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Cloud Computing Adoption Assessment Model (CAAM)

Article · June 2011

DOI: 10.1145/2181101.2181110

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 Cloud Computing Adoption Assessment Model (CAAM)
Usman Nasir Mahmood Niazi
School of Computing and Mathematics, School of Computing and Mathematics,
Keele University, UK Keele University, UK
Phone +44 (0)1782 734899 Phone +44 (0)1782 733081
[email protected] [email protected]

innovative solution that copes up with changing business

ABSTRACT environment giving competitive advantage. Information
Cloud Computing (Clouds) is a new trend in IT, not yet widely Technology solutions such as enterprise resource planning, data
adopted by large-scale organisations extensive IT infrastructure mining and the last decade’s biggest trend offshore outsourcing,
and complex IT processes as they find it difficult to adopt Clouds. brought numerous benefits to organisations making them leaner
There are technical and socio-technical challenges that need to be and fitter as a global enterprise. These shifts are global
addressed before adoption. There is a need for an assessment phenomena, adopted by orginisations across the world.
framework that would assist adoption by evaluating the
Cloud Computing (Clouds) emerged as a paradigm in 2007
organisation, its key capabilities and processes affected by
offering services on-demand. The on-demand service is prevalent
Clouds. The objective of this research study is to develop a model
in public utilities like gas and electricity, which are available,
that helps organisations in assessing and improving their readiness
billed according to usage, and can cater for surge in demand.
for Cloud Computing. Primary data in this research are user
Cloud Computing enables an organisation to reduce capital
concerns and issues that are barrier in the adoption of Clouds.
expenditure on IT and focuses on delivering support application
The primary data will be collected using Systematic Literature rather than developing and maintaining large-scale IT systems
Review (SLR) methodology. Interviews with senior executives [Feuerlicht et al. 2010].
and IT Managers are planned to validate the findings of the SLR.
Cloud Computing is defined as “the applications delivered as
The anticipated outcome of this project will be Cloud Computing
services over the Internet; the hardware and systems software in
Adoption Assessment Model (CAAM) that will help organisations
the data centers that provide those services” [Armbrust et al.
to adopt and integrate Clouds with Enterprise IT, define new
2010]. U.S National Institute of Standards and Technology
capabilities, identify their organisational readiness and provide
defines Cloud computing as “a model for enabling convenient,
strategies for successful adoption. The case study method will be
on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable
used for evaluating CAAM in conjunction with organisations
computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released
willing to adopt cloud computing. Three case studies are planned
with minimal management effort or service provider interaction”
to evaluate the effectiveness of CAAM in assessing organisation’s
[NIST 2009]. Although Clouds is a new trend in IT offering
readiness for the adoption of Cloud Computing.
immense benefits but unfortunately they are not widely adopted.

Categories and Subject Descriptors Small and medium scale firms and start-ups adopt Clouds as it
D. Software D.2 Software Engineering D.2.0 General provides access to best available IT resources in low capital
expenditure. Technological adoption issues of a large scale
H. Information Systems H.4 Information Systems Applications organisation with Enterprise IT are different from small-scale
H.4.0 General organisation [Kim et al. 2009]. Several significant barriers exist
for an enterprise once it plans the adoption of the Cloud
General Terms Computing. The challenges are multi-dimensional as they are
Management financial, technical, operational and organisational in nature
[McKinsey & Co. 2009].

Keywords The adoption of new technological solution is means of creating

Cloud Computing, Enterprise Cloud, Cloud Adoption change within organisation with an intention to maintain or
improve its level of performance [Damanpour and Schneider
2006]. The adoption of the Clouds brings multiple changes in IT
1. BACKGROUND practices, staff and organisational capabilities. Organisational
Information Technology (IT) departments within an organisation capabilities are set of processes used to take advantage of internal
provide innovative technological solutions, enabling and external resources [Ranganathan and Balaji 2007]. These
globalisation. IT managers are on a constant look out for new and processes are important for adoption of any technology, as an
organisation requires technological capabilities to design or use
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for new technology [Chen 1996]. Capabilities and practices that can
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are help in the adoption of the cloud computing are not yet defined.
not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that Researchers are skeptical of the fact that all IT operations can or
copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy will be migrated to Cloud Computing; however practitioners look
otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, at it as a start of new way for IT organisation and department’s
requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. operations [Creeger 2009].
Profes '11, June 20 - June 22 2011, TORRE CANNE (BR), Italy
Copyright 2011 ACM 978-1-4503-0783-3/11/06…$10.00.

