model Deployment
In the hypothesized relationships in
cloud deployment, success depends
on positive linkages with the client
organization’s technical, managerial,
and relational capabilities (see Figure
5). Our survey of organizations adopting cloud computing was a test of the
cloud-deployment model (see Table 1).
We collected a total of 314 usable questionnaires based on on-site interviews,
online participation, and telephone interviews. Participants, mainly IT managers, provided subjective evaluations
of their relationship with cloud vendors, including the vendor’s technical
ability (such as speed of integration),
managerial ability (such as to exploit
emerging technologies), 15 the affective dimension of trust (such as fairness and trustworthiness), 19 and the
cognitive dimension of trust (such as
service reliability). 9 We also asked participants for their perceptions of their
deployments (such as “meets business
needs” and “produces timely information”) 7 and verified all survey items
met the requisite tests for reliability,
internal consistency, and validity. We
tested the structural-equations model
using AMOS 7.0 analytical software,
finding the model-fit indices in Figure
5 all meet the standard thresholds for
acceptability of the fit of the data to the
model (see Table 2).
ganization/cloud-vendor relationship
cannot be overstated when organizations move to cloud services. Trust is
a strong predictor of deployment success and key factor in effective collaboration and assurance that the client
organization’s cloud strategy is implemented in its best interests.
Moreover, when the client orga-
nization is characterized by strong
technical and managerial capability,
it is more likely to achieve greater IT
economies of scale, as well as greater
access to skilled IT personnel and key
technologies. The three factors mod-
eled as influential in the organization
reaching its cloud-computing poten-
tial explain a large percentage (49%) of
table 1. Survey-respondent demographics and cloud use.
Industry
It
Manufacturing
Finance
Logistics
Service
education
Frequency
75
63
52
46
44
27
%
23.7%
19.9%
16.4%
14.5%
13.9%
8.5%
Location
Asia
North America
europe
Australia
Africa
other
92
81
79
34
17
14
29.0%
25.6%
24.9%
10.7%
5.4%
4.4%
Cloud Services Used
Saa S
Iaa S
paa S
134
117
66
42.3%
36.9%
20.8%
model Results
We found that trust, managerial capability, and technical capability each
have a significant relationship with
cloud-deployment performance. The
results of the user-vendor partnership
imply that when a client organization
and its cloud vendor develop a relationship characterized by trust, the client is
more likely to realize the technical and
economic benefits for which it originally pursued cloud computing. The
importance of trust in the client-or-
Cloud Delivery Methods
public
private
Hybrid
other
134
91
72
15
43.8%
28.7%
22.7%
4.7%
Reasons for Cloud Use
Cost Savings
Information Sharing
performance over in-house
In-house performance degradation
other
random Sample of 314 Firms
126
101
87
73
16
39.7%
31.9%
27.4%
23.0%
5.0%
table 2. hypotheses test results.
hypothesis
H1
H2
H3
p < 0.01
effects
trust → Successful cloud deployment
technical capability → Successful cloud deployment
Management capability → Successful cloud deployment
Path coefficient
0.251**
0.335**
0.269**
t-value
10.438
7.950
8.273
Results
Supported
Supported
Supported
SepteMBer2012 | voL. 55 | No. 9 | CommuniCationS oF the aCm 67