New technological trajectories and research directions in Cloud Computing Technology, 2004-2021

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the evolution of cloud computing from 2004 to 2021, highlighting key technological trends like IoT and virtual machines, and discusses factors influencing its adoption and societal impact.

Contribution

It applies entity linking to identify main research trends and reveals the competitive technological landscape shaping cloud computing's evolution.

Findings

IoT research has accelerated significantly.

Virtual machines and optimization are critical to cloud evolution.

Implementation requires skill development and organizational change.

Abstract

The goal of this study is to explore emerging trends in cloud computing technology that can support an economic and social change. We apply the methods of entity linking, which links word strings to entities from a knowledge base, to extract main keywords in cloud computing from accumulated publications from 2004 to 2021. Results suggest that in cloud computing research, Internet of things has an accelerated technological and scientific growth compared to the other topics. Other critical research fields that support the evolution of cloud computing are mathematical optimization and virtual machine. These findings reveal a technological competition between Cloud systems infrastructure, hardware development side, and computing and software development to play the main role in technological evolution of Cloud Computing. Moreover, this study shows that technological development of virtual machines and computing device can be of critical importance to foster an economic and technological change in many sectors. However, the implementation of cloud computing has to be supported by skill development, organizational change, and adopter engagement, to foster the management and the diffusion of cloud technologies and the exploitation of cloud-based infrastructures for competitive advantage of firms in fast-changing markets. This study can provide main information to extend the knowledge having theoretical implications to explain characteristics of the evolution of science and technology in this field of research and practical implications of innovation management for the appropriate allocation of resources towards new technological trajectories in cloud computing having a potential of growth and beneficial impact in society.