UCC Research CloudBrian Clayton

Boole Centre for Research in Informatics

Origins

• Built on BCRI 10 year experience of providing service to UCC research community

• Head of SEFS, director of BCRI and head of IS brought idea to UMTS

• UMTS agreed research cloud should be a university wide service

• Funded by SEFS and supported by Dell and VMware

What is the Research cloud?

• Collection of storage and compute resources combined with dedicated management personnel

• Instead of buying hardware such as servers or storage you rent them instead

• Service is custom built for each project

• You only rent for as long as you need the service

• IAAS with management layer (you rent a fully configured machine)

How to use the cloud

• Order process:

1. Go to Research Cloud website and request quotation http://www.ucc.ie/en/staffitservices/research-cloud/

2. Once quotation is received, go to Agresso and complete an internal supplier requisition

3. Requisition is approved and resources are provisioned

• Process should take no more than a week

Agresso Internal Requisition

Advantages of the Research Cloud

• Local support, phone and email. Backed up by emergency cover from Information Services

• no Data Protection concerns

• Designed specifically to meet researchers needs

• Can meet research project needs from small to large projects

• Scalable – only pay for what you need, but can meet peak loads e.g. before a conference

• Approx. 50% of the cost of commercial public clouds

Advantages of the Research Cloud

• By aggregating services across the university, all research groups can enjoy enterprise class services

• Fast start up times - under 1 week compared to procurement and installation

• Meeting energy efficiency targets

• In line with international best practice

Questions?

• http://www.ucc.ie/en/staffitservices/research-cloud/