| The evolution of Information Technology (IT) over the past 20 years has possibly created some of the greatest innovations within a single industry. A major catalyst driving change in the IT industry is the need to be competitive among peers and customer expectations. As the global business markets converge due to technology innovations, IT business professionals are consistently presented with challenges in developing technology roadmaps that will sufficiently meet their organizational needs. Assessing the technological advancements and deciding the best path an organization should take to remain relevant in the technology industry has prompted IT business professionals to research solutions that are effective, flexible, and cost efficient. Due in part to the wide acceptance and use of the Internet, new technologies such as cloud computing has emerged as the platform that IT business professionals are trusting to meet their needs. Leveraging the Internet has become one of cloud computing's greatest strengths and IT business professionals are considering how best to deliver solutions using this technology. Unfortunately, not all IT business professionals agree that cloud computing is a solution for meeting their immediate and long term needs. These individuals are concerned that some of the inherit barriers of cloud computing which include: (a) streamlining traditional IT service delivery, (b) cost reduction, (c) outsourcing and (d) risks associated with the lack of standardization and data security are being overlooked during the process of adopting the new technology. Assessing solutions used by early adopters to overcome barriers of cloud computing may provide an opportunity for the platform and IT business professionals to further develop and deploy the technology. Eleven IT business professionals from two companies (health care and IT) within the state of Maryland participated in face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The results of the study identified mitigation strategies that enabled IT business professionals who were interested in the technology to efficiently deploy the services to meet the needs of their organizations. There were several recommendations given by participants that may assist IT business professionals who are hesitant to adopt cloud computing to better understand how best to deploy services within their companies. Matching the cloud services with the business requirements of the organization is essential for a successful implementation. |
