BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING IN PRODUCTION AND SERVICE SECTOR IN IZMIR, THE CITY OF TURKEY

Abstract

Purpose of the study: This research aims to understand the benefits and challenges of cloud and non-cloud adopter companies of production and service sectors on cloud computing and making recommendations based on companies’ perceptions of the issue in Izmir, Turkey. Methodology: This is a descriptive survey of businesses, forming a questionnaire for 99 companies in the service sector and 66 companies in the production sector to non-cloud or cloud user businesses in the city of Izmir in Turkey. SPSS 26.0 software is used to analyze the perceived benefits and challenges of cloud computing. Main Findings: The descriptive analysis results show that increasing productivity in business processes and working collaboratively from remote are the most important perceived benefits of adopting cloud computing in the production sector and service sector, respectively. On the other hand, business processes adoption issues and concerns about security are the significant perceived challenges and barriers of cloud computing adoption, respectively. Applications of this study: The study is useful for governments to understand the critical points of cloud computing and is believed to give governments the ability to prepare an appropriate environment for businesses. Cloud providers and companies also take a position to contribute to this environment by creating new I.T. products and purchasing these I.T. products conforming to their I.T. needs, respectively. Novelty/Originality of this study: This research provides companies in Izmir with a guide for the adoption considering the appropriate cloud computing deployment models such as public cloud, private cloud, community cloud and hybrid cloud for certain types of applications such as software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service(PaaS) and Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) for developing countries.