FortySouth

SAP, the world market leader in enterprise software, calls it the ‘Future Internet‘.

Gartner, a leading IT research and advisory firm, rated it one of the Top Ten Disruptive Technologies that will shape the IT landscape from 2008 to 2012.

Cloud computing.

What is it and how can African Universities reap its benefits?

According to Pew Research, cloud computing is an emerging architecture in which data and applications reside in cyberspace allowing users to access them from any web-connected device. It’s the next step in the evolution of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology.

So what does that mean – evolution of SaaS?

Well, consider you sign up for an email account with GMail. The software application (that manages your email) is offered to you as a service. When the University of Nairobi was offered free Google Apps for Education, allowing Google to manage their email and offer other collaboration tools, the model changes to cloud computing; UoN no longer maintains the IT infrastructure to support these enhanced service offerings – they are instead hosted by Google, ‘in the cloud’ (actually, their data centers are probably in Iceland where cheap geothermal power, cold temperatures and real estate are in abundance).

In other words, it’s not just email being offered as a service; it’s a step further, a comprehensive ICT solution on offer, without worrying about infrastructure. The sacrifice to be made in this model? Loss of control over the infrastructure management e.g. software upgrades, hardware replacements and associated outages etc. In practice, however, typical up-time is in the upper 90th percentile (depending on how “up-time” is guaged) due to sufficient system redundancies in place.

In God we trust; everyone else must bring data!

Indeed research does show, cloud computing is catching on. Pew Internet/American Life Project research shows that 69% of internet users in the US have either stored data online or used a web-based application. Below are just some of the more common cloud computing activities.

How is this appropriate for African Universities?

Probably more than any other reason, Africa is right now in the midst of a massive upgrade of available internet bandwidth through the establishment of various undersea fiber optic cable projects. It is projected that one of the biggest beneficiaries of the increased bandwidth will be institutions of higher education. So this is an opportune time for stakeholders at Universities to begin the foundation work, if they’ve not already, so as to fully capitalize on the opportunity.

How can Universities benefit?

My experience has been with use of service offerings in Google Apps, so my approach to the benefits will largely be tethered to these.

1. Outsourcing of email services using GMail in Google Apps – free for accredited Higher Ed institutions; minimal administration required, no software licensing and hardware upgrade pains that sysadmins know all too well. 7.5+ GB in free email capacity is hard for any institution to match. Plus there’s IMAP and POP3 functionality.
2. Using Google Talk! for chat and rapid communication - I worked for a leading networking equipment manufacturer in the Bay Area and what I noticed was that people used Chat (IBM SameTime) very often for in-house communications, hardly using the fixed phone lines. It is quick, saves money and increases productivity.
3. Use Google Docs for productivity and collaboration – use online tools even on computers with no productivity suites e.g. OpenOffice or Microsoft Office ($$). Share content within groups and simplify project management.

What should one be concerned about when considering deployment?

1. Institutional IT security policy – the Google Apps solution should wrap around your security policies, for instance on account creation, suspension, deletion and passwords. How should alumni email be treated?
2. Institutional IT privacy policy – consider what sort of information, personally identifying or otherwise, is sent to Google and formulate a privacy statement that is consistent with institutional policy.
3. Read Google App’s Terms of Service and Privacy Statements!
4. The apps are free, but the man-hours for setup aren’t! Ensure that this is the right decision for your institution and you have the time resource to dedicate to the endeavor before you paint yourself in a corner or push yourself off a cliff…

Take-aways:

• Cloud computing is an emerging architecture that will map the trend of software development in the coming years
• Software will be provided as a service, with the infrastructure hosted away from customer premises
• African Universities should tap into this resource to provide stable, cost-effective and productive ICT solutions
• If indeed, one opts for this approach, plan adequately for the deployment and migration of resources
• Done right, this could pay huge dividends!

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See Also:

• Shortage of PhDs at African Universities?
• 3 Great Reads for Today
• Offline GMail Now Available
• Is Nairobi An Emerging Mobile Technology Cluster?