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Procedia Computer Science 121 (2017) 115–122

CENTERIS - International Conference on ENTERprise Information Systems / ProjMAN -

International Conference on Project MANagement / HCist - International Conference on Health
and Social Care Information Systems and Technologies, CENTERIS / ProjMAN / HCist 2017, 8-10
November 2017, Barcelona, Spain

Key Issues for the Successful Adoption of Cloud Computing

Teófilo Branco Jr.a*, Filipe de Sá-Soaresa, Alfonso Lopez Riverob
a
University of Minho, Campus de Azurém, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
bPontifical
Pontifical University of Salamanca, Calle Compañia 5, 37002 Salamanca, Spain

Abstract

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.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
© 2017 The under
Peer-review Authors. Published by
responsibility of Elsevier B.V. committee of the CENTERIS - International Conference on ENTERprise
the scientific
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the CENTERIS - International Conference on ENTERprise
Information Systems / ProjMAN - International Conference on Project MANagement / HCist - International Conference on
Information Systems / ProjMAN - International Conference on Project MANagement / HCist - International Conference on
Health
Health and
and Social
Social Care
Care Information
Information Systems
Systems and
and Technologies.
Technologies.
Keywords: Cloud Computing; IT Adoption; IT Outsourcing; Key Issues

*
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +0-000-000-0000 ; fax: +0-000-000-0000 .
E-mail address: teofilotb@hotmail.com

1877-0509 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the CENTERIS - International Conference on ENTERprise Information Systems /
ProjMAN - International Conference on Project MANagement / HCist - International Conference on Health and Social Care Information Systems
and Technologies.

1877-0509 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the CENTERIS - International Conference on ENTERprise Information
Systems / ProjMAN - International Conference on Project MANagement / HCist - International Conference on Health and Social
Care Information Systems and Technologies.
10.1016/j.procs.2017.11.016
116 Teófilo Branco et al. / Procedia Computer Science 121 (2017) 115–122
2 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2017) 000–000

1. Introduction

Cloud Computing (CC) has been a major technological trend in recent years, drawing the attention of both IT
professionals and researchers. Although many publications concentrate on the technical aspects of CC, the focus on
organizational aspects is increasingly frequent given the interest of organizations in adopting this technology. The
literature includes works on the process and life cycle that enable the creation of a favorable setting in organizations
to implement CC solutions. The review of those works led us to compile a list of key issues that may prove useful to
IT managers when they consider the organizational requirements needed to adopt CC in a secure and efficient
manner.
In this paper we argue that the usefulness of the list of issues may be improved by instilling it with the view of
practitioners, namely of those that have conducted the migration to CC in their organizations. Besides having
experience with this kind of technology, those practitioners may also have learnt lessons in the implementation
process of CC that are relevant to other organizations considering the path to CC. To this end, this research targeted
IT providers of CC solutions in the region of Castilla y Leon in Spain, where Cloud solutions received financial
resources of more than one million euros in 2015 to assist enterprises of IT sector for the migration or development
of software solutions in the cloud (AETICAL 2015). The analysis of the collected data provided insights on how to
improve the decision-making process that guides the adoption of CC.

2. Cloud Computing

CC are deposits of virtualized IT resources readily usable and accessible, in which the vendor warranties the use
and quality of use of those resources to customers and the customers are charged for what they really use (Mell and
Grance, 2011). The vendors of CC services provide users with access to IT resources at a lower cost if we consider
that customers do not need to acquire and maintain an IT infrastructure. In addition, CC implements a model for
enabling ubiquitous, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be
rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction (Mell and Grance,
2011). Table 1 lists five essential characteristics of CC.

Table 1 - Five essentials characteristics of cloud computing. Adapted from Mell and Grance (2011).
Characteristic Description
On-demand self- Consumers can unilaterally provision computing capabilities (e.g., server time and network storage), as needed
service automatically without the need of human interaction with provider
Broad network Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by
access heterogeneous client platforms
Resource The provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers, with different physical and
pooling virtual resources dynamically assigned according to consumer demand
Rapid elasticity Capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released to scale rapidly with demand
Measured Cloud systems automatically control and optimize the use of resources by leveraging a metering capability at
service some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service

