Multidimensional Decision Model for Investment in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is an exciting phenomenon currently gaining popularity. Many organizations consider the option of migrating some of their infrastructure to cloud. However, it is absolutely essential to understand the promises of cloud computing, and its actual capabilities offered by modern-day cloud providers beforehand. This paper investigates the phenomenon of cloud computing from the perspective of “cloudonomics”. It describes the basic premises of cloud computing; these foundations allow us to frame the main research goal of this study – the investigation of costs associated with utilizing cloud services offered by external providers in contrast to meeting the needs in-house. We discuss how these topics have been approached by other researchers, and we identify the directions that future research should follow in order to provide valuable information for both IS practitioners and IS researchers. Finally, we propose a discrete multidimensional decision model that helps researchers and decision-makers in evaluating services offered by cloud vendors.