Adaptability of Intranet Grids in HEIs to Leverage Dream of Africa Connect

Institutions of higher learning depend very much on access to other knowledge resources. Therefore, commercial distribution of knowledge resources can become a barrier for academic communication by raising costs for higher education. At the same time collaboration within higher education, particularly in research, has long been part of accepted practice, often driven by the scale of the challenge but usually from a collegiate ethos and a desire to impart knowledge and experience as widely as possible. The information and communications technology (ICT) community in higher education shares in and benefits from this spirit of collaboration both in terms of creating leading-edge infrastructures and through a free exchange of knowledge and experience. To take full advantage of the opportunities offered requires a professional approach to procuring intranet grid services such as reduced costs, improved flexibility of services and culture change in the way ICT is provided and exploited within research, learning, and the management of universities. While the advancement and the sophistication of the grid computing for Africa is progressing tremendously, research on intranet grid utilization is still very scant. The researchers envisions that intranet grids in higher education institutions (HEIs) can greatly open up knowledge resources thus making it accessible to the general public while at the same time reducing costs for higher education and making it more accessible. The paper also attempts to provide a conceptual understanding of the intranet utilization and the corresponding antecedents and impacts through the proposed conceptual model. Based on several research frameworks built through past research, the authors attempt to propose a framework of intranet utilization in HEIs and thereby leveraging the grid computing initiatives in Africa. The usage framework helps prioritizing investment decisions and evaluating return on investment. The paper makes a number of recommendations for policy and research and long term sustainability of the Africa grid connect projects.