GOC

North Carolina State University (NC State) and IBM (News - Alert) have joined hands to provide every student in North Carolina access to advanced educational resources through NC State’s Virtual Computing Lab (VCL), a cloud computing-based technology.

 

The code for NC State’s VCL technology is available through the Apache open source community for free. The University is currently in discussions with several other universities worldwide that are keen on replicating this cloud computing model.

 

The officials inform that the NC State Department of Computer Science and Office of Information Technology have created a Center of Excellence in Cloud Computing. This applied research and development facility on the NC State campus will spearhead collaboration projects between NC State and the IBM Blue Cloud development team. These initiatives aim to improve the quality of education provided through the VCL platform and ensure reliability.

 

Through VCL solution, users can remotely access a desired set of applications and environments over the Internet, from anywhere, at any time by using a personal computer, laptop or mobile device.

 

Jai Menon, vice president of IBM University Programs and vice chair of the IBM Academy of Technology pointed out that NC State and IBM are inviting universities worldwide to participate in the Virtual Computing Initiative. Through this collaboration, universities that participate in the program have a tremendous opportunity to not only further enable their own students, but to also improve the lives of students in economically disadvantaged parts of the country and the world.

 

Menon sees the VCL technology as a conduit that can greatly enhance students' education, self confidence and overall quality of life.

 

Dr. Marc Hoit, vice chancellor for information technology and CIO of North Carolina State University said that they are excited to partner with IBM to offer schools across North Carolina access to the academic resources of the NC State Virtual Computing Lab. Collaboration, partnership across educational and industrial entities, and shared innovation are hallmarks of NC State's approach and mission, and thus he believes the cloud computing and open source technology is a perfect fit.

 

Thanks to VCL, elementary school students will access content appropriate for their advancement, and through the same system, university-level students can access high-end applications such as SolidWorks, MatLab and SAS (News - Alert).

 

 

 

 

According to officials, the Center of Excellence in Cloud Computing will serve as a focal point for the many ongoing cloud computing research projects being conducted at NC State and other local universities, including the open source Apache project. Dr. Louis Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering at NC State indicated that as part of this prominent open source community, the VCL will continue to add to the development of open source computing and improve access to high-performance computing power across the state.