Examining cloud computing adoption intention,pricing mechanism,and deployment model

Cloud computing is a new information technology (IT) paradigm that promises to revolutionize traditional IT delivery through reduced costs, greater elasticity, and ubiquitous access. On the surface, adopting cloud computing requires a firm to address many of the same concerns they face in adopting any enterprise IT. However, cloud technologies also offer new pricing and deployment strategies that are unavailable in traditional enterprise solutions. It is unclear how previous research frameworks of enterprise IT adoption relate to these new adoption strategies. To bridge this gap in the literature, our study uses the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework of innovation diffusion theory to develop a cloud service adoption model that deals with not only adoption intention, but also pricing mechanisms and deployment models. Our research model has been empirically tested using 200 Taiwanese firms. We found that: (1) Cloud adoption is still at its initial stage, since the adoption rates are very low; (2) the perceived benefits, business concerns, and IT capability within the TOE framework are significant determinants of cloud computing adoption, while external pressure is not; (3) firms with greater IT capability tend to choose the pay-as-you-go pricing mechanism; (4) business concern is the most important factor influencing the choice of deployment model, with higher concerns leading to private deployment options.     

Cloud computing enabled business model innovation

Cloud computing's primary layer of security is its widespread adoption by businesses due to its ability to provide easy, on-demand network access to a large pool of configurable processing resources. Pressure from developed-world governments to keep up with the latest IT trends makes it challenging for colleges around the world to adopt cloud computing in engineering education. Although cloud computing as a concept has become more popular in recent times and quite a few studies have been conducted, the adoption and application level is still very low, particularly in developing countries. This study provides a realistic framework for gauging the sustainability of a company model. While digitalization is widely acknowledged to be crucial, the study's results reveal that the perceived available options for business model innovation depend not only on the value proposition itself but also on the position in the value network. The primary goal of this research is to create a cloud computing service provider business model that is built on circular economy principles and can guarantee the sustainable usage of cloud computing resources.     

A cloud computing adoption in Indian SMEs: Scale development and validation approach

The purpose of this research article is to identify the critical success criteria/factors that affect the cloud computing adoption and examine structure, reliability and validity of the criteria in the SMEs industry. This study considers nine types of criteria/factors with fifty-one sub-criteria, which have somewhat previously been used, and creates a ranking model that offers decision makers to measure the prior implementation of cloud computing adoption. A questionnaire-based survey research was used to collect data from 110 firms belonging to the SMEs industry in India. In this paper, the data collected was analysed by an integrated approach. Firstly, an Analytic Hierarchy Process approach was applied to find the significant fact of each criterion as the assessable indices of the cloud computing adoption. Secondly, an Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis were used to examine structure, reliability and validity of the criteria. The data was tabulated in a Microsoft Excel sheet and then imported in SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20) for analysis. The findings discovered that ‘Security and Privacy’, ‘Organizational Risk’, ‘Sharing and Collaboration’, ‘Confidentiality’, and ‘Integrity’ have a major effect on the adoption of cloud computing. The research was conducted in the SMEs industry in India, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. The findings and recommendations offer cloud computing service providers as well as users with a better understanding of what affects the cloud computing adoption feature, with a relevant understanding of the current scenario. The research aided in the application of the new technology of cloud computing adoption in the SMEs industry in India through the use of a wide range of criteria. The findings also help organizations study their information technology investments when applying cloud computing.     

云计算技术扩散与经济增长—基于DSGE的模型分析

云计算的出现极大颠覆了现有信息技术使用模式,其显著的成本节约效应将会大幅度降低企业的信息化门槛,从而推动工业化与信息化的深度融合,进而产生积极的宏观经济效应。然而,理论上至今还没有在这方面展开深入研究。因此,本文针对云计算能将企业信息化固定成本转换为可变成本的特征,采用基于内生市场结构的动态随机一般均衡模型(DSGE)来研究云计算在中小企业中推广应用对我国经济增长的影响。研究结果表明,以2014年数据为基准,云计算技术扩散保守估计未来五年将会促进我国GDP增长0.42~0.79%,就业增长0.06%~0.13%,新创造规模以上中小企业数目增长1.44%~2.82%,而且对欠发达地区经济增长的促进作用要高于发达地区。最后根据研究结论,对云计算技术发展提出具有针对性的政策建议。     

Context matters: A review of the determinant factors in the decision to adopt cloud computing in healthcare

