I am scheduled to teach a set of students the use of cloud computing as a part of a class in Software Engineering. The students are supposed to do a project in the cloud. Does anyone have any words of wisdom for me on how to get access to a commercial cloud for academic use where the students can collaborate in the development of an application? I am thinking of approaching IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle but am not sure if they allow free access to their cloud for academic use. Any other pointers for this venture will be appreciated as well.
IBM
IBM Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud, a service hosted on IBM’s data centers. The free tool supports Java, .NET and Open Source environments.
Door number two reveals IBM Rational Software Delivery Services for Cloud Computing. This bundle of tools and services targets facets of the development and testing process such as agility, efficiency and integration. Additionally, pre-configured integrations of some of the Rational Services are available based on the Jazz framework, which integrates and synchronizes people, processes and assets associated with software development.
Microsoft :
Microsoft has launched a new program offering startups access to free Cloud computing using Redmond's Windows Azure offering.
The BizSpark Plus program is being offered through selected incubators that partner with Microsoft in its BizSpark program. Incubators can then offer it to their start-ups. The program will let start-ups access up to $60,000 worth of Windows Azure service offering over a two year period. The program includes free access to Microsoft's Cloud for one year and a 50 per cent discount for the second year.
Oracle Sun:
Oracle Sun Cloud Computing Resource Kit that includes:
Cloud Computing Infrastructure and Architecture
A Guide to Getting Started with Cloud Computing
The VeriScale Architecture - Elasticity and Efficiency for Private Clouds
Optimizing Applications for Cloud Computing Environments
Building Customer Trust in Cloud Computing with Transparent Security
Click the "Download Now" button on the right to access your Resource Kit.
What kind of 'collaboration' do you expect from students? Are the students just going to use their VMs to create and deploy code? Or anything specific to cloud?
I am going to break a problem into two parts, with a team of four students working on each part. They will not know the internal algorithms for the part they are not working on and will work with a well-defined interface that I expect them to develop. In addition, I will like the data to be encrypted before it goes into the cloud.
I think I owe a report on this. ended up using IBM cloud environment under the IBM Academic Initiative. I received decent support from the IBM people who created accounts for me as well as my students and provided some guidance on using the environment. We did get a Unix-like environment with a shell and different utilities and the students were able to do the project. If I have to do it again, I'll contact IBM people sooner and give them a bit more time to make sure that we have the system ready to go when the class starts. They were helpful people and organized a few conference calls that helped in the beginning. I had a tech support person assigned to me and I could talk to him directly as per need. Considering that it was all free, this was a very good experience.
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