Cloud Computing Adoption and Organization Performance Among Small and Medium Enterprise (Smes) in Nairobi County

Abstract

This study focused on Cloud Computing adoption organizational performance in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nairobi, Kenya. The objectives were to establish the extent of Cloud Computing adoption, to determine the drivers of adoption of Cloud Computing, to determine the challenges of adopting Cloud Computing and to determine the relationship between Cloud Computing and Organization performance in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nairobi, Kenya. The study used a descriptive survey. The primary data was collected using questionnaires. The study involved 35 SMEs in Nairobi, the respondents being managers of the SMEs. The study showed that the most commonly adopted services of Cloud Computing were the Software as a Service (SaaS), Hardware as a Service (HaaS), and Interface as a Service (Iaas). The study also shows that benefits of adopting Cloud Computing outweighs it‟s cost, the need to have data backup and Cloud computing being easy to use were the main drivers of Cloud Computing adoption. The study also shows the challenges of Cloud Computing are speed of access, loss of connectivity and efficiency in providing services. The study concludes that there is a relationship in improved organizational performance especially in accuracy of data processing, timely reporting and overall improvement in efficiency of the organization. Further research with a larger sample size of various categories of organizations will enrich the studies on Cloud Computing adoption and improved organization‟s performance.