Figure 2: Key components of ASP
4.2. Google Education Cloud
Google Apps Education (GAE) in cloud computing available at no cost to colleges, universities
and educationally focused groups. GAE includes the following applications: Google Mail (also
known as Gmail), Google Sites, Google Video for education, Google Calendar, Google Talk
and Google Docs Package (Documents, Spreadsheets and Presentations) allow workflow to
proceed seamlessly among different types of documents. Each of these applications is entirely
web-based, although there are client applications that supply additional functionality. Because
all of these applications are web-based, each Google App is inherently cross platform; a modern
cloud computing web browser might be supported by the computing platform to provide
compatibility, scalability and essentially virtualized models [20]. Google Apps generally sets
the standard for cloud computing interoperability; each App was designed to interoperate with
the suite of Google’s offerings. The GAE suites [21] include the following apps:
Google Mail: one of the key components to Google Apps is Google Mail, also called Gmail
which are administered by the organization’s IT administrator in the institution, schools and
universities. It has 7GB of storage per user, built-in chat, and IMAP capability that frees
students from concerns about email quotas or spam.
Google Sites: easy-to-use web publishing tools let students on campus create and publish
information and media, without having to learn any programming languages.
Google Video: provides secure and private video sharing for faculty and students.
Google Calendar: is a shared calendar management that puts everyone on campus “on the same
page” when it comes to organizing schedules.
Google Talk: is the instant messaging (IM) component of Google Apps. IM is helpful for
immediate, limited conversation with a colleague in a remote location in the classroom.
Google Docs Package: a real-time collaboration on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations
that lets researchers and students work together across campus or around the world.