There are various advantages in the adoption of CC. Gutierrez and Lumsden (2014) highlight the following three
main benefits of CC. The most frequent benefit relates to cost reduction, such as the removal of IT infrastructure in
the organization along with its direct and indirect costs. Resource rationalization is another advantage since the
service is dynamically scalable because users only consume the computing resources they actually use. Portability is
another advantage as the feature can be accessed not only from any computer connected to the internet, but also
from any type of device, such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops, or desktop computers, and from any geographical
location.
The focus of this study is on Public Clouds, the most common type of CC available to individual customers and
run by third parties. The option for Public Clouds results from the belief that in this model of deployment, the
exploration of IT resources can achieve higher levels of optimization at lower costs.
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Companies that wish to move their IT services to a Public Cloud face several challenges. The uncertainties about
the challenges and issues involved in this technology have been reasons for not accepting Cloud technology as a
reliable solution by many organizations (Conway and Curry, 2010). Indeed, the migration to CC does not present a
clear path: adopting CC without proper assessment and analysis may in itself become a major risk. The lack of
criteria to support IT managers’ decision-making can cause uncertainties and create obstacles to the adoption of this
technology (Duarte and Silva, 2013). Prompted by this gap in the knowledge about CC, we conducted an extensive
review of the literature in order to compile issues that point to important aspects to be observed by organizations
when considering the migration of their technological structure to CC, specifically on Public Clouds. The issues
were condensed in a list organized into five main categories as depicted in Table 2.

Table 2 - Issues in the Cloud adoption

Category (Description)
Advantages of CC
(Issues related to the analysis of
CC advantages and its benefits to
the organization)
Business Maturity
(Issues related to the
organization’s preparation for
joining a cloud environment)
Trust in Provider
(Issues to consider to check trust
in providers)
Risk Analysis
(Issues and challenges that
configure risks)
Service Level Agreements
(Issues related to factors that
should be clarified in service
level agreements (SLA)
contracts)
Issues Sources in Literature
Know technological advantages (Buyya et al., 2011), (Lampe et al., 2014),
Identify business partners in same technology (Müller et al., 2015)
Analyze cost-benefit ratio
Map organizational business processes (Duarte and Silva, 2013), (Labes et al., 2015),
Define business requirements (Qian and Palvia, 2013), (Uppala et al., 2016)
Define IT business alignment
Define strategy to data administration
Define IT architecture
Estimate technological personal impact
Define IT management support
Provide required IT infrastructure
Verify compatible values (commitments, culture, etc.) (Lansing et al., 2013), (Repschlaeger et al.,
Analyze perspectives to improve partners 2013)
Verify providers’ references
Evaluate enterprise presentation
Measure connectivity
Verify certifications of security layer
List services to outsource (Gutierrez and Lumsden, 2014), (Weiss et al.,
Know the risk factors involved 2013)
Define steps of the process of migration to CC
Elaborate a risk plan
Conformity with purpose descriptions (Stankov et al., 2012)
Operational services
Availability
SLA Objectives
Functionalities
Services available
Services contracted
Privacy policies
Elastic provisioning
Contingency plan

The list of issues suggests that the process of migration to CC is a task that should be well planned and conducted
in order for the successful deployment of CC by an organization. Furthermore, the richness of the literature led to the
compilation of a list composed of a multiplicity of issues, of different nature and apparently similar importance,
which demand competent management by organizations. Although we think that this list of issues is, by itself, a
useful resource for assisting IT managers steering the organization towards the adoption of CC, we advocate taking a
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4 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2017) 000–000

further step, namely submitting the list to the scrutiny of professionals that undertook a successful migration to CC.
The practical view held by such individuals would contribute to a better understanding of the issues in context. On
the one hand, it could elucidate whether the list captures the perspective of the practitioners. On the other hand, it
could provide indications on the relative importance of each issue, unveiling some order of priority between them,
with certain issues being more important than others in the process of adopting CC.

3. Interviews

In order to obtain the views of the practitioners on the list of issues, interviews were conducted with experts of IT
Cloud enterprises that migrated to cloud and that provide SaaS (Software as a Service) services to their customers.
The professionals interviewed were technical directors of enterprises that have experienced the decision process of
adopting CC in their companies and that actively participated in its implementation.
To direct the conversation, an interview guide composed of seven groups of questions was prepared, according to
the recommendations of Myers and Newman (2007). The structure of the guide is described in Table 3. The first
stage of the interview prompted a general, unrestricted answer from the interviewee on the relevant issues in the
migration process to Cloud. Stages 2 to 6 of the interview (cf. Table 3) focused the conversation on the categories in
which the issues compiled during the literature review were organized. The final stage of the interview included an
open question so that the respondent could add something he/she judged relevant on the subject addressed and
considering the dialogue constructed throughout the conversation.

