Teaching Clouds

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors discuss the scope, content, and technical challenges offered up in the construction and delivery of a 10 week long Cloud Computing module that combines discussions of the principles and key characteristics of Cloud Computing with a series of practical exercises and an implementation-based coursework. The authors present an overview of the core of this module, which starts from the Software, Platform, and Infrastructure (SPI) model and builds from this around SOAP and REST, Hadoop, related paradigms such as Grids and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) computing, and the all-important Service Level Agreement (SLA). The chapter further describes the practical exercises undertaken in lab-based sessions, and the nature of the assessment. It concludes with a brief discussion of the lessons learned to date through this delivery.