GENI Laboratory Exercises Development for a Cloud Computing Course

Cloud computing education involves integration of computing theories and information technologies in new and interesting ways. It can enable students to architect scalable infrastructures and develop web-service based applications utilizing distributed systems. In this paper, we describe our efforts, experiences and findings in the development of laboratory exercises that utilize GENI infrastructure in a cloud computing course offered at University of Missouri in Fall 2013. Three sets of laboratory exercises were developed and administered for 30 undergraduate/graduate students to help them gain skills in computer and network virtualization, and also to prepare them for distributed system programming projects. We found that the GENI infrastructure provides unique capabilities for student training, and combining it with lab exercises that use public clouds such as Amazon Web Services can provide an overall rich set of hands-on learning opportunities.