Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) is increasingly asserted as the technology with the potential to change the way internet and information systems are being utilized into business enterprises. It is rapidly changing the landscape of technology, and ultimately turning the long-held promise of utility computing into a reality. Nevertheless, utilizing MCC is never a trivial task, thus calling for a special approach to get the benefits, reduce risks and control operations. The main objective of this chapter is to provide some specific guidelines to provide governance directions to align MCC into enterprise strategy and reduce risks resulted from utilizing middle circle providers; In this context, this chapter also promote and discuss some ethics that help client enterprises and MCC providers understand roles and obligations in an ever changing environment.
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Mobile and Cloud Computing represents the network of business platforms (Baya, Mathaisel, & Parker, 2010) as a new way to conceptualize and manage the integration between business and technology, actually there is no universal way to measure business technology alignment in literature (HBR, 2011; De Haes & Grembergen, 2009), however risk and governance are gaining more space to reshape the cloud era. Major associated dimensions can be identified in literature, these being technology, governance, risk management, social, mobile and cloud computing, all are evolving with plenty of research dedicated to each topic individually or bi-combined with another (Aven, 2008; Ackermann, 2012; Goranson, 1999). “Digital transformation occurs when the physical and digital works, join forces” (Shelton, 2013), nowadays more research are correlating these topics.
“The miniature nature and resources limitations of smart mobile devices, crave for lightweight efficient distributed application framework with minimum possible resource consumption and maximum possible throughput” (Kant & Ruchi, 2014) this promotes the move into utility model of computing where “an application can start small and grow to be enormous overnight. This democratization of computing means that any application has the potential to scale, and that even the smallest seed planted in the cloud may be a giant.” (Sosinsky, 2011). Today “The whole concept of enterprise mobility is one that concerns employees and consumers at every level.” (Campagna, Lyer, & Krishnan, 2013).