Suitability Analytics and Cloud Computing Adoption Modeling for Educational Institutions

Abstract

The recent financial calamity and growing needs have challenged organizations, particularly educational institutes in providing the necessary latest Information Technology infrastructure support for educational, research and developmental activities. Universities in most developing countries have been facing critical challenges of fast obsolescing ICT infrastructure and technologies. They still use the traditional IT infrastructures environment for previously mentioned educational processes and activities. Cloud computing has been evolved as a new paradigm that promises modern solutions in terms of latest technological support with the economy, bendable computing competencies, real-time availability and high reliability of services with limitless and scalable computing power. In cloud computing, resources are not ownership based rather they are rented, transferred and owned by external cloud services providers. In this research detailed need-based analysis has been done on demand-driven benefits of cloud computing in terms of scalability of infrastructure, real-time availability of services in anytime anywhere over any computing and communication device with promised cost-effectiveness in higher educational institutions. To achieve the objectives; recent literature on cloud computing in general and its deployment mechanisms, in particular, were studied and critically analyzed for suitability and best-fit modeling based on selected parameters in higher educational institutions like University. Traditional ICT infrastructure and service practices used by higher education institutions were analyzed using technical opinion analysis, risks and suitability factors. For the functional suitability, a hybrid cloud-computing model has been designed as a most suitable prototype both for confidential and public information. Finally, it is proposed for higher education institutions in order to assure optimum utilization of ICT resources with previously mentioned promising features.

Keywords: Cloud, Hybrid, Scalability, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS