Designing a risk-based partner selection process for collaborative cloud computing environments

Abstract

Cloud Computing represents a shift in technology and IT (information technology) service management and it opens up possibilities to build new organizational configurations. As in IT outsourcing, the selection of the right partner/vendor is of crucial importance. Thus, in this article we present a partner selection process for four Cloud Computing Environments: public cloud, community cloud, cloud chain and industrial cloud. We included data sensitivity and the risk attitude of the decision maker as major decision factors for partner selection. The constructed IT artifact (i.e. partner selection process) is evaluated by means of a conceptual evaluation (expert interviews) that demonstrates the applicability of the selection process.