BASE – Revista de Administração e Contabilidade da Unisinos

11(1):75-91, janeiro/março 2014

2014 by Unisinos - doi: 10.4013/base.2014.111.06

CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION:

A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY

ADOÇÃO DE COMPUTAÇÃO EM NUVEM: ESTUDO DE CASOS MÚLTIPLOS

CYRO GUDOLLE SOBRAGI

[email protected] ABSTRACT

ANTÔNIO CARLOS GASTAUD Cloud computing is considered a new computational paradigm by many researchers and
MAÇADA practitioners. While the number of organizations that have adopted this technology has risen
[email protected] in recent years, it is still just emerging in Brazil. Being an innovative technology, the adoption
of cloud computing has attracted the attention of both scholars and organizations. The pres-
MIRIAN OLIVEIRA ent study intends to use a multiple case study method to analyze the factors influencing the
[email protected]
adoption of cloud computing. The case studies were conducted among Brazilian organizations
from different categories: a large retail corporation, a medium-sized mobile marketing company
and a small IT services business. The results indicate that the decisive factors influencing the
decision to adopt cloud computing are reliability, scalability and cost savings, while the factors
security and privacy were also considered relevant. However, interoperability, network access
and sustainability were found to be irrelevant in its adoption.

Key words: IT adoption, cloud computing, SaaS, IaaS, public cloud, private cloud.

RESUMO
A computação em nuvem é considerada um novo paradigma computacional da atualidade.
Sua adoção vem crescendo nos últimos anos, contudo ainda é incipiente nas organizações
brasileiras. Por se tratar de uma tecnologia inovadora, a adoção de computação em nuvem
vem recebendo maior atenção da academia e das organizações. A presente pesquisa tem por
objetivo analisar os fatores de adoção da tecnologia nas organizações por meio de estudo de
casos múltiplos. Os casos foram realizados em diferentes tipos de organizações: uma grande
corporação de varejo, uma média empresa de mobile marketing e uma pequena empresa de
serviços de Tecnologia da Informação. Os resultados do estudo apresentaram como fatores
primordiais de adoção de computação em nuvem confiabilidade, escalabilidade e economia.
Os fatores privacidade e segurança foram considerados relevantes. Já interoperabilidade, acesso
pela rede e sustentabilidade foram considerados fatores indiferentes na adoção da tecnologia.

Palavras-chave: adoção de TI, computação em nuvem, cloud computing, SaaS, IaaS, nuvem
pública, nuvem privada.
76 CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY

