Cloud computing: Opportunities and issues for developing countries

Cloud computing offers a range of new opportunities for developing countries to do what they could not do earlier with computers and the Internet. Cloud computing infrastructure and applications are able to interact with users who have mobile phones, Tablet PCs, OLPC [one-laptop-per-child], and other mobile devices. This paper looks at how cloud computing will surpass the Internet in adoption and usage as this technology’s users are on the other side of the digital divide. Mobile phones and other devices have penetrated and saturated developing countries where the Internet has failed. This paper looks at the diffusion of mobile phones and devices in developing countries and its continuous dramatic rise. $15 Mobile Phones and $20 Tablet PCs are now in the hands of those technology-connectivity-deprived billions. This paper will look at how cloud computing and mobile devices combine present new opportunities for developing countries. Because the mobile phone and devices user market is too big to be ignored, cloud service providers, in collaboration, with mobile service providers have deployed hundreds of cloud-enabled applications and are continuing in their endeavour to provide an endless range of products. This paper looks at some popular mobile applications that are helping development efforts, such as m-Banking, m-Education, m-Health, m-Agriculture, and others that already exist and are popular within developing countries. Each technology has its good [opportunities], bad [challenges], and ugly [issues] side. There is an attempt to address the issues and challenges in deploying mobile applications via cloud computing in developing countries when compared to developed countries. For example, issues such as connectivity to remote regions and the challenges faced by service providers and governments to subsidise and provide mobile applications to those who are already struggling with