Cloud computing is an IT service paradigm that can, if used meaningfully, enhance traditional health IT approaches and offer major benefits to the healthcare industry. However, its adoption by healthcare organizations has been accompanied by diverse challenges that could impede its meaningful use. Decisions about its adoption should be made after serious consideration of relevant industry-specific factors. Whereas the literature has focused on cloud computing adoption in general, the industrial specificities that influence the decision to adopt cloud computing in the healthcare context have yet to be systematically addressed. We reviewed empirical studies on both information systems and medical informatics to investigate the determinant factors of the cloud computing adoption decision in healthcare organizations and the industrial specificities of those factors. Based on the results of our review, we proposed a conceptual framework of cloud computing adoption studies in healthcare and made seven recommendations for related future research. Our research contributes to the theory by providing a comprehensive list of industry-specific factors that influence cloud computing adoption decisions in healthcare and explains their specificities for the healthcare industry. For practitioners, the identified factors serve as a checklist that informs healthcare organizations’ decision making regarding cloud computing adoption.     

多理论视角下企业云ERP系统转换意愿研究

随着云计算的不断发展,云企业信息系统(EIS)显示出其优势,愈来愈多企业愿意考虑从传统EIS转换到云EIS系统。然而,却很少研究探讨企业在EIS的转换议题,本研究整合信息系统成功模型和技术接受模型,发展一个多理论框架去探索企业向云ERP转换的意愿。我们从企业管理者收集了199份调查问卷,通过结构方程模型验证本研究模型与假设,结果发现有用性和易用性是影响转换意愿重要因素,易用性、信息质量和系统质量则正向影响认知有用性,这些结论,给未来转换意愿研究提供了参考,我们建议云服务供应商应重视系统本身的易用性和有用性,提高系统质量并关注信息质量,以帮助他们提供企业需求的产品,吸引更多企业从传统EIS转换到云EIS。     

多理论视角下企业云ERP系统转换意愿研究

随着云计算的不断发展,云企业信息系统(EIS)显示出其优势，愈来愈多企业愿意考虑从传统EIS转换到云EIS系统。然而，却很少研究探讨企业在EIS的转换议题，本研究整合信息系统成功模型和技术接受模型，发展一个多理论框架去探索企业向云ERP转换的意愿。我们从企业管理者收集了199份调查问卷，通过结构方程模型验证本研究模型与假设，结果发现有用性和易用性是影响转换意愿重要因素，易用性、信息质量和系统质量则正向影响认知有用性，这些结论，给未来转换意愿研究提供了参考，我们建议云服务供应商应重视系统本身的易用性和有用性，提高系统质量并关注信息质量，以帮助他们提供企业需求的产品，吸引更多企业从传统EIS转换到云EIS。     

Entrepreneurial and ethical adoption behaviour of cloud computing

In light of continuing use and media attention placed on cloud computing, the study of ethical behaviour in technology innovations remains an important area of research, which helps to understand the antecedents of a person's intention to adopt cloud computing based on their ethical orientation. The present study examines how ethics influences a person's decision to adopt cloud computing, and how in turn ethical behaviours affect technology innovations. Based on social cognitive theory, this paper proposes that a higher ethical and entrepreneurial orientation will lead to a person adopting cloud computing. Moreover, the marketing, learning and outcome expectancy a person has about cloud computing will positively affect their intention to adopt this technology. The predictions are tested through a survey, which indicates that ethics and marketing are important determinants of a person's behavioural intention towards technology innovations.     

The role of trust and risk perceptions in cloud archiving — Results from an empirical study

This study presents and empirically validates a model that strives to explain end-user adoption of cloud storage as a means of personal archiving. Drawing from prior research on IT adoption, trust, risk and cloud computing, we develop a technology acceptance model that incorporates users' perceptions of risk and trust as well as major antecedents of trust. The research model is empirically tested with survey data collected from 229 cloud storage users. Our results show that trust can be conceived of as a factor that mitigates uncertainty and reduces the perception of risk, which is a significant inhibitor of the intention to use cloud storage for archiving. We find evidence that trust can be increased through both the provider's reputation and user satisfaction. Based on the results, we highlight important practical implications that can be used to inform marketing efforts of cloud storage providers and further suggest some opportunities for future research.     

An empirical study on predicting cloud incidents

With the increasing rate of adoption and growth of cloud computing services, businesses have been shifting their information technology (IT) infrastructure to the cloud. Although cloud vendors promise high availability and reliability of their cloud services, cloud-related incidents involving outages and service disruptions remain a challenge. Understanding cloud incidents and the ability to predict them would be helpful in deciding how to manage and circumvent future incidents. In this study, we propose a hybrid model that employs machine learning and time series methods to forecast cloud incidents. We evaluate the proposed model using a sample of 2261 incidents collected from two cloud providers namely, Netflix and Hulu. Unique to this study is that our model relies solely on historical data that is independent of the underlying cloud infrastructure. Results suggest that the proposed hybrid model outperforms individual forecasting models: neural network, time series and random forest. Results also reveal important temporal insights from the proposed model and highlights the practical relevance of historical data to forecast and manage cloud incidents.     