INTRODUCTION community (Wang et al., 2008; Weinhardt et al., 2009). Accord-

Cloud computing (CC) is in the early stages of adoption ing to Wang et al. (2008), there are three reasons for the lack
and represents an interesting opportunity for users, organiza- of a solid definition of the term. The first is that CC involves
tions and the market in different countries (Weber and Kauff- researchers from varying academic backgrounds, which leads
man, 2011). In a survey conducted by Coleman Parkes Research them to have differing views on the subject. The second is that
among executives from several countries, over 80% of the the technologies that enable the use of CC are still evolving
respondents believe that the impact of CC on the technology (e.g. Web 2.0). The third is that the existing clouds still require
scene will be at least as important as virtualization, or the greater use in terms of both scale and distribution to justify
Internet have been (Computerworld, 2012). a concept.
According to Mell and Grance (2009), CC includes three Although there is no firm consensus among scholars, the
types of IT service that can be adopted by organizations: work of Vaquero et al. (2009) proposes a definition of CC. For
Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) those authors, cloud computing has the advantage of being
and the Platform as a Service (PaaS). In Brazil, even with the easy to use and accessible through virtualized resources (hard-
increase in its adoption, only 18% of medium and large com- ware, development platforms and/or services). These resources
panies are using some CC application (IDC Brasil, 2011). While can be dynamically reconfigured to adjust to a variable demand,
there is still a notable room for the growth of this technology thus allowing for optimum use (Vaquero et al., 2009). This set
in the country, in research conducted by the Gartner Group of resources is typically based on a model in which one pays
among Brazilian executives 80% of the respondents said according to use and where guarantees are offered by the
they did not use or have plans to adopt CC technology in the providers through customized service levels.
coming months (Convergência Digital, 2011). Nevertheless, an Mell and Grance (2009) offer the National Institute of
increase of 60% over the current base is forecast among large Standards and Technology (NIST) definition, according to which
and medium-sized firms (IDC Brasil, 2011). CC refers to a model that enables access through the network,
Weber and Kauffmann (2011) highlight CC as a topic according to demand, to a shared pool of computing resources
for future research. In research conducted in national and (e.g. networks, servers, applications, and services) that can be
international databases, few papers were found to adopt an quickly requested or released with minimal administrative
academic approach directed towards business management, effort or interaction with the service provider. The authors
with the majority being concerned with computer science. also note that, in accordance with the NIST, the structure of
This favors the development of research into CC in the area CC is comprised of five essential characteristics, three types
of Information Systems (IS). Marston et al. (2011) suggested of service and four forms of distribution. According to the
studying the factors related to the adoption and implementa- authors, the essential characteristics of CC are: self-service
tion of CC, since organizations are constantly searching for – the consumer can unilaterally supplement their capacity
‘roadmaps’ for the adoption of new technologies. (e.g. storage) automatically through the service provider; ac-
This study aims to answer the following question: What cess through the Internet – capacities are available over the
factors are considered by organizations when deciding to adopt network and accessed via computational platforms (thin or
cloud computing? Therefore, the study aims to analyze the thick client); rapid scalability – resources can be rapidly and
factors considered by organizations adopting CC. To achieve elastically obtained, in some cases automatically, with both
this, three case studies were undertaken. rapid inbound and outbound scalability. The capacities are
available and unlimited, and can be purchased in any amount
CHARACTERISTICS AND FACTORS OF CC ADOPTION and at any time; associated resources – the service providers
This section presents the characteristics of CC (The char- are grouped to serve multiple customers using a ‘multi-tenant’
acteristics of cloud computing) that may influence the factors model, with varying physical and virtual resources, which are
determining CC adoption. After that, the factors identified in dynamically assigned and reassigned according to demand.
the literature as influencing CC adoption are discussed (Theo- There is a sense of independence in relation to the location,
ries and factors relating to CC adoption). and the customer usually has no control over or knowledge
of the exact location of the resources; service use measuring
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CLOUD COMPUTING – CC has automatically controlled and optimizable resources,
Historically, the term ‘cloud’ has been used as a metaphor allowing capability to be measured at the level appropriate to
for the Internet (Ransome and Rittinghouse, 2010). Chellappa the type of service (e.g. storage, processing, bandwidth, and
(1997) presented the first academic definition of CC as a number of active accounts of users).
computational paradigm where the boundaries of computing The types of service that can be obtained via the cloud
will be determined by economic reasons rather than technical are: Software as a Service (SaaS), which, according to Wang
limits. Nevertheless, for some researchers, there is not yet a et al. (2008), is an application that is hosted as a service on
precise definition of CC that is widely accepted in the scientific the Internet, eliminating the need for installation on the
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user’s computer and reducing maintenance time and costs of multiple redundant sites, is suitable for business continuity
because it is paid for according to demand; Platform as a and recovery from disaster (Zissis and Lekas, 2012).
Service (PaaS) refers to the development of applications ac- Cost savings, according to Reese (2009), means that the
cording to the size of the hardware resources offered in the greatest benefit of CC is a financial one, since the pay-for-use
execution of the services, which is performed in a transpar- model is significantly cheaper for an organization than the
ent manner, i.e., a platform is provided for the execution of prepay model. Durkee (2010) states that CC saves energy, since
software (Vaquero et al., 2009) – a familiar example would the number of data centers used is the minimum required to
be the Google Apps Engine; Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) maintain service levels. As regards entry costs, Marston et al.
refers to a large group of computing resources capable of (2011) state that they are dramatically lowered with CC, thus
storing and processing. Virtualization allows such resources allowing small organizations to have access to the benefits
to be split/shared, assigned and dynamically resized in order of technologies that previously used to be available only to
to constitute customized systems as demanded by customers large corporations. For Reese (2009), the cost savings in the
(Vaquero et al., 2009). cloud are significant and may even reach extraordinary levels,
There are four means to distribute cloud computing when there is big difference between the peak and average
(Marston et al., 2011; Rath, 2012; Taurion, 2009). With the capacity of infrastructure use and between the average and
Private Cloud, the infrastructure is operated by a single or- low capacity of use.
ganization, being managed by the organization itself or an Scalability is considered one of the main reasons for
outsource company, and it may be located within or outside an organization to adopt CC (Buttel, 2010; Durkee, 2010).
the organization. In the Community Cloud the infrastructure is It refers to the ability of a computer, product or system to
shared by several organizations, supports a specific community expand to serve a larger number of users without crashing
with shared concerns (e.g. mission, security requirements), (Laudon and Laudon, 2003). This factor can be exemplified
and may be located within the space of the organizations or by the increasing number of users and changes in storage
outside. With the Public Cloud, the infrastructure is available capacity and processing power (Slabeva et al., 2010). The
to the general public or large industrial groups and belongs ability to automatically scale an infrastructure vertically or
to an organization that provides CC. In the Hybrid Cloud, the horizontally with little or no impact on the applications that
cloud infrastructure comprises one or more clouds (private, are running (Reese, 2009) is shown to be one of the most
public or community) that, while remaining unique, are useful features of CC. Scalability allows customers to pay only
standardized and linked by technologies that allow data and when they use the resources (Reese, 2009), without having
application portability. to pay additional administrative costs to maintain service
levels in the cloud (Durkee, 2010).
THEORIES AND FACTORS RELATING TO CC Interoperability, according Chituc et al. (2008), refers to
ADOPTION the use of computational tools that facilitate the flow of work
The factors involved in the adoption of cloud computing and coordination between organizations. According to these
identified in the literature were: network access, reliability, sav- authors, interoperability arose from the need to operationally
ings, scalability, interoperability, privacy, security, sustainability. harmonize environments with heterogeneous networks, thus
Network access: as mentioned by Mell and Grance (2009), facilitating information sharing and improving task coordi-
this is one of the characteristics of the CC, as the capacities nation. This factor preserves these characteristics in CC. For
are accessed by computing platforms and made available Dikaiakos et al. (2009), cloud interoperability refers to the
through the network over heterogeneous platforms such as ability to use the same objects, such as management tools,
mobile phones and laptop computers (Zissis and Lekas, 2012). servers, virtual images, among others, from a variety of CC
Clarke and Svantesson (2010) see CC as a new paradigm, which providers and platforms. Thus, interoperability allows users to
turns the Internet into a large repository in which resources are move between CC platforms (Wyld, 2010).
available to everyone in the form of services. One advantage Privacy on CC, according to Wyld (2010), is associated
of this adoption factor is ubiquity, which, according to Marks with the rights of users in relation to the protection of their
and Lozano (2010), allows access to capabilities from anywhere data. For Ransome and Rittinghouse (2010), CC has significant
using different devices or applications. implications for the privacy of personal information and the
Reliability, according to Katzan (2010), refers to the fact confidentiality of organizational information. For Reese (2009),
that the service is available when the user needs it. Reese one very important factor for privacy in the cloud, or in any
(2009) extends this concept by relating reliability to the degree other environment, is the separation of confidential data from
to which a system can be relied on to protect the integrity of non- confidential data. Ransome and Rittinghouse (2010) em-
data and execute transactions. As regards CC, Wyld (2010) phasize that the risks regarding privacy and confidentiality of
points out that the cloud can operate at various levels in order the users vary significantly depending on the terms of service
to improve the previously used systems. CC, through the use and the privacy policy established with the CC provider.
VOLUME 11  Nº1  JANEIRO/MARÇO 2014
78 CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY

Security is one of the items that scholars of CC repeat- CC is a good solution for any organization seeking to improve
edly raise (Reese, 2009). Wyld (2010) relates the security in CC its institutional image and to be seen as green, because it
with the security of the users’ data. For Laudon and Laudon facilitates the reduction of the carbon levels of large IT infra-
(2003), the term security involves the policies, procedures structures (Marston et al., 2011). Chart 1 presents the relevant
and technical measures used to prevent unauthorized access, factors in CC adoption identified in the literature.
alteration, theft or physical damage to IS. According to Reese The CC adoption factors are supported by the following
(2009), there are some points related to security in the cloud, theories: Transaction Cost Theory (Alchian and Demsetz, 1972;
such as disaster recovery, data security, data control, network Fianni, 2002; Grove and Malhotra, 2003; Furubotn and Richter,
security, server security and data segmentation. 2000; Liu et al., 2008; Liang and Huang, 1998; Williamson,
Sustainability, for Wyld (2010), refers to the cloud’s abil- 1975; Simon, 1947), Diffusion of Innovations Theory (Moore
ity to be energy efficient and reduce the ecological impact. and Benbasat, 1991; Rogers, 1995), and Resource Dependency

Chart 1 – Relevant factors in cloud computing adoption.

Rittinghouse (2010)

Chituc et al. (2008)

Marks and Lozano
Mell and Grance

Zissis and Lekas

Dikaiakos et al.
Durkee (2010)

Marston et al.
Katzan (2010)

Ransome and
Slabeva et al.
Buttel (2010)
Reese (2009)

Wyld (2010)
CC adoption factors
(2009)

(2009)
(2010)

(2010)
(2011)

(2011)
Network Access X X X
Reliabilty X X X X
Costs savings X X X
Scalability X X X X
Interoperability X X X
Privacy X X X
Security X X
Sustainability X X

Chart 2 – Associations between theories and factors in cloud computing adoption.

