Managing Consumerization of Personal Cloud Storage: A New Zealand Perspective

Abstract

Employees‟ behavior of using personal cloud storage at the workplace might put corporates at risk. This trend has been happening globally and known as consumerization of personal cloud storage. This research reports on the state of this trend in New Zealand corporates. A mixed methods approach was employed with data collection through online anonymous surveys and an online focus group. It was found that personal cloud storage prevails widely throughout the corporates involved in the study. In light of earlier studies in IT consumerization and recent market researches on personal cloud storage, this study identifies many drivers, benefits and challenges of IT consumerization which remain significant in personal cloud storage consumerization, and additionally divulges new factors not previously surfaced in prior literature and publications. The results reveals that its challenges far outweigh its benefits and that the driving forces born within organizations are as considerably significant as those in the external environment. Resulting corporate risks such as security, support, regulatory obligations, data governance and policies are top-critical amongst other challenges with which corporates have to confront. Regardless of those challenges, corporates might gain several benefits, namely employee engagement, productivity, business agility and cost benefits to some extent.