CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION

The employment of the right technology in an organisation can provide major competitive advantages. Not only in organisations, but at a higher level, governments are seeking for new technologies to enhance their services while minimising the costs. Although, there might be no precise definition for cloud computing, the tremendous advantages and benefits of this new technology has turn cloud computing to the hottest topic in Information Technology. The remarkable effects of cloud computing in economy have already stimulated the developed countries to deploy this technology in national level. Nonetheless, the adoption of cloud computing could transform the workflow in the organisations. Therefore, in order to ensure the smooth transition with minimal casualties, preparations needs to be done and a clear road map has to be followed. However, the approach to cloud adoption process in developing countries can be entirely different. While it has been pointed out that cloud computing can bring more advantages to developing countries, it adoption can be profoundly challenging. Consequently, a set of fundamental and yet vital preparation are required to facilitate the process of cloud adoption. Moreover, a definite framework that is formed based on the current state of the country is absolutely necessary. In this research, we focus on the process of cloud adoption in Iran as a developing country. We start by providing a comprehensive background on cloud computing by studying its aspects, features, advantages and disadvantages and continue to identify the vital cloud readiness criteria. Next, we conduct an empirical study in order to assess the state of cloud readiness in Iran by performing interviews, observations and discussions. Finally, after we analyse our data from the empirical study, we present our results by presenting a clear and definitive framework for cloud adoption in Iran.