Use of Cloud Computing in Academic Institutions

The cloud computing is increasing in popularity nowadays. This paper provides an overview of the cloud computing paradigm. A prototype of its application is developed for collaboration amongst academic institutions. The importance of efficient resource utilization is acknowledged today. The setup has taken a turnaround from mainframe in 60’s to desktop in 80s and now, back to mainframe applications to the client-server, distributed, multiprocessing, N-tier, grid and to the cloud computing paradigm. The cloud computing approach of computation is analysed to accomplish educational and research projects. The prototype is designed and evaluated for successful implementation of cloud computing model.