A Cost Effective Cloud Computing for Deploying IT Services

The high cost of acquiring and implementing IT is coupled with the rapidly changing nature of the software and hardware landscape which renders these expensive assets obsolete quite rapidly, is a major challenge faced by public universities. While universities have various diverse campuses, the services and solutions should however be homogenous. In addition institutions are faced with limited funding. The essential IT support services provided include Enterprise Application Systems, Library Systems, Examination and Data Management Systems, Student and Staff Portal systems. Cloud Computing allows the proliferation of services and computer systems through the internet or universities intranet. The cloud computing opportunity can provide a number of integrated computer services without being bound by dire resources. Besides, cloud computing can make it easier for the University to propagate resources like storage space, data backup, and self-synchronization. However, various cloud computing solutions come at a high cost to universities and there is a need to address the cost challenge. Both Open source and proprietary applications are commonly implemented in universities.