Cloud-Computing in Banking Influential Factors, Benefits and Risks from a Decision Maker's Perspective

In 2008 Gartner Group listed "Cloud-Computing (CC)" in its Hype-Cycle (Gartner, 2008). Since these days, enterprises in different industries discuss the utilization of cloud-computing for their own benefit. The banking industry traditionally is heavily dependent on information technology. Therefore, it can be assumed that cloudcomputing could be of particular interesting for banks. This paper investigates the use of cloud-computing in German banks and the associated benefits and risks as senior management perceives them. Grounded in the TOE-Framework ten expert interviews with senior decision makers German banks have been conducted to evaluate the decision criteria pro and con cloud computing. Several factors influencing the cloud-computing decision have been detected, amongst them the technology supporting infrastructure, government regulations and security and compliance requirements. Furthermore the financial benefits came up as the most important perceived benefit and government regulation (esp. privacy/security regulations) are the most important risks perceived by senior management.