26th International Association for Management of Technology Conference - IAMOT 2017

Cloud Computing (CC) has altered the way infrastructure, platform and applications are developed and deployed in the enterprises. Various sectors like manufacturing, banking services, healthcare, government and academics rely on IT functionalities along with data centres. This requires heavy investment due to high energy consumption, maintenance and infrastructural expenses. Cloud computing provides the solution by allowing dynamic and on-demand access to various shared resources via internet with flexible “pay as you go” pricing model. The adoption of cloud computing has different trends in developed and developing countries. However, only a limited number of studies have highlighted the underlying causes. Although the dispel literature presents various factors across globe influencing cloud computing adoption. There is dearth of studies that prioritise factors responsible for cloud computing adoption, especially in developing countries. The adoption of cloud computing is still in nascent stage in India with public cloud service spending of less than 0.1% as compared to worldwide (Gartner, 2014). Hence it is crucial to identify and prioritise the factors in Indian context to exploit the untapped potential of cloud computing. This study aims to provide a systematic approach towards factor selection. It is conducted using qualitative (semi-structured interviews) and quantitative (experts’ opinion for ranking critical factors) through Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP). The degree of importance is formulated by fuzzy pairwise comparison matrix. Literature and qualitative phase revealed eighteen factors and twenty-six concepts which are categorized into technology, organization, environment and economic perspective. The cumulative assessment of FAHP indicated ‘‘time to market” with deployment time as the most critical decisive factor for cloud computing adoption. The results not only provide a fuzzy evaluation model for calculation of priorities of variously identified factors but also help managers focus on the most important factors to identify the best policy for promoting adoption of cloud computing. It will also help service providers as well as potential adopters to take the decision based on the criticality of the factors.