Theory Element CC adoption factor

Asset specificity Reliability
Frequency of occurrence Scalability, costs savings
Transaction Cost
Transaction costs Costs savings
Theory
Uncertainty Costs savings, privacy
Contractual costs Privacy, security
Image Sustainability
Compatibility Sustainability, security, privacy, scalability, reliability, network access
Diffusion of Perceived advantage Interoperability, scalability, reliability
Innovations Theory Income statement Costs savings
Experimentation Scalability, reliability
Visibility Scalability, network access
Resource control Security, privacy, interoperability, network access
Resource Dependence
Interdependence Interoperability
Theory
Importance of resource Reliability

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CYRO GUDOLLE SOBRAGI  ANTÔNIO CARLOS GASTAUD MAÇADA  MIRIAN OLIVEIRA 79

Theory (Pfeffer and Salancick, 1978). The relationship between Appendix A. Seven professionals whose profiles corresponded to
the factors and the theories is detailed in Sobragi (2012). Chart those contained in item (iii) (Chart 3) responded to the survey.
2 shows the associations identified between the theories and For reasons of confidentiality, the organizations participating in
the CC adoption factors. the survey requested their names be kept confidential, and so
they have been assigned fictitious names.
RESEARCH METHOD The data sources for the research project are the face-
Given that the focus of the research project is to analyze to-face, semi-structured interviews and consultations on
factors related to the adoption of a technology, we conducted corporate websites, as well as reports associated with the
an exploratory, qualitative multiple case study. This method was adoption of CC in the studied organizations. The content
chosen because, besides being widely used by the academic analysis technique was used in the data analysis. For Bardin
IS community (Hoppen and Meirelles, 2005), CC adoption is (1977), content analysis is a set of techniques for the analysis
a growing phenomenon in Brazil. In the field of IS, successful of communication, which aims, through objective measures and
case studies require the selection of research areas that are a systematic description of the messages, to obtain indicators
relevant to the industry (Darke et al., 1998). that allow the inference of knowledge. The data analysis was
In exploratory studies, the unit of analysis assists in conducted with the aid of MAXQDA 10 software. To better
defining the limits of the theory (Dubé and Paré, 2003). In this understand the importance of each factor in the adoption of
study, it is composed of organizations that have adopted CC in cloud computing, the factors were categorized as being deci-
non-sporadic activities and in which different areas of the or- sive, relevant or indifferent. The decisive factors are essential
ganization participate in the process. The research protocol was for the adoption of the technology. The relevant factors have
developed based on a literature review and validated via email some importance in the adoption of cloud computing, although
by three experts. In order to obtain a comprehensive analysis they are not necessary for the adoption of the technology. The
of the script, a heterogeneous range of experts was contacted, irrelevant factors are those that the organizations do not judge
including an academic, the owner of a CC services supply to be important for the adoption of the technology.
company and a user of the technology. Once the protocol was In order to increase the construct validity, different data
validated, the three cases were selected based on convenience sources were considered. The research report was also reviewed
according to the following requirements. The organization must: by key informants, represented by IT executives. A key-informant
(i) have already adopted some type of CC; (ii) use technology review is an aspect that contributes to the construct validity
non-sporadic way and in different areas of the organization; (iii) (Riege, 2003). Regarding internal validity, a comparative analy-
provide access to professionals who participated in the adoption sis of the cases was performed after the individual analysis, in
of the technology and can explain the reasons for the adoption; order to find common evidence and standards in situations
besides, (iv) the cases must include organizations that use public concerning the multiple case studies (Eisenhardt, 1989). These
clouds and private clouds, given that the adoption factors may comparisons were useful because they converged regarding the
be different for each cloud type. The interview script, which factors considered relevant by the organizations as they adopted
was prepared based on the factors relevant for CC adoption the technology. To add to the external validity, consolidated
identified in the literature (presented in Chart 2), is presented in companies with considerable experience in IT management

Chart 3 – Respondents.

Experience in Working in
Company Graduation Occupation
the area the company
Alpha Mobile Information Systems Degree IT Manager 12 years 5 years
Alpha Mobile Computer Science Degree Infrastructure Analyst 9 years 4 years
Beta TI Information Systems Degree IT Infrastructure Director 9 years 9 years
Beta TI Ms Information Systems IT Manager 3 years 1,5 years
Computer Science Degree and Post-
Delta Inc CIO 23 years 2,5 years
Graduation in Datacenter Manager
Post-Graduation in Information
Delta Inc IT Service Manager 21 years 2 years
Systems
Post-Graduation in Information Information Security
Delta Inc 16 years 16 years
Security Coordinator

VOLUME 11  Nº1  JANEIRO/MARÇO 2014

80 CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY

were analyzed together with selected respondents with sound without guilt or without having to worry about the
knowledge about the adoption of CC. reallocation of other resources. There is no spare capacity.

