Disrupt the Disruptor: A Theoretical Approach of Cloud Computing on IT Outsourcing Industry Disruption

Despite the abundant academic discussion of the characteristics of cloud computing and its associated adoption to challenge current IT outsourcing industry, there is still uncertainty for executives to make the sound strategic decision in prioritizing cloud computing as an appropriate model for next generation IT outsourcing solution. In this paper, a new theoretical perspective from disruptive innovation theory has been integrated for addressing the observed emerging industrial paradigmshift -- cloud computing adoption on IT outsourcing industry disruption. By reviewing the state of cloud computing service from technical and social impact research and the status for IT outsourcing industry study, this paper seeks to address the knowledge gap of cloud computing enabled IT outsourcing disruption by synthesizing the academic discussion. It offers a roadmap of past IT outsourcing industry, cloud computing research and future IT operation implication. Inspired by the disruptive innovation analysis of cloud computing from a variety of service models, including IaaS, SaaS and PaaS, the author have identified a number of emerging challenges for IT outsourcing industry and laid the theoretical foundation for future research in this domain. Finally, in addition to theoretical contributions, the scenario-specific practical implication has been presented as managerial "take-away" for both industry incumbent and entrant.