22
2.1
IntroductIon
Since the 1990s, outsourcing information systems has been a staple of
business strategists. They argue that firms should focus on their core competencies and outsource all other activities to optimise resource allocation
(Lambert and Peppard 2013). The emergence of what the International
Data Corporation (IDC 2013) term the ‘Third IT Platform’ comprising
cloud computing, social media, mobile and big data/analytics technologies has accelerated the outsourcing of critical information systems.
Cloud computing has emerged as the dominant computing paradigm
of the twenty-first century. It is defined as a “a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released
with minimal management effort or service provider interaction” (Mell
and Grance 2011, p. 2). Enterprise cloud IT expenditure consistently
exceeds non-cloud expenditure for enterprises of all sizes (IDC 2020).
Despite the ubiquity of cloud computing, a small number of hyperscale
cloud service providers (CSPs) dominate the public cloud market. In
2018, five companies accounted for nearly 77% of the global Infrastructureas-a- Service (IaaS) market—Amazon, Alibaba, Google, IBM, and
Microsoft (Gartner 2019). As cloud computing is the basis of the Internet,
including most social networking sites, search engines, and mobile applications, over 3.6 billion Internet users rely on cloud computing for one or
more services. For firms, the benefits of increased IT efficiencies, agility,
and scalability (both up and down) must be weighed against the risks that
these technologies pose to firm performance, relationships, and compliance (Lynn and Rosati 2017). Similarly, for individuals, they must weigh
up the utility of the functionality they receive from the applications that
they subscribe to, and the risk to their data privacy.
For the most part, cloud computing contracts are standard form and
click-wrap in nature, with only the largest corporate and government customers in a position to negotiate tailored terms and conditions (Bradshaw
et al. 2013). As part of this click-wrap procedure and before payment,
prospective clients are typically presented with either (1) a scrollable agreement, or (2) a link to a webpage or downloadable agreement, based on
the specific cloud service and configuration that they have selected. They
are encouraged to review the text of the agreement, and asked to communicate assent to the terms and conditions by clicking on an interactive
‘I agree’ button. For the overwhelming majority of CSP clients, these
T. LYNN
2.1
IntroductIon
Since the 1990s, outsourcing information systems has been a staple of
business strategists. They argue that firms should focus on their core competencies and outsource all other activities to optimise resource allocation
(Lambert and Peppard 2013). The emergence of what the International
Data Corporation (IDC 2013) term the ‘Third IT Platform’ comprising
cloud computing, social media, mobile and big data/analytics technologies has accelerated the outsourcing of critical information systems.
Cloud computing has emerged as the dominant computing paradigm
of the twenty-first century. It is defined as a “a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released
with minimal management effort or service provider interaction” (Mell
and Grance 2011, p. 2). Enterprise cloud IT expenditure consistently
exceeds non-cloud expenditure for enterprises of all sizes (IDC 2020).
Despite the ubiquity of cloud computing, a small number of hyperscale
cloud service providers (CSPs) dominate the public cloud market. In
2018, five companies accounted for nearly 77% of the global Infrastructureas-a- Service (IaaS) market—Amazon, Alibaba, Google, IBM, and
Microsoft (Gartner 2019). As cloud computing is the basis of the Internet,
including most social networking sites, search engines, and mobile applications, over 3.6 billion Internet users rely on cloud computing for one or
more services. For firms, the benefits of increased IT efficiencies, agility,
and scalability (both up and down) must be weighed against the risks that
these technologies pose to firm performance, relationships, and compliance (Lynn and Rosati 2017). Similarly, for individuals, they must weigh
up the utility of the functionality they receive from the applications that
they subscribe to, and the risk to their data privacy.
For the most part, cloud computing contracts are standard form and
click-wrap in nature, with only the largest corporate and government customers in a position to negotiate tailored terms and conditions (Bradshaw
et al. 2013). As part of this click-wrap procedure and before payment,
prospective clients are typically presented with either (1) a scrollable agreement, or (2) a link to a webpage or downloadable agreement, based on
the specific cloud service and configuration that they have selected. They
are encouraged to review the text of the agreement, and asked to communicate assent to the terms and conditions by clicking on an interactive
‘I agree’ button. For the overwhelming majority of CSP clients, these
T. LYNN