The role of government regulations in the adoption of cloud computing: A case study of local government

Abstract Cloud computing is a technology that facilitates improved productivity, improved efficiency and lower costs. This technology has the potential to improve the reliability and scalability of organizational systems and leads to an enhanced focus on core business and strategy. Despite the Australian Federal Government's ‘cloud-first’ strategy and policies and the Queensland State Government's ‘digital-first’ strategy, the adoption of cloud services at the local government level has been limited, largely due to a lack of specificity among government regulations and a lack of regulations that provide support to local governments. This empirical study deploys a mixed research method designed to develop a cloud regulations model to assist governments in adopting cloud computing services. By integrating Australian Cloud Policy Frameworks with the extant research on cloud computing, this study conducted 21 field interviews with Information Technology (IT) managers and surveyed 480 IT staff from Australia's 47 local governments. This research paper presents and validates a revised set of factors used to develop government regulations specific to cloud computing adoption. The factors that we found to be statistically significant were cost, quality of services, security, privacy, management, government-based facilitating conditions, and firm-based facilitating conditions regulations. Based on these findings, this research concludes that government regulation is a significant aspect in decision making for the adoption of any new technology such as cloud computing.

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