Enhancing cloud connectivity among NRENs in the SADC region through a novel institution cloud infrastructure framework

It is increasingly being recognized that faster socioeconomic development in Africa is dependent upon the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Infrastructure for the dissemination of data and educational services. The scalability and flexibility provided by Cloud services in terms of resource management, service provisioning and virtualization makes it an attractive system for use with educational and ICT services. The flexibility of pay-as-you-go models combined with the ability to scale computing, storage and/or networking resources makes Cloud computing an ideal candidate for use with education, research and scientific infrastructures. Notwithstanding its benefits, transitioning from a traditional IT infrastructure to a Cloud computing paradigm raises security concerns with respect to data storage, data transmission and user privacy. This paper presents on-going research for the development of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) infrastructure for the distribution of Information Communication technologies (ICT) services in the African context. The Inter-Cloud Infrastructure Framework (ICIF) proposed, is conceived as a Cloud computing framework suitable for use with National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in the SADC region. The ICIF system is used to create an Inter-Cloud infrastructure, and helps NRENs transition from traditional IT infrastructure systems to the Cloud computing paradigm. It also provides new functional/operational components and Cloud services to support the interconnection and/or interoperability among SADC NRENs through the ICIF infrastructure.