EDUCATION:NORTHERN IRELAND'S education system is teaming up with some of the top cloud computing providers to establish what it says is Europe's first education cloud.

Technologies from Cisco, EMC, VCE and VMware will be used to deliver the government-funded Education Network Northern Ireland, which will allow 1,200 schools and 350,000 students across the region access a centralised repository of education materials through the internet.

"Once implemented, the faculty and students of Northern Ireland will be using state-of-the art technologies," said James Stewart, director of C2K. "This project will enhance their collective ability to collaborate and learn and will ultimately allow them to successfully compete in the digital economy."

The project will be overseen by Northgate Managed Services. The cloud network, which will cost £170 million, will deliver online services directly to classrooms and was announced earlier this year.

The network will allow students to collaborate on projects, in addition to facilitating the use of personal mobile devices, such as tablet computers.

It will use Cisco's data centre and networking technologies, along with VMware's virtualisation software, and VCE Vblock converged infrastructure systems, manufactured in Cork.