Acceptance of cloud computing in the Malaysian public sector: A proposed model

Abstract

The Malaysian government has initiated a cloud government project as an integration of cloud computing and unified communication-based applications toward the digital and cloud work environment. However, the impact studies have found that the implementation of this project has several weaknesses such as lack of infrastructure support, weak IT knowledge, and lack of awareness among public sector employees causing applications not to be fully utilized. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct a study to measure the acceptance of government cloud project because there has been much investment in the project. This study applied Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), Technology Readiness Index (TRI) and several factors to develop the research model which is divided into two main factors: technological and human. The technological factor might determine the likelihood of its acceptance by the public sector and might stimulate them to accept it. The human factor as the characteristics of the people in the public sector that may contribute to creating the need for and ability to accept cloud computing. This proposed model will be used to evaluate the individual acceptance of cloud computing in the Malaysian public sector. For future work, this model needs to be enriched with interview sessions and quantitative surveys to validate the findings.