider as well as a step back in terms of the quality of service. The innovative strength of the IT is also put to the test when large companies attempt to amortize the high investments of a global cloud computing service by means of a closed architecture.

So will cloud computing be denied the lucrative entry into the IT of corporations and companies? Indeed, will the lack of adaptability cause the business model as a whole to fail?

Since the existing restrictions do not have their origin in the technologies, cloud computing will not suffer the same fate as application service provisioning or utility computing. Instead, there will be a process of differentiation which will break up the integrated cloud computing market of today and transform it in two orthogonal directions of development.

Splitting into two markets: infrastructure utility versus software universe

In the first line of evolution, providers will be pressured more and more to orient their services to either mass production or specialization. The “as a service” paradigm which momentarily acts as a bracket to hold together the undivided cloud computing market will no longer be able to withstand the opposing forces of scaling effects on the one side and diversification on the other.