Cloud Computing and PASSHE's Distance ED Package for Foreign Languages

I've have recently been reading about "cloud computing" and comparing this model to the PASSHE's distance education package for foreign language instruction.  The two seem similar in terms of organizational arrangement and deployment.  Comparing the two concepts bears some interesting parallels and contrasts:

1)  Initial capital expenditures at local universities seem to be lower when one distributes upper level language courses through Distance Education.

2)  Long term operating expenses have yet to be considered by PASSHE system.  These same expenses are frequently overlooked in the "cloud computing" model by subscribers.  In the "coud computing" model, it seems that the AOL consumer charge-by-usage system is being reinstated.

3) Quality of service seems questionable in the PASSHE model and no mechanisms have been put in place to measure and guarantee quality of instruction.  No one has made any study of Distance Education's marketability.

4) In the PASSHE Distance Education Model for foreign languages, the university system stills own the language "cloud"--the educational apparatus. Thus, PASSHE will not save significant amounts of money system wide in the long run.  The model represents simply a reorganization of Foreign Language expenditures.  No one has calculated the cost of this reorganization or the cost of maintaining it.

5) Given a system wide fee is not charged, the only apparent net savings will be produced in sister institutions where there is lower consumption of services.

6) Ironically, these same savings could be made these smaller institutions by producing (requiring) lower levels of foreign language competence and dismantling the foreign language infrastructure.

7) Essentially, the "cloud model" represents a push by PASSHE to concede in the reduction of "foreign language" consumption at local institutions where there is lower consumption (whether this be lower consumption in the name of unprepared students or an unaccepting academic environment.

8) Furthermore, the Distance Education model acts as an institutional umbrella to cover the weaker institutional consumers.  These institutions are being "systematically" protected in terms of accreditation and institutional image.