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Cloud Computing Adoption at Higher Education Institutions in Developing

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DOI: 10.18178/ijiet.2017.7.12.996

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 International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 7, No. 12, December 2017

Cloud Computing Adoption at Higher Education

Institutions in Developing Countries: A Qualitative
Investigation of Main Enablers and Barriers
M. Odeh, A. Garcia-Perez, and K. Warwick

 computing services to the public [5]. However, despite the

Abstract—The extensive use of cloud computing is changing low cost and broad availability of public cloud services, it is
the way of dealing with information and communication widely believed that this cloud model has less security
technology. Cloud computing has created a new concept to deal protection compared with other models [2], [4]-[7]. In
with software services and hardware infrastructure. Some
benefits are immediate; for instance, to allow students to share
addition, the shared resources pool in public cloud computing
their information easily and to discover new experiences of the model has physical capacity limitations as well as low
education system. However, despite the comprehensive processing performance unless the customer agrees to pay
literature, there is still limited studies related to the applied more for a premium edition [8].
factors that influence the adoption of cloud technology at higher In the public cloud model, the service provider would not
education institutions. Such limitations in the literature arise enable the client to control the physical resources at any level.
clearly in developing countries. This paper attempts to enhance
the understanding of related factors affecting the adoption of
Therefore, such limitations in control from the same physical
cloud computing in the educational context of developing servers might allow other clients to access an organisation’s
nations. A fieldwork study for collecting data has been critical data unintentionally [8]. In quite the opposite of the
conducted at higher education institutions in the kingdom of public cloud nature, the private cloud model enables the
Jordan. This study applied an interpretive paradigm with a client to maintain control over the physical cloud resources.
qualitative research method to investigate the main enablers of In the private cloud model, the client leases or owns control
and barriers to cloud computing adoption at the universities in
of the cloud infrastructure. This infrastructure is operated
developing countries in general and in the case of Jordan in
particular. solely for a specific client by a cloud computing service
provider [9]. However, the cost of adopting a private cloud
Index Terms—Cloud computing, higher education, model is obviously more expensive than the public cloud [10].
developing countries, enabler factors, barriers factors, Integration between public and private cloud models usually
qualitative study, NVIVO. offer the benefits of these two different models as well as
enabling the users to avoid the limitations of these two
models [9]. Such integration is called a hybrid cloud [2].
I. INTRODUCTION Finally, the community cloud model enables organizations
Cloud computing is a new paradigm, which provides that have the same concerns such as security, mission and
applications and services that can be accessed through the policy to share the same cloud infrastructure [9].
internet with the ability to share, managing and storing data, In addition, cloud computing could also be categorized
which is physically hosted on remote servers instead of using according to service models such as software as a service
in-house resources or personal machines [1]. Cloud (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), hardware as a service
computing provides advances in technology, such as high (HaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
processing speed, distributed and grid computing availability, However, universities that are becoming increasingly
and high storage capacity. In addition, through its use, the complex environments need to take certain measures with
common problems of limited computational power and regard to cloud computing. These measures including the
limited physical data storage can be ameliorated [2]. This introduction of web-based student services without a
synthesis integrates hardware, software, networks, and proportionate growth in the personal budget, as well as
storage options to deliver shared computing solutions in implementing software and hardware. Moreover, they aim to
which applications and other services would be provided decrease total costs while managing the highest level of
over the Internet [3]. privacy, updating security, and ensuring the capacity to
Cloud computing has four deployment models: public, accommodate a growing number of devices.
private, community, and hybrid. According to Chou [4], the
public cloud is considered to be the most popular model in
cloud computing. Service providers such as Google, II. CLOUD COMPUTING AT UNIVERSITIES IN DEVELOPED
Amazon, and IBM offer inexpensive or even free Cloud COUNTRIES
Cloud computing has become common in higher education
and universities [11]. For example, many colleges and
Manuscript received October 24, 2016; revised December 14, 2016.
The authors are with the Coventry University, Priory St, Coventry CV1 universities in Commonwealth countries introduced a
5FB, United Kingdom (e-mail: [email protected], collaborative system named Virginia Virtual Computing Lab,
[email protected], [email protected]).

