MASTER RESEARCH WORK PROPOSAL

Developing a University Cloud Computing Strategy

Samah Sadeq Ahmed Bagish
Department of Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Aden University, email: s_bagish@hotmail.com

Supervisor

Dr. Mohammed Fadle Abdulla

Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Aden University, email: al_badwi@hotmail.com

Extended Title: A Cloud Solution to extend the Faculty of Engineering Educational Computing Resources ABSTRACT
With the dynamic scalability of the cloud computing and its usage of virtualized resources as a service through the Internet, the cloud computing becomes the promised technology for the higher studies and researches institutions. It already has a substantial effect on the educational environment. Cloud computing is an excellent alternative for universities which are especially under budget shortage , as the case of Aden university, in order to operate their goals effectively without spending any more capital for the computers and network devices. The Universities can take advantage of available cloud-based applications offered by service providers and enable their own students to perform academic tasks. In this work, we will review what the cloud computing infrastructure will provide in the educational arena, especially in one of the Aden university faculties, namely, faculty of Engineering, where the use of computers are more intensive and what can be done to increase the benefits of common applications for students and teachers. We will also look for the answers of the cloud computing benefits to the other different educational uses in the university. Based on the literature review and analysis of the current cloud computing service provisions and applications in institutions, we also hope to introduce a clear study of how the cloud computing can help the educators to gain a better understanding of the conception of cloud technology and its impact on teaching and learning in institutions.

INTRODUCTION Cloud Computing refer to providing computing resources (e.g. storage, servers, processing, networking and applications) to end users as services via the internet in pay-per-use cost structure. End users can get three type of services from cloud service providers and those three services are IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), Paas (Platform-as-a-Service), SaaS(Software-asa-Service). The deployment models are private, public and hybrid clouds. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) [12] defines Cloud computing as follows: Cloud computing is 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. This Cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models. Cloud computing creates virtualized resources that can be made available to end users but physical characteristics of computing are hidden from end users by providing a virtual image. Virtualization, in a rather loose definition, is a framework of dividing the resources of a computer into multiple execution environments. More specific it is a layer of software that provides the illusion of a real machine to multiple instances of virtual machines. There are different virtual machine abstractions. The most common examples are hardware-level virtualization, operating-level virtualization and high-level language virtual machines. The hardware-level virtualization layer sits right on top of the hardware exporting the virtual machine abstraction. [7] Students need large scale demands of technology this usually require many hardware and software resources and continually improving technical performance. Laboratories are important to Universities however traditional laboratories often restricted by various reasons such as lack of financial resources, conflicted schedule and limited space. The role of virtualization in education will be taken in term of Virtual Computing Lab (VCL). Clouds computing developed solution for virtual laboratory that extend laboratories via maximize resource utilization. Laboratories infrastructure of the Faculty of Engineering - Aden University doesnt meet the requirements and future trends in lack of financial resources, limited space, lack of appliances, poor quality of appliances and lack of technicians which cause poor science outcome for students and researchers. OBJECTIVES 1. Literature review and analysis of the current cloud computing service provisions and applications in educational institutions. A complete study of how the cloud models, systems and techniques can improve the existing educational environment in universities. This study should also include the different issues within this objective such as the cost of implementation, reliability of the services, security problems, and the companies which provide these services.
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2. We also need to have a complete figure of the existing educational resources available to the Aden University, namely, the faculty of engineering. We have also need to get answers to questions such as: the financial capability approved to the faculty to subscribe in web services, the current e_readiness of the faculty computing labs, the available bandwidth provided by the ISP to the faculty... etc. 3. There will be an online survey to collect the required data for the use of cloud computing in the Aden University. This will help us review the current status and probable considerations to adopt the cloud technology. 4. In this objective, we need to go to the developing and the designing phase to decide the required computing services for the faculty ( such as software applications, servers, computer networks, storage capacity, ..etc), depending to the type and the contents of the courses taught within the faculty. And how to merge what is already available with what can be provided bu the cloud. That is a depth study of how to elastically extend the faculty computing resources by using the cloud. 5. Providing a study to the challenges, advantages, and disadvantages that may appear when deploying the Cloud computing resources into the faculty teaching system, within the classes, labs, and in the registration department. Surveys were administered to students and instructors. Interviews and focus groups have also to be conducted. We need to examine the student perceptions of the system's reliability, usability, and access to required technological resources. Additionally, we need also to measure teacher and administrator experiences with the system operation. 6. As a Case study, a complete design for a virtual computing labs that required running the teaching and the training system within a selected department, let say the information Technology department in the faculty of engineering.

