Critical success factors for adoption of cloud computing in public universities in Kenya

Abstract

Cloud computing technology is a distributed computing approach whereby users access shared resources under various service models through the internet. It allows individual access to information technology resources through the internet upon demand. Cloud computing is an essentially growing terminology in the IT world and has become increasingly present in the life of institutions of higher learning. Institutions of higher learning consider cloud computing and construction of digital content platforms as a way of enhancing resource utilization and improvement of service delivery. The sudden and frenzied rush for cloud computing by universities has been aggravated by exponential growth in data traffic and the need for innovative learning such as e-learning and virtual classrooms amid COVID 19 pandemic (Kenya Education Network-KENET, 2021). Perhaps it is from that realization and the need to adhere to COVID 19 protocols that most public universities in Kenya have adopted cloud computing. In this study, we sought to find out the critical success factors for adoption of cloud computing in public universities in Kenya. The study set out three (3) objectives and consequently three (3) null hypotheses to guide it. Quantitative research design was adopted for this study. Similarly, International Business Machines-IBM (2011) model for cloud adoption offered theoretical guidance. At a confidence interval of 95%, an online sample size calculator was used to arrive at three hundred and sixty two (362) respondents out of six thousand two hundred (6200) target population. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique and an online list randomizer were used to select respondents in the selected universities to participate in the study. Multiple regression was used to test the hypotheses in this study based on empirical data obtained by a survey questionnaire of thirty nine (39) questions from the two (2) public universities. Multiple regression results showed significant positive effect of Management Support (β=.257), Technical Support(β=.353), and User Preparedness (β=.475) on adoption of cloud computing at p<.05. Regression results gave a coefficient of determination R 2 =.908 which means 90.8% of the variation in adoption of cloud computing can be explained by Management Support, Technical Support, and User Preparedness combined. Based on the coefficient of determination (R 2 ), the three null hypotheses (H0 1, H0 2, & H0 3 ) were rejected at p<0.05. Regression analysis showed that Management Support, Technical Support and User Preparedness are critical success factors in cloud adoption in public universities in Kenya. This study provides new and relevant insights to literature on cloud adoption in higher education service in Kenya.