doi: 10.18178/ijiet.2017.7.12.996 921

 International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 7, No. 12, December 2017

which enabled these colleges and universities to reduce their Oman, Sharma, Al-Badi, Govindaluri, & Al-Kharusi [20]
IT expenses by eliminating the requirements of software were able to show that job opportunities have a strong
updating and licensing [12]. One study by Mircea & positive relationship with the adoption of cloud computing at
Andreescu [13] argued that about 70% of IT leaders in higher the individual level. The same study has concluded that other
education recommended cloud computing over traditional factors such as perceived usefulness, self-efficacy and trust
computer technologies, stating that improving IT services is positively influence the adoption of cloud computing
the most crucial factor in their decision. In addition, it is technology.
estimated that using cloud computing technology at any According to Truong, Pham, Thoai, & Dustdar [17],
institution may reduce the total operational cost by 25 to 30 education institutions in developing countries mainly focus
percent [14]. on teaching and learning activities. Although some
Cloud computing technology provides a serious step universities in developing countries are considered as
across the educational industry and an important opportunity research-oriented institutions, these institutions are smaller
to improve structural efficiency, stimulate innovation, than teaching-oriented universities. The same authors argued
decrease spending on technology, and increase agility [15], that universities in developing countries face many
16]. Furthermore, cloud computing promises to provide challenges, which can be characterized as following:
almost unlimited computational power at low cost [7]. Such  Universities in developing countries suffer from limited
cloud computing benefits may solve the challenge of resources compared with population rate. Therefore,
resource limitations and the lack of advanced technology students also experience a high level of competition
availability in developing countries [17]. between each other for securing a seat in these
The importance of cloud computing in higher education universities.
has increased rapidly with the passage of time, and it is  High-quality resources are not available due to cost. As a
obvious that its use and its importance will continue to grow result, technology resources in developing countries
in the future [13], [18]. This is mainly due to its benefits in universities cannot process complicated and advanced
teaching and learning, among other aspects [4]. scientific projects.
 The Laboratory facilities are not available out of class
hours. Therefore, the students are restricted in when they
III. CLOUD COMPUTING AT UNIVERSITIES IN DEVELOPING can use university facilities.
COUNTRIES  The lack of communication and knowledge sharing
According to Stein et al. [5], cloud computing can increase between lectures and students outside the classroom.
education efficiency, improve quality, and reduce the overall In theory, cloud-computing resources can be used in the
IT costs. For example, several education institutions in East developing countries with the same approach as in developed
Africa (e.g. the University of Nairobi, the Kigali Institute for countries [21]. However, the educational environment,
Education, and Kenyan Methodist University) have culture, and resources are different. For example, utilizing
collaborated with Google to gain significant benefits from cloud computing services effectively needs well-prepared
Google cloud applications for both students and lectures [2]. infrastructure such as internet upload and download speed,
Furthermore, in Ethiopia, Microsoft has supported which still not available in most of developing countries [2].
education institutions by rolling out 250,000 laptops for In developing countries, there are several barriers to the
lectures, which all run Windows Azure, which is mainly adoption of cloud computing in universities. These barriers
based on the platform as a service [18]. Windows Azure is an include the cost and payment method [17], lack of electric
operating system that depends on cloud computing power stability and poor broadband infrastructure [22], lack
technology, and lectures in Ethiopia use it to upload and of awareness [23], security and privacy concerns [21], and
download curriculum and securely transfer students’ records lack of cloud computing technical experts [17].
into the education system. This process prevents the  Cost and payment method: even though cloud computing
education institutions in Ethiopia from having to invest reduces the cost of IT through reducing the physical
heavily in datacenters as well as hardware and software for infrastructure, it is still expensive for universities in
connecting this huge number of transactions. developing countries. In addition, cloud computing
In a large longitudinal study, Shirazi, Gholami, & Higón service providers usually accept electronic payment by
[19] investigated the impact of information technology on the credit or debit cards. This payment method is a problem in
economy of 11 countries in the Middle East (Jordan, Oman, developing countries, which still prefer traditional
Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Syria, United Arab Emirates, payment methods rather than online banking because of
Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait and Lebanon). The findings of this limitations in online banking services. Therefore, the lack
study argued that there is a positive and strong link between of online payment services may hinder the adoption of
economic growth and the utilization of ICT. In addition, it cloud computing in higher education institutions.
showed that countries with higher education attainment such  Lack of electric power stability and poor broadband
as Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain were able to gain more infrastructure: In many developing countries such as India,
benefits from ICT, whereas other countries such as Iran and Africa, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq the electricity can shut
Syria were less advantaged by ICT because of government down unexpectedly from the power supplier. Such
constraints and policies, which prevent the growth of ICT instability of electricity may destroy the process of upload
infrastructure. and download, especially if there is a large amount of data
In their excellent study of cloud computing adoption in that depends on automatic tasks (e.g. schedule backup of

