Critical Success Factors for the Implementation and Adoption of Cloud Services in SMEs

Cloud computing (CC) is a fast-growing technology and one of the most important technological drivers of the digitalization of enterprises. The implementation and adoption of a suitable cloud service is challenging and knowledge-intensive and requires strong participation and ownership of business managers and IT units. However, even if the awareness of critical success factors (CSFs) for cloud implementation projects strongly supports avoiding failures within the projects, this field has rarely been researched, especially with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, our paper's contribution to research and practice is the identification of 26 CSFs through a rigorous literature review in combination with an interview study among German SMEs. As a result, we derive a comprehensive model as a starting point for cloud implementation projects in which we assign the CSFs to the respective parties involved in those projects.