Cloud-Based Free Services for Educational Institutes

Internet has changed the way computing through network model can take place from off-site locations without the need for the organizations to heavily invest on building its own infrastructure. The advent of cloud computing has made it possible, an innovative technology with dynamic scalability and usage of virtualized resources that can be shared by the users as a service through internet. The pay-as-you-use service model is one of the key factors for the success of cloud computing paradigm: resources are used only when needed and charged on basis of their actual usage. Some of the ICT services through cloud are even provided free to educational institutions and they can benefit from these services. Universities necessarily do not have enough resources to spend on subscribing or establishing ICT facilities but these facilities are essential for improving the way faculty & student interact, communicate, and carry research activities. Faculty, staff and students have access to services like institutional email, 1 TB drive space, Office applications free which otherwise require purchased licenses. In this paper, the different free cloud services provided for educational use are discussed, analysed for perception of its adoption. Adopting these services will give operational ease, high reliability, ease of accessibility with no financial implications. The cloud services for education guarantees the desired performance level and minimises the expenditure otherwise to be incurred on setting up or subscribing to such services.