RESULTS The reliability of CC was also found to be a decisive factor

The presentation of the study’s results is divided into the in the adoption of the technology, both in public and private
three case studies and finalized with a comparative analysis. clouds. In both cases, the best level of service in relation to
previous services was considered, as well as the ability to focus
PILOT CASE STUDY: ALPHA MOBILE the IT resources on the company’s core business by outsourc-
Founded in 2003, Alpha Mobile develops communication ing the service. Specifically in relation to the public cloud,
services focused on the integration of corporative SMS (short the high level of service standardization and customization
message service). The organization leads the ranking of the proved to be an advantage because it provides greater robust-
fastest growing Small and Medium Enterprises in Rio Grande ness than services performed internally. As far as the private
do Sul and is the sixth largest company in the Southern Region cloud is concerned, the guarantee of greater availability with
and the seventeenth in Brazil, according to one study (Deloitte, CC was taken into account, as the company keeps the critical
2011). Between 2008 and 2010, the company’s net income data there, as reported by the IT Manager: “[...] regarding the
grew by 244.8% and was consolidated at approximately R$ most sensitive data, let’s say, availability is a prerequisite that,
19 million last year. Alpha Mobile has adopted both public and regardless of cost, must be met”. The option to perform testing
private clouds, which together amount to approximately 40% and the reputation of the potential service providers were also
of its infrastructure and services. analyzed by the company prior to the adoption because, ac-
cording to the IT Manager, “[...] many suppliers were similar, so
DECISIVE FACTORS IN THE ADOPTION OF CLOUD we decided to adopt something that was already well known.”
COMPUTING
For Alpha Mobile, the factors considered decisive in the RELEVANT FACTORS IN THE ADOPTION OF CLOUD
adoption of cloud computing, both in the public and private COMPUTING
clouds, were cost savings, scalability and reliability. The factors considered relevant for the adoption of CC
Cost savings was considered a decisive factor in the were network access, security and privacy.
adoption of public clouds due to the lower maintenance, op- Network access was considered relevant in the adoption
eration and entry costs as well as to the pay-per-use model. of both public and private clouds. Regarding public clouds, the
In the case of private clouds, the shortened operationalization main point was mobility and compatibility with other devices
time achieved with the adoption of the technology represented (smartphones, tablets, etc.). In the adoption of private clouds,
savings in technical hours. The low entry cost was also valued in the network access is relevant because of the greater acces-
the adoption of public clouds, as was the lower infrastructure sibility of the allocated data and because, although the infra-
maintenance and personnel costs. structure is hosted in data centers beyond the national borders,
The factor ‘scalability’ was also found to be very impor- its quality is similar to that of an internal infrastructure. Ac-
tant for the adoption of the technology. Both in public and cording to the IT Manager, the data “need to be accessible from
private clouds, the high-speed scalability and usability of the anywhere and anytime.” The services offered to customers are
IT resources for temporary services were valued. Regarding allocated in private clouds, a factor that enhances the value
the public cloud, the fact that resources are automatically of network access in the company.
scalable also influenced the adoption of the technology. Ac- The safety factor was also considered relevant by the
cording to the Infrastructure Analyst, “the business requires organization, and the causes for the adoption of public and
scalability gains, since it is growing very rapidly”. Regarding the private clouds were similar because security is one of the
private cloud, elasticity is mentioned, because the organiza- business prerequisites. Therefore, in the adoption of the two
tion’s previous infrastructure had little flexibility. Scalability cloud types, the reputation of the service providers, the control
was also important in the adoption of private clouds, as other of access to data, server security, data security and storage in
acquisition, equipment and budget studies are unnecessary. The data centers with redundancy were analyzed. The analysis made
organization considers the factor a driver of business growth. for the adoption of private clouds is more thorough because
The scalability of CC seems to be an answer to the com- the company allocates customer data in them. In the words
pany’s demand spikes, discarding idle capacity in data centers of the IT Manager:
and showing itself to be a good option for temporary services,
as reported by the IT Manager: [...] We host customer services, so it is very important. If
the suppliers offer some security, security of this service,
[...] For a temporary service, one, two, months, we can authentication, certificates, SSL for communication,
use what we want and then you can discard everything among others, it is important.
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Thus, the organization tries to carry out audits to achieve A SUMMARY OF THE FACTORS IN THE ADOPTION OF
a greater degree of security. As regards public clouds, the or- CLOUD COMPUTING AT ALPHA MOBILE
ganization seeks to analyze how long service providers have Chart 4 summarizes the main results of the pilot case.
been in the market, as they are unable to carry out a more
detailed assessment or audit. CASE 1: BETA IT
According to the respondents, privacy was also consid- Beta IT, founded in 2002, focuses on outsourcing
ered in the organization’s adoption of CC. The main difference solutions for network infrastructure. In 2004, it started
was found in the adoption of a public or private cloud, since the manufacturing a software for information management and
private ones have a greater degree of privacy. Moreover, when monitoring, Control IT, an intelligence system that seeks to
adopting private clouds, the company sought to examine the ensure high availability of IT resources in companies whose
legal aspects, especially in relation to agreements regarding business depends on the continuity and accuracy of their
the level of privacy and clauses on the data and backup guar- hardware and software. In 2007, Beta IT received recognition
antees. According to the Infrastructure Analyst, “the company for its excellence in innovation from the São Paulo Institute
participates in some business processes with which it must be of Software (ITS) and was awarded the prize for “Best In-
aligned in legal terms.” With the adoption of a public cloud, novative Product” at the Latin American IT event for the
there is a greater concern with service agreements and guar- financial area (CIAB/FEBRABAN). The organization monitors
antees provided by the suppliers, as well as with data control. more than 100,000 services for its customers. Its clients
include private and public organizations of various sizes and
IRRELEVANT FACTORS IN THE ADOPTION OF CLOUD business sectors. The company has had an average growth
COMPUTING of 35% per year and in 2010 it had a sales revenue of R$
The factors ‘Interoperability’ and ‘Sustainability’ were 650,000. Approximately 80% of the company’s infrastruc-
considered irrelevant by the organization in the adoption of ture and services are allocated in public or private clouds.
the technology.
The reasons for the company to not consider interoper- DECISIVE FACTORS IN THE ADOPTION OF CLOUD
ability relevant were the same for both public and private COMPUTING
clouds. The factor was not taken into account because many
clouds are totally incompatible or compatible with each other, Like the pilot case, the decisive factors for this organiza-
according to the company’s IT Manager. It was also mentioned tion were costs savings, scalability and reliability.
that there is no single tool for managing these cases in the Costs savings, according to the respondents, was con-
company. Interoperability did not represent a need or an immi- sidered one of the most important criteria for the company
nent risk for the organization, so it was not considered in the CC when adopting CC. However, there were some specific points
adoption. The artifacts used by suppliers are standard and can related to savings in the comparison between the adoption
be relocated, regardless of supplier. In this case, dependence of public and private clouds. Regarding the public cloud,
on the suppliers is taken into account, to a certain extent, as the cost of adoption was the major factor, since it is lower
independence from suppliers is part of the organization’s cul- than the cost of a private cloud, according to the Director of
ture. According to the company’s IT Manager, “basically, it was Infrastructure. The company adopted the public cloud due to
not considered because some of the changes (infrastructure) cost-related factors, as the Director of Infrastructure reports:
are easy”, and he mentioned that, in the case of private cloud, “Basically, we adopted it because of two advantages: the fact
the services would be easily transferable. we would not have to maintain an internal infrastructure
In relation to sustainability, for the adoption of both public or keep a professional inside the company dedicated to the
and private clouds, the company believes this is the responsibility service.” The cost of the technology was also seen as decisive
of the service providers. In the words of the IT manager:
for choosing among suppliers in adopting a private cloud,
together with the operating cost. The company is concerned
It was not a criterion. I believe they (the service providers)
with its growth and the costs associated with this strategy,
are concerned with their sustainability issues, in terms
as reported by the IT Manager:
of cost, in this respect. Low power consumption, heat
generation ... It was not a criterion and we prefer to
[...] We did a study of how much infrastructure we would
transfer it. We do not think about the philosophy of
sustainability/green, no. have to acquire to maintain operations and how much we
would need to acquire in order to grow over a certain time
As far as energy saving is concerned, the organization period [...] It would be very expensive to buy now […]. So
said it had no information about its gains as a result of the the question of outsourcing part of our infrastructure is
adoption of the technology. related to that.
VOLUME 11  Nº1  JANEIRO/MARÇO 2014
82 CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY

Chart 4 - Factors in the adoption of cloud computing at Alpha Mobile.