34
The overarching objective of this research project is to develop a The adoption of the Clouds will have an impact on accounting,
Cloud Adoption Assessment Model (CAAM) to help security, compliance, project management, system support, work
organisations in assessment and improvement of their readiness of end users, authority of the IT department, IT governance, IT
for Clouds. In accordance to above following research questions provisioning, IT procurement, and IT policies [Khajeh-Hosseini,
are proposed for investigation: Greenwood and Sommerville 2010; Yanosky 2008 ]. There exists
a need to identify capabilities and practices that will have an
RQ1: What are the challenges in the adoption of Cloud effect before the adoption of the Clouds within existing Enterprise
Computing within enterprises? IT. Therefore, there is a need for a comprehensive adoption
RQ2: How can an enterprise identify the challenges they face in assessment framework that would assess an organisation, its key
the adoption of Clouds? capabilities, identify levels of organisational readiness, and
provide strategies for successful adoption.
RQ3: What are the key organisational capabilities and practices
that facilitate successful adoption of Cloud Computing?
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RQ4: How can a Cloud Computing Adoption Assessment Model is The proposed study design combines multiple techniques for data
developed, such that it is theoretically and practically robust? collection, validation, and framework development for answering
RQ5: Is the Cloud Computing Adoption Assessment Model the research questions presented in section 1. The study will
practically vigorous in terms of measuring organisational empirically investigate the perceptions and viewpoints of
readiness for Clouds? organisational stakeholders regarding challenges, hurdles/barriers
of adoption of the Clouds. The study design has been divided in
three distinct phases.
2. SIGNIFICANCE
Neal reported technological shortcomings such as control issues, 3.1 Primary data collection
clouds’ performance issues, latency, reliability, vendor lock-in Primary data in this research includes the challenges, user
and lack of standards which are barriers in the adoption of Clouds concerns and issues that are barrier in the adoption of Cloud
[Leavitt 2009]. Kim has reported user concerns as availability Computing. Systematic Literature Review (SLR) methodology
(outage), security, privacy issues, support and interoperability will be used to collect primary data. SLR is a mean of evaluating
[Kim 2009]. Several challenges such as technological uncertainty, and interpreting all available research relevant to a particular
demand uncertainty for (software) functionality, institutional research question, topic area, or phenomenon of interest
influence, strategic importance of the IT application, application [Kitchenham and Charters 2007]. SLR has three main phases:
integration are reported in the adoption of the Cloud services [Xin planning, conducting and reporting data analysis of the review,
and Levina 2008]. Legal compliance, absence or presence of making them different from ordinary literature surveys [Brereton
innovation champions within the IT departments, difficulties in et al. 2007]. The SLR will extract the challenges in the adoption
cost benefit evaluation of Cloud services, fear of organisational of the Cloud Computing within enterprise, from existing
change and issues in Cloud vendor selection are reported in literature. The choice to carry out SLR is based on the premise
literature [Heinle and Strebel 2010]. Besides technological issues that SLR provides greater level of validity of its findings than any
several socio-technical factors such as concerns about cost, other studies [Mulrow 1994].
confidentiality, control, impact on work practice and limitation of
business models pose challenges when considering adoption of Interviews with C-level Executives (CIOs, CTOs etc) and IT
the Clouds [Khajeh-Hosseini et al. 2010]. Many feel that even a Managers are planned for validation of the adoption challenges
lack of an understanding of Cloud Computing itself is a barrier in extracted by the SLR. Interviewees will be provided with a
its enterprise-wide adoption [Misra and Mondal 2010]. These comprehensive list of challenges identified through the SLR and
challenges and issues are more of viewpoints and lack empirical will be briefed on importance of their opinion as contribution in
evidence. overcoming the challenges of the adoption of Clouds in an
enterprise. To avoid selection bias, IT Manager/C-Level
Technology adoption has always been considered as a social issue Executives will be selected thru a criterion of experience with
putting user’s acceptance as a significant issue. Technology enterprise IT and Clouds’ implementation.
Acceptance Model (TAM), proposed by Davis, has been widely
used for investigating user adoption of technology, information The interview questionnaire will be designed to elicit enterprise
systems and Enterprise Resource Planning systems. The original demographics (companies’ capital, employees etc), respondents
TAM measures impact of four variables, perceived ease of use experience, challenges/ barriers faced by them in the adoption of
(PEU), perceived usefulness (PU), attitude towards use and Cloud Computing and their views on the practices, which could
behavioral intention to use (BI) upon actual usage of the help in overcoming the challenges of the adoption of Clouds.
technology [Davis 1989]. It has been reported that PEU & PU are Thus, an expert-opinion on the capabilities and practices for
worse predictors of actual usage than BI [Turner et al. 2010]. assessment framework will be available. Pilot study will be
However due to TAM’s limitations, researchers have extended conducted to validate questionnaire.
TAM for evaluating Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
application adoption, reporting their model ability to asses user
3.2 Development of CAAM
The Cloud Computing Adoption Assessment Model (CAAM)
but not organisation as a whole [Amoako-Gyampah and Salam
shall be developed using top-down approach. Firstly, the CAAM
2004]. It is difficult to carry out an organisational assessment
will assist in the identification of the challenges within an
using the existing technology adoption models; as they
organisation that is seeking integration of Clouds within
specifically do not address Clouds or its services.
enterprise IT and secondly it would define capabilities and
practices that will help to overcome the identified challenges.

35
CAAM will define higher-order capabilities, sub-capabilities and [2] Armbrust, M., Fox, A., Griffith, R., Joseph, A.D., Katz, R.,
operational routines that are required to integrate Cloud Konwinski, A., Lee, G., Patterson, D., Rabkin, A., Stoica, I.
Computing within Enterprise IT for an organisation. This and Zaharia, M. 2010. A view of cloud computing. Commun.
approach is an adaptation from Feeny and Willcocks [1998] and ACM 53, 50-58.
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defining IT capabilities within organisation. Khalil, M. 2007. Lessons from applying the systematic
literature review process within the software engineering
3.3 CAAM’s evaluation domain. Journal of Systems and Software 80, 571-583.
The case study method is a powerful evaluation tool that provides
useful real world information [Yin 2002]. The CAAM will be [4] Chen, R. 1996. Technological Expansion: the Interaction
evaluated using case study approach carried out in conjunction Between Diversification Strategy and Organizational
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To reflect on CAAM’s shortcomings and further improvement, Environment, Organization and Top Managers1. British
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4. EXPECTED OUCOME Kacprzyk, J. 2010. Next Generation SOA: Can SOA Survive
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expert views, supported by case studies generalized to real world international conference on Economics of grids, clouds,
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Theoretically and practically robust framework that helps in
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