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 International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 7, No. 12, December 2017

student’s records). in-depth semi-structured interviews, five professors from a

 Lack of awareness: According to Rogers [24], the first computer science school, an engineering school, and an
stage in new technology adoption is awareness about this information system department and five technical experts
technology. In a study which set out to determine the (e.g. IT manager, team leader, and senior technical engineer).
factors of cloud computing adoption at universities in
TABLE I: PARTICIPANTS’ PROFILES
developing countries, Sabi et al. [21] found that the
Code Title Professionality Years of
awareness of cloud computing benefits is strongly and experience
positively correlated with cloud computing adoption. This P1 Head of computer Professor in cloud 22 Years
study suggests that an awareness of the benefits of cloud science school computing (Database
expert)
computing is the main factor that affects the decision of P2 Dean of Professor in 19 Years
cloud computing adoption at universities in developing management (Management
countries. information information systems)
systems (MIS)
In the same vein, Truong et al. [17] argued that it is departments
fundamental to increase the awareness in developing P3 Senior lecturer Associate professor 14 Years
countries about the main benefits and challenges of cloud of computer science
computing, for example by displaying the best practice from P4 Senior lecturer Associate professor in 16 Years
computer engineering
education institutions in developed countries, which benefit school
from the adoption of cloud computing. However, the P5 Head of computer Professor in computer 26 Years
education context of developing countries is quite different engineering engineering school
TE6 Chief technology Professional in 3D 11 Years
from the developed countries’ education sector (e.g. culture,
officer programming and
attitude towards technology, individual behavior, and simulation
resistance to new technology). And expert in cloud
 Security and privacy concern: A recent study by Alkhater, computing platforms
TE7 Senior engineer Technical support 8 Years
Wills, & Walters [25] which investigated the intention to engineer in virtual
adopt cloud computing in Saudi Arabia noted that security machine
and privacy were the main concerns in adopting cloud Microsoft certified
engineer
computing services. However, the main weakness of the
TE8 IT manager Educational 13 Years
study is the failure to address how these factors prevent the
applications and
adoption of cloud services in Saudi Arabia context. Elearning. Graid
Furthermore, another weakness is that the study fails to computing, big data,
discover new factors that affect the cloud computing and Java wireless
applications.
adoption in Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, the author offers TE9 IT manager Educational 9 years
no explanation of how these factors are considered applications expert,
barriers or enablers to cloud computing adoption. cloud computing
expert, and 3rd line
technical engineer.
TE10 Chief executive 3D applications and 17 Years
IV. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH officer (CEO) virtual reality, image
processing expert.
This study requires in-depth analysis to understand the Senior developer in
current and expected future situation. Therefore, the educational
researcher will endeavor to adopt a qualitative approach, applications,
simulations programs,
because this will provide a better understanding of the and virtual machines
situation in real life, as well as investigate the main factors languages.
affecting the adoption of cloud computing. The data
collection in this research comes from semi-structured
interviews with professors from the Jordanian universities as V. STUDY RESULTS: MAIN ENABLERS AND BARRIERS OF
well as experts in cloud computing technology. CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION AT HIGHER EDUCATION
The analysis process of collected data has been conducted INSTITUTIONS
using Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis This section provides the findings of this study. The
(CAQDA). Accordingly, this research employed Nvivo findings have been categorized according to the following
software, which is considered to be one of the most useful factors: security and privacy, the resistance of new
software tools for qualitative data analysis. Using Nvivo technology, cost effectiveness, compatibility, easy to use,
software enables the researcher to code the collected data as centralization, management support, and knowledge sharing.
well as to link and create relationships between codes [26]. Fig. 1 shows the findings from this study regarding the
In addition, it helps to reshape, reorganize, and compare the main factors affecting the adoption of cloud computing at
coding nodes easily. Almost all interviewees were experts in universities in developing countries, using Nvivo map
cloud computing technology. Table I shows the interviewees’ analysis.
profiles. The study attempts to cover both academic and
A. Security and Privacy
technical perspectives. Therefore, the participants have been
categorized into academic professors (P), and technical The findings show that security and privacy concerns are
experts (TE). Accordingly, there were 10 participants for the considered to be the most important issue affecting the

