Communications of the ACM

Home/Magazine Archive/April 2010 (Vol. 53, No. 4)/Cloud Computing and SaaS as New Computing Platforms/Abstract

Technology strategy and management

Cloud Computing and SaaS as New Computing Platforms

By Michael Cusumano
Communications of the ACM, April 2010, Vol. 53 No. 4, Pages 27-29
10.1145/1721654.1721667
Comments (1)

View as: Print Mobile App ACM Digital Library In the Digital Edition Share:

jet-pack user exiting computer screen — Credit: Richard MIa

To become an industry platform, vendors must open their infrastructure technology to other product companies.

The full text of this article is premium content

Comments

CACM Administrator

June 06, 2014 11:56

The following letter was published in the Letters to the Editor in the July 2010 CACM (http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2010/7/95049).
--CACM Administrator

Describing the network effects of a cloud strategy, particularly when it involves SaaS platform efficiency, in his "Technology Strategy and Management" Viewpoint "Cloud Computing and SaaS as New Computing Platforms" (Apr. 2010), Michael Cusumano said that major cloud hosts, including Amazon, Google, and Salesforce, generally rely on detailed SLAs to guarantee security and other parameters for their hosted customers. However, many such hosts, including Amazon SimpleDB and Google Apps, agree to SLAs involving only, perhaps, performance degradation limits and availability of a given service. If cloud-related SLAs fail to include more specific parameters, the cloud infrastructure risks closing itself to new, innovative services due to its lack of dependable guarantees.

Burkhard Stiller and Guilherme Machado
Zrich, Switzerland

Displaying 1 comment

Log in to Read the Full Article

Sign In

Sign in using your ACM Web Account username and password to access premium content if you are an ACM member, Communications subscriber or Digital Library subscriber.

Need Access?

Please select one of the options below for access to premium content and features.

Create a Web Account

If you are already an ACM member, Communications subscriber, or Digital Library subscriber, please set up a web account to access premium content on this site.

Join the ACM

Become a member to take full advantage of ACM's outstanding computing information resources, networking opportunities, and other benefits.

Subscribe to Communications of the ACM Magazine

Get full access to 50+ years of CACM content and receive the print version of the magazine monthly.

Purchase the Article

Non-members can purchase this article or a copy of the magazine in which it appears.