Towards Cloud Computing Services for Higher Educational Institutions: Concepts & Literature Review

Cloud computing paradigm has been recognized recently as key enabling efficient and effective technological services that will reshape the delivery and support of the educational services. In this paper, we review the literature on cloud computing adoption by Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) that were published during the period 2009 - 2014. The motivation was to identify the main frameworks, models and architectures that were proposed for establishing cloud computing services inside HEIs. Furthermore, the review researched standard definitions and main characteristics, offered services and delivered models of cloud computing technology. It identified 133 papers that were published during the last six years and were focused on cloud computing adoption frameworks, models and architectures for HEIs. The review also provides a landscape of the research in this area and draws attention for more investigation in this field towards developing a comprehensive unified framework for the adoption of cloud computing services in HEIs.