Key Issues for the Successful Adoption of Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing constitutes an alternative for organizations who do not intend to invest in in-house IT resources. It offers a service model on the premise that the consumer has at its disposal the means for manipulating information, over the internet, according to its current needs. However, outsourcing IT poses various challenges, such as the effective control of IT, attention to an increasing number of threats posed by the Internet ecosystem and concerns regarding the efficient use of resources. Hence, the uncertainties about the migration to Cloud Computing can have a negative impact on the adoption of this technology. In order to better inform the decision process launched by organizations considering the alternative of Cloud Computing, this study presents a list of key issues compiled from literature that could assist IT managers steering the organization towards the path of adopting Cloud Computing solutions efficiently and securely. In addition, to better understand those issues and rank them in terms of importance, interviews were conducted with IT directors of enterprises that use and provide Cloud services, endowing the list of issues with the views of practitioners that successfully experienced the migration to the Cloud environment. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.