Table 3 - Interview questions

Id Interview Stages Questions
1 Opening What is important to consider in a migration process to Cloud Computing by an organization?
2 Advantages of Cloud Computing How important is to analyze if the advantages of Cloud Computing apply in the organization?
What are the most relevant to consider?
3 Business Maturity Is there a need to prepare the organization in order to obtain a minimum maturity level before
the migration process to the Cloud? What are the desirable requirements that the organization
should satisfy?
4 Trust in Provider What trust indicators should be collected in the process of selecting a Cloud Computing
provider?
5 Risk Analysis What are the risks involved in the migration process to Cloud Computing? How can those risks
be mitigated by organizations?
6 Service Level Agreements What are the important clauses expected to be found in a SLA contract?
7 Final Remarks Do you have any final thoughts or suggestions?

The experts that could participate in the interviews were based in Salamanca, Spain, and were contacted by
telephone. Seven directors of IT enterprises were invited, four of these accepted to grant an interview for this
research. The process of selecting the pool of respondents was supported by a previous survey of potential experts to
be interviewed. The survey included four questions about the characteristics of their organizations (type of company
and company data, such as number of employees, structure, etc.) and the experts (position and experience). The main
features of the respondents are shown in Table 4.

Table 4 - Characterization of interviewees

Id Company Type
A IT services provider in the area of
IaaS and software solutions for
large firms
B Software development company
in the area of B2C, e-commerce,
e-learning and web portals
C IT consulting company in the
areas of software, project
Company Data Position Experience
4.100 employees; Global IT service Divisional IT Software development
offerings; 6 subsidiaries; 9 innovation Director Selection, implementation, and
centers operation of IaaS and PaaS
40 employees; IT Consultancy; SaaS IT Director Implementation of PaaS and SaaS
Provider
25 employees; Technology Consultancy; IT Director Software development
call center level 2 multichannel; 9 years Implementation of SaaS
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management, web development, of presence in the market; 2500

social media customers
D Association of IT Companies 125 associated enterprises President IT governance
Cloud solutions funders Provision of CC solutions

Methodologically, semi-structured interviews were used to capture the experts’ opinions. Interview A took 90
minutes, B 65 minutes; C 85 minutes, and D 60 minutes. Respondents were informed about anonymity of
participation and were asked permission for the interviews to be audio recorded (all interviewees granted
permission).
The interviews were then transcribed and coded following a mode of analysis based on grounded theory. In the
first step of the coding process, 67 codes were created. Subsequently, the codes were organized into 13 families of
common subjects, as shown in Table 5. These families of codes helped us to clarify and contrast the respondents’
contributions and to relate back their views to the five categories of CC issues derived from the literature review.

Table 5 - Codes in interview analysis

Family Codes
Assurances [Change Management] [Charging] [Contact Point and Escalation] [Elastic Provisioning] [Functionality]
[Multi-tenancy Rules] [Objectives] [Privacy] [Security] [Service Availability] [Service Continuity] [SLA]
[Support]
Business [Appropriate Products] [Attendance] [Business Requirements] [Cloud Life Cycle Defined] [Innovation
Conformities Opportunities] [Internal Communication Plan] [Organizational Readiness] [Processes Defined] [Relative
Advantage]
Relationship [Governance]
Management
Exceptions [Penalties] [Responsibilities] [Restrictions and Exclusions]
Expertize [Enterprise Support] [IT Personal Qualification] [Maturity Model Level] [Technical Qualifications]
Financial [Cost Benefit Analysis] [Estimated Cost] [Reduce Budget Estimative]
General [Glossary] [Optional Services] [Parties] [Purpose] [Service Description] [Service Levels Objectives] [Top
Management Support]
IT Management [Compatibility] [Data Strategy] [Infrastructure] [IT Architecture] [IT Business Alignment] [IT Personal
Impact] [Operational IT]
Previous Interactions [Location] [Capability Demonstrated] [Trading Partner Pressure] [Transparent Conditions]
Product Performance [Suitable Technology]
Provider Trust [Compatible Values] [Connectivity Capacity] [Future Interactions Perspective] [Presentation] [Service
Capabilities] [Security Certification] [Transparent Commercial Conditions]
Reputation [Client Portfolio] [Partners] [References]
Risk Management [Back-up Plan] [Contingency Plan] [Risk Plan] [Security Plan] [Services to Outsource]

4. Findings

The content of the interviews was analyzed to detect common patterns and dissimilarities between experts. A
summary of the findings is presented in Table 6. This table is based on the compiled list of issues that resulted from
the literature review (cf. Table 2). The interviewees made important contributions to the clarification of the issues
compiled during the review of the literature, namely by explaining the problems they faced, describing how they
mitigated risks and overcame obstacles, and reporting the situations they experienced. In Table 6 we denote with a
bullet the issues which the interviewees’ stressed as more relevant in their processes of adopting CC. Column
“Consensus” indicates the issues that have gathered consensus among all interviewees (issues marked with ×).

