The Impact of Cultural Differences on Cloud Computing Ecosystems in US and China

Cloud computing is the next hype in the IT world. U.S. and China is considered among the most powerful countries in the world, not only in general, but also in cloud computing. However, the cloud computing ecosystems in U.S. and China are developing drastically different as a result of cultural differences between the two countries. It is important for businesses and investors to understand the cultural differences, dominant players, and different cloud evolution paths to make right investment decisions in the cloud in these two different environments. In this paper, we categorize functionalities in cloud computing service and compare structural differences in U.S. and China. Our results indicate that cultural differences between these two major players determine the power distribution among cloud functionalities. Storage and processing service providers such as Microsoft and Google dominate the cloud architecture in U.S., but in China could computing service is owned by organizations that provide the network.