Large-scale computing technology, such as NoSQL database systems and cloud computing, has become an important knowledge area in computer science curriculum. In this study, we experimented and evaluated two instructional computing platforms-Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Hood College Virtual Computing Lab (HOOD VCL)-for offering NoSQL database systems in a small liberal arts college. We tested four types of NoSQL systems: Redis, MongoDB, Cassandra, and Neo4j. With each system, students performed a few realistic lab exercises with either Amazon EC2 or Hood VCL. Based on student feedback, while Amazon EC2 and Hood VCL are comparable to students with respect to accessibility, easy setup and maintenance, and reliability, survey results show a majority of students (86%) are more likely to use Amazon EC2 for similar data processing course work in the future. In addition, 64% of students believe Amazon Web Services (AWS) are cost-effective and 82% of them believe that the AWS experience gained on public cloud infrastructure and pay-as-you-go resource allocation is helpful to their career development.
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机译：诸如NoSQL数据库系统和云计算之类的大规模计算技术已成为计算机科学课程中的重要知识领域。在这项研究中，我们实验和评估了两个教学计算平台-亚马逊弹性计算云（EC2）和胡德学院虚拟计算实验室（HOOD VCL）-为一家小型文科学院提供NoSQL数据库系统。我们测试了四种NoSQL系统：Redis，MongoDB，Cassandra和Neo4j。对于每种系统，学生都可以使用Amazon EC2或Hood VCL进行一些实际的实验室练习。根据学生的反馈，尽管Amazon EC2和Hood VCL在可访问性，易于设置和维护以及可靠性方面可与学生媲美，但调查结果显示，大多数学生（86％）更有可能使用Amazon EC2进行类似数据处理将来当然会工作。此外，有64％的学生认为Amazon Web Services（AWS）具有成本效益，而82％的学生认为在公共云基础设施和按需付费资源分配方面获得的AWS经验对他们的职业发展有帮助。
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