ALIBHAY Karim, DBA

A senior analyst at the Montreal Transit Corporation (STM), Karim Alibhay joined the Business Science Institute in 2013.

He prepared his Executive Doctorate in Business Administration (EDBA) on the theme “Drivers and Barriers to Cloud Computing Adoption and its influence on IT strategic planning” under the supervision of Michel Plaisent and Prosper Bernard, professors of Management Sciences at the School of Management of UQAM (ESG UQAM), Montreal.

Pr. Michel Plaisent and Pr. Prosper Bernard

Drivers and barriers to cloud computing adoption: A Delphi expert panel survey

As an Information Technology manager, virtualization of applications, virtual machines and Cloud Computing are now buzzwords. The vendors (IBM, Amazon, VMware, Microsoft, etc.) claim that Cloud Computing can substantially reduce IT costs and provide more flexibility and agility in deploying new applications, platforms and machines. But in order to give the right advice to these IT Directors on the adoption of Cloud Computing, the Cloud needs to be defined properly, and the motivation behind it’s adoption need to be understood properly. The drivers and barriers to its adoption, as well as the advantages (Zhang, Cheng et al. 2010), risks, and important criteria of its adoption need to be clearly defined. The adoption of Cloud Computing can be an important competitive advantage (Phaphoom, Wang et al. 2013), for an organization or enterprise, especially in recent times where they have to be competitive in a globalized market and where progress is based on merit.
But what is the cost? What are the pitfalls to avoid? Is it secure? This research will try and address these concerns and will look more particularly into categorizing drivers and barriers of adoption of Cloud Computing, and see what frameworks and survey methods have been used up until now.
Adopting Cloud Computing can be a very attractive prospect. Cloud computing is a hot subject for managers (Ojala and Puhakka 2013). They are offered more and more ready-made solutions on the Cloud for applications, backups, infrastructure and more. At the academic level, many research centers dedicate themselves to this problem at this moment. It is important for the decision maker to have a clear understanding and vision into issues and benefits of Cloud computing so that he can make appropriate decisions on allocation of much needed resources.
First, a literature review was done to categorize the drivers and barriers to the adoption of this new technology. The models and frameworks used in understanding and characterizing this phenomenon will be presented.
Then, a Delphi study empirically tested, complemented, narrowed down and ranked these drivers and barriers drawn from the literature. Research on this new phenomenon still presents contradictory results, and the adoption of Cloud Computing is very uneven throughout organizations. The participants of the study concluded that technical factors followed closely by financial ones are the main drivers for Cloud adoption, and concerns about loss of control and security remain the most important barriers in Cloud computing adoption.
This study aims to help in understanding the motives behind the adoption of this new phenomenon and will advance knowledge in this subject.