Cloud computing is cementing its presence in IT strategies and CIOs’ priorities across industries. Companies have been heavily adopting different cloud services and integrating them into their IT portfolios. Meanwhile, research has been striving to understand, articulate, and explore the cloud ecosystem. Using 13 expert interviews and 3 case studies, and while applying transaction costs theories, this research contributes to the explicitness of cloud computing. This paper introduces a new concept, that should be added to existing cloud computing ontologies: Meta-Services. The paper provides a working definition for cloud Meta-Services and explains their inter-relationships with other cloud services and available ontologies. It also discusses four examples of Meta-Services that emerge during the cloud adoption journey. This discussion and conceptualization of Meta-Services will help cloud customers make more informed decisions about their entire cloud adoption journey. It will also help cloud providers make more realistic promises to their customers.