Cloud Computing Adoption in Pre-tertiary Malaysian Education Institution

Cloud computing has created a new concept to deal with software services and hardware infrastructure. Some benefits are immediate; for instance, it allows students to share their information easily and to discover new experiences in the education system. However, despite the comprehensive literature, there are still limited studies related to the applied factors that influence the adoption of cloud technology at pre-tertiary education institutions. This paper attempts to enhance the understanding of related factors affecting the adoption of cloud computing in the educational context of developing nations. Also, an interpretive paradigm with a quantitative research method to investigate the main enablers of and barriers to cloud computing adoption at Malaysian Institutions. Six factors are studied in this study namely, Awareness, Network Connectivity, Scalability, Data Security, Staff Training and Budget. A questionnaire survey was conducted with a select group of educators from pre- tertiary educational private and public institutions in Malaysia. The educators gauge their opinions on the level of significance of each factor affecting cloud computing in their institution using a 5-point scale. Out of 100 questionnaire sets distributed using Google Forms, 70 valid responses were extracted as the collected data. This data was analyzed descriptively. The results of the analysis found that most of the public schools do not have reliable and stable internet connections and private school internet connections are somewhat reliable which affects most schools that do not adopt cloud computing as well. Limited finance resources and concerns about data privacy and infrastructure stability are other considerable factors that have made the institution not adopt cloud computing till now. The impact of this research will be felt simultaneously to guide institutions in developing strategies and policies that promote successful cloud computing adoption.