Cloud computing: Adoption considerations for business and education

Cloud computing is gathering significant momentum in business and academia through the rich benefits it offers. It is apparent from the literature that both businesses and academic institutions would benefit greatly from the adoption of cloud technology, providing the challenges presented are overcome. This paper aims to review prevalent literature on cloud computing, presenting an initial comprehensive insight into how cloud technology is transforming businesses and the wider Information Technology (IT) industry in general, the service deployment models of Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and a discussion of perceived benefits and challenges of cloud adoption. The paper's core focus addresses the domain of Education as an area of cloud application with a cloud based e-learning system developed to demonstrate the capabilities and effectiveness of cloud technology. The last section of the paper offers a conclusion, discussing how cloud computing will evolve hereafter along with recommendations for furthering our research work. © 2014 IEEE