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Features

Published February 2010

Learning in the Cloud

  

  Agatha Gilmore

If you're using a computer in 2010, chances are you're in the cloud.

Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. The term refers to a variety of Web-hosted services, such as e-mail, application development and virtualization, and it has become one of the most buzzed-about concepts among corporate leaders of late. According to Goldman Sachs investment research, roughly 10 percent of data center workloads could be cloud-based in the next three years.

While one could argue that it’s been in the works since the dawn of the computer itself, a few factors have accelerated attention to and development in cloud services. Most recently, with the economic downturn leading to chopped budgets enterprisewide, department heads have been and are still expected to do more with less. As a result, learning executives have been pressured to streamline processes and look for more cost-effective solutions.

Additionally, according to some industry experts, corporate learning itself is evolving in tandem with the creation of new Web 2.0 technologies, ultimately requiring increased adoption of virtual formats.

“Now, it’s no longer learning like there’s a curriculum and a subject — [learning is] being able to do something,” explained Jay Cross, CEO of Internet Time Group and a consultant on social learning issues. “That may be: ‘How do I put a euro sign into a document?’ Some oddball thing, and that’s all I need to do, and I can do that on the Internet [quickly]. Think of it as confidence rather than curriculum.”

This flexibility can assist in providing training on demand. Ian Knox, senior director of production management for Skytap, a provider of cloud-based virtual labs for application development, explains why this is needed.

“Student travel is less likely to happen these days,” Knox said. “People aren’t really being allowed away from the office as much. And in terms of delivering training, you have these issues with big capital expenditure of computer and lab equipment to make training happen. Most of that stuff just sits around and is only used for certain days when training runs, and it’s not scalable: If you have another 10 students, you can’t [accommodate them]. It’s not flexible or cost efficient.”

Cloud computing addresses these issues by providing widely accessible, on-demand, self-service tools and applications — all via pooled resources, which cuts down on cost.

Demystifying the Cloud

So what exactly is cloud computing? According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), cloud computing is defined as “a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”