The advent of cloud computing in recent years has sparked an interest from different organizations, institutions and users to take its advantage. This is a result of the new economic model for the Information Technology (IT) that cloud computing promises. It promises a shift from an organization required to invest heavily for limited IT resources that are internally managed, to a model where the organization can buy or rent resources that are managed by a cloud provider and pay per use. Although the adoption of cloud computing promises various benefits, a successful adoption of cloud computing in an educational institute still requires an understanding of different dynamics and expertise in diverse domains. Currently, there are inadequate guidelines for adopting cloud computing and building trust. Therefore, this paper presents a framework that specifies a number of steps for academic institutes as well as organizations to adopt cloud computing. The framework is designed by taking into account a range of strategic issues and technological factors from a broad cross section of areas of expertise in order to ensure a successful cloud computing adoption.