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 International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 7, No. 12, December 2017

adoption of cloud computing at higher education institutions, C. Cost effectiveness

as one of the professors (P2) in management information Cost benefits of cloud computing is a significant factor in
systems explained: this study. All participants agreed that the primary benefit of
“Privacy is the main concern in using cloud computing. A introducing cloud computing is the cost effectiveness of this
considerable amount of publications agreed that privacy and technology.
security are the main issues in cloud computing and we “The Main feature of cloud computing technology, which
cannot ignore this fact”. makes it worthwhile to use is that there is no need to spend
In the same context, another professor (P1) added that: upfront costs that are usually supposed to be a heavy
“Although there are several solutions such as data investment. For example, in the last five years, our university
encryption, we believe that the service providers can access has initiated three new buildings, and each building costs the
the customer data. As many governments around the world university around 90,000$ for IT infrastructure. If we
have polices and regulations that enable them to access the adopted cloud computing instead, I believe this may avoid
companies and service providers customer data if needed for this waste in the university budget” (P5).
security purposes”. As a result, the cost-effectiveness of cloud computing is a
In brief, the finding revealed that security and privacy is positive enabler to the addition of this technology in higher
one of the main barriers that negatively affects the adoption educational institutions in developing countries.
of cloud computing in higher educational institutions.
D. Compatibility
According to the findings from the interviews, the
compatibility of cloud computing with current technology is
an important factor in cloud technology adoption. The
compatibility feature in cloud computing application could
be one of the most important enablers of cloud computing at
universities. One of the IT technical experts (TE6) stated
that:
“Compatibility problem makes a headache for the
technical team all the time. For example, the ACAD software
can only use inside the institution (intranet) and there is no
way to use it outside it. In addition, this system needs a
specific configuration on the end user machines that can only
work in the specific situation”.
Accordingly, cloud computing compatibility with any
device as well as the high ability of integration with in-house
technology is one of the most important enablers of cloud
computing technology.
E. Easy to Use
The finding of this study showed that stakeholders in
universities who took part in this study consider this factor as
an enabler of cloud computing adoption. The simplicity of
implementing and using cloud computing makes this
Fig. 1. Main enablers and barriers that influnces the adoption of cloud technology adoption one of the best options for universities
compuitng at higher education institutions in Jordan: findings from the
fieldwork. in developing countries, as one of the IT managers (TE8)
argued that:
“In most cases, the adoption of cloud computing
B. Resistance of New Technology
technology is not complicated, except in very rare scenarios
The adoption of innovation technologies such as cloud when the migration of cloud with in-house technology has a
computing at higher education in developing countries is a major difference in platforms. Therefore, this simplicity
transformation from old and traditional learning methods to motivated us to accelerate the cloud adoption decision”.
new ones, which means a new learning and teaching Furthermore, one Senior lecturer stated that:
environment for lecturers and students. One of the IT “We have adopted simple educational applications in
managers (TE8) stated that: cloud computing. It is very simple to use with a friendly
“In the current situation, the adoption of cloud computing interface. The students started using it without any technical
would not be a success. It is clear that there is a strong problems” (P4).
resistance by students and lecturers to use any new To conclude the above findings, the simplicity of using
technology such as cloud computing. In other words, they cloud computing affects the adoption of cloud computing at
prefer the traditional methods of teaching and learning.” educational institutions in developing countries. However,
The study findings showed that resistance to cloud there could be difficulties in the migration process, which can
computing as a new innovation technology negatively affects usually be handled by cloud service providers and IT staff
the adoption of cloud computing in developing countries’ from the customer side.
universities.

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 International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 7, No. 12, December 2017

