IaaS cloud optimisation during economic turbulence for Malaysia small and medium enterprise

With today’s digital economy, switching ON a cloud computing IaaS is no longer an easy task like an ordinary electricity utility switch. Moving from LAN into the shared cloud services is just the iceberg question of location but the deeper question should be about the product and process of acquiring infrastructure. Previous primary survey has shown that Malaysia SME’s over investment in IT infrastructure has crush traditional perception of under resources. This paper uses a Delphi interactive interview correspondence method with Malaysia SME top management to revalidate each other’s views. Results show that IaaS model is still in the infancy stage due to shared security concern and immature last mile connectivity. Administrators are still unsure how to determine the measurable organisational value when investing in IaaS. Even the current economic turbulence has lower impact to the decision making for continuous investment in IT infrastructure which is deemed to contribute in longer years. The optimisation framework will guide investment decision on IaaS to enhance SME competitiveness during an economic turbulence.