Cloudy with a Chance of Usage? - Towards a Model of Cloud Computing Adoption in German SME

While Cloud Computing has become an important topic in research and practice in recent years and widely adopted by consumers and companies around the globe, especially German small and mediumsized enterprises (SME) are reluctant with the respect to using cloud services. Scientific literature on cloud adoption in German SMEs is still scarce, in particular with respect to the use of PaaS solutions. Therefore, in this paper a research model for the organizational adoption of Cloud Computing and especially PaaS solutions is proposed, which is based on the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) and Technology, Organization and Environment (TOE) theories. The proposed model is derived from an explorative qualitative empirical study among German SMEs. Within this model, security and privacy concerns and fast broadband internet access have been identified as the most important technological influencing factors for cloud adoption.