IJIRST –International Journal for Innovative Research in Science & Technology| Volume 2 | Issue 10 | March 2016 ISSN (online): 2349-6010 All rights reserved by www.ijirst.org 191 Cloud Computing in Education Sector Ms. Tanvi Desai Ms. Rikita Patel Assistant Professor Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science Department of Computer Science Anand Institute of Information Science Anand Institute of Information Science Mr. Pravin Patel Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science Anand Institute of Information Science Abstract Education is highly important in today's society. It helps to motivate the minds and shape it into intellectuals. Many Academic Institutes are exploring new technologies for effective teaching and learning Methodology. One of the emerging technologies Cloud Computing can be very useful in teaching learning process. As Cloud provides a variety of services, an institute can offer quality education by providing latest infrastructure in terms of hardware and software. This paper focuses on basic introduction of cloud Computing and how cloud computing can be introduced in the education to improve teaching and learning methodology which can bring a revolution in the field of education. Keywords: Cloud, Education, Information, Infrastructure, Services _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ I. INTRODUCTION During the last two decades the evolution of distributed computing has changed the working of scientific and commercial applications. This progress has evolved several newer applications. The latest evolution of distributed computing is Cloud computing [1] . In Simple form Cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of computer's hard drive [2] . In other words cloud computing provides shared resources, software and information through Internet as a PAYGO (Pay-as-you-go) basis. Cloud computing can be a welcomed optioned in the universities and educational institutes for studies. It gives a better choice and flexibility to the IT departments by building multipurpose computational infrastructure once and then uses it for several purposes for several times. Teaching is now not just restricted to classroom with students. Today Education is heavily dependent on Information technology. The rate of IT technology is changing and which puts more extra financial burden on institute. Continuous upgrading hardware and software is difficult and also it leads high cost to maintain them. Cloud Computing provides the solution for this problem. With the help of cloud computing the user uses the platform and application on-campus or off-campus or combination of both depending on the institutions need. It offers services at the least cost to users like student, staff who can acquire it anywhere any time. II. CLOUD COMPUTING Cloud computing means that instead of all the computer hardware and software you're using sitting on your desktop, or somewhere inside your company's network, it's provided for you as a service by another company and accessed over the Internet, usually in a completely seamless way. Exactly where the hardware and software is located and how it all works doesn't matter to you, the user—it's just somewhere up in the nebulous "cloud" that the Internet represents [3] . Cloud computing is a type of computing that relies on sharing computing resources rather than having local servers or personal devices to handle applications [4] . Cloud computing is Internet-based computing in which shared resources, software and information are delivered as a service that computers or mobile devices can access on demand. Cloud computing is already used extensively in education. Free or low- cost cloud-based services are used daily by learners and educators to support learning, social interaction, content creation, publishing and collaboration [5] . Some major examples of cloud computing services includes Google Drive, Amazon Cloud Drive, Apple iCloud, Microsoft’s SkyDrive, Humyo, ZumoDrive. Cloud computing services are categorized into three different levels: Software as a Service (SaaS): These types of application are generally designed for end-users, delivered over the web. SaaS works so much better for students because it provides access to applications anytime, anywhere, for any type of devices like laptop, smart phone, tablet, or other web-enabled device. Adding more users or scaling the software to more classrooms or campuses is becomes very easy task with