## 1 Introduction  
Cloud computing (CC) has emerged as a new technology and popular computing model to deliver access to a huge amount of data and computational resources by utilizing simple interface [1]. There are many characteristics of CC, including flexibility, cost-effectiveness, scalability, and collaboration, which make it crucial for higher education institutes, organizations, and users. According to a CC tracking poll IDC [2], 43% of HEIs had implemented or sustained CC by 2012. This number increased by 10% between 2011 and 2012, and the growth is estimated to increase in the next few years. Besides, the International Data Corporation stated that the industrial field, including the education sector, will witness an increase of $210 billion or about 23.8% in the amount of CC by 2019; hence, there will be an increase rate of 22.5% in five consecutive years to become $370 billion by 2022 [3]. It has been noted that cloud platforms, as well as ecosystems, will function as the launchpad for the drastic rise in the digital innovation pace and scale in the next five years. Additionally, CC is considered to be the fifth utility following the four main utilities, namely water, gas, telephone, and electricity [4]. In the education sector, institutions that provide education to degree-level, tertiary, and HEIs providers [5], will have to keep pace with technological advancement. In the past, investment in IT by these institutions has traditionally been expensive, yet the provided education services to the community are expected to be affordable and maintain excellent quality [6]. To rise to this challenge, HEIs must become more efficient through focusing on the delivery of excellent services, and they need to look for ways to maximize their resources in order to maintain providing excellent services [7]. Although HEIs need to deliver good standards of education through factual knowledge and more practical skills, they have a unique opportunity to graduate skillful and professional students, who are solution-focused and adept at problem-solving [5]. For higher education institutions, CC presents an ideal opportunity to lower their IT costs with increasing efficiency, which has a positive impact on their long-term sustainability. As suggested by [PERSON] [8], CC is not only a learning tool for HEIs but also an important platform in more general terms as it will encourage educators to improve their practice and encourage partnership in order to improve their productivity. Moreover, CC will be able to save both costs and energy output because the same cloud infrastructure can be utilized by a wide range of users in teaching, learning, and research [9]. Besides, the successful adoption of CC and delivery for cloud-based education services requires understanding of these processes from the side of HEIs [10; 11]. Although CC suggests excessive aids to organizations, there are some challenges that might impact its adoption. Several studies on CC have been carried out in developed nations. Studies on CC in educational institutions in developing nations are scarce [12], especially in Malaysia [13; 14]. The successful adoption of any novel technology such as CC does not depend only on universities and cloud service providers' support but also on users' willingness and intention to adopt and utilize these services [12; 15; 16]. Therefore, the adoption of any new technology depends on the innovativeness of the decision-makers. That is, the role of decision-makers plays an essential role because they are the main contributors to CC adoption, especially that they can support the required CC services and types in HEIs [17; 18]. Many challenges are facing HEIs in sustaining the education process such as delivering affordable education services, improving education quality, increasing budgets and participants, and getting the requirement of infrastructure IT [19; 20]. Therefore, HEIs keep struggling in managing their resources and improving their service [21].