Economic hurdle for implementation of cloud computing in higher education in Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

Cloud computing is a buzz word in the 21st century that promises to provide computing as a utility service like electricity, water and internet. Due to growing demand of computing services in organizations IT world has witnessed extensive deployment of information systems, servers, networks and related technologies during past several decades. As the complexity of services has increased, the management cost, administrative overhead, availability and reliability have become key areas of concern. Moreover, the recurring cost on software and hardware is one more significant reason for organizations especially education institutions to think of an alternative. Cloud Computing provides a suitable solution to many of the aforementioned problems. However, there are reservations in organizations related to the security and privacy that are associated with cloud infrastructures. Implementation of a private cloud in an educational establishment can yield enormous benefits not only to students and faculty members but to all the stakeholders of the establishment. As private clouds are mostly in-house maintained so there are much lesser concerns related to the security and privacy as also analyzed that very few higher educational establishments all over the world have implemented private clouds. Although private clouds for higher educational establishments can be very beneficial, the possible reasons for its less implementation is an important question that needs to be explained. This paper is an effort in this direction to analyze the economic barriers that effect and hamper the implementation of private clouds in higher education institutions in Sultanate of Oman.