Selection of Cloud Delivery and Deployment Models: An Expert System Approach

Research interests on cloud computing adoption and its effectiveness in terms of cost and time has been increasing. However, one of the challenging decisions facing management in adopting cloud services is taking on the right combinations of cloud service delivery and deployment models. A comprehensive review of literature revealed a lack of research addressing this selection decision problem. To fill this research gap, this article proposes an expert system approach for managers to decide on the right combination of service delivery and deployment model selection. The article first proposes a rule-based expert system prototype, which provides advice based on a set of factors that represent the organizational conditions and requirements pertaining to cloud computing adoption. Next, the authors evaluate the system prototype. Lastly, the article concludes with a discussion of the results, its practical implications, limitations, and further research directions.