Logistics Management: Opporunities in the Cloud

The Internet provides an opportunity to facilitate business strategies and operations by enabling some logistics computing technologies to be outsourced and leveraged. Specifically, cloud computing provides numerous opportunities and value-added capabilities that logistics organizations require in order to remain competitive and be successful; however, there are conflicting viewpoints regarding cloud viability. The purpose of this study is to explore the perceived use of cloud computing and its functionality in logistics, to identify what types of cloud computing architectures, Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and cloud deployments (public, private or hybrid) are most utilized for logistics operations, and to determine the advantages and disadvantages logistics firms see in cloud computing. The model developed here is based on the Theory of Reasoned Action and explores logistics/IT managers’ perceptions of cloud computing