An Assessment of Resource Utilization from Traditional on-Premise Computing to Cloud Computing in SMMEs in Zimbabwe.

Abstract

This study investigates small and medium enterprises in Zimbabwe's IT sector to determine their perceptions of the benefits and limitations of cloud computing vs traditional on-premise computing, and to determine the viability of the cloud computing technology model in meeting the business goals of IT SMEs and ascertain how cloud computing and traditional computing security were perceived in order for I.T SMES to meet their business objectives. The findings revealed that respondents were IT consultants, IT managers, executive managers, middle managers, company owners, employees with IT expertise or knowledge, and IT specialists from each selected IT SME.Employees were the primary users of computing devices for the IT SMEs that participated in the study, followed by clients. According to the findings, IT SMEs operated in three sectors: computer/IT, mobile business, and digital solution. These organizations ranged in age from one to ten years.According to the research findings, 50% of respondents used cloud computing and 50% used traditional on-premise computing. The findings also revealed that 80% of traditional computing planned to use cloud computing, compared to 20% who did not plan to use cloud computing. According to the findings, traditional users were more likely to use SaaS than other cloud services.Users identified the following factors as important benefits in cloud computing: cost-efficiency, ease of implementation, scalability, time and cost savings, sustainability, customization, and virtualization.The findings revealed the following concerns and limitations in cloud computing: risks, availability, security issues, regulatory requirements, awareness, performance, impact of security, impact of challenges, impact of availability, trust and transparency, shared technology issues, disaster recovery, service level agreement, virtualization, and policy integration.