Challenges of Cloud Computing in Business: Towards New Organizational Competencies

Abstract

researchers and practitioners as a new Information Technology (IT) paradigm. Cloud computing cannot be sufficiently understood as a standalone phenomenon in the IT market, but rather as a core ingredient of a larger transformation of the IT industry that impacts the entire IT ecosystem. Due to the change from enterprise computing to cloud computing, organizations and individuals need to develop new skills and competencies. Extant literature in cloud computing has mainly focused on its affordances and challenges with scant attention given to organizational resources that enable efficient and effective adoption. This paper addresses how organizations can identify their own local cloud adoption challenges and how to overcome those challenges by developing new competencies. The paper draws on resource-based theory to propose new organizational competencies required for seamless migration from enterprise computing to cloud computing. This study was conducted through an extensive review of academic publications on cloud computing as well as professional literature such as industry white papers and technical reports.