October 30th, 2008 by Robin Green

Marc Andreessen, co-author of Mosaic and founder of Netscape, speculates: “I think that kids coming out of college over the next several years are going to wonder why anyone ever built apps for anything other than ‘the cloud’…just like they already wonder why anyone runs any software that you can’t get to through a browser.” 

Given the cloud’s significant place in our near future, organizations have begun using courseware systems to teach students and professionals how to build applications using cloud based platforms. Operation Badar is a nonprofit educational organization whose goal is to spread knowledge about cloud computing, and in the future, to create cloud based courseware systems to communicate cheaply with large numbers of students. The movement is working to address the third-world digital divide by providing cloud computing courseware systems and resources for a low cost. 

October 30th, 2008 by Robin Green

In the future–perhaps sooner than you think–you’ll probably be able to satisfy every computing need without a single application on your own hard drive. All of your data, from LMS and CMS data to family records–will be stored online in enormous data centers.

Cloud computing, which includes technology trends like Web 2.0 and SaaS, is drawing in more and more companies, including its pioneers like Amazon, Google, Yahoo! and Salesforce but also now Microsoft, Adobe, and IBM. Being able to access your LMS or online courseware on an application-free smartphone is a cloud concept. So is the idea that you don’t need any particular program or application to use your LMS or access your online courseware. But is the cloud a safe place for your data? Time will tell.