Cloud computing adoption in financial regulating bodies under national treasury in Kenya: A technology-organization-environment approach

Abstract

Cloud Computing is a term that refers to resources and computer systems available on demand through the internet, which can provide a number of integrated computer services without being bound by local resources in order to make it easier for the user, and those resources include storage space, data backup, self-synchronization, processing capabilities software, scheduling of tasks, push e-mail, and remote printing. The user can control when it is connected to the network in these resources through a simple software interface is used and ignores a lot of details about its internal operations. The introduction of cloud computing services in Kenya by some telecommunication company like Safaricom Cloud from Safaricom Limited is an indicator that cloud computing technology is gaining ground and popularity locally. Technology adoption studies, which include Cloud computing adoption, have mainly been carried out in United State of America, Europe, Japan and Australia. No previous study has analyzed the adoption and use of cloud computing services in financial regulating bodies under national Treasury. This research aims at showing the factors and barriers/challenges to adopt Cloud Computing technology in these regulating bodies under the Ministry of National Treasury. The reason for studying these organizations is, they do control important sectors of the Kenyan economy. Using the descriptive analytical method to study the effects of the main seven dimensions(Relative advantage, Compatibility, Complexity, Firm Size, Government Support, Top management support and Organizational Readiness) on the adoption of Cloud Computing technology. This research focuses on these organizations because they are key in driving this country to vision 2030. The researcher used a questionnaire as a data collection tool. The research population was (42) of Senior ICT Officers that are involved in ICT policy decision making. (42) Questionnaires were recollected out of (42) questionnaires that were distributed and were analyzed by SPSS program for statistical analysis. The results showed that there is a significant relationship between the Intention to adopt Cloud Computing and the three independent variables; (Top management support, Relative Advantage and Compatibility) at level of significance α= 0.05. The research recommended that these organizations can adopt Cloud Computing technology in their operations if it‟s fully supported by top management.