This online module will provide you with an understanding and practical experience of cloud technology and the web technology which underpins it, as well as their role in the provision of modern mobile applications. You will gain a technical and business perspective of these technologies' advantages, problems and risks. Several case studies demonstrate the application of the technology in different contexts, such as start-ups, established organisations and collaborations.
The module is organised into three blocks:
The module focuses on the principles behind cloud technology and its use in different contexts. Web Foundations provides an appropriate grounding in the enabling technology, and Mobile Applications demonstrate how to capitalise on cloud infrastructure in developing flexible mobile applications.
Trust and security are important themes running through the module, alongside the social, political, technical, and legal issues that recent IT developments raise. Case studies draw together key features from each part, setting the scene for a project where you will use your new skills to specify, prototype, and demonstrate cloud and mobile solutions for an organisation.
Block 1: Web Foundations
This first block sets the scene for the module by exploring how the internet supports access to networked services and applications. The block first provides an overview of the underlying standards and protocols of the web (HTTP, HTML, CSS, etc.), including the security features (TLS, HTTPS, Certificates) that underpin modern web services. Based on this, it then reviews distributed architectures and protocols used to deliver and consume web services. The block also includes a range of practical activities using tools to develop, deploy, consume, and test various web services.
Block 2: Mobile Applications
The second block explores the current state of the mobile market, the prospects for mobile technology, and its combined use with cloud technology. The block commences by investigating a range of challenges facing developers of mobile apps, including dealing with the multiplicity of:
The block examines a range of considerations in developing a mobile application, including deployment and upgrading, user interface design, performance and memory management, connectivity, back-end storage and security. The block also includes a case study element, exploration of toolkits for developing applications and the practical development of a mobile application, which is subsequently extended to exploit cloud facilities.
Block 3: The Cloud
The third block introduces the cloud model and the types of resources (processing power, databases, general storage, and networking) that can be provided by a typical cloud infrastructure. Different levels of cloud models, such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS), are investigated and contrasted with the web services model.
The block briefly reviews consumer cloud offerings, such as Dropbox and Google Drive for storing assets, before moving on to more sophisticated commercial cloud infrastructure offerings, such as OpenStack, Kubernetes and Amazon Web Services (AWS). Virtualisation and hypervisors are outlined with a focus on the common facilities of the dominant mainstream platforms, including monitoring resource usage, load balancing and automatic scaling of resources to meet demand.
In addition to technical aspects, the block considers the business case for cloud in different contexts (start-up, corporate, projects, collaborations) and different approaches to distributing cloud infrastructure (private, public, and collaborative), as well as the security and legal implications for each approach.
Cloud operations are demonstrated and included in practical activities to provide hands-on experiences. These activities include:
Each of the three blocks includes a tutor-marked assignment (TMA) with a practical and written element. After completing the three blocks, you will undertake an end-of-module assessment (EMA), an individual project. This requires that you produce a considered evaluation of cloud and mobile technology for an organisation and also apply the methods and tools used during the module to provide a technology demonstration for the organisation.
This module aims to give you the knowledge and skills to use web, mobile and cloud technologies from a technical and business perspective. The teaching material introduces a range of business scenarios and technologies, highlighting key decision-making points you must consider. The module teaches key threshold concepts associated with using the technologies and how to program them, but does not teach programming fundamentals. This teaching will help you complete the assessment, but if you aim to become proficient, you’ll need additional study time and use the documentation provided by the developers of the technologies, books (available in the OU Library) and other resources. The module points you towards these, but does not require you to study them for the assessment.
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
Online tutorials run throughout the module. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available.
Course work includes:
You’ll have access to a module website, which includes:
You can study this module on its own or use the credits you gain towards an Open University qualification.
TM352 is an option module in our:
Web, mobile and cloud technologies (TM352) starts once a year – in October.
It will next start in October 2026.
We expect it to start for the last time in October 2028.
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations, which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.
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