Marian College Benefits From Cloud Computing

If it were a cloud, Marian College would be something less than cumulous.

But the small Indianapolis, Ind., college, with a student body of 2,100, has dipped into cloud computing. It has virtualized its infrastructure, made virtual servers available over the network practically on demand, and coordinated its internal operations with an outside cloud managed by a service provider, BlueLock.

Given the debate over cloud terminology, the college qualifies at least as a cloud wisp. It also illustrates some of the gains IT gets when it thinks in terms of cloud computing versus adding one more thing to the IT infrastructure.

VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) at its VMworld user group meeting in Las Vegas last September launched what it called its vCloud initiative. It combines old, renamed products with new technology that hasn't arrived yet, with outside suppliers of "cloud" services. Marian College was an early implementer.

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