On the industrialized infrastructure utility market, an asset company attempts to differentiate itself on the basis of the provided service quality, while a service company is able to dissolve the dependency of its customers on an infrastructure provider. A sales company focusing on distribution is concerned with its ability to cover its customers’ needs for equipment and capacity ideally.

On the differentiated software universe market, in contrast, an asset company seeks to realize a high rate of innovations so that it can acquire a large number of users for its products. A service company reduces the complexity of the many interfaces between cloud-based application modules as an approach to convince potential customers of its value. The distribution of cloud-based applications, whether horizontally as an “AppStore” or vertically as a customization for an industry, is more or less open to every company that wants to expand its core business by adding IT-based services.

It is obvious that these differentiation approaches do not fall in the categories “fast” and “cheap”. On the contrary, they answer exactly those questions which were identified at the beginning of the article as the shortcomings of current cloud computing services. Voilà, at the end of the day, the restructuring of market and business models generates the additional values necessary for broad acceptance. So here are the prospects for the future shape of cloud computing.

The new cloud computing – vision of the future or reality?

When cloud computing becomes usable as a component of complex IT environments in companies, it will pose new ­questions for the people in charge of IT. During what time frame will the changes take place? How can the benefits of debundled services be realized?

Current developments give the answers to these questions and an orientation aid about the time periods. The company Right­Scale (http://www.rightscale.com) can be taken as an example of the changes which are occurring. The RightScale platform allows its users to initiate productive use and administration of applications across a number of different clouds. By relying on various cloud providers, RightScale supports the operation of IT systems on third-party infrastructures – corresponding to a service company on the infrastructure utility market.