Performance Evaluation of Two Private Cloud Systems to Provide Educational e-Services to South African Public Schools Clusters

Authors

Tinashe Magwenzi, Rhodes University, South Africa

Alfredo Terzoli, Rhodes University, South Africa

Zelalem Shibeshi, Rhodes University, South Africa

Published in

IST-Africa 2026 Conference Proceedings

ISSN: 2576-8581

ISBN: 978-1-905824-76-2

DOI: https://doi.org/10.67725/IST-Africa.2026.FCWF7641

Publisher

IST-Africa Institute and IIMC International Information Management Corporation Ltd

Published in Ireland

Abstract

Public schools in rural and township areas of South Africa face challenges in their Internet connectivity and ICT infrastructure. A solution could be for schools to connect via a local, established, or emerging Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP). e-Services tailored to schools might then be provisioned by deploying a private cloud within the WISP's infrastructure for clusters of nearby schools. This paper compares the performance of two private cloud installations, Kubernetes running on a Raspberry Pi cluster and OpenStack running on an x86 server, each hosting the same set of educational e-services. The comparison focused on throughput, latency, availability, and expected user experience. The comparison was performed using a testbed running Grafana K6, Iperf, and associated software.

Keywords

Next Generation Computing, Global Development, Resource Management, Cloud Computing, Cloud Performance Evaluation, Private Cloud, ICTs for Marginalized Schools, OpenStack, Kubernetes, Grafana K6, Raspberry Pi Cluster

Cite this paper

T. Magwenzi, A. Terzoli and Z. Shibeshi (2026) "Performance Evaluation of Two Private Cloud Systems to Provide Educational e-Services to South African Public Schools Clusters", IST-Africa 2026 Conference Proceedings, Miriam Cunningham and Paul Cunningham (Eds), IST-Africa Institute and IIMC, 2026, ISSN: 2576-8581, ISBN: 978-1-905824-76-2, https://doi.org/10.67725/IST-Africa.2026.FCWF7641

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