Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Architectural Control And Value Migration In Layered Ecosystems: The Case Of Open-Source Cloud Management Platforms, Richard Tee, C. Jason Woodard

C. Jason Woodard

Our paper focuses on strategic decision making in layered business ecosystems, highlighting the role of cross-layer interactions in shaping choices about product design and platform governance. Based on evidence from the cloud computing ecosystem, we analyze how concerns about architectural control and expectations regarding future value migration influence the design of product interfaces and the degree of openness to external contributions. We draw on qualitative longitudinal data to trace the development of two open-source platforms for managing cloud-based computing resources. We focus in particular on the emergence of a layered "stack" in which these platforms must compete with both vertically …