Higher education needs a national computing cloud http://www.infoworld.

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Higher education needs a national

computing cloud
By whurley
Created 2009-01-25 11:03 PM

January 26, 2009

The Honorable Barack Obama
The White House
Washington, DC 20500-0001

Dear Mr. President:

My sincerest congratulations, sir, on your

recent inauguration as the 44th President of
these United States of America. Your victory is
testament not only to the greatness of our
democracy but to the transformative power of
democracy itself. Along with millions of my
fellow human beings worldwide, I watched with
pride as you took the oath and became a living
example of the impact of a single American
citizen.

You said, "The world has changed, and we must change with it." [1] I couldn’t agree more, Mr.
President, and I believe the policies of your administration will be a wellspring of innovation. I
know that both you and the vice president strongly support expanding research initiatives at
institutions of higher education -- the heart of American innovation. For those institutions, the
future is here. But, as William Gibson said, "It's just not evenly distributed yet."

[ What should Obama's tech strategy be? InfoWorld's Galen Gruman proposes a national
tech agenda [2]. | And InfoWorld's Tom Yager explains why a national telecom strategy [3]
is a key ingredient for a strong economy. ]

We've allowed the cost of technology to hamstring our ability to innovate. Researchers are no
longer limited by ideas or knowledge, but rather by access to the computing resources needed
to execute experiments and analyze the results.

I propose you create a government-funded computing cloud for use by all colleges and
universities. Such a resource would level the academic playing field. Researchers toiling at
thousands of smaller institutions would have access to computing power currently available only
to a handful. We cannot predict from where the next great innovation will come, but public cloud
computing would dramatically improve our collaboration and innovation as a nation.

Great leaps in technological and social progress can occur almost simultaneously. In

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Higher education needs a national computing cloud http://www.infoworld.com/print/53404

September 1962, a young researcher published the seed of one of the greatest technological
developments of our time, while another young man from Kosciusko, Miss., started his journey
toward a pivotal moment in the struggle for civil rights. Where some see random chance, I see
providence. Paul Baran's recommendation of a national public utility to transport computer data
and James Meredith's admittance to the University of Mississippi changed America's
technological and social cores forever.

Your technologically savvy administration has an opportunity to realize another great leap. My
letter cannot be compared to Baran's paper, but I hope it is a timely idea. An idea proposed too
far ahead of its time has as little value as one proposed after a commitment has already been
made. So I hope to catch you now, before your plans for educational reform are etched, while
there is still time to add a provision for a computing cloud that has the potential to transform
disparate, isolated researchers into the world's most powerful innovation engine.

Again, Mr. President, I congratulate you and your staff on your brilliant victory with the help of
technology, and your improbable, inspiring, triumphant inauguration.

Respectfully,
whurley (William Hurley)

Cloud Computing Cloud computing

Source URL (retrieved on 2009-06-13 12:57 PM): http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/higher-education-

needs-national-computing-cloud-404

Links:
[1] http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/inaugural-address/
[2] http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/01/20/03FE-obama-tech-agenda_1.html?source=fssr
[3] http://weblog.infoworld.com/yager/archives/2009/01/an_infrastructu.html?source=fssr

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