IBM SmartCloud for Education

The IBM corporation announced in June, 2011 the new services of cloud computing intended for delivery of the advanced software, resources and services of computing laboratories for students and researchers at schools, colleges and the universities – without the need for attraction in these educational institutions of the corresponding IT specialists.

IBM SmartCloud for Education is a set of services of the cloud computing and offers designed to help an education system to use possibilities of predictive analytics for receiving in real time of important information which will improve productivity of students and educational institution in general will increase efficiency of scientific research and will add limited educational resources of educational laboratories.

Using IBM SmartCloud for Education services, high schools (K-12) and higher educational institutions can solve with success serious problems which they face such as deduction of pupils, a percentage indicator ended educational institution, financing of grants and the shortage of IT resources for training and researches. Schools can analyze the data with the help of the new SPSS models and tools executed in environments of cloud computing for identification of the pupils entering into risk group (difficult teenagers) at an early stage. The additional tools of social networks delivered in cloud-environments help to study and recommend funding opportunities and employees for research projects. Students and teachers can also use service of self-service for reservation and the simplified access to virtual computing resources both from the campus cloud-environment, and from the public cloud-environment of IBM.

A new set of IBM SmartCloud for Education services includes:

• Decision management in the field of education

This offer of a type "the software as service" uses all information which is available in educational institution that using the most modern advanced technologies of the predictive analysis from IBM SPSS to provide support of adoption of the weighed informed solutions in real time. A system can assist administrators and teachers in identification of pupils with the greatest tendency to achieve success, as well as students from risk group and also to help to apply resources and to interfere with learning process more effectively, and then to specify terms and the nature of initiatives of financing.

One of higher educational institutions which uses the IBM Decision Management for Education system for problem solving, the students connected with deduction can predict from 80% confidence now that this or that student is going to give up study. A system uses the built-in, intuitive Web-centric modeling tools for the answer to the main questions by efficiency of process of secondary and higher education by providing information taken from available data on students, teachers, communities or sponsors.

• "Cloud" offers of IBM for virtual computing laboratory Virtual Computing Lab

The solution package of IBM Virtual Computing Lab Cloud Solutions for Education provides expanded services and tools for implementation of the environment of cloud computing both in the form of the private cloud-environment of a campus, and in the form of the "hybrid" cloud-environment connected to IBM SmartCloud.

Starting with the joint project with North Carolina State University in 2002, IBM cooperates with educational institutions for implementation of the software platform of Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) mentioned by awards worldwide open source which is created for an education system with its direct participation. Today over half a million students and teachers have access to this platform of cloud computing on the server hardware of IBM. The announcements expanding these successful solutions of IBM include:

• • Services of "fast start" for acceleration of transition from traditional solutions to technology of cloud computing
  • The integrated server environment of VCL constructed on the IBM BladeCenter Foundation for Cloud platform
  • Expanded management of images of VCL through Tivoli Provisioning Manager
  • The integrated access to computing resources of IBM SmartCloud from the VCL system of a campus
  • Pricing on the software of SPSS in the hosted virtualized environment for students and teachers in a campus or out of a campus in compliance with the license agreement signed with educational institution

Within these announcements of IBM also non-paid provides to community Apache Foundation Project for VCL the code of the program interface of the application (API) for connection of the hybrid cloud-environment to IBM SmartCloud.

• Cooperation in the academic researches and analytics

IBM started a joint research initiative with the University of the State of Rhode Island (University of Rhode Island) of use of analytical technologies and tools of the social networks based on cloud computing. The purpose of this initiative – to help researchers in search of opportunities for financing of projects and also partners in joint surveys worldwide and the latest published results of researches with areas of their scientific interests.

The joint research initiative of IBM and pharmaceutical college URI College of Pharmacy is the project first in own way which is based on the patented invention of IBM directed to the help to the academic researchers in quick search of resources which are necessary for them for more effective planning, management and assessment of results of the researches. The college, in particular, manages the 42-million federal program of biomedical researches, and they need up-to-date and reliable information about the scientists specializing in this area, and their works.

In a basis of the Academic Research Collaboration and Analytics system "the architecture of management of unstructured information" (Unstructured Information Management Architecture) for the analysis of text these researches is put. The same technology was used in the IBM Watson project to give to computers the chance as equals to compete with people in answers to difficult questions in a natural language.

IBM cooperates with community of leaders in creation of the innovation approaches using cloud computing to help to improve an education system. So, the initiative of IBM Cloud Academy is specially developed for average and higher educational institutions which actively integrate technologies of cloud computing into the infrastructures for exchange of experience and collaboration in implementation of conversions. Stimulating cooperation between participants of an initiative and with researchers, developers and IT architects of IBM, Cloud Academy integrates these educational institutions in community which helps to get the maximum benefit and advantages of investments into cloud computing. More detailed information on IBM Cloud Academy can be obtained on the Website of IBM to the address http://www.ibm.com/solutions/education/cloudacademy