An introduction to Rackspace Hosting's CloudU - Cloud University - programme. This is an educational programme for businesses providing background, insights and practical advice on Cloud Computing.
Good morning everyone – my name is John Webb and I’m the Director of SMB Marketing here at Rackspace.I wanted to take the opportunity this morning to introduce you to our Cloud University, or CloudU as we call it.CloudU is just one of the vehicles that we provide to help our customers get the most from their Cloud experience.It’s part of our efforts to de-mystify Cloud Computing, to help businesses make informed choices in their move to the Cloud, and to build shared learning of how to maximise the opportunities afforded by this new technology.
I came across this article on the PC World website which I think sums up the position quite nicely. There’s an awful lot of noise out there about the Cloud at the moment: in the news, in online communities and forums, and with some big companies spending literally millions of dollars on Marketing. Yet a lot of this is very confusing and doesn’t clearly explain what the Cloud is and, more importantly, why should people and businesses care?At Rackspace we want to help you to understand the Cloud and to provide practical advice on what benefits it can bring to your businesses.
CloudU is an online educational programme with a monthly curriculum designed by our retained University Curator Ben Kepes.It is intended to provide a range of information on Cloud related topics facing businesses today.The programme consists of monthly live webinars which, moving forward, will be in both US and UK time zones. These webinars are then archived and easily found on the CloudU website which sits on the main Rackspace.co.uk website.In addition, each webinar is complimented with an associated Whitepaper going into depth on the same topic. Again, each whitepaper is saved on the CloudU website for universal access. Here’s an example of this month’s whitepaper entitled ‘Planning a Move to the Cloud’ which we have copies of available today for those of you who are interested. If you don’t want to take a hard-copy away with you, it is, like I say, available to download from the website now.
Let me introduce you to Ben.Ben is our official curator of CloudU and as such designs the curriculum and leads the creation of the content for each webinar and whitepaper.Ben is a world renowned and respected authority on Cloud Computing having been working and commenting on the subject since its introduction.
You can see here the subjects which CloudU has covered so far this year.As you can see, there’s a range of subjects, from introductions to Cloud Computing and how it differs from traditional IT, to deeper dives into specific areas, such as Infrastructure as a Service.The subject matter is intended to be accessible on a number of different levels, from those who are just coming to Cloud Computing and want a straight-forward introduction, to more technical deeper understanding.In addition, we include special editions within the curriculum, in April we added an extra event to coincide with Earth Day where we discussed Sustainability in the Cloud.All of these webinars and corresponding whitepapers are available to access now via the CloudU website.
This is the future syllabus which has been defined to the end of this year.Again, there are a range of topics covered but in each case we’re looking at Cloud Computing from the businesses perspective, rather than focusing on the technology – what are the issues that businesses are facing, how can Cloud address these and what wider considerations need to be made.The next event is on June 30th titled ‘Planning a Move to the Cloud’ where we’ll be discussing tips, tricks and pitfalls for companies in their adoption of Cloud Computing. As I mentioned before, the whitepaper for this event is already available to download now from the website.
We recognise that Cloud Computing can be a confusing and convoluted subject and we want to work with you to help understand this and be able to make educated and informed decisions as you move into this new era. People often describe Cloud Computing as a disruptive technology, we believe that it’s a creative technology, and through CloudU and our other support tools, we want to empower you to maximise this as a game changer for your business.I’ll leave you with a reminder of the next CloudU event which again is on 30th June – ‘Planning a Move to the Cloud’ and the url which you can see of the CloudU website.Thank you.