University Information Services (UIS) offers the following cloud storage solutions for institutions or departments who want to store large volumes of data:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS): one of the largest and most comprehensive cloud services on the Internet
- Amazon Web Sevices (AWS) and RONIN: cloud research platform using flexible cloud infrastructure. It is simple to set up and manage. It uses a web application called RONIN which hides AWS' technical details from the end users.
- Google Cloud Platform: a suite of cloud computing services
It may also be useful to be aware of:
- Azure: Microsoft’s cloud platform
- Research Computing Service's Cloud offering: a web applications portal that provides on-demand science platforms running on top of a private on-premise OpenStack cloud
Compare cloud storage services
Technical skills required
You will need technical skills to use cloud storage solutions. Some services use command-line instructions, but this is not the case for all cloud storage solutions. Service providers offer free training courses to learn the basics, but they all generally require a significant investment of time.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
You will need a working knowledge of AWS to configure and manage these resources.
Amazon Web Sevices (AWS) and RONIN
This is easier to use the standard AWS. You will need to use some basic command-line to get into Ronin but with a lot of instructions.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
You will need a basic familiarity with the Unix command line either via Linux or via Max OS X.
Costs
Amazon Web Services
The cost is calculated using Amazon's Web Services list price minus a 14% discount, plus 3.5% usage charge. This equates to roughly 11% off the list price. Prices are set in USD ($) so are affected by exchange rate fluctuations.
Amazon Web Sevices (AWS) and RONIN
The cloud research platform is currently free for selected institutions. This may change before going into general availability.
Independently of the cloud research platform cost, any cloud resource consumption is billed against the project budget according to Amazon AWS resources pricing. This includes a $0.02/h fee charged for the licensing of the CIS hardened images.
Google Cloud Platform
Costs depend on which services you use and your levels of usage. You can use Google's pricing calculator to estimate costs. Many of Google's services have a free tier that may be appropriate for small workloads.
Get access to these services
Visit our Cloud services page for more information about public cloud storage solutions.