By Victor Chang, Gary Wills and David De Roure
This paper reviews current cloud computing business models and presents proposals on how organisations can achieve sustainability by adopting appropriate models.
Using the Jericho Forum's Cloud Cube Model (CCM), we classify cloud computing business models into eight types: (1) Service Provider and Service Orientation; (2) Support and Services Contracts; (3) In-House Private Clouds; (4) All-In-One Enterprise Cloud; (5) One-Stop Resources and Services; (6) Government funding; (7) Venture Capitals; and (8) Entertainment and Social Networking.
We newly propose the Hexagon Model that includes six key elements for sustainability based on Sun Tzu's Art of War and literature review, and the sixth factor is rated based on case studies and peer reviews. Areas occupied in the Hexagon can represent strengths and weaknesses of a cloud business, and several cases are presented with rationale explained. Apart from the qualitative approach, the quantitative approach we use is the Capital Asset Pricing Model and Modern Portfolio Theory, both of which aim computing organisational sustainability and predict how well an organisation can perform.
We also present Finance clouds where Monte Carlo Methods (MCM) and Black Scholes Model (BSM) have been used to achieve portability, speed, accuracy and reliability from desktop to clouds. We have presented Storage for Health clouds, which have been in services. We also demonstrate how lessons learned in the Health Cloud are useful for Finance Clouds. Cloud computing indeed can provide exciting business models and use cases in different sectors.
