Cloud Computing for the Academic Institution

The Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) is a cloud computing solution that is designed to address the unique needs of academic institutions. Computational resources for teaching faculty, students, and researchers require flexibility in order to be effective in diverse environments. The VCL enables this in an unprecedentedly affordable manner. This talk will present an overview of the VCL and discuss the computing resource problems that initiated it, the advantages and limitations of its use, and its pedagogical impact, as well as the economic implications of cloud computing.