Fa pocs dies comentava en aquest blog l’excel.lent recopilació de deu reptes que té un servei informàtic en l’actual marc universitari i de tecnologies de la informació. En el matéix número d’Educause Review hi ha també una actual, brillant i temptadora anàllisi d’allo que s’anomena actualment cloud computing. Per exemple, dur a terme càlculs d’altes prestacions, gestionar serveis com el correu electrònic, o mantenir un disc virtual en serveis molt deslocalizats i mantinguts externament. Infrastructura com a servei, plataforma com a servei, software com a servei.
En l’article Cloud Computing and the Power to Choose s’hi esmenten les forces que estan empenyent la cloud computing:
What are the driving forces behind the current interest in cloud computing in higher education?
College and university IT departments are struggling to deliver scalable, secure, reliable, and cost-effective technology services in a time of shrinking budgets and growing demands for increased operational efficiencies.
Students, faculty, and staff are bringing a rapidly changing array of consumer electronic devices to campus, and they expect ready access to easy-to-use mobile applications.
Large commercial IT organizations are gaining significant economies of scale — in their infrastructure and service-delivery capacities — that individual college and university IT departments simply cannot match.
College and university CIOs are becoming intrigued by the possibility that some — and perhaps most — of the services currently managed by the central IT department could be moved to the cloud. However, many CIOs lack direct experience using cloud services, fear the prospect of a new form of lock-in by service providers, and have deep and legitimate concerns about information privacy issues.
Colleges and universities are looking to their CIOs and their IT staff for strategic advice associated with the institutional mission of teaching and learning and research, yet at the same time, CIOs are often distracted by operational issues associated with running core infrastructure.
Many core IT services are being viewed as a utility service much like electricity or gas. As commercial providers enhance their capability and maturity in providing these core services, moving to a commercial provider becomes a more attractive option.
S’hi posa com a exemples el correu electrònic i la recerca, i s’hi esmenten els problemes: incertesa de definició, privacitat, aspectes contractuals i jurisdiccionals, riscos i manca de rendiment, interoperabilitat, capacitat de la xarxa, rearquitectura…
Potser el millor és llegir la conclusió:
Many colleges and universities are actively moving a variety of services to the cloud, with the pace and the volume of adoption increasing. Several CIOs have predicted that higher education institutions will get out of the game of running the monolithic enterprise systems and will move the finance, human resources, and student systems into the cloud over the next five to ten years. Indeed, one CIO commented: “My boss used to constantly tell me I had my head in the clouds, now I tell him my strategy is in the cloud.”11 Many CIOs do indeed view the cloud as a key strategy for the future — a strategy that will enable them to add greater value to their institution at a more strategic level, rather than constantly focusing on keeping the lights running.
Cloud services offer higher education and research institutions the power to choose: the opportunity to rethink which services are needed to support education and research and what will be the best way to deliver those services. Many services are readily available in the public cloud. Some services need to be procured through the institution’s IT department. Only a few services will require custom development, either alone or in partnership with other institutions. The final result will most likely be a loosely coupled, customized arrangement consisting of off-the-shelf systems and services based on proven technology.
With many in higher education today eyeing the potential of the cloud, the question now is not so much “Is cloud computing a good idea?” The key question to answer is: “What can we do with the cloud?”
Endavant. Què en podem fer, del cloud computing?
Tot això és el resultat d’una trobada amb gent clau en educació superior i tecnologia de la informació. Les transcripcions de diferents entrevistes són molt interessants.
Es tracta, sens dubte, d’una edició molt oportuna d’Educause Review.
La foto és de l’excel.lent entrada Cloud Computing and my predictions for 2010 de Sandeep Raithatha.