Using cloud computing in higher education: a strategy to address trust issues in adoption of cloud services in Kenyan Public and Private Universities

Cloud computing is fast gaining significant ground as a solution to offer institutions with competitive advantage compared to the old traditional IT. Nevertheless, many institutions are still clenched to the traditional IT where legacy IT systems or applications are hosted in-house and hence administration of the systems or services is local or on premise. This has resulted in high IT expenditures on both hardware and software due to increased storage demands as well as investing on high skilled resources to administer the existing systems or applications which might not be viable in the long run. 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, adoption level of cloud services is still very low in higher institutions of learning due to matters security especially trust issue which remains a major concern over cloud solutions. A case study was carried out in selected public and private universities to determine the reason for the low cloud uptake by the key stakeholders in higher institution of learning. An adoption strategy was recommended with reference to the resources, confidentiality, integrity and availability. The focus was on how key stakeholders view cloud services in the context of unique operational efficiency. General Terms Cloud Computing, Trust, Higher Education