GOALS
The goal of this research is to get the answer of how the Aden University can take advantage of available cloud-based applications offered by service providers and enable its own students and educator , in the Engineering Faculty, to perform their academic tasks.

RESEARCH OUTLINES
We can arrange the chapters of the work according to the sequence of the objectives decided in the proposal, which may come as follows: The first chapter will include the summary abstract of the work, an introduction to the cloud system to phrase the problem statement, the objectives to overcome the problem, the final aims and the outcomes to be achieved by this research as well as the thesis outlines. In Chapter 2, a literature review and analysis of the current cloud computing service provisions and applications in educational institutions will be done. Chapter 3 will provide a complete figure of the
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existing educational resources available to the Aden University, namely, the faculty of engineering. The design phase and the other considerations will be carried on the subsequent chapters. The conclusion will be given in the last chapter.

RESEARCH OUTCOMES
Many types of analysis and computational works will need to be carried on in this research. Their results can be illustrated in the form of tables, figures, and recommendations.

METHODOLOGIES
Questionnaires application and face to face meeting: Make interviews with student and teachers to evaluate the current situation of Faculty of Engineering Labs. Literature survives: Explore different studies on the same sector. Implementation: Registration in one service provider which give cloud services, The design of a pilot network (Simulation) for one departments of the Faculty of Engineering.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] A. Youssef, Exploring Cloud Computing Services and Applications, J. of Emerging Trends in Computing & Information Sciences, VOL. 3, NO. 6, July 2012. [2] A. Alshwaier , A. Youssef & A. Emam, A New Trend For E-Learning In Ksa Using Educational Clouds, J. ACIJ, Vol. 3; Issue: 1, 2012. [3] A. Singh & M. Hemalatha, Cloud Computing for Academic Environment, Inter. J. of Info. & Com. Tech. Rese, Vol. 2, 2012. [4] D. Viswanath, S.Kusuma & S.Gupta, Cloud Computing Issues and Benefits Modern Education, Global J. of Computer Science & Technology Cloud & Distributed, Vol.12, Issue 10 Ver. 1.0, Jul. 2012. [5] J. Moothoor, A Cloud Computing Solution for Universities: Virtual Computing Lab, 2009. [6] M. Murphy & M.Clelland, Computer Lab to Go: A Cloud Computing Implementation, Proc ISECON, v25, 2008. [7] M. Rosenblum. The Reincarnation of Virtual Machines. Qfocus, 2004. [8] N. Sultan, Cloud Computing for education: A new Dawn, J. Inf. Manag, 30(2), 2010. [9] P. Thomas, Cloud Computing: New Opportunities and Challenges for Education, Journal: IEEE Technology and Engineering Education (ITEE), Vol. 7 No. 2, 2012. [10] S. Burd, A.Seazzu,C.Walton,Virtual Computing Laboratories: A Case Study with Comparisons to Physical Computing Laboratories, Journal of Information Technology Education, Vol 8,2008. [11] T. Ercan, Effective use of cloud computing in educational institutions, Volume 2, P 938 942,Issue 2, 2010. [12] T. Mell, "The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing," National Institute of Standards and Technology, Information Technology Laboratory, 2009 [13] Praveena, K., & Betsy T. (2009). Application of Cloud Computing in Academia. IUP Journal of Systems Management, 7 (3), 50-54. [14] Sclater, N. (2009). Cloudworks, eLearning in the Cloud, http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/ 4