Managing the Is Infrastructure Is Written by

¶ … managing the IS infrastructure is written by Wu et al. And entitled "Cloud computing in support of supply chain information system infrastructure: Understanding when to go to the cloud." This article provides original, empirical research into the factors pertaining to business organizations' decisions about whether or not they should utilize new technology -- specifically the cloud. It also focuses heavily on theory relating to the adoption of innovative technologies, and actually combines elements of innovation diffusion theory and information processing view to form the hypothesis of the study.

As such, it is a fairly comprehensive read that aggregates both academic interest and pragmatic business applications relating to information system infrastructure. Since the article was released in July of 2013, its insight is highly relevant to contemporary society and the technologies affecting information systems today. The overall strength of this article is its scholastic approach to analyzing what is actually an issue related to formal business and information technology.

The authors provide a thorough literature review in which they discern that there is a lack of research in the factors that actually determine the adoption rate of new technology and of cloud computing in particular. In formulating their expectations for the research conducted within the study, Wu et al.

(2013) defined and examined the theoretical perspectives of innovation diffusion theory and information processing view, the latter of which states that the most applicable factors of technology innovation related to cloud computing is the factors of relative advantage and compatibility with previous technologies. The basic premise of the authors was that facets of an organization's environment and processes would influence its adoption rate for cloud computing. This hypothesis was tested via the aforementioned empirical study that utilized a survey and regression analysis.

Specifically, the survey pertained to aspects of business process complexity, entrepreneurial culture, compatibility and processing capacity (Wu et al., 2013, p. 31). After various methods of refining the survey including having it reviewed by academicians in the field and testing it out on MBA students, approximately 300 managers or executives from "three large professional organizations that operate within the domain of manufacturing, retail, and logistics"(Wu, 2013, p. 33 ) completed the survey. The results of the survey wer fairly conclusive, and emphasized the fact that that the group's hypothesis was correct.

Specifically, a culture of entrepreneurs, process complexity, application functionality and compatibility between cloud computing with previous information systems proved to play a significant role in the adoption rates of cloud computing. Again, it is essential to realize that one of the most valuable facets of this study is the conscientious way in which it was formulated, from the inclusion of various items and questions from previous surveys to the power analysis to determine an adequate sample size. Not surprisingly, the results were aligned with the.