Cloud Computing Framework For Resource Sharing Among Tanzanian Higher Learning Institutions

ABSTRACT

Higher Learning Institutions worldwide have been depending highly on Information Technology for their business requirements and service delivery. They need substantial investment for procuring and maintaining software as well as hardware. Due to the growing needs and financial crisis, universities are facing challenges in acquiring high-performance computing facilities to support not only advanced analysis but also scientific researches. This study intended to develop a cloud computing framework that can be used for sharing high-performance computing resources of higher learning institutions. The study deployed both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Literature review and observation were used as data collection methods. The study furthermore used Microsoft Excel to analyse collected data. After the designing process, the proposed cloud framework was evaluated using two performance metrics. The parameters used for assessment were: response time and processing time. The study findings revealed that, increasing data centres’ power and speed is not always a factor for improving cloud computing performance but sometimes can add more cost. Furthermore, the findings discovered that the use of closest data centres provides better performance than placing them in separate locations. The study suggested the developed cloud computing framework model to be deployed and used by Tanzanian higher learning institutions to reduce procurement and running costs of high-performance computing resources.