Unified Cloud Computing Adoption Framework

Cloud computing adoption has represented a big challenge for all kinds of companies all over the world. The challenge involves such questions as where to start, which provider should the company choose or whether it is even worthwhile. With a constantly changing economic environment, businesses must assess current technologies and offerings to remain competitive. The possibility of migrating a company's services and infrastructure to the cloud may seem attractive. However, without proper guidance, the results may not be as expected, leading a loss of time and money. As each company has its own needs and requirements, industry-focused frameworks have been proposed (e.g. for educational or governmental institutions). Although these frameworks are useful, they are not applicable to every business. Hence, a generic, widely-applicable and implementable cloud computing adoption framework is proposed in this paper. It takes the best outcomes of previous studies, best-practice suggestions, as well as authors' additions, and sums them up into a more robust, unified framework. The framework consists of 6 detailed phases carrying the user from knowing the company's current state to successfully migrating the data, services, and infrastructure to the cloud. These steps are intended to help IT directors and other decision-makers to reduce risks and maximize benefits throughout the cloud computing adoption process. Data security risks are not discussed in this paper as other authors have already sufficiently studied them. This framework was developed from a business perspective.