Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Dominant Business Model Patterns of Regional IaaS Providers – An Exploratory Multiple-Case Study

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Economics of Grids, Clouds, Systems, and Services (GECON 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCCN,volume 11819))

Abstract

The fast growing worldwide market for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) has long been increasingly dominated by the few globally acting hyper-scalers. In turn, the market share and number of small and medium-sized regional IaaS providers have been declining over the past years. This battle for market shares has, however, been astonishingly widely neglected in research. The goal of this paper is therefore to identify and analyze the dominant business model patterns of regional IaaS providers in Germany and compare them regarding their long-term survival prospects. Based on an exploratory multiple-case study with 18 successful regional IaaS providers, two dominant business model patterns were identified: Whereas customizers consciously pursue a busi-ness model being considerably different from the hyperscalers by particularly addressing the discrepancy between the hyperscalers’ standardized offerings and more individual customer requirements, superscalers exhibit several similarities with the hyperscalers and thus act in direct competition. Due to a missing unique selling proposition, except the guaranteed sole data storage in Germany, but at a higher price, superscalers might fall victim to the market consolidation significantly stronger. While scholars obtain a first classification schema of regional IaaS providers which opens up fruitful areas for future research, practitioners get inspirations for their business model innovation process.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Mell, P., Grance, T.: The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing. NIST (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Costello, K.: Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud Revenue to Grow 17.5 Percent in 2019. Gartner (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Floerecke, S., Lehner, F.: Success-driving business model characteristics of IaaS and PaaS providers. Int. J. Cloud Comput.: Serv. Arch. (IJCCSA) 8(6), 1–22 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Costello, K., Hippold, S.: Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud Revenue to Grow 17.3 Percent in 2019. Gartner (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Herzfeldt, A., Floerecke, S., Ertl, C., Krcmar, H.: Examining the antecedents of cloud service profitability. Int. J. Cloud Appl. Comput. (IJCAC) 9(4), 37–65 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Statista: Vendor Share of the Public Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Market Worldwide from 2015 to 2017. Statista (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  7. ISG: ISG Provider Lens Germany 2019 – Cloud Transformation/Operation Services & XaaS. ISG (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Floerecke, S., Lehner, F.: Business model characteristics for local IaaS providers for counteracting the dominance of the hyperscalers. In: 15th International Conference on Economics of Grids, Clouds, Systems, and Services, Pisa, Italy (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Bruhn, M.: Commodities im Dienstleistungsbereich: Besonderheiten und Implikationen für das Marketing. In: Enke, M., Geigenmüller, A. (eds.) Commodity Marketing: Grundlagen – Besonderheiten – Erfahrungen, pp. 58–77. Gabler, Wiesbaden (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8349-6388-8_3

