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Cloud and the Diffusion of Innovation

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Moving to the Cloud Corporation

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Abstract

The First Law of Technology applies to cloud. The law says: We invariably overestimate the short-term impact of new technologies, while underestimating their long-term effects.1 In his work on the future of the Internet John Naughton makes a strong case for this law. Certainly, it is clear that if the much hyped take-off period from 1995 ended in the bursting of the ‘e-business bubble’ in 2000/01, all predictions of its impact now have to go way beyond the technology and hi-tech sectors, into widespread social, economic, indeed global impacts.2

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Notes

  1. See Naughton, J. (1999) A Brief History of The Future. The Origins of the Internet. London, Phoenix.

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  2. See also Naughton, J. (2008) ‘Thanks, Gutenberg — But We’re Too Pressed for Time to Read.’ The Observer January 27, p. 12 Business section.

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  3. As just one example see ECISM (2009) Future Internet 2020: Visions of an Industry Expert Group. Brussels, EC Information Society and Media.

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  4. Freeman, C. and Louca, F. (2001) As Time Goes By: From Industrial Revolution To Information Revolution. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

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  5. Hagel, J. and Seeley Brown, J. (2010) Cloud Computing — Storms on the Horizon. Boston, MA, Deloitte Center for the Edge.

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  6. Willcocks, L. P., Cullen, S. and Craig, A. (2011) The Outsourcing Enterprise. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

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  7. Retana, G. F., Forman, C., Narasimhan, S., Niculescu, M. F. and Wu, D. J. (2012) ‘Technical Support and IT Capacity Demand: Evidence from the Cloud.’ Thirty-third International Conference on Information Systems, Orlando, FL.

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  13. Ibid.

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  14. Greenhalgh, Glenn, MacFarlane, Bate, and Kyriakidou, op. cit.

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  15. See also Lacity, M. and Willcocks, L. (2012) Advanced Outsourcing Practice: Rethinking ITO, BPO and Cloud Services. London, Palgrave.

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  16. A recent paper shows that information technology innovations often move in packs and this seems to be the case with cloud. It is the interactions between base technology innovations, technology service innovations and technology process innovations that made Internet computing, and will make cloud, a disruptive, radical IT innovation. See Carlo, J., Lyytinen, K., and Rose, G. (2011) ‘Internet Computing as a Disruptive Technology: The Role of Strong Order Effects.’ Information Systems Journal, 21: 91–122.

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  17. Some research sees the cloud disruptive sequence being 1. new delivery models, 2. technology disruption, 3. restructuring the IT industry and 4. disruption of other industries. See Hagel and Seeley Brown, op. cit. We see technological disruption being cumulative and ongoing. Clearly cloud does introduce new delivery models, which we see as maturing over time. Here, we are particularly interested in how these delivery models will need to grow the service dimension and produce business services. Undoubtedly there is already disruption of the IT supply industry, as documented in our previous paper. In this chapter we focus on how businesses and government agencies will innovate in their practices, structures, processes, and market offerings.

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  18. Interview with Jimmy Harris, Accenture, November 2010. Quoted in Willcocks, L., Venters, W. and Whitley, E. (2011) Cloud and the Future of Business 4 — Innovation. London, Accenture/Outsourcing Unit.

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  19. Interview with Steve Beck, December 2010.

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  21. Interview with Tim Barker, SalesForce.com, November 2010. Quoted in Willcocks, Venters and Whitley, op. cit.

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  22. Interview with Mike Dino DiPetrollo, November 2010. Quoted in Willcocks, Venters and Whitley, op. cit.

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  23. See Willcocks, L. Petherbridge, P. and Olson, N. (2003) Making IT Count: Strategy, Delivery and Infrastructure, London, Palgrave, for a detailed assessment of how IT is managed and the typical problems IT functions face.

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  24. Interview with Tim Barker, SalesForce.com, op. cit.

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  25. Interview with Jim Spooner, November 2010. Quoted in Willcocks, Venters and Whitley, op. cit.

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  26. Ibid.

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  27. One famous case is of a pharmaceutical company that paid for capability with a credit card and got the results of the analysis sooner and cheaper than via a formal, in-house request to computing resources.

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  28. Interview with Jimmy Harris, op. cit.

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  29. Interview with David Leyland, Glasshouse, July 2010. Quoted in Willcocks, Venters and Whitley, op. cit.

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  30. Interview with Jimmy Harris, op. cit.

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  31. Ibid.

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  32. Ibid.

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  33. Interview with Steve Furminger, December 2010. Quoted in Willcocks, Venters and Whitley, op. cit.

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  34. Interview with Kevin Lees, November 2010. Quoted in Willcocks, Venters and Whitley, op. cit.

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  35. Interview with Jim Rivera, SalesForce.com, November 2010. Quoted in Willcocks, Venters and Whitley, op. cit.

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  36. Interview with Russell Marsh, December 2010. Quoted in Willcocks, Venters and Whitley, op. cit.

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  37. Interview with Stephanie Lester, Glasshouse, November 2012. Quoted in Willcocks, L. and Lacity, M. (2012) The Emerging IT Outsourcing Landscape: From Innovation to Cloud Services. London, Palgrave.

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  38. Interview with Jimmy Harris, op cit.

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  45. For more information on our research on the innovative management practices of particle physicists at CERN see www.pegasus.lse.ac.uk — a five-year research study of their Grid Development. Pegasus is funded by the UK EPSRC research council — Grant no. EP/D049954/1.

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  48. The examples are anonymous as at September 2013 as we were still researching the cases and seeking permissions. However, the Fortune 500 companies include two global retailers and the SMEs include a cloud-based business in the art industry. Relevant working papers can be accessed at www.outsourcingunit.org as they are published.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

    Leslie Willcocks (Professor of Technology Work and Globalization), Will Venters (Lecturer in Information Systems) & Edgar A. Whitley (Reader in Information Systems)

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  1. Leslie Willcocks
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  2. Will Venters
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  3. Edgar A. Whitley
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© 2014 Leslie Willcocks, Will Venters and Edgar A. Whitley

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Willcocks, L., Venters, W., Whitley, E.A. (2014). Cloud and the Diffusion of Innovation. In: Moving to the Cloud Corporation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137347473_6

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