Will cloud computing make the Information Technology (IT) department obsolete?

Abstract

The rapid adoption and growth of cloud computing is creating unprecedented change in the manner in which IT services are procured, managed, and deployed. Cloud computing is forcing firms to rethink traditional IT governance practices while raising new and fundamental questions for scholars and practitioners. This paper identifies the major areas of change and highlights governance issues that arise with the adoption of cloud computing. The focus of this paper is on the organizational impact on IT governance under cloud computing. The paper posits (1) that successful IT departments under cloud computing will transform into new roles that address internal customer‐facing issues and external cloud‐facing issues, (2) firms that mitigate information asymmetry under cloud computing will show higher firm performance, and (3) firms that offer superior cloud‐sourced IT service attributes of internal prices, quality, variety, and competition in the cloud will show higher firm performance.

Dynamic capabilities triggered by cloud sourcing: a stage-based model of business model innovation

“…The introduction of cloud computing (Schneider and Sunyaev 2016) and cloud sourcing (Muhic and Johansson 2014;Willcocks et al 2013a, b) represent a potentially important option to not only simplify the outsourcing of IT elements but more importantly to develop strategic innovation capabilities in order to strengthen the firm's competitive advantage (Legner et al 2017;Willcocks et al 2013b). However, given the historic technology focus of the IT-function, the traditional role as an internal service provider and the separation between the IT-department and business departments (Legner et al 2017;Vithayathil 2018) the potential of cloud sourcing to become a driver of strategic innovation remains problematic and challenging (Vithayathil 2018).…”

“…Secondly, most firms with traditional IT-function and traditional outsourcing lack the capability to innovate business models (Willcocks et al 2013a, b). Thirdly, traditional IT-sourcing typically means a 1:1 relationship between the client and vendor (Vithayathil 2018), while cloud sourcing involves an arrangement of several cloud provider firms (cloud broker, cloud provider, cloud sub provider, IT-consultant firms), requiring a capability from the cloud sourcing firm to interact with and manage an eco-system of cloud provider firms (Willcocks et al 2013a, b).…”

Establishing and theorising data analytics governance: a descriptive framework and a VSM-based view

“…However, the continuous adoption and growth of digital technology within organisations impacts the governance of IT, and reinforces the need to revisit IT governance research to improve organisational agility and provide a more inclusive view of the IT artefact (Gregory et al, 2018). Thus, scholars also increasingly focused on other, more specific, issues such as the governance of cloud computing (e.g., Choudhary & Vithayathil, 2013;Vithayathil, 2018;Winkler & Brown, 2013)), the governance of service-oriented architectures (Joachim et al, 2013), and the governance of information (Tallon et al, 2013).…”

Shifting baselines in information systems research threaten our future relevance

“…In the third paper, Vithayathil (2018) raises questions about the future of the traditional IT department given the rapid adoption and growth of cloud computing. He notes that while cloud computing could do away with the IT department, in practice it is more likely that the IT department will be transformed.…”