Public Private
Factor Justification Justification
cloud cloud
Maintenance costs, operating costs, cost Operation time, cost of entry, cost-benefit,
Costs savings X of personnel, entry cost and payment X cost of infrastructure maintenance and
according to use personnel costs
Elasticity, boost to business growth,
Decisive

Automatically scalable resources, speed,

Scalability X X flexibility, speed, temporary services and
temporary services
discards acquisition studies
Availability, testing, service level, focusing
Service level, high standardization, ease
on the core business of the company,
Reliability X of use, focus on the core business of the X
maintaining critical data and reputation of
company and robustness
the service provider
Services customers are allocated in
Mobility and compatibility with other
Network access X X private clouds, similar quality internal
devices
infrastructure
Providers’ reputation and time in the Providers’ reputation, access control,
Relevant

market, access control, server security, auditing, testing, server security, data
Security X X
data security, storage in data centers security, storage in data centers with
with redundancy redundancy
Storage of critical data, contractual
Level agreement, privacy, contractual
Privacy X X issues, legal agreements, privacy levels,
issues, by providers
warranties and data backup
Easy migration between platforms Easy migration between platforms
Irrelevant

Interoperability X or mismatch between infrastructure X or mismatch between infrastructure

providers, low dependence on provider providers, provider dependency
Responsibility of providers, no Responsibility of providers, without
Sustainability X X
information about energy savings information about energy savings

It was also mentioned that the maintenance cost of were conducted to measure the scalability speed of the service
private clouds is lower than that of having an internal data providers, which was also taken into account when deciding
center, since the contracts signed with the CC providers whether it would adopt the technology. As the company is
guarantee maintenance and hardware replacement, which are expanding, the scalability of CC is an important part of its
costs that the company would have to bear if it had its own IT growth strategy and is considered necessary for the business.
infrastructure. The operating cost was also cited as a reason It should be pointed out that the company’s IT infrastructure
for adopting the technology, since the company “shared the could support the current demands. However, focusing on its
risk with a third party to reduce the operating cost,” according growth, the organization adopted CC, as reported by the IT
to the IT Manager. The reduction in personnel costs was also Manager.
considered, since adopting the technology reduces the number Respondents indicated that reliability was also a decisive
of people working in the company. The low entry cost was also factor in the adoption of CC in the organization. As regards
considered important by respondents for the adoption of both the public cloud, since the company provides IT services, a high
public and private clouds, besides the fact that you pay for the level of reliability is needed to ensure the provision of quality
technology according to the use you make of it. services. Thus, this risk is transferred to a supplier that ensures
The scalability factor was considered one of the main a better quality service than if it were performed internally,
motives for the company to adopt the technology, in terms of according to the IT Manager. One criterion for choosing the
both public and private clouds. The speed of scalability in the cloud service was the service level and availability agreement.
public cloud was considered, since, according to the contractual The company trusts that the service availability will be in ac-
rules, infrastructure can be quickly requested. However, it was cordance with the contract terms. However, prior to contracting
also mentioned that the private cloud’s scalability speed is the service, research was conducted regarding the reputation
lower than that of the public cloud for service providers. Tests and credibility of potential suppliers. In the interviews, it was
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mentioned that the company also held free testing with sup- clouds, by contrast, where contracts can be negotiated on the
pliers before adopting the technology in order to analyze if basis of greater privacy control, the factor was considered
they met its needs. The importance of these free trials became significant. It should be noted that the organization keeps its
evident in the company’s decision to adopt the technology. In critical data in private clouds. In both types of cloud, contracts
relation to the private cloud, the reputation of the suppliers help ensure the level of privacy and control of access to the data.
was also considered when deciding to adopt the technology. In the public cloud, privacy was not taken into account by the
This analysis was carried out through Internet research among company to the same extent as in the private cloud, because
potential customers and free trials of the environment. A fac- there are fewer options relating to privacy, resulting in greater
tor related to reliability that was considered by the company, reliance on the CC providers. Privacy, in this case, is associated
as regards both the public and private cloud, is availability. with the contract and trust in the providers, as mentioned by
According to the IT Manager, “it was very much taken into the Director of Infrastructure, “in fact it’s all in the contract
account [...] if any service goes down, an area of the company [...] there is information there and we have to believe in them.
stops. Depending on the service, perhaps the entire company You believe that the provider will keep your data confidential.”
stops.” In the company it is assumed that suppliers, because Interoperability was a factor taken into account by the
they are more specialized, have greater technical capacity to respondents when adopting CC, as regards both the public and
provide services that are not the focus of the company. In short, private clouds. One of the main reasons is that the company
the adoption of CC services by Beta IT is linked to the belief uses different types of platforms. Because the organization
that outsourcing can provide a greater level of reliability than is a provider of IT services and has a specialized team, the
if the services were performed internally. services and platforms are all interconnected. Dependence on
the suppliers was mentioned as a factor that played a role in
RELEVANT FACTORS IN THE ADOPTION OF CLOUD the adoption of the technology, together with the supplier’s
COMPUTING reputation in the market.
The factors that were considered by the organization in
the adoption of CC were security, privacy and interoperability. IRRELEVANT FACTORS IN THE ADOPTION OF CLOUD
Security was considered a factor in the adoption of the COMPUTING
technology. However, there were distinctions in relation to the Network access is considered irrelevant by the respon-
adoption of public or private clouds. In the adoption of the dents when adopting CC, as regards both the public and private
public cloud, security was not considered as much as in case clouds. A major reason for this is that the internal services,
of the private cloud, due to contractual issues. In this case, which are not in the cloud, can also be made available remotely.
a relationship of trust is established with the supplier, which Ubiquity, a factor arising from access via the network, was also
is also grounded in the contractual and service level agree- not taken into account, since use on other mobile devices, such
ments. By contrast, in the private cloud security was taken into as smartphones, is not important for the organization, while
account by carrying out studies on the environments of the access through the company’s machines is.
access providers. Data security was also assessed, since Beta Sustainability was not considered an adoption criterion
IT uses its own security controls. While aware of the security by the company, although the respondents were aware of the
in the public cloud, the fact that the company could have environmental benefits of CC. The main reason, according to the
higher levels of security in the private cloud became a selection company’s Director of Infrastructure, is that it represents a concern
criterion between the two kinds of cloud. This is one reason of the service providers and not the organization itself. This is not
the company used the private cloud for critical data. Control yet a concern of the company, which has other priorities such as
over the data was taken into consideration in the adoption economic and reliability issues. According to the respondents,
of the technology in both types of cloud with backups being there is no way to check the sustainability of providers.
made. The environments are controlled and managed by the
company itself, a factor that is considered a requirement by A SUMMARY OF THE FACTORS IN THE ADOPTION OF
Beta TI regarding the adoption of technologies and the choice CLOUD COMPUTING AT BETA IT
of service providers. Security in the service network provid- Chart 5 summarizes the CC adoption factors at Beta IT.
ers was also taken into consideration in the adoption of CC. It is noteworthy that in this company a different attitude was
However, this is a relationship based on trust in what was identified regarding the factor of security in the comparison
offered and contracted. between the public and private clouds.
Privacy was another relevant factor for the adoption of
the technology that also showed differences between the public CASE STUDY 2: DELTA INC.
and private clouds. Regarding the public cloud, the criterion was Delta Inc. is the second largest clothing department store
given little consideration, as this is a relationship based on the in Brazil. The company is in the process of expanding, currently
contract and confidence in the supplier. In the case of private having over 100 stores in several Brazilian states. In 2010, it
VOLUME 11  Nº1  JANEIRO/MARÇO 2014
84 CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY

Chart 5 – Factors in the adoption of cloud computing at Beta IT.