Examining the critical success factors of cloud computing adoption in the MSMEs by using ISM model

For cutting down cost and improving the efficiency of enterprises, adoption of innovations in ICT especially in cloud computing applications is the need of the time in the highly competitive global environment. It has been noted that generally, the Indian MSMEs are not utilizing the CC applications for the promotion of their business activities and are not availing their benefits. Hence, in the present investigation, the critical success factors (CSFs) for cloud computing adoption (CCA) in the Indian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are identified through an exhaustive literature review and expert opinions. The association between the identified factors is established by employing an interpretive structural modeling methodology that is a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach. Later, the MICMAC analysis is carried out for identifying the factors having high influential power. The results of the study revealed that a CSF namely ‘previous technological experience’ is the most significant factor having the highest driving power. The findings of this research are intended to guide cloud service providers, enterprise managers, and governmental bodies in formulating the strategies and policies for effective implementation of cloud computing facilities and harness the benefits of the same. This study makes a significant contribution to the knowledge base of CC adoption for future research in the subject field.     

Acceptance of public cloud storage services in South Korea: A multi-group analysis

As cloud computing has spread from the enterprise sector to individuals, there has been a growing need for research on the adoption of cloud computing at the individual level. However, relatively little research has investigated the differences and similarities between users and nonusers regarding the individual-level technology acceptance. To fill this gap, this study explored the differences and similarities between users and nonusers in the context of public cloud storage services of South Korea. Data (users = 210; nonusers = 187) were analyzed using structural equation modeling. For social influence, there was a significant difference between users and nonusers. For users, social influence was not a determinant for positive intention to use PCSS, whereas it was a determinant for nonusers. For other factors, there were no significant differences between the two groups, but each showed meaningful similarities: habit was the strongest predictor of the intention to use for both users and nonusers, whereas hedonic motivation was not an important concern for both; performance expectancy was a determinant for positive intention to use PCSS for both groups. Effort expectancy was a determinant for positive intention to use PCSS for users, whereas it was not a determinant for nonusers. These results can provide academic researchers and businesses with insights into individual-level adoption of cloud computing.     

An exploratory study to understand the critical factors affecting the decision to adopt cloud computing in Taiwan hospital

The purpose of this study is to investigate the critical factors that will affect the decision to adopt cloud computing technology in developing countries, specifically in Taiwan's hospital industry. This study mainly integrates the TOE (Technology-Organization-Environment) framework and HOT-fit (Human-Organization-Technology fit) model to understand this issue. Information was collected by employing a questionnaire research design to hospital CIOs in Taiwan. The obtained results indicate that the 5 most critical factors are data security, perceived technical competence, cost, top manager support, and complexity. Further, among the proposed four dimensions the most important one is technology followed by human, organizational, and environmental factors. Finally, the results show that significant differences exist in CIO innovativeness, data security, compatibility, top manager support, adequate resource, and perceived industry pressure across different adopting groups. For practitioners, this study identifies key factors for hospitals to make an adoption decision toward cloud computing technology. As for academia, this study can be provided as a useful reference for future studies in this subject field.     

Service strategies of small cloud service providers: A case study of a small cloud service provider and its clients in Taiwan

Small enterprises play an important role in the technology innovation and economic development of most countries all over the world, particularly in Taiwan. Due to a lack of financial resources and expertise, small enterprises tend to find novel ways to utilize IT resources in order to reduce IT adoption costs, to achieve better flexibility, business agility and scalability, and to react faster to market demands. Whereas Taiwan has been promoting cloud computing to help Taiwanese enterprises adopt more effective information technologies, we found that the service strategies of small cloud service providers are individually differentiated in order to survive in the competitive cloud computing market. This paper reports a case study of a small e-learning service provider and its four clients in Taiwan. Some novel insights are revealed through this case study and recommendations are provided accordingly.     

Cloud computing as an innovation: Percepetion,attitude, and adoption

Cloud computing is a current trend that reveals the next-generation application architecture and it is estimated that by 2013 the cloud market will have reached $8.1bn. While cloud services such as webmail, Flickr and YouTube have been widely used by individuals for some time, it not until relatively recently that organisations have began to use cloud services as a tool for meeting their IT needs. This study aims to investigate how cloud computing is understood by IT professionals and the concerns that IT professionals have in regard to the adoption of cloud services. The study was carried out in Taiwan and used a survey by interview approach to understand IT professionals’ understandings and concerns about cloud computing. The findings of the study suggest that while the benefits of cloud computing such as its computational power and ability to help companies save costs are often mentioned in the literature, the primary concerns that IT managers and software engineers have are compatibility of the cloud with companies’ policy, IS development environment, and business needs; and relative advantages of adopting cloud solutions. The findings also suggest that most IT companies in Taiwan will not adopt cloud computing until the uncertainties associated with cloud computing, e.g. security and standardisation are reduced and successful business models have emerged.     

