There is a “compelling case for using the cloud for research”, JISC’s Innovation Director for digital infrastructure argued last week. Speaking at an ‘inside government’ forum on cloud in the public sector, Rachel Bruce said: “It’s clear that universities need the right infrastructure for the right job, and hybrid infrastructure with local and public provision is required. But investment in the cloud is often driven by cost – so cloud computing is a particularly attractive option for smaller institutions who can’t afford to replace their physical hardware to do the same job.”
Rachel highlighted some of the reasons that universities are increasingly looking to use the cloud for their research services.
Cloud is attractive because it can help universities and similar organisations:
1. Reduce environmental and financial costs – where functions are only needed for short periods, for example
2. Share the load – when a university is working with a partner organisation so that neither organisation need develop or maintain a physical infrastructure
3. Be flexible and pay as you go – researchers may need to use specialized web-based software that cannot be supported by in-house facilities or policies
4. Access data centres, web applications and services from any location
5. Make experiments more repeatable – write-ups of science experiments performed in the cloud can contain reference to cloud applications like a virtual machine, making the experiment easier to replicate
JISC committee member and Pro Vice Chancellor of Roehampton University, Chris Cobb, also addressed an Eduserv symposium last week on shared services.
