Cloud computing - An emerging services that are available for access by

trend in education sector in India subscribers utilizing a modem from their

*Sunita Manro,**Rajan Manro

computer. With Cloud Computing, one
*Asst. Professor, PIMT, Mandi Gobindgarh simply logs into desired computer
** Asst. Professor, DBIMCS, Mandi Gobindgarh
applications - such as sales force or office
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to
automation programs, web services, data
study the impact of cloud computing on
storage services, spam filtering, or even
the modern education. Further, the study
blog sites. Generally, access to such
also attempts to answer whether the
programs is by monthly or annual paid
services of cloud computing are significant
subscription. Through Cloud Computing,
in the education sector. Education
businesses may prevent financial waste,
institutions are under increasing pressure
better track employee activities, and avert
to deliver more for less, and they need to
technological headaches such as computer
find ways to offer rich, affordable services
viruses, system crashes, and loss of data.
and tools. Both public and private
institutions can use the cloud to deliver
better services, even as they work with
fewer resources. By sharing IT services in
the cloud, your education institution can
outsource noncore services and better
concentrate on offering students, teachers,
faculty, and staff the essential tools to help Characteristics
them succeed.

Keywords: Cloud, jurisdiction,  Cloud Computing Is User Centric

service
1. Introduction to cloud  Cloud Computing Is Task-Centric
Cloud Computing Is Powerful
computing

Cloud Computing is the use of common

 Cloud Computing Is Accessible

software, functionality or business

applications from a remote server that is
 Cloud Computing Is Intelligent


accessed via the Internet. Basically, the
Cloud Computing Is Programmable
Internet is the "cloud" of applications and

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2. Services of Cloud Computing  Policy-based services.
 Internet connectivity.
The rapid improvement of the capacity of b) Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS):
online connectivity gave birth to cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a
computing. Although the term was already way to rent hardware, operating
used since the 90s, the actual adoption of systems, storage and network
cloud computing in relation to online capacity over the Internet.
computing started in the 21st century. Characteristics of Paas include:
Cloud computing is a general term for  Operating system features
anything that involves delivering hosted can be changed and
services over the Internet. These services upgraded frequently.
are broadly divided into three categories: Geographically distributed
a) Infrastructure-as-a-Service development teams can
(IaaS): Infrastructure as a Service work together on software
is a provision model in which an development projects.
organization outsources the  Services can be obtained
equipment used to support from diverse sources that
operations, including storage, cross international
hardware, servers and networking boundaries. Initial and
components. The client typically ongoing costs can be
pays on a per-use basis. reduced by the use of
infrastructure services from
Characteristics and components of
a single vendor rather than
IaaS include:
maintaining multiple

 Utility computing service hardware facilities that

and billing model: (charges often perform duplicate

per usage) functions or suffer from

 Automation of incompatibility problems.

administrative tasks.  Overall expenses can also

 Dynamic scaling. be minimized by unification

 Desktop virtualization: of programming

(multiple network,, development efforts.

centrally located server.) c) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS):

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a
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 software distribution model in personal computers, is sometimes
which applications are hosted by a referred to as software as a
vendor or service provider and product.
made available to customers over a
network, typically the Internet. 3. Architecture of Cloud
Computing
SaaS is becoming an increasingly
Individual users connect to the cloud from
prevalent delivery model as
their own personal computers or portable
underlying technologies that support
devices, over the Internet. To these
Web services and service-oriented
individual users, the cloud is seen as a
architecture (SOA) mature and new
single application, device, or document.
developmental approaches, such as
The hardware in the cloud (and the
Ajax, become popular. SaaS is
operating system that manages the
closely related to the ASP
hardware connections) is invisible.
(application service provider) and
On Demand Computing software
delivery model

Characteristics of the SaaS include:

 easier administration
 automatic updates
patch management
(acquiring, testing,
installing multiple patches
(code))
 Compatibility: All users
will have the same version
of software.
 easier collaboration
 global accessibility.
The traditional model of software
distribution, in which software is
purchased for and installed on
and
and
It all starts with the front-end interface
seen by individual users. This is how users
select a task or service (either starting an
application or opening a document). The
user’s request then gets passed to the
system management, which finds the
correct resources and then calls the
system’s appropriate provisioning services.
These services carve out the necessary
resources in the cloud, launch the

