Factors Determining Application of Cloud Computing Services in Latvian SMEs

摘要

Cloud computing has changed the way IT companies develop their software and offer it to their customers. The business model has made this type of service widely available and inexpensive. Nowadays not only large corporations, but also small and medium-sized enterprises are able to afford BI first-rate software. Meanwhile the American and the European small and medium-sized enterprises have already realized the benefits of cloud computing, the local companies are still lagging behind. The purpose of the article presented is to identify the factors that influence entrepreneurs in decision making for applying cloud computing service. In order to achieve this purpose, several tasks have been set: ? to analyse generally available statistics on IT application in companies; ? to conduct a survey among the Latvian SME managers. According to the results achieved within the process of writing the article, the Latvian entrepreneurs have highly appreciated application of IT in the process of managing companies’ activities, however, there is still a rather low knowledge of the options provided by cloud computing. On the basis of the previous works and the scientific literature at their disposal, in Discussion part the authors suggest their own solution for the issue regarded.