台灣電信業者經營雲端運算服務之關鍵成功因素探討

Abstract

近年來雲端運算已成為資訊和通訊(ICT)產業的新潮流，這項技術演進將對於產業結構產生重大影響，企業若無法正確因應，將可能面臨嚴厲的挑戰。台灣大型的電信業者憑藉其對大型資訊中心和網路通訊管理豐富的經驗，對於提供雲端服務具有高度的興趣和信心。本研究針對其如何經營雲端運算服務的關鍵成功因素進行探討，這些關鍵成功因素可能來自客戶需求、總體環境、產業結構或企業本身等，雲端服務的供應商必須特別注意這些關鍵成功因素，以確保其立於不敗之的，進而能夠在產業的競爭環境中脫穎而出。本研究特別著重於雲端運算的基礎架構服務(IaaS)的經營方式的探討，透過資訊技術外包(ITO)和資訊系統外包(ISO)的相關文獻探討，整理出企業客戶採用ITO/ISO的誘因、疑慮和風險，以及關鍵成功因素；並依此設計出研究模型，再透過對於某台灣電信公司的IaaS服務的實際企業客戶進行問卷調查，以實證研究的方式，檢驗研究模型中的假設，嘗試找出經營雲端運算服務可能的關鍵成功因素。本研究發現讓客戶聚焦核心和取得客戶的信任感兩項因素和客戶的忠誠度具有顯著的相關性，且透過滿意度的中介效果，雲端服務系統的安全性和可靠性，以及讓客戶的IT系統營運的更有效率三項因素，也會和客戶忠誠度有顯著的相關性。另外，也透過產業結構分析、競合關係分析，台灣電信業者的優劣勢分析，以及專家訪談等方式，進行補充性的質化分析。本研究亦發現由於資源集中運用而要求的規模經濟、能夠掌握雲端服務生命週期演進趨勢、找尋並建立起優質互補者關係，以及配合政府相關輔導政策，也是台灣大型電信業者在經營雲端服務時，值得特別注意的關鍵成功因素。本研究也針對這些關鍵成功因素，提出建議的管理作為與績效度量的指標，可供有志於經營雲端基礎建設服務(IaaS)的台灣電信業者做為參考。

Recently “cloud computing” has become a new trend in the information and communication (ICT) industry and the evolution of this new technology will hugely affect the structure of ICT industry. If the companies in ICT cannot deal with this change correctly, they will face severe challenges. The large telecom companies in Taiwan have plenty of experiences in operation of Internet Data Centers (IDC) and basic telecom network management and they are also interested and confident in providing cloud-computing related services. This thesis is trying to research the key success factors (KSFs) in how to provide cloud-computing related services by them. These KSFs may come from several origins including users’ requirements, macro environments, structure of industry, or competences of companies. The cloud computing services providers must pay attention to and have good performances in these KSFs in order to ensure they will not be defeated by others and be able to create competition advantages further. This thesis especially emphasizes on the management issues of providing IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) services. By referencing and surveying the information technology outsourcing (ITO) or information system outsourcing (ISO) related articles we figure out some incentives, hesitations, risks and KSFs for companies to adopt ITO or ISO. According to these factors we design a research model and conduct a survey to test the hypotheses and try to find out possible KSFs in providing cloud computing services. The questionnaires of this survey are issued to the customers of IaaS services provided by a telecom company in Taiwan. This survey result shows that “focusing on core business” and “trust on supplier” are significantly related to “loyalty of customers” and via the mediation of “satisfaction of customers” the “system security”, “system reliability” and “operation efficiency” are also significantly related to the “loyalty of customers”. In addition we conduct a supplementary qualitative analysis including industry analysis, co-opetition analysis, SWOT analysis of Taiwan’s telecom companies and interviewing with specialists and we find out “economics of scale”, “forecasting the changing trends of life cycles of products”, ”finding the appropriate complementary partners”, and “pay attention to government’s policy” are also possible KSFs for cloud-computing service providers in Taiwan. This thesis also proposes the management conducts and performance indicators for these KSFs and they can be referenced by the telecom companies in Taiwan trying to provide cloud-computing services in the future.