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appropriate web application, and either
creates or opens the requested document.
After the web application is launched, the
system’s monitoring and metering
functions track the usage of the cloud so
that resources are apportioned and
attributed to the proper user(s).
4. Services of Cloud Computing in
India:21st century economic power
house
India, the 2nd fastest growing economy
has mesmerized the world with its
stunningly high economic growth rate
since last 2 decades. A World Bank report
has projected that in 2010, the rate of
growth of India's economy would be faster
than the currently fastest growing
economy (i.e. China). What does this mean
for SMBs, PSUs, MNCs or any business
entity based in India? Last 5 years have
seen Indian companies on a buying spree,
resulting in acquiring many big & small
overseas companies. In brief, Indian
companies, sitting on a huge cash piles, are
ready to rapidly scale up in their niche.
Interestingly, India is a global leader in
providing IT services but the
implementation of IT in its burgeoning
domestic market is still lagging. This may
be a boon in disguise as they have an
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opportunity to lap up the latest Cloud
Computing technologies.
Currently, most of the companies are start-
ups and are nowhere near the global giants
like Amazon, Google, Salesforce or
Microsoft but they have the potentials to
compete with these giants in near future.
Here’s the list of India based Cloud
Computing Service Providers, in random
order.
a) Zenith InfoTech (Location: Mumbai,
India; Cloud Offering: PROUD; Type:
IaaS): An IT product development and
innovation company. With an investment
of INR 175-crore, this is considered as
India’s one of the most ambitious R&D
efforts in IT. The company is expecting
2,000 - 3,000 clients of Proud in next 2
years.
b) Wolf Frameworks (Location:
Bangaluru, India;Cloud Offering: Wolf
PaaS;Type: PaaS): Founded in 2006, it
provides affordable cloud service with
99.97% Service Level Assurance. Wolf is a
browser based On Demand Platform-as-a-
Service (PaaS) for rapidly designing and
delivering database driven multi-tenant
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications.
c) OrangeScape (Location: Chennai,
India;Cloud Offering: OrangeScape; Type:
PaaS): The experience of building business f) Wipro Technologies(Location:
applications of varying complexity across India;Cloud Offering: Wipro w-SaaS;
industries has made OrangeScape the most Type: SaaS): Wipro has built w-SaaS, a
comprehensive PaaS (Platform as a platform for rapid SaaS enablement and
Service) offering in the market. You can deployment on cloud, using some of the
transform your idea into a SaaS commonly accepted trends in software
application and can showcase them to your engineering and open standards. Wipro
investors, partners and potential chose Oracle (Oracle Database, Oracle
customers. It has an impressive list of WebLogic Application Server and Oracle
customers viz. Ford, Pfizer, Geojit, Sify VM) as the deployment platform for w-
etc. SaaS enabled applications. The software
vendor can deploy the same application
d) TCS(Location: India; Cloud Offering:
on-premise or on the cloud using w-SaaS
ITaaS; Type: IaaS+SaaS): ITaaS is
and Oracle.
a Nano in software. ITaaS framework is a
one-stop shop for total end-to-end IT and g) Netmagic Solutions(Location: Mumbai,
hardware solutions. It includes hardware, India;Cloud Offering: CloudNet,
network, bandwidth & business software. CloudServe, PrivateCloud; Type: IaaS):
Currently ITaaS is available for 5 sectors: Netmagic looks like a dedicated cloud
Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare, provider in Indian market with a potential
Education and Professional Services. to become a big player in near future.

