Google and IBM to Provide Cloud Computing to Students

John "butter/oreo" Bajana-Bacall writes to tell us that IBM and Google have decided to team up to provide cloud computing resources to participating college students. "Most of the innovation in cloud computing has been led by corporations, but industry executives and computer scientists say a shortage of skills and talent could limit future growth. 'We in academia and the government labs have not kept up with the times,' said Randal E. Bryant, dean of the computer science school at Carnegie Mellon University. 'Universities really need to get on board.' Six universities will be involved in the initiative. They are Carnegie Mellon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Maryland and the University of Washington."

Comments

i keed, i keed

[User 956]

industry executives and computer scientists say a shortage of skills and talent could limit future growth

That doesn't seem to have stopped Microsoft.

Re:Cloud computing?

[Nite_Hawk]

From wikipedia:

Cloud computing is a term used to describe applications that were developed to be rich internet applications. In the cloud computing paradigm software that is traditionally installed on personal computers is shifted or extended to be accessible via the internet. These "cloud applications" or "cloud apps" utilize massive data centers and powerful servers that host web applications and web services. They can be accessed by anyone with a suitable internet connection and a standard browser. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

That was Thomas Watson Jr's vision.

[mosel-saar-ruwer]

Originally the IBM machines were strictly lease-only [little money upfront, big money down the road].

Then sometime later they moved to the sales model [big money upfront, but little money down the road], and Thomas Watson Jr always felt that that was a disastrous mistake.

In fact, the entire industry [M$FT, Oracle, IBM, Sun, HPQ, Unisys, Google, pretty much everybody] has been working desperately for the last ten or fifteen years to get away from the sales model, and back into the rental/services model - everyone seems to agree that that's where the big $$$s lie.