Investigating the factors, risk and challenges impacting cloud computing services adoption rate

It is anticipated that in the next five years the services of Information Technology will definitely be dynamic, movable, and interactive representing a paradigm shift in IT industry. This refers to data accessibility, workload, and all other computing resources. IT companies and organizations will be migrating IT infrastructure, data and software applications to Cloud rapidly. Manufacturing and engineering companies will definitely seek to optimize Information Technology environments and reduce high operational costs by adopting Cloud Computing services, at a rapid rate. However, there are factors impacting the adoption rate of Cloud services. The main objective of this research study mainly focused on factors and risks affecting the adoption rate of Cloud Computing. The study commences by introducing Cloud Computing concepts and provided the background. Secondly, it introduced the research problem, objectives and mapped the dissertation outline. In line with the main objective, this research study achieved its objectives by employing systematic literature review to investigate the factors impacting adoption of Cloud services. The investigation was primarily conducted by applying TOE method. The study identified seventy articles of which only twenty eligible articles for data evaluation and analysis process. These articles were sourced from the University of Johannesburg library database. The study finds that there are factors impacting the adoption of Cloud services around the globe. These are security, compatibility, complexity, top management support, industry pressure, regulatory laws, firm size, trust, relative advantage and cost. The study validated that technological factors have the most impact of Cloud Computing adoption rate followed by environmental and organizational. Moreover, the research established consistency between data extracted from selected or eligible articles and the research method’s results. The study also recommends factors that must be considered by potential adopters before adopting Cloud services. This will definitely help organizations design a solid Cloud adoption strategy and contribute greatly into assessment of Cloud adoption maturity levels. These will also help organizations to mitigate the risk and adhere to existing regulations and policies already in place in their countries. These factors should also be considered for future research.