The Deutsche Post DHL has also adapted cloud computing as a complementary business model. The logistics corporation will in the future offer its business customers a CRM system as a cloud computing service (http://www.dp-dhl.com/de/presse/pressemitteilungen/2010/microsoft_deutsche_post_crm_loesung.html) and position itself as a distribution channel in a limited industrial segment – or, in other words, as a sales company on a software universe market.

Similar to these two examples, companies are already positioning themselves today for all six of the future business models. The examples are at this time still isolated cases, to be evaluated in a wider sense as trends. But they strongly indicate that a change in the market, its business models, and the provider landscape is even today a genuine option and not just a vision of a far-off time.

A highly promising scenario is being created for companies as users of IT services. In addition to the reduction of costs and provision times, the differentiation of the cloud computing market is opening up a new class of added value: from the unrestricted selection of the infrastructure to the outsourcing of complex data and application integration to the expansion of companies’ own value generation, cloud computing is proving to be multi-talented – and is justifying the present euphoria.