Understanding Critical Factors for Adoption of Cloud Computing in Enterprise Environment Khush Bakhat Awar ORIC NUCES FAST Islamabad Pakistan khush.bakhat@nu.edu.pk Maryam Ehsan Information Technology Department University of Gujrat Gujrat Pakistan maryam.ehsan@uog.edu.pk M Shujah Islam Sameem Electronics Department Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad Pakistan mshujahislam@rocketmail.com Hanif Ullah Computer Science Department Riphah International university Islamabad Pakistan hukhan.dev@gmail.com Ata- UL-Aziz Ikram Electrical Engineering Department NUCES FAST Islamabad Pakistan ata.ikram@nu.edu.pk Zia-UL-Qayyum Information Technology Department University of Gujrat Gujrat Pakistan vc@uog.edu.pk Abstract—The advancement in cloud computing technology over the past few years is potentially one of the most significant advances in the history of computing. To avail benefits of cloud computing, a clear understanding of critical factors that impact on adoption of cloud technology. While a lot of research is currently taking place in the cloud technology itself, there is an equally urgent need for understanding local/global trends and challenges in cloud computing. This paper presents a literature survey highlighting the factors influencing enterprises for moving towards cloud. The aim of this article is to identify the critical factors, which act as key drivers for adoption of cloud technology for local enterprises and investigate the current cloud computing challenges in novel way. The results show that most of the enterprises move towards cloud technology considering, cost reduction, ubiquitous access, scalability and flexibility. Due to lack of cloud knowledge, limited resources, lack of management support and data security issue over cloud most of the organizations are unable to avail the benefits of cloud computing. Keywords—Cloud adoption challenges, Cloud Computing technology, Trends in cloud computing. I. INTRODUCTION Continued innovation is the major driving force for the creation of new products & services, developing new industries and supporting organizations competitiveness. Cloud computing is also one of the most innovative creativity in the history of information technology and computation [1] . Research in cloud computing has become an exciting area due to its novelty and growth. “Cloud computing” offers on- demand computing services with smaller number of IT staff, less maintenance, and quick implementation [2]. Rapid progress in storage and processing technology has been the major reason success of cloud computing. Cloud allows easy cheap, powerful and ubiquitous availability of remote resources. Cloud data centers deploy thousands of computers and can scale up quickly with increase in to demand of the service. Scalability requires appropriate processing time within limited cost in terms of hardware and energy. [3]. Cloud computing is the advance form of gird, utility and distributed computing. cloud services are embedded in our daily usage procucts such as: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google Apps and Gmail [4]. Proliferating use of cloud services becoming a global trend in technology. Cloud computing allows sharing of virtual resources based on PAYG (Pay-as-you-go) method. Generally, cloud services are referred as SaaS (Software as a service), PaaS (Platform as a service) and IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) [5]. Based on the business needs, customer can select the service model. SaaS platform provides flexibility, scalability and cost effectiveness. PaaS offers a place where a consumer can develop applications on a service provider’s computing platform, hence removing the requirement to find its own infrastructure for the development. In this way PaaS makes the deployment, development and testing of applications in cost effective, simple and quick. IaaS permits enterprises to rent a data center, without worrying about the need to maintain and create the same data center footprint in their own enterprise. Advantages of implementing IaaS include: scalability, optimal utility, improved throughput, reduced latency, cost effectiveness, simplified interface and much more [6].The development in cloud computing over the last five years has made a remarkable impact on the Information Technology (IT) industry. Now companies need to reshape their business paradigm so that they can achieve maximum advantage from latest technologies. Many companies like