Factors in Cloud Computing Adoption

Abstract: Many organizations today are striving to gain competitive advantages and work efficiently in the demanding market through the adoption of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) solutions such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Management), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), and Business Analytics Systems. However, these Information Technology (IT) solutions can be quite expensive for small organizations (Misra and Mondal, 2011; Benlian and Hess, 2011). On the other hand, small organizations are trying to contend with large enterprises yet lack the capital to invest in ICT solutions (Wei, 2009). Cloud Computing can play a major role in this area as it helps organizations to use these solutions in a cost effective and affordable manner. Due to the fact that Cloud Computing is a fairly new technology, enterprises are either oblivious to its existence or lack confidence in its capabilities and solutions. During the conduction of this thesis we discover the factors organizations to consider prior to the adoption of the Cloud Computing solution while assigning each with its relevant level of significance only in relation to small organizations. The factors presented will be important to be noted as it is concluded that Cloud Computing is rather suitable for small organizations.