e) Cynapse India(Location: h) Reliance Data Center-(a division of

Mumbai;Cloud Offering: Cyn.in;Type:
IaaS + on Demand SaaS): Cyn.in on
demand is a cloud hosted service and is the
quickest way to get your own cyn.in
server, without the hassles of having to set
it up. With a Cyn.in on-demand system,
you get a dedicated virtual server running
a Cyn.in appliance that is maintained &
updated by Cynapse and hosted by
Amazon, ensuring an infrastructure-free
and worry-free Cyn.in experience.
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Reliance Communications)(Location:
India; Cloud Offering: Reliance Cloud
Computing Services;Cloud Type:
IaaS+SaaS+PaaS): A hosted infrastructure
service based on the Microsoft platform
for Enterprises and SMBs - geared to
deliver India’s largest cloud infrastructure.
i) Infosys Technologies(Base Location:
Bangalore, India;Cloud Offering: Cloud
based Solution for Auto Sector; Cloud
Type: SaaS) : Infosys’ Cloud Computing
Consulting and Service offerings enable
organizations to adopt the
Computing platform selectively
effectively. But brand Infosys, the most
recognized IT brand from India has to put
significant efforts to catch up with other
cloud providers.
j) Synage (Location: Mumbai, India;
Cloud Offering: DeskAway; Cloud Type:
SaaS): A Web company
delivering software as a service
(SaaS) over the Internet to the global
audience.
Though the companies listed here have a
long way to go before they can be
compared with the best in the world yet
they have the potential to grow big with
the growing Indian economy.
5. cloud computing and education
Cloud computing is another buzz word
spilling into the education sector and IT
press. What does it mean for a teacher, for
education, for a school?
The term ‘cloud computing’
synonymous with the terms ‘Software as a
service’ (SaaS), a hosted service, or utility
computing. And for anyone who wants to
work from multiple locations – such as
different campuses, home, conferences,
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and while travelling – cloud computing
Cloud makes perfect sense.
and
Using the services is a simple matter –
register for free, agree to the terms and
conditions, and then use the application.
What does it mean for education?
Cloud computing is used in two ways in
the education sector:
 by individual teachers or schools:
they use the cloud to support
particular teaching and learning
experiences and the software is
available, free, and ready to use.
For students cloud applications can
add richness and variety to their
learning experience enabling them
to undertake study activities and
collaborate with other students
outside standard school hours. The
cloud enables an individual teacher
to exploit new web software
applications for learning purposes
without their school.
 by jurisdictions: committing to an
enterprise implementation. It
is
enables and supports innovation in
the use of new technologies for
learning with minimal investment.
What does it mean for schools?
Cloud computing is used to provide tremendous financial incentive to build
enterprise services to schools and shared cloud computing facilities.
jurisdictions. A simple example of this is
the New South Wales Department of 6. Conclusion
Education and Training which is using
We see, in this paper, 40% of online
Google’s Gmail service to provide an
Indians use webmail services, store data
email service to all its school students. The
online, or use software programs such as
service provider can supply additional
word processing applications whose
computer processing power or storage
functionality is located on the web. Online
capacity at peak periods, and can reduce
users who take advantage of cloud
supply when it’s not needed. That means
applications say they like the convenience
jurisdictions don’t have to have to buy,
of having access to data and applications
support and maintain a whole
from any Web-connected device. But
infrastructure to service short peak
cloud computing can be used to address
periods. Instead it can utilize the capacity
tactical problems with which IT
of the cloud.
continually deals, like resource
Cloud Computing in Education- 2010 availability. I hope this problem will be
recovered soon.
Universities are already onboard.
According to Educause, about 20% of 7. References
Universities have already moved to a SaaS
model for email. This isn't limited to small 1. Brown, A. L. (1992). Design
schools, Clemson University which has experiments: Theoretical and
nearly 20,000 students switched from web methodological challenges in creating
mail to Gmail several years ago. Many complex interventions in classroom
schools are also embracing or considering settings. The Journal of the Learning
Google Apps. Sciences, 2(2), 141-178.

Universities have a long history of 2. Cuban, L. (2001). Oversold and

academic cooperation. Whether through underused: computers in the classroom.
regional consortiums or technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard
colleges and Universities have long built University Press.
cooperative relationships with other
institutions. University systems have a
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3. Collins, A. (1992). Towards a design
science of education. In E. Scanlon & T.
O’Shea (Eds.), New directions in
educational technology (pp. 15-22).
Berlin: Springer.

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