Table 6 - Findings in Interviews

Interviewees Consensus
Category Issues
A B C D Issues
Know technological advantages ● ● ● ● ×
Advantages of CC
Identify business partners in same technology ●
120 Teófilo Branco et al. / Procedia Computer Science 121 (2017) 115–122
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Analyze cost-benefit ratio ● ● ● ● ×

Map organizational business processes ● ●
Define business requirements ● ●
Define IT business alignment ● ● ● ● ×
Define strategy to data administration ● ● ● ● ×
Business Maturity
Define IT architecture ● ●
Estimate technological personal impact ● ● ● ● ×
Define IT management support ● ● ● ● ×
Provide required IT infrastructure. ● ● ● ● ×
Verify compatible values (commitments, culture, etc.) ●
Analyze perspectives to improve partners ●
Verify providers’ references ● ● ● ● ×
Trust in Provider
Evaluate enterprise presentation ● ●
Measure connectivity ● ● ● ● ×
Verify certifications of security layer ● ● ● ● ×
List services to outsource ● ● ● ● ×
Know the risk factors involved ● ● ● ● ×
Risk Analysis
Define steps of the process of migrating to CC ● ● ● ● ×
Elaborate a risk plan ● ● ● ● ×
Conformity with purpose descriptions ● ● ● ● ×
Operational services ●
Availability ● ● ● ● ×
SLA Objectives ●
Service Level Functionalities ●
Agreements Services available ● ● ● ● ×
Services contracted ● ● ● ● ×
Privacy policies ● ● ●
Elastic provisioning ● ●
Contingency plan ● ● ● ● ×

The interviewees confirmed all the categories in which the compiled issues were organized into and provided
relevant information that clarify the role of each issue.

5. Discussion

Through the collection of the views of professionals that had been engaged in the migration process to CC, this
study aimed to clarify if the list of issues compiled from the literature review conveys the perspective of potential
cloud platform customers. The analysis of the data collected in the interviews confirms an important premise about
the adoption of CC already suggested in the literature review: when adopting CC services, organizations should
analyse the risks involved, the benefits and the advantages of CC, adjust their preparedness (maturity) level, choose
the CC provider carefully, and prepare a contract that safeguards their interests.
The results of this study also reveal that the list of issues compiled by the authors reflects the concerns of the
experts interviewed. Table 7 lists these most relevant issue’s categories in order of consensus average (number of
consensual issues divided by the total number of issues proposed in the category).

Table 7 - Most important issues category

Number of Number of
Order of Consensus
Category Issues Consensual
relevance [Average]
Proposed Issues
 Teófilo Branco et al. / Procedia Computer Science 121 (2017) 115–122 121
Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2017) 000–000 7

1 Risk Analysis 4 4 1,00

2 Advantages of CC 3 2 0,67
3 Business Maturity 8 5 0,63
4 Trust in Provider 6 3 0,50
5 Service Level Agreements 10 5 0,50

The professionals also contributed with relevant clarifications about those issues through the testimony based on
their experience. We also took advantage of the opportunity provided by the interviews to find out if experts
considered some order of importance among the categories of issues, i.e., if some categories include more relevant
issues and thus deserve more attention by IT managers in comparison to others. According to the interviewees, there
are indeed different levels of importance that must be assigned to the categories of issues, as suggested by Table 7.
To some extent, this may be conceptualized as a set of critical success factors for the adoption of CC. Although
all categories of issues are relevant for the adoption of CC, there is a group of issues that attract a higher level of
concern of practitioners and that have a stronger impact on the path to a successful implementation of CC services
by organizations. Indeed, the consensual issues may form the core issues that every organization should take into
consideration, in each of the five major categories of issues. For those issues which the analysis of the interviews’
contributions did not suggest an equal important concern among the responds, managers conducting a CC adoption
decision process should consider them as contextual. These contextual issues may be more relevant to certain
organizations than to others.

6. Limitations and Directions for Future Studies

Some of the limitations of this study derive from its research in progress nature: the work was restricted to the
region of Castilla y Leon, Spain, and so far we have just interviewed four experts of IT enterprises, although with
substantial experience in CC matters.
To further test, and eventually generalize, the (working) conclusions advanced in this paper, we intend to conduct
interviews with respondents whose organizations operate in different settings, such as in different countries, regions,
or markets. An important goal of these future studies is to check if the tentative set of critical factors for the
successful adoption of CC holds for a broad base of organizations.
A subsequent future work will be the development of an instrument to assist IT managers evaluating the key
issues that influence the migration process to Cloud by organizations. The existence of a set of critical success
factors with a direct impact on the adoption of CC may substantially increase the effectiveness of that instrument.

Acknowledgment

This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a
Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.

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