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Labes, S., Hanner, N., Zarnekow, R.: Successfull business model types of cloud providers. Bus. Inf. Syst. Eng. 59(4), 223–233 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Floerecke, S.: Success factors of SaaS providers’ business models – an exploratory multiple-case study. In: 9th International Conference on Exploring Service Science, Karlsruhe, Germany (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Yin, R.K.: Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y.: Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Wiley, New Jersey (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Madhavaiah, C., Bashir, I., Shafi, S.I.: Defining cloud computing in business perspective: a review of research. Vis.: J. Bus. Perspect. 16(3), 163–173 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Marston, S., Li, Z., Bandyopadhyay, S., Zhang, J., Ghalsasi, A.: Cloud computing – the business perspective. Decis. Support Syst. 51(1), 176–189 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Armbrust, M., Fox, A., Griffith, R., Joseph, A.D., Katz, R., Konwinski, A., Zaharia, M.: A view of cloud computing. Commun. ACM 53(4), 50–58 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Herzfeldt, A., Floerecke, S., Ertl, C., Krcmar, H.: The role of value facilitation regarding cloud service provider profitability in the cloud ecosystem. In: Khosrow-Pour, M. (ed.) Multidisciplinary Approaches to Service-Oriented Engineering, pp. 121–142. IGI Global, Hershey (2018)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. Senyo, P.K., Addae, E., Boateng, R.: Cloud computing research: a review of research themes, frameworks, methods and future research directions. Int. J. Inf. Manag. 38(1), 128–139 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Goyal, S., Kapoor, A., Esposito, M., Sergi, B.S.: Understanding business model – literature review of concept and trends. Int. J. Compet. 1(2), 99–118 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Veit, D., Clemens, E., Benlian, A., Buxmann, P., Hess, T., Spann, M., Kundisch, D., Leimeister, J.M.: Business models – an information systems research agenda. Bus. Inf. Syst. Eng. 56(1), 55–64 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Morris, M., Schindehutte, M., Allen, J.: The entrepreneur’s business model: toward a unified perspective. J. Bus. Res. 58(6), 726–735 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Amit, R., Zott, C.: Value creation in e-business. Strat. Manag. J. 22(6–7), 493–520 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Wirtz, B., Pistoia, A., Ullrich, S., Göttel, V.: Business models: origin, development and future research perspectives. Long Range Plan. 49(1), 36–54 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Zott, C., Amit, R.: Business model design: an activity system perspective. Long Range Plan. 43(2–3), 216–226 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Gassmann, O., Frankenberger, K., Csik, M.: Geschäftsmodelle entwickeln: 55 innovative Konzepte mit dem St. Galler Business Model Navigator. Carl Hanser, Munich (2017)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  26. Abdelkafi, N., Makhotin, S., Posselt, T.: Business model innovations for electric mobility – what can be learned from existing business model patterns? Int. J. Innov. Manag. 17(1), 1–41 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Chesbrough, H.: Business model innovation: opportunities and barriers. Long Range Plan. 43(2–3), 354–363 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Taran, Y., Nielsen, C., Montemari, M., Thomsen, P., Paolone, F.: Business model configurations: a five-V framework to map out potential innovation routes. Eur. J. Innov. Manag. 19(4), 492–527 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Labes, S., Erek, K., Zarnekow, R.: Common patterns of cloud business models. In: 19th Americas Conference on Information Systems, Chicago, Illionis, USA (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Floerecke, S., Lehner, F.: Cloud computing ecosystem model: refinement and evaluation. In: 26th European Conference on Information Systems, Istanbul, Turkey (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Statista: Revenues from Public Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Market Worldwide from 2015 to 2017, by Vendor (in Million U.S. Dollars). Statista (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Benbasat, I., Goldstein, D.K., Mead, M.: The case research strategy in studies of information systems. Manag. Inf. Syst. Q. 11(3), 369–386 (1987)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Mendelson, H.: Organizational architecture and success in the information technology industry. Manag. Sci. 46(4), 513–529 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Corbridge, C., Rugg, G., Major, N.P., Shadbolt, N.R., Burton, A.M.: Laddering: technique and tool use in knowledge acquisition. Knowl. Acquis. 6(3), 315–341 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Mayring, P.: Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse: Grundlagen und Techniken. Beltz, Weinheim (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Bitkom: 82.000 freie Jobs: IT-Fachkräftemangel spitzt sich zu. Bitkom (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Karunagaran, S., Mathew, S., Lehner, F.: Differential adoption of cloud technology: a multiple case study of large firms and SMEs. In: 37th International Conference on Information Systems, Dublin, Ireland (2016)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Information Systems (Information and IT Service Management), University of Passau, Passau, Germany

    Sebastian Floerecke & Franz Lehner

Authors
  1. Sebastian Floerecke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Franz Lehner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sebastian Floerecke .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Karim Djemame

  2. Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

    Jörn Altmann

  3. University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    José Ángel Bañares

  4. Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Orna Agmon Ben-Yehuda

  5. LUMSA University, Rome, Italy

    Maurizio Naldi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Floerecke, S., Lehner, F. (2019). Dominant Business Model Patterns of Regional IaaS Providers – An Exploratory Multiple-Case Study. In: Djemame, K., Altmann, J., Bañares, J., Agmon Ben-Yehuda, O., Naldi, M. (eds) Economics of Grids, Clouds, Systems, and Services. GECON 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11819. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36027-6_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36027-6_12

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-36026-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-36027-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation