Determining factors pertaining to cloud security adoption framework in government organizations: An exploratory study

In wealthy developing countries like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the adoption of cloud computing is progressing slowly compared to the developed countries. To accelerate the cloud computing adoption, this study takes place exploring and investigating the associated security factors with cloud computing that influence organisations' desire for adopting the services of cloud computing. This exploratory study has been conducted through two steps: (1) develop a framework based on security factors discussed in related studies and (2) validate the security factors' relationships within the developed security framework. In the validation study, an instrument was distributed to 217 IT experts in different Saudi government organisations. Correlation analysis is used to explore the relationship(s) among items and factors. The results suggested that the security factors were significantly correlated with each other. The internal consistency reliability analysis results were great. Worthy Cronbach's alpha results also indicated that the items used to measure each factor were independent measures, which are positivity correlated with one another. The key findings of the exploratory factor analysis revealed three main components named as security benefits, security risks, and security awareness. Overall, the implications of this exploratory study provide a significant contribution towards cloud adoption in Saudi organisations. The outcomes of this study will serve as valuable information for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers.