Cloud computing in education

Cloud computing-a relatively recent term-builds on decades of research in virtualization, distributed computing, utility computing, and, more recently, networking, and Web and software services. It implies a service-oriented architecture, reduced information technology overhead for the end-user, great flexibility, reduced total cost of ownership, on-demand services, and many other things. It is apparent that educational institutions are likely to seize those services offered in the cloud in these difficult times due to its pay-as-you-go cost structure. However, does the cloud have the answers to all the challenges in technical education? © 1988-2012 IEEE.