What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources over the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing. Instead of buying, owning, and maintaining physical data centers and servers, you can access technology services, such as computing power, storage, and databases, on an as-needed basis from a cloud provider.

Who is using cloud computing?

Organizations of every type, size, and industry are using the cloud for a wide variety of use cases, such as data backup, disaster recovery, email, virtual desktops, software development and testing, big data analytics, and customer-facing web applications. For example, healthcare companies are using the cloud to develop more personalized treatments for patients. Financial services companies are using the cloud to power real-time fraud detection and prevention. And video game makers are using the cloud to deliver online games to millions of players around the world.

Benefits of cloud computing

• Agility

  The cloud gives you easy access to a broad range of technologies so that you can innovate faster and build nearly anything that you can imagine. You can quickly spin up resources as you need them–from infrastructure services, such as compute, storage, and databases, to Internet of Things, machine learning, data lakes and analytics, and much more.

• Elasticity

  With cloud computing, you don’t have to over-provision resources up front to handle peak levels of business activity in the future. Instead, you provision the amount of resources that you actually need. You can scale these resources up or down to instantly grow and shrink capacity as your business needs change.

• Cost savings

  The cloud allows you to trade capital expenses (such as data centers and physical servers) for variable expenses, and only pay for IT as you consume it. Plus, the variable expenses are much lower than what you would pay to do it yourself because of the economies of scale. Penn State provides students and faculty free cloud account and credit. So you can ulitize the university resources.

What are the Benefits of Machine Learning in the Cloud?

• The cloud’s pay-per-use model is good for bursty AI or machine learning workloads.
• The cloud makes it easy for researcher to experiment with machine learning capabilities and scale up as projects go into production and demand increases.
• The cloud makes intelligent capabilities accessible without requiring advanced skills in artificial intelligence or data science.
• AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform offer many machine learning options that don’t require deep knowledge of AI, machine learning theory, or a team of data scientists.

Penn State's Cloud Services 

Penn State Cloud Services provides access to industry leading public cloud computing platforms to enable easy and rapid acquisition, development, and scaling of IT resources. Cloud Services let you focus on developing value-added services and solutions, while reducing the administrative burden associated with purchasing, powering, and maintaining infrastructure.

• Penn State University is partnering with Google, Amazon, and Microsoft for their cloud platforms and tools such as Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. Penn State has negotiated contracts with these vendors to provide the most business value to the university.​

• Per request, PSU cloud services will provide free cloud accout and training for basic cloud usage to faculty and students.  Visit https://www.cloud.psu.edu/#training  for more inforamtion.

  AWS training resource:

• AWS Virtual Training Courses: 
  • AWS Training and Certification offers virtual classes as an ideal way for learners who are unable to travel or prefer to take AWS training online. Virtual classes are a convenient and flexible way to grow AWS Cloud skills from almost anywhere with a reliable internet connection.
• AWS Learning Library:
  •  The AWS Digital Learning Library contains over 400 free digital classes, from foundational to advanced.  Content can be searched on by topic, service or role.
• AWS Ramp Up Guides:
  • Role / Maturity Training Pathway that can help teams with directed recommendations on training courses.  Includes both free and paid opportunities.
• AWS Courses via LinkedIn Learning:
  • Penn State students, faculty, and staff have unlimited access to training via LinkedIn Learning

Introduction to Big Data Analytics and AI/ML on Cloud - Amazon Web Service (AWS) 

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  Azure training resource:

• Microsoft Learn Training and Certifications:
  • Role based training and certification paths for Microsoft Azure.
• Microsoft Enterprise Skills Initiative:
  • Penn State Cloud Services and IT Talent Management are partnering with Microsoft to provide unlimited access to self-paced training, training events and advanced role-based training.  This partnership will includes 500 Certification Exam vouchers
• Azure Courses via LinkedIn Learning:
  • Penn State students, faculty, and staff have unlimited access to training via LinkedIn Learning.

Introduction to Big Data Analytics and AI/ML on Cloud - Microsoft Azure

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GCP Training Resources:

• Google Faculty Training:
  • Basic faculty training overview for GSuite and GCP.
• Free Qwiklabs and Coursera Training:
  • Apply for access to free online courses from Coursera and self-paced labs from Qwiklabs. Please note that credits expire one year after they are issued.
• GCP Faculty Experts Program:
  • The Faculty Experts program lets Google Cloud’s top faculty advocates take advantage of perks like professional development, recognition, networking opportunities, and access to Google developers for helping other educators explore the benefits of Google Cloud in the classroom.
• GCP Courses via LinkedIn:
  • Penn State students, faculty, and staff have unlimited access to training via LinkedIn Learning.
• GCP offical training course:
  • Google Cloud training

Introduction to Big Data Analytics and AI/ML on Cloud - Google Cloud Platform (GCP) 

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