Depiction of experimental findings for a cloud enterprise architecture

Research and commercial efforts are currently addressing challenges and providing solutions in cloud computing. Business models are emerging to address different use scenarios of cloud computing. In this paper, we present a virtual enterprise (VE) model of cloud computing to enable Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) to respond quickly to customers' demands and market opportunities, therefore Enabling Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises through Cloud utility Infrastructure: gaining agility and flexibility needed for business success. In our virtual enterprise model, temporary co-operations are created to realize the value of a short term business opportunity that the partner SMMEs cannot (or can, but only to a lesser extent) capture on their own. This model is based on the realization that it is not economically viable for SMMEs to acquire their own private cloud infrastructure or even subscribe to public cloud services as a single entity. The pricing model obtained from our proposed business model shows the benefits that are derived from using the VE cloud model over subscription to public cloud as a single business enterprise. The pricing structure of our VE cloud model is up to 17.82 times economical compared with equivalent Amazon EC2 instance type pricing model.