A Framework for Migrating IT Based Services to Public Cloud: The Case of Higher Education Institution in Developing Nations

Abstract

The demand of educational institutions for high computing power significantly increased due to the expansion of use of digital technologies for sharing information and knowledge among the faculty, students and researchers as well as handling traditional business processes. Coping up with rapidly growing data processing requirements of the universities in developing nations through building their own in-house data center with maximum possible scalability, flexibility, reliability and accessibility became costly and complicated. Cloud computing is available as an option with on-demand computing power, quick implementation, quick and effective communication, low maintenance, fewer IT staff, and lower cost. But in the absence of an explicit strategy, the potential benefits of cloud computing models may be elusive. This paper’ therefore, is aimed at exploring the strategy for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to migrate their IT services to public cloud. The results of this study can be of great interest for decision makers of HEIs to make the best possible decision by using the public cloud in their own context.