Learning Laboratories as Services in Private Cloud Deployment

ABSTRACT

In the fast-changing world of information technology (IT), IT teams in higher education are facing a growing challenge to provide the necessary IT infrastructure to support teaching and learning activities. Today, the increasing need to provision and deploy the latest software and functionality throughout the computer-based learning infrastructure presents one of the most significant challenges to IT groups in higher education.

The use of cloud computing enables IT teams to leverage existing technology to reduce costs and increase business agility in the datacenter. The authors describe the benefits of private cloud computing to improve the student learning experience through the delivery of isolated cloud-based learning laboratory environments. The methods and technologies utilized in this manuscript offer a use case discussion to highlight the benefits and limitation of implementing hands-on laboratory environments based on Microsoft SQL Server in a private cloud deployment using platform-as-a-service (PaaS).

KEYWORDS:

• Case study
• cloud-based learning
• learning laboratories
• private cloud deployment