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.

► In this study we study IT professionals’ perceptions and attitudes of cloud computing adoption in Taiwan.
► The findings of the study suggest that compatibility with company's business model and policy and customers’ demands are the main concerns.
► Relative advantages of cloud computing are not obvious to IT professionals therefore they are hesitant to adopt cloud solutions.
► Successful business cases and models will encourage companies to adopt cloud computing.
► It is the cost of adoption that concerns IT professionals not cost savings that can be made through adoption as suggested by the literature.