Cloud computing
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The issue
People often talk about ‘moving to the cloud’, but what are the benefits for institutions of adopting a cloud-first strategy?
What you can do
Prototype new services quickly and cheaply
Cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, as well as independent cloud providers such as Interoute, Cloud Sigma and Dimension Data, offer a wide range of platform services that make it is easier to prototype new services, such as databases and web hosting. All these services are available through via our GÉANT cloud framework.
Drastically reduce the carbon footprint of your IT estate
Even with server virtualisation, on-premise IT infrastructure often comes with significant power and cooling requirements. Reducing these by renting infrastructure from a cloud provider can make a significant contribution to meeting your institution’s carbon reduction targets.
Our Financial X-Ray service can help establish your true total cost of ownership, if you don’t have this data at present.
Avoid expensive and lengthy data centre refurbishments
Universities and colleges often have data centres that were constructed before the benefits of techniques like hot aisle containment were understood. It can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to refurbish your data centre to bring power use efficiency down to modern standards.
Cloud providers are driven by the profit motive to continually iterate their data centre designs to keep operating costs as low as possible.
Our own shared data centres provide a best-in-class operating environment for compute and data-intensive systems like high-performance computing and supercomputers.
Collaborate online
Most universities and colleges have already discovered the productivity benefits of cloud-based email and calendar, using our national agreements for Microsoft Office 365.
These tools are capable of a lot more, though – such as GDPR-compliant file sharing and online collaboration. Contact us to discuss how to get the most out of them with your staff, students and external collaborators.
Support teaching and learning
With Cloud Sigma's Uni Lab, your students can set up and use virtual machines, helping them to gain real-life experience of key issues.
Cloud Sigma's Uni Lab and Research Lab services are subscription-based or pay as you go and offer live chat assistance. These services are both available via our GÉANT IaaS framework.
Connect to cloud
As organisations shift to the cloud, the quality of their internet connections is of paramount importance, demanding high reliability, speed, low latency and high security.
Azure ExpressRoute allows you to extend your on-premises network, via private connections, into the Azure cloud platform. By accessing Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute via your Janet Network connection, traffic is carried over the Janet Network to the Azure service platform without touching the public internet, improving security and performance, at reduced cost.
We hope, depending on demand, to extend similar services to other Hyperscaler cloud providers.
Find out more
Explore our full cloud offer, including support, national agreements and procurement frameworks.
You can also keep an eye on our cloud blog for news updates and details of events and resources from our cloud delivery partners.
For more information, speak to your Jisc account manager or email us.