Abstract

Making decisions for IT outsourcing is always a challenge for companies worldwide, and cloud computing has been growing as an alternative. This article analyzes the viewpoint of IT managers about the adoption of cloud computing services. It confronts the literature review on the main features of cloud computing with the opinion of sixteen managers responsible for IT departments in their companies. The interviews were conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire for collecting qualitative data. The results were divided into five main dimensions of analysis, which are: usability, scalability, service quality, security and cost. The results obtained in this study showed cloud computing as a subject present in the daily lives of IT managers. The main advantage pointed to cloud computing adoption was related to the scalability, especially due the ease and dynamism for adapting to variations of companies’ IT needs. The results also show that security is a major concern among IT managers and crucial for CC adoption decisions. The possibility of paying only for the IT resources that are actually used makes cost attractive for cloud computing adopting decisions.

Key words: IT acceptance, cloud computing, IT management, IT outsourcing.