Cloud Computing Adoption in Higher Education: A Comparative Study Between Public and Private Universities in Sub Saharan Africa

Abstract

Cloud computing is fast gaining a significant ground as a solution to offer institutions with competitive advantage compared to the old traditional Technology. Despite the potential benefits that is associated with cloud computing which includes reduction of total costs of acquisition or ownership (TCO) of hardware, software and skilled resources, the adoption level of cloud services is still very low in higher institutions of learning due to security issues, especially trust issues which remain a major concern over cloud solutions. The study was carried out in some selected public and private universities in sub Saharan Africa to determine the reason for the low cloud adoption by key stakeholders in higher institutions of learning. An adoption strategy was recommended with reference to the resources available, confidentiality, integrity and availability. The study recommended that cloud service providers should be transparent with their privacy policies with institutions of higher learning as this can influence cloud purchasing decisions. Secondly, there is the need for training IT personnel and to create awareness of the benefits of cloud computing to enable institutions of higher learning to adopt them to enhance their productivity.