F. Centralization and team level services. For example, Google docs, which is
One of the cloud computing benefits is its decentralized a simple application based on cloud technology, enables the
technology, which makes it usable anywhere, despite the user to share the same documents and to edit the same file,
geographical location. Most of the interviewees argued that providing the full details about each user edition such as time
the centralization of several applications prevented them of edit, user permissions, content before and after each user
from providing a better performance and thought that such editing, and review sharing mode” (TE6).
applications could be accessed only inside the institution To summarise, it is clear that cloud computing technology
using the intranet. has the ability to increase the sharing knowledge level among
“The centralization of in-house applications is a big students. Therefore, this factor is considered as an enabler of
challenge for us. For security purposes, we cannot enable cloud computing technology adoption at higher education
the users in our institution to use critical applications institutions in developing countries.
through the internet. However, we are studying to transfer
these applications to cloud computing. Thus we may improve
the performance of lecturers, as they can work outside the VI. INTEGRATING DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION THEORY (DOI)
institution at any time they prefer” (TE9). WITH CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION AT HIGHER EDUCATION
In the same context, one of the senior lecturers added: INSTITUTION
“The centralization of using different applications DOI theory, developed by Everett Roger [24], [27], [28],
prevents us from traveling all the time. For example, we must has been widely used in innovation adoption studies. The
stay in the campus in the exam periods because of the main aim of DOI theory is to help both organizations and
examination grading software, which we cannot use outside individuals, whether in accepting or rejecting innovations
the university campus”. [29]. Fig. 2 shows Roger’s five steps for adopting an
In brief, the geographical independence in using cloud innovation. This study suggested DOI theory for
computing services through the decentralization ability to implementing cloud computing technology at higher
access technology may be considered as an enabler of cloud education institutions. The knowledge, which means
computing technology adoption. awareness, in this study is the first step in adopting cloud
computing. The main aim of this step is to increase the
G. Management Support
awareness level of cloud computing technology benefits and
The final decision of cloud computing adoption needs the limitations in general.
top management support. This factor could be neither The second step is to find out the benefits of cloud
enabler nor barrier of cloud computing adoption. If the top computing technology in more detail such as compatibility
management is aware of the benefits and limitations of cloud with in-house technology, relative advantages, cost benefits,
computing this may be an enabler to adopt this technology. and increasing sharing knowledge level between students and
Otherwise, the top management might consider such lecturers behind classrooms. Such step followed by the initial
technology useless and then this factor will be a barrier to decision regarding the cloud computing adoption at higher
cloud adoption. education institution. This step may divide to accept the
In this context, one of the senior engineers (TE7) declared adoption or reject it. There is two type of rejections, the
that: rejection caused by reasons, which may handle by cloud
“Our top management has the power to make the final computing serveries providers, and the rejection without any
decision regarding the adoption of cloud computing. logical reasons based on policies and regulations of any
However, they are not aware of the technology benefits. institution. However, this decision still initials based on the
Therefore, cloud technology would not be adopted in the reason of rejection and the continuity of accepting or
near future, unless the top managers learn the excellence of rejecting cloud technology. The fourth step considered the
this technology.” full implementation of cloud technology based on initial
As a result, this factor varies from one management to acceptance of adoption. Finally, the confirmation of keep
another based on the awareness level of the institution’s top using cloud technology for the long term period.
management.
H. Knowledge Sharing
The findings show that cloud computing would positively
increase the sharing of knowledge among students. Almost
all interviewees agreed that IT, in general, improves the
sharing of knowledge. In addition, one of the IT experts
argues that the cloud computing concept is based on sharing
knowledge as it provides the ability to share content with
specific permissions for each user.
“We believe that cloud computing would absolutely
improve the level of sharing knowledge. It enables a group of Fig. 2. Innovation–decisions process model [27].
users to share the same applications, content, and services”
(TE10).
“Cloud computing applications support both individual VII. CONCLUSION

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 International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 7, No. 12, December 2017

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Communications of the IBIMA, 2011.
chancellor (research) at Coventry University, England.
[14] M. H. Hugos and D. Hulitzky, Business in the Cloud: What Every
His main research areas are artificial intelligence,
Business Needs to Know about Cloud Computing, John Wiley & Sons,
biomedical systems, robotics and cyborgs. Due to his
2010.
research as a self-experimenter he is frequently referred
[15] V. H. Pardeshi, "Cloud computing for higher education institutes:
to as the world’s first Cyborg. Kevin was born in
Architecture, strategy and recommendations for effective adaptation,"
Coventry, UK and left school to join British Telecom.
Procedia Economics and Finance, vol. 11, pp. 589-599, 2014.

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 International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 7, No. 12, December 2017

He took his first degree at Aston University, followed by a PhD and research order to control a robot hand directly from his neural signals, across the
post at Imperial College London. He held positions at Oxford, Newcastle, Atlantic Ocean.
Warwick and Reading Universities before joining Coventry. He has been awarded higher doctorates (DSc) by Imperial College and the
Kevin is a chartered engineer who has published over 600 research papers. Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague. Kevin has also been awarded Honorary
His experiments into implant technology led to him being featured as the Doctorates by 8 UK Universities and one from Saints Cyril & Methodius
cover story on the US magazine, ‘Wired’. He achieved the world’s first direct University, Skopje. He received The IEE Senior Achievement Medal, the
electronic communication between two human nervous systems, the basis for IET Mountbatten Medal and the Ellison-Cliffe Medal from the Royal Society
thought communication. Another project extended human sensory input to of Medicine. In 2000 Kevin presented the Royal Institution Christmas
include ultrasonics. He also linked his nervous system with the internet in Lectures.

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