Cloud computing : scalable and sustainable resource provision for Maldives higher secondary education : a case study of Villa College / Shaheen Mohamed

Abstract

The cloud computing represents a methodological and cultural change in the way that individuals and organizations in the corporate environment utilize, operate and manage their Information System and IT resources. Starting from the basic word processing models to complex software development life cycle (SDLC) management paradigm, the cloud computing has been dramatically changing the entire operational landscapes of information technology.
Since the introduction of cloud computing, there has been large number of individuals and organisations adopting cloud computing for both personal and professional use in order to gain its abundant benefits and business values. The benefits such as the scalability, reliability, sustainability, simplicity and pay per use and the business values such as 'avoiding upfront investments', and 'lowering IT barriers to innovation' have become the drivers for the highly accelerated, large-scale adoption of cloud computing among organisations.
The anticipated benefits, business values and the large scale adaptation of cloud but also gained significant interest among students, scholars and the educational leaders worldwide. This interest is based on the emerging belief that educational institutions such as schools, colleges and universities need to embrace technology and pursue new and innovative ways to improve the teaching effectiveness and expand student engagements in the classrooms.
The common belief is that the effectiveness and the competence teaching in educational institutions would largely be depending on the availability of necessary resources. The cloud computing provides educational institutions or schools immediate access to vast array of resources such as processing power, and disk storages that could be used to build infrastructural capacity providing schools immense opportunities for new and innovative ways of teaching.