A Comparative And Cost Effectiveness Analysis Of Cloud Computing In Nigeria

Cloud computing is changing how technology as we know it. It is changing the way that organizations operate. It solves the problems related with the traditional computing. Cloud computing has opened new ways of using computing resources and capabilities.

Cloud computing has been advantageous to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), but still numerous SMEs have not adopted cloud computing to delve into its appealing benefits. Asia and Africa vary notably regarding their innovative capability. Asia has been competent to advance and sustain world leadership in technological innovations whereas Africa has not developed significantly in these terms. A seldom comparative study has been implemented on the reasons for the innovation gap between these two continents. This article examines and compares the cloud computing adoption from a Geo-regional framework; Asia and Africa. A comparative study is used to organize the findings from China in Asia, and Nigeria in Africa. The article identifies the probable benefits, usage of cloud computing and level of cloud computing adoption amid SMEs in Nigeria and China. The paper explores the margin that subsists amongst the level of cloud computing adoption in SMEs of these two countries and specifies challenges particular to each country intercepting the complete cloud computing adoption and proposes solutions for Nigerian SMEs to beat these challenges. Furthermore, the article contributes proof-supported intrusion for cloud service providers, the government and the capitalism to enhance the cloud computing adoption amid SMEs to eventually determine the enterprises for the probable financial advantage.

LIST OF ACRYOMS

BCX                                     Business Connexion Limited

CEO                                     Chief Executive Officer

DIT                                      Diffusion of Innovation theory

Dr                                        Doctor

EC                                        Compute Cloud

ICT                                       Information Communication Technology

IDC                                      International Data Corporation

IPPIS                                   Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System

IT                                         Information Technology

MSc. Comp IT               Masters In Computer Information Technology

MTN                              Mobile Telephone Network

NCC                                Nigeria Communication Commission.

NIST                                National Institute of Standards and Technology

NITDA                          National Information Technology Development Agency

PC                                   Personal Computer

PHD                                 A Doctor of Philosophy

Prof                                 Professor

SMEs                               Small and Medium Enterprises

UTAMU                           Uganda Technology And Management University

UTAU                       Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of technology Theory

FIRS                                 Federal Inland Revenue Services

CSP                                  Cloud Service Providers

UTAUT                           Unified Theory acceptance of use technology

EC2                                 Elastic Compute Cloud

Saas                               Software as services

Paas                               Platform as services

Iaas                                Infrastructure as services

AWS                             Amazon web services

Maas                           Messaging as a service

Spaas                            share points as services

Laas                               Linc as a service

GBB                              Galaxy backbone

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENT

COVER PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER ONE

1.0     INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

1.2     PROBLEM DEFINITION

1.3     AIM OF THE PROJECT

1.4     SCOPE OF STUDY

1.5     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.6     JUSTIFICATION

 

CHAPTER TWO

2.0   LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1     INTRODUCTION

2.2    EVOLUTION OF CLOUD COMPUTING

2.3     CLOUD COMPUTING PARTICIPANTS

2.4     CHARACTERISTICS OF CLOUD COMPUTING

2.5    CLOUD COMPUTING SERVICE MODELS

2. STATE OF CLOUD COMPUTING IN NIGERIA

2.7     REVIEW OF RELATED WORKS

2.8     DEFINITIONS OF CLOUD COMPUTING

2.9     CHARACTERISTICS OF CLOUD COMPUTING

2.10   BENEFITS OF CLOUD COMPUTING

2.11   CHALLENGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING

2.12   CLOUD COMPUTING IN DEVELOPING NATIONS

2.13   CLOUD COMPUTING IN AFRICA

2.14   CLOUD COMPUTING IN NIGERIA

2.15   CHALLENGES FACING ADOPTION OF CLOUD COMPUTING IN NIGERIA.

2.16   SOLUTION TO THE CHALLENGES

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.0     METHODOLOGY

3.1     INTRODUCTION

3.3              SOURCE OF DATA

3.4   INFLUENCE OF SMES TO NATIONAL GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP) IN CHINA AND NIGERIA

3.5   ADOPTION OF CLOUD COMPUTING BY SMES IN CHINA AND NIGERIA

3.6   STRUCTURAL GAP BETWEEN CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION AND USAGE IN CHINA AND NIGERIA

CHAPTER FOUR

4.1     ADVANTAGES FOR CLOUD ADOPTION IN CHINA AND NIGERIA

4.2     CHALLENGES FOR FULL ADOPTION IN CHINA AND NIGERIA

CHAPTER FIVE

5.1     CONCLUSION AND FUTUREWORK

5.2     REFERENCES

 