Public Private
Factor Justification Justification
cloud cloud
Cost of maintenance, cost of adoption,
Cost of adoption, maintenance cost,
Costs savings X X operating costs, cost of personnel and
pay-per-use entry cost
entry cost payment according to use
Decisive

Speed scalability, testing, utilization

Utilization of IT resources, the company’s
Scalability X of IT resources, the company’s growth X
growth strategy
strategy
Level of service, availability, testing, Provider1s reputation, availability, greater
Reliability X X
greater specialization of providers specialization of providers
Services interconnected by using Interconnected services, use of different
Interoperability X different platforms, dependence on X platforms, dependence on providers,
providers, provider’s reputation provider’s reputation
Studies of the provider’s environment,
Relevant

Relationship of trust with provider,

data security, better security than public,
Security based on contractual clauses and X
data control, network security and
service level agreements
infrastructure providers
Few options for privacy, dependence on Level of privacy can be controlled,
Privacy providers, contractual issue, low access X maintenance of critical data, contract
to data negotiation and data administration
Internal services were already available Internal services were already available
Irrelevant

Network access X remotely, use of mobile devices is not X remotely, use of mobile devices is not
considered considered
Responsibility of providers, future
Sustainability X X Responsibility of providers, future concern
concern

was elected the tenth most valuable brand in Brazil. It was In the case of the private cloud, a greater ability to carry
one of the first major companies in Brazil to adopt CC, which out transactions, determined by means of contracts with the
is important to the strategy adopted in the process of expan- providers, was noticed. In relation to the two types of cloud,
sion. Approximately 40% of the infrastructure and services are it was found that the adoption of CC guarantees best market
allocated to public and private clouds. experts, a more robust service and an analysis of the reputation
of the service providers.
DECISIVE FACTORS IN THE ADOPTION OF CLOUD Em relação aos dois tipos de nuvem foi observado que
COMPUTING na adoção de CN a garantia dos melhores especialistas do
The decisive factors for the company’s adoption of CC mercado, maior robustez dos serviços e analisada a reputação
were reliability, scalability and cost savings. dos provedores de serviço
Reliability was considered the main criterion for Scalability was considered important in the adoption
the adoption of the technology, for both the public and of both cloud types as it aids in the organization’s growth,
private clouds. Specifically in relation to the public cloud, flexibility and speed of adoption. According to the company’s
reliability was analyzed because it offered better services Coordinator of Corporate Architecture, Delta Inc. has a bold
than those that could be provided by an internal team due expansion policy and must administer its structure, given that
to commoditization, which represented low risk, ease of IT (due to lack of scalability) can often be an interference.
adoption and usability for the organization. In the words The seasonality of the business was also mentioned by the
of the IT Manager: respondents as an factor of adoption provided by scalability,
since the organization needs different IT capabilities over the
[...] Going to a cloud tool, which has a commodity function, year, as reported by the CIO:
allowed users to adapt easily. I do not need to train people
extensively, because the fact of being in the cloud brought We are very seasonal, retail is very seasonal [...] I need
features that are already known by everyone. scalability. At the same time, at Christmas, I need a lot of
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capacity and in the middle of the year, January or February ing out who would manage the infrastructure, the location,
I might fall. So having this flexibility is important. the existence of dedicated infrastructure, interoperability and
internal provider certifications.
Specifically in relation to the adoption of public clouds,
the fact that services are commoditized enables higher scal- IRRELEVANT FACTORS IN THE ADOPTION OF CLOUD
ability speeds since the service is standardized for the service COMPUTING
providers and can be switched between different clients. Delta Inc. considered the following factors irrelevant when
In both types of cloud, costs savings was considered a adopting CC: network access, interoperability and sustainability.
very important factor in the adoption due to the payment ac- Network access was considered irrelevant because the
cording to the demand model, lower maintenance costs and a organization has used this kind of access before adopting CC
good cost-benefit ratio for the organization. Therefore, the costs and due to security restrictions, both in the public and private
savings criterion is one of the important areas analyzed in order clouds. Regarding public clouds, network access is related to
to enable the technology adoption project, as reported by the performance and the standardization of services. The mobil-
company’s IT Manager, “[...] basically reliability, costs savings and ity provided by ubiquity is seen as an issue that is still under
scalability were the main criteria that we used.” When analyzing discussion in the company.
new technology projects in the, company economic-financial fea- For Delta Inc., when adopting the technology, interop-
sibility studies are carried out in conjunction with quality criteria. erability is irrelevant for different reasons in the public and
In this sense, another point that influenced the adoption of the private clouds. Regarding public clouds, the factor was not
technology, according to the IT Manager, is the organization’s fi- considered due to the ease of migration between providers
nancial guidelines, specifically those related to capital expenditure and the fact that the services are contracted in packages. In
(CAPEX) and operating expenditure (OPEX). For the CIO, the cost relation to private clouds, interoperability is irrelevant when
of the public cloud in comparison to the private cloud or internal adopting CC, because there is little compatibility between the
infrastructure is more advantageous due to commoditization: “We service providers due to customization and because there is a
understand that the public cloud is only feasible for extremely tendency towards loyalty to a provider, which results in high
commoditized systems and there is no strategy linked to it.” migration costs.
As in the previous cases, sustainability was not examined
RELEVANT FACTORS IN THE ADOPTION OF CLOUD by the company, as there were more pressing factors to be
COMPUTING considered (mainly scalability and reliability). The company
Security and privacy were considered relevant for similar also did not consider energy efficiency and the reduction of
reasons in the adoption of the technology by Delta Inc. carbon dioxide resulting from the adoption of the technology.
As regards the public cloud, security was considered
in terms of the contractual guarantees and because there is A SUMMARY OF THE FACTORS IN THE ADOPTION OF
confidence in the agreements with the service providers. In CLOUD COMPUTING AT DELTA INC.
relation to the private cloud, factors such as server security Chart 6 shows the factors in CC adoption at Delta Inc.
and network providers were analyzed. It was also emphasized
that in the case of the private clouds there is the possibility COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE
of negotiating security clauses, especially in relation to the CASE STUDIES
control of the data, which is not possible in the case of the The factors reliability, scalability and costs savings were
public clouds because of the existence of standard contracts. considered decisive for the adoption of cloud computing in
Another difference is that because the data allocated to the all the studied cases. Security and privacy were analyzed by
private clouds are critical, audits were carried out at the the respondents in the CC adoption process, but to a lesser
providers to analyze the security of the server and network. degree. The factors interoperability and network access were
Privacy was a relevant factor for the company in the only considered in isolated cases and, therefore, require further
adoption of the technology, although only in relation to private confirmation to be included as factors in CC adoption. Sustain-
clouds. One reason is that as the data allocated to the public ability was not considered in the adoption of cloud computing
cloud are not critical, the company only analyzed privacy in in any of the cases studied.
terms of the contract (which tends to be standard in the mar- Reliability was seen as a decisive factor for the adoption
ket) and looked for references in the market before adopting of CC in all three cases, and was listed as the most important
the technology. In the case of the private cloud, according to one by Delta Inc. This may be related to the size of the orga-
the IT Manager, a more rigorous analysis of the contract is nization, supporting the view put forward by Sultan (2011).
made (conducted by a company specializing in IT contracts), According to that author, for large companies, loss of service
and there are also other criteria related to the adoption, such due to a failure in the cloud could be considered a major
as a detailed analysis of contracts and market references, find- concern, especially if it impacts the consumers and results in
VOLUME 11  Nº1  JANEIRO/MARÇO 2014
86 CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY

