  In the context of cloud computing, risks associated with underlying
technologies, risks involving service models and outsourcing, and enterprise
readiness have been recognized as potential barriers for the adoption. To
accelerate cloud adoption, the concrete barriers negatively influencing the
adoption decision need to be identified. Our study aims at understanding the
impact of technical and security-related barriers on the organizational
decision to adopt the cloud. We analyzed data collected through a web survey of
352 individuals working for enterprises consisting of decision makers as well
as employees from other levels within an organization. The comparison of
adopter and non-adopter sample reveals three potential adoption inhibitor,
security, data privacy, and portability. The result from our logistic
regression analysis confirms the criticality of the security concern, which
results in an up to 26-fold increase in the non-adoption likelihood. Our study
underlines the importance of the technical and security perspectives for
research investigating the adoption of technology.
