Case Study Title: Fintech: Choosing a Cloud Services Provider Authors: Clinton Daniel, and Janis Gogan Publication Date: 2018 Main Learning Objectives . Consider technical, economic, operational and strategic factors when making mission-critical decisions involving new IT initiatives (such as, in this case, moving a customer-facing service to the cloud). . Recognize that cloud services fall on a continuum, including end-user facing Saas cloud applications (e.g., gmail, Dropbox) and those used by/delivered in cooperation with IT professionals (laaS, PaaS) . Evaluate a vendor selection process and offer suggestions for improvements. . Consider contractual and relationship issues in working with a new software or hardware vendor on a development or implementation project (introduction to vendor management) Suggested Readings to Accompany the Case 1.McAfee, A. What Every CEO Needs to Know about the Cloud, Harvard Business Review, November, 2011. We continue to assign this in Strategic IT Management. When a more-recent similarly strong practitioner article is published, we recommend replacing this one. 2. The case quotes a January 2016 CIO article by Thor Olavsrud (Eleven Cloud Trends that will Dominate 2016"), which, paired with the McAfee article, helps students recognize current cloud opportunities and challenges. It does not provide a tutorial on advantages and challenges of cloud computing (which the McAfee article does). http://www.cio.com/article/3026527/cloud-computing/11-cloud-trends-that-will- dominate-2016.html 3.Froehlich, A., "Eight Cloud Computing Predictions for 2016." Information Week (12/23/2015). This short online annotated slide show, also noted in the case, can also be assigned: http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/infrastructure-as-a-service/8-cloud-computing-predictions- for- 2016/d/d-id/1323598?image_number=1