Chart 6 –Factors in the adoption of cloud computing at Delta Inc.

Public Private
Factor Justification Justification
cloud cloud
Higher cost-benefit, maintenance Payment according to demand, cost
Costs savings X cost and environmental management, X of adoption, maintenance cost, cost-
payment according to demand benefit, CAPEX x OPEX
Helps organizational growth, adoption
Decisive

Helps organizational growth, adoption

Scalability X speed, flexibility, commoditized services, X
speed, flexibility, business seasonality
business seasonality
Commoditized services, best quality, low Increased ability to perform transactions,
risk, ease of adoption, usability, availability, best experts guaranteed, robustness,
Reliability X X
robustness, guaranteed best experts, better level of service, availability,
reputation of the service providers reputation of the service providers
Greater ability to negotiate contract
Contractual guarantees, trust in
Security X X terms, control over data, server security,
providers, control over data
Relevant

network security
Rigorous analysis of the contract,
Storage of non-critical data leads only
search for references in the market,
Privacy to contractual analysis, search for X
certifications, visits to the provider’s data
references in the market
center, the right to data protection
Already had access to the network, Security restrictions, had previous access,
Network access X security restrictions, depends on the X mobility is still being discussed in the
performance and standardization company
Low compatibility between providers,
Irrelevant

Easy migration between providers,

Interoperability X X low cost-benefit ratio, with a tendency
services contracted in packages
to retain provider
Factors existing prior to adoption such Factors existing prior to adoption such
as availability and reliability, energy as availability and reliability, energy
Sustainability X X
efficiency and reduction of carbon efficiency and reduction of carbon
dioxide were not analyzed dioxide were not analyzed

substantial loss of sales opportunities and dissatisfaction. In (Ransome and Rittinghouse, 2010). The costs savings factor is
order to increase reliability, Delta Inc. adopted the technology, considered the greatest benefit of CC (Reese, 2009), which is
depending largely on the private cloud. For small and medium shown in the cases involving small and medium enterprises. It
businesses, a loss of service for a few hours may not be consid- is noteworthy that in the case of Delta Inc. costs savings was
ered catastrophic, but the possibility of using high-performance not the primary driver for adoption. Another point that was
applications for such companies may offer them an advantage given greater value in the cases of Alpha Mobile and Beta IT
(Ransome and Rittinghouse, 2010), which influenced the deci- were the low entry costs.
sion of Alpha Mobile and Beta IT to adopt CC. Security was evaluated as a factor in the adoption of
Regarding scalability, the study presents a similar picture CC by organizations. This differs from the findings of Katz
to that presented by Buttel (2010) and Durkee (2010), indicating (2010), who considers this factor of greater concern among
it is a major factor for the adoption of CC, because it is able executives. The findings in the present study corroborate the
to meet the needs of growing organizations (Marston et al., view held by Reese (2009), for whom the cloud is considered
2011). The present study also confirmed that scalability alters as secure as or more secure than a traditional data center,
the relationships of IT managers with infrastructure and of especially when it comes to private clouds, as exemplified in
financial managers with IT spending (Reese, 2009). the three analyzed cases.
Costs savings was also identified by the respondents as The findings regarding the factor ‘privacy’ corroborate
an important factor for CC adoption, mainly because of the those of Clarke and Svantesson (2010) that indicate that CC
opportunity to reduce maintenance and implementation costs consumers need to be attentive to this factor. In the studied
(Ransome and Rittinghouse, 2010) and the pay-per-use model cases, the three organizations were cautious, as shown by the
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adoption of private clouds. The study also showed that the risks and costs savings, while security and privacy were considered
related to privacy varies according to the terms of service and relevant factors in it. The results indicate that further stud-
privacy policies of the providers (Ransome and Rittinghouse, ies are required in order to confirm the relevance of network
2010), and may be different in public and private clouds. access and interoperability as factors in the adoption of CC.
Network access only appeared as a factor in the adop- Unanimously, sustainability was considered irrelevant in the
tion of the technology in the pilot case. One explanation for adoption of the technology.
this would be that because the company’s business is related Of particular note among the elements that can define
to mobility, network access is more valued by the members the degree of adoption of CC is the size of the organization,
of the organization as it addresses concepts of ubiquity. The while the cloud type and business type also exert influence on
findings of the present study differ from those proposed by it. In the research project, it was found that small and medium-
Zissis and Lekas (2012), which highlight the value of ubiquity sized enterprises (Alpha Mobile and Beta IT) tend to adopt
and the usage of heterogeneous platforms, since the factor CC primarily due to economic factors arising from scalability.
was considered irrelevant. This observation is supported by the arguments of Gupta et
The business type may also explain why Beta IT consid- al. (2013), who studied the CC adoption in small and medium
ered the factor ‘interoperability’ relevant in the adoption of businesses. By contrast, in the case of the large corporation,
the technology while the other companies did not. Beta IT is Delta Inc., the primary adoption factor was reliability. Regard-
an IT services provider and, thus, may attribute more value to ing the cloud type, the main difference was seen in terms of
technical criteria such as interoperability when adopting new security and privacy. The research findings show that these
technologies. The study’s findings suggest that this factor is a factors were relevant in the adoption of private clouds, which
challenge for providers (Brodkin, 2009), especially in relation were preferred due to the restricted flexibility of the contracts
to public clouds. However, it is also a barrier to the adoption in public clouds.
of the technology, in the case of private CC. The type of business can also influence the CC adoption
Sustainability was not judged by the organizations to be factors, since the results presented by companies working
a relevant factor in adopting the technology because the com- with mobility or IT tend to show that greater relevance is at-
panies mentioned do not measure their carbon emission levels tributed to factors such as network access and interoperability,
(Marston et al., 2011; Sultan, 2011) and their primary purpose respectively. Besides, CC adoption depends on the strategic
is not related to efficiency in terms of the processing and use goals of the organization and doesn’t occur without IT risks
of infrastructure in order to minimize energy consumption, as (Henderson, 2012).
recommended by Beloglazov et al. (2012). Chart 7 summarizes Academically, the research project has sought to further
the study’s main results. studies on the topic of IT adoption in the IS area in Brazil. By
dealing with a technology that has been little studied in the
CONCLUSION IS area in the country, the study has presented a theoretical
This study aimed to analyze the factors influencing the basis for future research. The use of qualitative studies about
adoption of private and public CC. The decisive factors for CC adoption factors may also help to develop quantitative
the adoption of this technology were scalability, reliability models for further research. For organizations, one of the main

Chart 7 - Research results.