云计算在高校信息化建设中的应用研究

从支撑技术和IT服务模式两方面介绍云计算,并阐述云计算在高校信息化建设中所带来的节约投资成本、提供安全数据存储、提高资源共享水平、改善软件使用方式和为高校带来丰富应用等5种优势;认为高校应采用专用云与公用云相结合的混合云应用模式;并提出由基础设施层、基础设施服务层、平台服务层和应用服务层组成的高校专用云结构模型。     

基于电子商务企业的云服务平台使用意愿实证研究

随着云计算的高速发展,越来越多的电商企业选择使用云服务平台。本研究基于整合的TAM模型,探究影响电商企业接受并使用云服务平台的关键因素,构建基于电子商务企业的云服务平台的用户接受模型,并对其进行实证研究。结果表明,感知有用性、感知易用性、客户感知价值和感知风险是影响电商企业使用云服务平台的关键因素。针对研究结果,本研究还分别为云服务运营商、云服务消费者和政府对云服务的发展和选择提出了相关的建议。     

A fad or future of IT?: A comprehensive literature review on the cloud computing research

Cloud computing is now a global trend and during the past decade, has drawn attention from both academic and business communities. Although the evolution of cloud computing has not reached the maturity level, there is still adequate research about the topic. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the development and evolution of cloud computing over time. A content analysis was conducted for 236 scholarly journal articles, which were published between 2009 and 2014 in order to (i) identify the possible trends and changes in cloud computing over the six years, (ii) compare publishing productivity of journals about the cloud computing subject, and (iii) guide future research about cloud computing. The results show that the majority of the cloud computing research is about “cloud computing adoption” (19%), and it was followed by the “legal and ethical issues” of cloud computing (15%). It is also found that “cloud computing for mobile applications” (6%), “benefits & challenges of cloud computing” (5%) and “energy consumption dimension of cloud computing” (4%) are the least attention-grabbing themes in the literature. However, “cloud computing for mobile applications” and “energy consumption dimension of cloud computing” themes have become popular in the last two years, so they are expected to be trendy topics of the near future. Finally, another finding of this study is that the majority of the articles were published by engineering, information systems or technical journals such as “IT Professional Magazine”, “International Journal of Information Management” and “Mobile Networks and Applications”. It seems as if this topic is generally ignored by the managerial and organizational journals even though the impact of cloud computing on organizations and institutions is immense and is in need of investigation.     

Organizational agility through outsourcing: Roles of IT alignment,cloud computing and knowledge transfer

This study introduces the concept of outsourcing appropriation based on adaptive structuration theory (AST) to explore how organizations attain IT-dependent organizational agility through outsourcing appropriation. It examines the mediating role of IT alignment and the moderating roles of the adoption of cloud computing and knowledge transfer. The proposed model was tested using survey data from a sample of 170 IT executives. Our results indicate that the consensus of appropriation (COA) and faithfulness of appropriation (FOA) are positively associated with IT-dependent organizational agility, and the relationships are partially mediated by IT alignment. When adoption of cloud computing is high, the positive relationship between IT alignment and IT-dependent organizational agility becomes stronger than when it is low. Interestingly, results also show that the moderating roles of the transfer of explicit knowledge and transfer of tacit knowledge in the relationship between outsourcing appropriation and IT-dependent organizational agility vary significantly. The transfer of explicit knowledge negatively moderates the relationship between COA and agility. The transfer of tacit knowledge positively moderates the relationship between FOA and agility. These findings deepen our understanding of how organizations gain IT-dependent organizational agility in the context of IT outsourcing.     

基于Eucalyptus和AppScale的云应用研究

云计算是面向服务器集群的计算服务,可融合到现有的基础建设中。云计算支持为每一位用户或每一个应用程序定制更加适合于自己的服务,包括Web服务、接口程序和各种高级语言。这种高度的定制服务方式提供了大量的可操作扩展功能,让开发人员可以更加专注于应用技术的创新。开源的Eucalyptus是实现计算集群或工作站集群的云计算平台,AppScale可与之良好对接,使用AppScale可在其上开发云应用服务、数据库服务,并可在 Eucalyp-tus上创建集群运行Google App Engine应用程序。探索了Eucalyptus和AppScale的设计和实现机制,研究了如何使用 AppScale在虚拟化了的基础设施上开发云应用程序,以促进云计算的应用和发展。