Cloud Computing Education Strategies

Cloud Computing is changing the services consumption and delivery platform as well as the way businesses and users interact with IT resources. It represents a major conceptual shift that introduces new elements in programming models and development environments that are not present in traditional technologies. The evolution of Cloud Computing motivates teaching Cloud Computing to computer science senior students and graduate students so that they can gain broad exposure to the main body of knowledge of Cloud Computing and get prepared for occupations in industry. There is thus a strong need for having a Cloud Computing education course that (i) has a broad coverage of different roles interacting with a cloud; and (ii) leverages Cloud Computing concepts, technology and architecture topics at both introductory and advanced level. In this paper, we describe the demand for understanding the impact of Cloud Computing in computer science higher education. We propose education strategies for teaching Cloud Computing, including key knowledge areas for an enduring Cloud Computing course.