The success of the Internet over the past few decades has been the catalyst for the emergence of new technologies like cloud computing. The evolution of cloud computing has promoted innovation in goods and services while providing competitive market advantages to various organizations across numerous industries. Cloud computing has become one of the foremost technology strategies business, government, and educational organizations consider to extend their infrastructure, enhance their growth opportunities, and gain new capabilities. Cloud computing has become the most disruptive technology of our time. However, seminal research found a wide range of decision-makers did not understand the factors that contributed to the decision to adopt cloud computing within their respective industries.

This quantitative, nonexperimental, correlational study was used to determine the relationship between the factors that influenced IT directors' decision to adopt cloud-computing technology within their respective for-profit corporate entities, academic institutions, and government agencies. The data collected as part of this study revealed a statistically significant correlation between the security effectiveness, cost savings, and reliability factors and the decision to adopt cloud computing. However, the study also revealed the decision to adopt cloud computing was significantly higher in one type of organization over the others.