Security Issues in Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is a distributed architecture that centralizes server resources on a scalable platform so as to provide on demand computing resources and services. Cloud computing has become a variable platform for companies to build their infrastructures upon. If companies are to consider taking advantage of cloud based systems, they will be faced with the task of seriously re-assessing their current security strategy, as well as the cloud-specific aspects that need to be assessed. The authors outline in this chapter what cloud computing is, the various cloud deployment models, and the main security risks and issues that are currently present within the cloud computing industry.

Cloud Computing for On-Demand Virtual Desktops and Labs

Cloud computing is used to provide users with computer resources on-demand any time over the Internet. At the Hochschule Furtwangen University (HFU) students, lecturers, and researchers can leverage cloud computing to enhance their e-learning experience. This chapter presents how cloud computing provides on-demand virtual desktops for problem solving, on-demand virtual labs for special courses, and on-demand collaboration platforms to support research groups. The focus is how cloud services can be used, how they can be integrated into the existing HFU-IT infrastructure, and how new didactic models could look.

Conducting Research in the Cloud

Web 2.0 research is a term for research that uses Web platforms and tools for collaboration, communication, and knowledge generation by researchers who may be geographically dispersed. The new tools allow additional forms of synergistic collaborations between ad-hoc groups of researchers, crowdsourcing of new ideas, and to represent innovative platforms for sharing knowledge more rapidly. In parallel with these new research developments, cloud computing has emerged as a new way to provision and use IT resources to all types of computer users. With cloud computing, computer services are accessed over the Internet in a scalable fashion, and users are abstracted from the actual hardware and software, paying only for resources they use. This chapter discusses how current and future research will make use of cloud computing and how Web 2.0-based research models are transforming how research is conducted globally. It examines these new IT infrastructure models and explores how they can be deployed by organizations and individuals. It then discusses the benefits of cloud computing to the research enterprise and future directions for cloud computing-based research.

A Semantic Framework for Cloud Learning Environments

Cloud Learning Environments (CLEs) are gradually gaining ground over traditional Learning Management Systems (LMS) by facilitating the lone or collaborative study of user-chosen blends of content and courses from heterogeneous sources, including Open Educational Resources (OER). This chapter describes the use of ontologies for modelling various aspects of the learning process within such an environment. In particular, the author considers a semantic knowledge base as the core of the learning environment, facilitating learners in finding educational services on the cloud. He describes how different stakeholder clusters are involved in the creation and maintenance of this knowledge base, through collaborative ontology management techniques. Finally, the chapter defines the mechanisms for the evolution of this knowledge base and the constant updating of the associated cloud learning services.

Intelligent Clouds

This chapter describes the similarity of intelligent clouds and multi-agent systems. It also explains why intelligent clouds are useful and important. It gives detailed descriptions on how to incorporate intelligent abilities such as learning, negotiation, collaboration, and communication to cloud systems by using IAs. It also details the application of intelligent clouds in e-learning.

Legal and Contractual Issues of Cloud Computing for Educational Institutions

The procurement of cloud computing services involves a wide range of issues and risks for educational institutions. The technologies and services available are rapidly evolving, differ greatly between providers, and are subject to complex contractual arrangements with potentially serious legal and business implications. There is no specific cloud computing legislation, but the area is subject to a wide and growing range of laws relating to Internet-based services, some written decades ago (Baker, 2009). Resolution of the new issues relating to security, privacy, and regulation in the cloud will take many years (Kaufman, 2009). This chapter outlines the key issues institutions need to investigate when considering the deployment of services in the cloud to students, faculty, and staff.

Mobile Cloud Services as Catalysts for Pedagogical Change

This chapter explores the potential of mobile cloud services to act as catalysts of pedagogical change in tertiary education. Mobile computing has emerged as a significant platform, with worldwide uptake dwarfing traditional desktop and laptop computing. According to the International Telecommunication Union (Acharya & Teltscher, 2010), at the end of 2010, 76% of the world’s population is now own mobile phones (116% in developed countries [by subscription], and 68% in developing countries), and mobile broadband subscriptions to the Internet (940 million) outnumbered fixed broadband connections (555 million). The advent of the iPhone, the iPad, and Android based smartphones have driven the explosion of mobile application development, numbering over 650,000 mobile apps across four main platforms (GSMArena, 2011; Perez, 2011), with many of these apps providing access and interaction with cloud services. Harnessing the potential of these two new computing behemoths within education is still at early stages of development and research. This chapter provides research-informed examples of the impact of mobile cloud services on teaching practice and learner experiences.

Cloud Computing for Education and Research in Developing Countries

Recently cloud computing has offered attractive solutions for academic and research institutions due to several reasons. In this chapter, the authors present a study of how cloud computing can be used for research and teaching activities in higher educational and research institutions in developing countries. Instead of focusing on cloud computing offering for basic IT infrastructures used in daily work of these institutions, the authors concentrate on the use of cloud computing for satisfying ad hoc needs of computing resources in research and teaching activities. Thorough analyses of research and teaching activities, requirements for cloud computing, benefits of utilizing cloud computing, and adoption barriers for these activities are also included. The authors then present the selected challenges in tackling these barriers and discuss possible approaches for solving these challenges and report lessons learned and experiences in utilizing and developing cloud computing solutions for teaching and research activities in Vietnam.

Overview of Cloud Computing and its Application in E-Learning

As an introduction, the goal of this chapter is to provide an overview of this book. This book is designed to provide a comprehensive coverage of cloud computing and its application in e-learning. This chapter first provides some technical background about e-learning. It reviews the progress of e-learning along with the improvement of information technology before introducing the history and recent developments in cloud computing. Following the introduction of cloud computing, this chapter describes how e-learning can benefit from cloud computing. Next, the chapter reviews open source products in cloud computing, research areas in cloud computing as well as the recent development in cloud based e-learning. Finally, there is a discussion about the future trend in the cloud computing, followed by conclusions.

Cloud Computing

This chapter presents cloud computing as a way and a solution used for the next generation education. It summarizes cloud computing implemented in education systems. Discussions include interests in and concerns about cloud computing. This chapter also presents scenarios of education system merger and acquisition, and governance and control in cloud computing education systems. It provides examples of how cloud computing can be used to educate and communicate better in the next generation education environment.