IBM launches Academic Skills Cloud to speed delivery of technology to colleges

As per our brief discussion last week on the subject of cloud computing, below is a recent news announcement.

On February 10, 2010 IBM announced a new Academic Skills Cloud to expedite the delivery of key IBM software for teaching purposes through a highly automated, highly virtual, very dynamic and flexible self-service cloud environment. This new offering builds on IBM's commitment to provide academia with access to cloud computing resources.

Initially, the Academic Skills Cloud will be available to Academic Initiative members at 20 colleges and universities across the United States. These first participants will be able to access and use IBM software in their classrooms and labs without having to install the products on their own systems. Over time, this cloud offering will be extended to additional schools in IBM's global network of Academic Initiative partners, which includes 9,000 faculty members at more than 4,500 universities worldwide.

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U.S. Scientists Given Access to Cloud Computing


An example of potential innovation hubs between business, government, and education similar to what we have discussed in Exec Com.

"The National Science Foundation and Microsoft Corporation have agreed to offer American scientific researchers free access to the company’s new cloud computing service.

A goal of the three-year project is to give scientists the computing power to cope with exploding amounts of research data. It uses Microsoft’s Windows Azure computing system, which the company recently introduced to compete with cloud computing services from companies like Amazon, Google, I.B.M. and Yahoo. These cloud computing systems allow organizations and individuals to run computing tasks and Internet services remotely in relatively low-cost data centers.


The new program was announced on Thursday at a news conference in Washington."


“It’s all about data,” said Jeannette M. Wing, assistant director of computer and information science and engineering directorate at the science foundation. “We are generating streams and rivers of data.”


Genetic sequencing systems are capable of generating as much as a terabyte, 1,000 gigabytes, of information a minute, Dr. Wing said."


Microsoft made its commitment to scientific computing two years after a similar service was introduced by Google and I.B.M.


Complete article here.

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