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                                               INTRODUCTION

1.1                                                  BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Over the last decade, cloud computing has been a major agenda in the computing field. Cloud computing is the on – demand delivery of computer system resources as a service over the network. [Buyya, 2009] The features of cloud computing, including scalability, flexibility and pay-per-usage model [Dahiru A. A, 2014] has the potential to influence the various aspects of social and economic activities globally.

Cloud computing offers enormous benefits to all organizations and enterprises, including SMEs [Benton D, 2010]. Small and medium Enterprises (SMEs -are the enterprises in which amount of personnel are less than certain limits, and they are control the data of high sensitivity. Some cases of sensitive data which is controlled by SMEs are: data of intelligence agencies and government federal, financial data of companies, purchase contracts, company databases, de-identified research data, bank associated data like bank accounts, pin, passwords, balances and dealings, trade secrets, email accounts, drug formulas, accounting records and source codes [Subhas Chandra, 2011].

The adoption of cloud computing is growing rapidly as it allows enterprises to concentrate on their essential business events, and, thus, efficiency is improved [Garrison, 2012]. An adequately adopted cloud provides a plenty of benefits to the enterprises such as unlimited computing power, easy access of data and applications, lower IT expenditure, and build up competitive advantage. Recently, SMEs has shown a great concern in including cloud computing to their overall Information technology (IT) strategies. A recent report by Mckinsey [Avrane-Chopard, 2012] on the adoption rate of cloud service by SMEs informed that, 70% of SMEs have formerly bought at least two cloud service, and 40% have bought six or more cloud services. Nevertheless the touted benefits of cloud computing, its adoption and implementation in SMEs is faced with many challenges including national and international regulations, shortage of industry-specific conformism to principles, security and privacy threats [Kern Thomas, 2012]. Due to these challenges, some enterprises are quiet anxious around the threats of shifting business-critical applications to the cloud.

1.2                                                         PROBLEM DEFINITION

There is need for guidance on how to systematically increase the uptake of cloud computing in developing countries given the enormous benefits of the technology.

Use of cloud computing is growing day by day at the expense of traditional IT service providers (Linthicum, 2013). It came of overcome the traditional means of computing. Not much has been studied about solutions for these challenges and or more importantly how adoption of cloud computing can be adapted in developing countries. The aim of this research is to examine the extent of cloud computing adaptation in the SMEs of government of countries with the case study of Nigeria and China.

1.3                                                        AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To design a comparative analysis of cloud computing in terms SMEs in Nigeria and China. The specific objectives of the study are:

1. To review systematically the extant literature regarding adoption of cloud computing amid SMEs in Nigeria and
2. To recognize the probable benefits and usage of cloud computing amid SMEs in China and

• To contrast the level of cloud computing adoption amid SMEs in Nigeria and

1. To determine main problems critical to complete adoption of cloud computing in the two
2. To propose solution for Nigerian and Chinese SMEs to overcome these

 

1.4                                                              SCOPE OF STUDY

The research is intended to examine the state and cost effectiveness of cloud computing in developing countries using Nigeria and China as case study and how its uptake can be increased in such countries in order for them to benefit more from the advantages cloud computing offers.

1.5                                                        RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The              research questions for this study include:

1. What are the requirements for increasing the uptake of cloud computing in SMEs in developing countries?
2. How can the requirements for increasing the uptake of cloud computing in SMEs in developing countries be realized?
3. How can improvement in the uptake of cloud computing in SMES in developing countries be validated?

1.6                                                                JUSTIFICATION

This study will provide an understanding of the benefits, status, and need on how the uptake of cloud computing in government institutions in developing countries can be increased. This will benefit both potential consumers and providers of cloud computing services as well as the general IT and research community.

he results will also be useful to the governments in developing countries that may have plans of rolling out Cloud Computing infrastructure and or services. It will also benefit government institutions responsible for formulating policies regarding technology innovations and adoption.