The region is expecting a rise in spam, viruses, worms and phishing attacks as more people access the cheap bandwidth with the launch of the SEACOM and The East Africa Marine System (TEAMS) cable systems.

"Universities and Colleges in Kenya are already experiencing e-mail security challenges from the large student accounts that need dedicated servers and techies to guard against virus, worms, spam and other malware attacks," said Kevin Chege, a senior officer at the Kenya Education Network, which brings together higher education institutions in the country.

United States International University has outsourced about 3,000 student accounts to Google, which reduces the cost for the university, added Chege. Google is also working with the Kenya Methodist University and University of Nairobi.

"Google has partnered with the National University of Rwanda; The Kigali Institute for Education; The Kigali Institute for Science and Technology; the University of Nairobi, United States International University, Kenya Methodist University and the University of Mauritius to deliver the benefits of cloud computing in Africa," said Julie Taylor, communications and public affairs officer at Google UK.

The partnership is extended to government education ministries like the Ministry of Education, the Rwandan Ministry of Infrastructure and the Kenya Education Network, to provide students and government officials with Google Apps, giving them hosting support and free access to Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, and Google Docs and Spreadsheets under their university's or government's domain. This way universities can, for example, can give users e-mail addresses using the school domain, rather than the gmail.com domain.