Alpha Mobile Beta TI Delta Inc. Final

Factor Public Private Public Private Public Private Public Private
cloud cloud cloud cloud cloud cloud cloud cloud
Costs savings Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive
Scalability Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive
Reliability Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive Decisive
Security Relevant Relevant Irrelevant Relevant Relevant Relevant Relevant Relevant
Privacy Relevant Relevant Irrelevant Relevant Irrelevant Relevant Irrelevant Relevant
Network Access Relevant Relevant Irrelevant Irrelevant Irrelevant Irrelevant Irrelevant Irrelevant
Interoperability Irrelevant Irrelevant Relevant Relevant Irrelevant Irrelevant Irrelevant Irrelevant
Sustainability Irrelevant Irrelevant Irrelevant Irrelevant Irrelevant Irrelevant Irrelevant Irrelevant

VOLUME 11  Nº1  JANEIRO/MARÇO 2014

88 CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY

contributions of this study is that it provides information that DARKE, P.; SHANKS, G.; BROADBENT, M. 1998. Successfully
will be of use to decision-makers when considering whether completing case study research: Combining rigour, relevance
to adopt CC, since according to Marston et al. (2011) organi- and pragmatism. Information Systems Journal, 8(4):273-289.
zations are constantly searching for adoption roadmaps and http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2575.1998.00040.x
DELOITTE. 2011. A receita da rentabilidade para expandir os negócios:
identifying the factors related to adoption contributes to the
um estudo sobre as PMEs que mais crescem no Brasil.
elaboration of such roadmaps.
Available at: http:www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-Brazil/
The inclusion of two companies that work directly with IT
local%20Assets/Documents/Estudos%20e%20pesquisas/
may have resulted in the attribution of greater value to some PMEsMaisCrescem2011.pdf. Acesso em: 18/11/2011.
factors, for example, interoperability and network access. This DIKAIAKOS, M.D.; KATSAROS, D.; MEHRA, P.; PALLIS, G.; VAKALI,
may be considered a limitation. A. 2009. Cloud computing: Distributed internet computing
Because the research project was exploratory in nature, for IT and scientific research. IEEE Internet Computing:
other research themes and goals emerged that may be of 13(5):10-13.
value in the future. Among them are three proposals, namely DUBÉ, L.; PARÉ, G. 2003. Rigor in information systems positivist case
to: develop a CC adoption roadmap for organizations; confirm research: Current practices, trends, and recommendations.
the CC adoption factors by means of quantitative studies; and MIS Quarterly, 27(4):597-635.
analyze CC adoption in relation to the end users. DURKEE, D. 2010. Why cloud computing will never be free.
Communications of the ACM, 53(5):62-69.
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CYRO GUDOLLE SOBRAGI

Instituto Educacional do Rio Grande do Sul
Praça Quinze de Novembro, 16
90020-080, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil

ANTÔNIO CARLOS GASTAUD MAÇADA

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Rua Washington Luiz, 855
90010-460, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil

MIRIAN OLIVEIRA
Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul
Av. Ipiranga, 6681
90619-900, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil

VOLUME 11  Nº1  JANEIRO/MARÇO 2014

90 CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY

APPENDIX A

INTERVIEW SCRIPT QUESTIONS

General characteristics of the company: Company name, company address, year of foundation; turnover (annual); built
area; branch, number of employees, organizational structure, departments or sectors, branches or production units; market share
(if possible); annual IT spending (last 3 years and forecast for 2011).
Respondent’s characteristics: Respondent’s name; respondent’s position; training; time working in the field; time in the
area while working in the current company.

CC:
1. Knowing that we have three types of CC service, which one (s) has your company adopted? Why? What percentage of services
and infrastructure is currently located in the cloud?
2. What was taken into consideration when deciding to adopt/not to adopt SaaS? Why?
3. What was taken into consideration when deciding to adopt/not to adopt IaaS?
4. Knowing that there are two types of cloud (public and private), which one does your organization have? What was taken into
consideration when deciding to adopt a public/private cloud? Why?
5. What was taken into consideration when deciding to adopt a public/private cloud? Explore reasons.
6. Who is/are your SaaS/IaaS provider (s)? What criteria were adopted when choosing this/these provider (s)?

Network access:
7. Was network access taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
8. Was ubiquity taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?

Reliability:
9. Was reliability taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
10. Was the ability to protect the integrity of the data taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
11. Was the ability to perform transactions taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?

Costs savings:
12. Was the cost-benefit ratio taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
13. Were energy saving and cooling taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
14. Was the payment model taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
15. Were entry costs taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?

Scalability:
16. Was scalability taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
17. Was the flexibility to quickly increase or decrease the infrastructure taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?

Interoperability:
18. Was the ability to allow users to move between platforms taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
19. Was the ability to use the same artifacts (e.g. management tools, servers, etc.) among suppliers taken into consideration
when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
20. Was vendor lock-in taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?

Privacy:
21. Was privacy taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
22. Were data protection rights been taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
23. Were legal aspects taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?

Security:
24. Was the security of the users’ data taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
25. Was control over the data taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
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CYRO GUDOLLE SOBRAGI  ANTÔNIO CARLOS GASTAUD MAÇADA  MIRIAN OLIVEIRA 91

26. Was network security taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
27. Was server security taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?

Sustainability:
28. Was sustainability taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
29. Was the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?
30. Was energy efficiency taken into consideration when deciding to adopt CC? Why?

Others:
31. Do you believe there are other factors related to the adoption of CC in the company? Which ones? Why (ask about each one)?
32. Scale of importance:

Not very Indifferent/

Factor Not important Important Very important
important Immaterial
Network access
Reliability
Cost savings
Scalability
Interoperability
Privacy
Security
Sustainability
Other:
Other:
Other:

VOLUME 11  Nº1  JANEIRO/MARÇO 2014

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