Demystifying Cloud Computing at Duke

The Cloud Computing team made great advances to improve the accessibility and understanding of cloud computing for the entire Duke community. The team researched what cloud computing skills are most desirable as well as the typical barriers to entry and created two products to address these needs. First, the team created a comprehensive self-paced course that takes anyone from the basics (what IS cloud computing?) to the complex (train a machine learning model using cloud resources). This course consists of code examples and written documentation, as well as polished videos written, filmed, and edited by the student team. Second, the team created a user-friendly, command-line application that allows users to intuitively spin up Microsoft Azure cloud resources that are pre-configured to work together in what the team dubbed a "cloud stack." This application promises to pave the way for future university improvements in deploying cloud computing resources.