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17 Institutions Join IBM Cloud Academy
IBM has launched Cloud Academy, an online resource and collaborative forum for campus IT professionals, educators, and researchers in K-12 and higher ed. Cloud Academy is designed to help academic institutions with their cloud computing initiatives and related professional development and to provide a forum for sharing best practices.
Cloud Academy participants have access to IBM's various cloud services--LotusLive, IBM Desktop Cloud Services, Virtual Computing Labs, and Corporate Citizenship Education Projects--and have an opportunity to "work with elite researchers in IBM labs throughout the world, many of whom are working on cloud initiatives in education, to extend the boundaries of cloud computing in education," according to information released by IBM. They'll also be able to create interest groups, work with IBM developers, collaborate across institutions, and help to advance cloud computing, where appropriate, by contributing to open source software projects and validating content for accessibility.
IBM, for its part, is helping participating institutions to integrate cloud-based technologies and virtualization tools into their infrastructures.
Already 17 K-12 and higher education institutions around the world are participating in Cloud Academy. These include Carnegie Mellon University's Qatar campus; Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon (France); George Mason University; Georgia State University; Gwinnett County Public Schools; Marist College; Nanyang Technical University (Singapore); New York University; North Carolina State University; Ozyegin University (Turkey); Pike County Schools; Qatar University; the Technology Transfer Project (a project of the Executive Leadership Foundation); Texas A&M University at Qatar; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Beijing University of Technology (China); and Victoria University (Australia).
"Cloud computing makes it easier for those in the education industry, including students, faculty and administrators, to gain immediate access to a wide range of new educational resources and research applications and tools," said Michael King, vice president, IBM Global Education Industry. "The IBM Cloud Academy will advance awareness and adoption of cloud computing, including best practices for education and research institutions."