Using cloud computing services to enhance competitive advantage of commercial organizations

Using advanced technology in business has created hyper-competition among organizations to satisfy customers' needs. Using advanced technology aims to provide customers with quality products/services at suitable prices in the right place better than competitors. Therefore, the current study's purpose is to explore the influence of cloud computing services on Jordanian commercial organizations’ competitive advantages, organizations which use cloud computing services. The study uses quantitative, cause-effect, and cross-sectional methods and uses a convenience sampling approach to collect the data by questionnaire from 111 managers and/or owners of commercial organizations. The collected questionnaires are examined and inserted into SPSS. The instrument validity, normal distribution, and reliability are verified, then descriptive analysis is performed, the relationship between independent and dependent variables is tested, and finally multiple regressions are used to test the hypotheses. The findings indicate that commercial organizations are concerned about cloud computing services as well as competitive advantage sub-variables. The results also show that there was a significantly strong correlation between cloud computing services and competitive advantage. Moreover, cloud computing services influence the dimensions of competitive advantages (quality, cost, reliability, innovation, and responsiveness) of commercial organizations, where cloud computing services have the most significant influence on quality followed by cost and responsiveness, respectively. However, cloud computing services do not significantly influence innovation and reliability. Finally, the study recommends doing comparable research on other sectors, and industries as well as in other countries to test the results' generalizability

Exploring Strategies that IT Leaders Use to Adopt Cloud Computing

Information Technology (IT) leaders must leverage cloud computing to maintain competitive advantage. Evidence suggests that IT leaders who have leveraged cloud computing in small and medium sized organizations have saved an average of $1 million in IT services for their organizations. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies that IT leaders use to adopt cloud computing for their organizations. The target population consisted of 15 IT leaders who had experience with designing and deploying cloud computing solutions at their organization in Long Island, New York within the past 2 years. The conceptual framework of this research project was the disruptive innovation theory. Semistructured interviews were conducted and company documents were gathered. Data were inductively analyzed for emergent themes, then subjected to member checking to ensure the trustworthiness of findings. Four main themes emerged from the data: the essential elements for strategies to adopt cloud computing; most effective strategies; leadership essentials; and barriers, critical factors, and ineffective strategies affecting adoption of cloud computing. These findings may contribute to social change by providing insights to IT leaders in small and medium sized organizations to save money while gaining competitive advantage and ensure sustainable business growth that could enhance community standards of living