Indian universities skeptical to log into the 'Cloud'

By Benny Thomas   |   Friday, 08 May 2009, 15:30 IST
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Indian universities skeptical to log into the 'Cloud'
Bangalore: While the universities in the U.S. have started reaping the benefits of virtualization, their Indian counterparts are still reluctant to make use of this latest buzzword in computing. Recently, The National Science Foundation had granted almost $5 million to 14 universities in the U.S. This will help them to participate in the IBM-Google cloud computing initiative for research projects. Such an initiative can be launched in India only when the skepticism by the universities with regard to virtualization disappears. Though many institutions were reluctant to respond, those that responded felt that it is very advanced to be initiated in the field of education and it is appropriate only for big businesses. A spokesperson in one of India's premier technology institutes, IIT-Madras says, "Virtualization is used only by few individuals in the institution, while it is still not implemented in large scale as it is very complicated." Although a government institution shares such a perspective, a private institution has already taken a step into the virtualized world. The International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B) has set up a virtualization lab in their campus that has benefited the students in the institute. "This lab was mainly established to optimize the research projects of our students, because we don't have a traditional computer lab," says Prof. Chandrashekhar Ramanathan, faculty member of IIIT-B. According to Ramanthan all the students were using their own laptops, which had different softwares in them. This was making projects more complicated for the students as they could not work on a uniform platform. VMware, the global virtualization software provider helped the Institute set up this lab last year. "VMware enrolled us in their academic program and even gave us the license for using the software," said Ramanathan. VMware has an academic program called VMware Academic Program (VMAP). "Our academic program is designed specifically for the educational institutions," says Vinod Krishnan, Regional Manager of VMware. According to him, IIIT-B was one of the first institutes in India to come out with the proposal of setting up a virtualization lab in their campus. At Present, there are 16 virtual machines that are being used by 40 students in IIIT-B. Illustrating about the amount of investment in setting up such a facility, Ramanathan says, "A major chunk of investment went towards buying the server and the management software, while the license was given by VMware." According to Ramanathan, the management was fully supportive towards this initiative and now the students are immensely benefited.

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