| Abstract: |
The digital transformation from product to service economy means changes in the companies’ operating environment: they need to transform into service providers from product providers and be able to flexibly change their role in the value chain and markets. To be able to foster the change, the companies’ IT infrastructure needs to be more flexible. Cloud services enable this to some degree, but as such create dependency to external partners for a company.Existing cloud services shall be made available dynamically, broadly and cross border, so that software providers can re-use and combine cloud services, assembling a dynamic and re-configurable network of interoperable, legal compliant, quality assessed (against SLAs) single and composite cloud services. A viable intermediator and federator of cloud services Broker can make it less expensive, easier, safer (also in legal terms), interoperable and more productive for companies to discover, aggregate, consume and extend cloud services, particularly when they span multiple, diverse cloud services providers in different EU Member States. |