Cloud computing is the future for universities

This article began life in late 2013 as an answer to a question in an assignment for the Cloud Computing module of my undergraduate degree programme, in which each student was given a cloud technology and asked to explain how it could benefit the university, mine being Rackspace hosted services. My response was well received by the lecturer and I feel it has genuine real-world merit as a solution to the challenges of academic IT provision so it is deserving of a wider audience, hence my decision to share it here. It is reproduced largely as submitted but with minor edits to remove references to the specific institution that would be inappropriate to reveal in public, and the mention of Rackspace by name is not showing favouritism but simply because that is the specific technology I was given by the lecturer; other similar cloud services are available and equally valid in this scenario. Although this text is now over a year old, the situation has not changed greatly and most of the problems discussed remain contentious issues, so it is still just as valid as when it was written.

The provision of computing services in an academic environment presents its own unique challenges, particularly at an institution that has a computer science department. The very nature of this department means that their pattern of resource use is very different from others, as the computer is not merely an aid to studies but the very object of study, and the in-house IT Services department seems ill-equipped to deal with the more demanding requirements of this department in comparison to others. There is a solution however: a cloud computing service provided by Rackspace.

Perhaps the most major issue surrounding IT provision, and the subject of ongoing complaints, is support. IT Services have a very small number of support staff who cover a whole range of technologies but are inexperienced in many areas, leading to slow response times and unsatisfactory resolutions. Rackspace however pride themselves on their self-proclaimed ‘Fanatical Support’ provided by a large team of highly skilled and certified experts, meaning a problem can be quickly dealt with by someone with a large amount of expertise in that specific area.  Importantly, the nature of university life means that students and staff often use resources at night and weekends, but IT Services only work office hours so the significant requirement for 24-hour support is not being met. While it is unfeasible for the university to offer such a service in-house, 24/7 support is already available as a standard part of the Rackspace package.

There is a scalability concern that cannot be addressed by conventional infrastructure. Demand for resources drops to a very low level during vacations but increases greatly in the weeks leading up to an assignment deadline or examination, so there are considerable peaks and troughs and for much of the time many computers are sitting largely idle, which is an inefficient use of expensive resources.  The pay-per-use model of the Rackspace cloud solution makes it very easy to dynamically scale the available resources up and down on an ad-hoc basis to meet demand. A related issue is that the computers installed in the on-campus laboratories are all of the same fairly low specification that is adequate for normal use but not for certain special tasks, and there is no access to alternatives. A good example is the Data Mining module, which by its nature is computationally expensive, so it would be desirable to have access to more powerful systems as the current hardware restricts the amount of data that can be mined, and this would be made possible by utilising the vast cloud infrastructure.  

The computer science department has a regular requirement for specific software to be installed for use in certain taught modules, but there have been repeated failures by IT Services to meet their obligations to provide this software prior to the start of teaching. Three specific examples over the past two years are Microsoft Zune for Mobile Application Development, Adobe Captivate for Multimedia Systems and MySQL for Database Technologies, and in all cases this failure to make the software available in a timely fashion has directly impacted the ability to teach these modules.  With the Rackspace solution, the software only needs to be installed and configured once on the virtual server by an expert and then made available to the desired user group with the minimum of hassle.

Use of cloud services also eliminates the competition for resources between taught modules and out-of-class activities. As an example, the Microsoft Visio software required for a group assignment was only installed on the computers in certain rooms, and at the times when all group members were available, both of these rooms were in use for teaching so the software was inaccessible. In a cloud environment, this software would be available from anywhere, as it is stored on a centralised virtual server and access is defined by the identity of the user rather than their physical location. This also opens up the possibility of making university-provided software available from off-campus, with a consequent reduction in the number of computers needing to be provided within the university as students would now have the ability to use these programs from home.

The university is currently expanding at a rapid rate but the IT systems have not kept pace with this expansion, so the already-existing problem of inadequate resources is only going to worsen unless drastic changes are made. Expanding the in-house IT department would be very costly, but moving to the Rackspace solution would actually enable a reduction in IT staff. Support is taken care of by the provider, so only a small number of semi-skilled staff would be necessary to administer the internet connection and liaise between end-users and Rackspace technicians. By handing over responsibility for routine tasks to a third party, resources would be freed to concentrate on large projects that bring significant benefits to the university as a whole.