Cloud potential to be showcased through researchers' competition

Safe cloud storage to help avoid the risks of lost or stolen data is now on offer to help three UK final year undergraduate and master's students run their research projects.

The cloud computing facilities are the winning prize in a competition that aims to highlight new projects demonstrate the potential of cloud computing.

The competition is run by Janet Brokerage, the UK’s only independent broker for academic cloud services, and Eduserv, the not-for-profit IT services organisation.

Andy Powell, Head of Research at Eduserv, said: "Research students and staff have an understandable tendency to keep data close to their chest on laptops or university servers. However, lost and stolen laptops or local server failures can put research projects back by months. By storing data in a secure facility tailored to the needs of the education community, with ample capacity and processing power, academics can rest assured that their data is secure and accessible."

The winners will benefit from a package including a VMware vCloud virtual data centre which can support up to around 18 virtual machines.

They will have access to 100GB storage, enough to store the equivalent of about 125 doctoral theses, and one public IP address. They will also have a direct connection to the JANET network, with no additional transit fees.

The winners will have use of Eduserv's Education Cloud from January 2012 to January 2013.

The first forty bids will be able to enter the competition from 18 November 2011. Bidding closes at midday on Friday 2 December, or once forty bids have been received, whichever is the sooner.

Find out more about how cloud computing could benefit your organisation. 

For more information about Janet Brokerage call 01225 822337, and to find out more about the services Eduserv offer visit their website or call 01235 474300.