XSEDE Cloud Survey Report
- Published:
- Briefs, Case Studies, Papers, Reports
- Author(s) and Contributors:
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Author(s): Dave Lifka Ian Foster Susan Mehringer Manish Parashar Paul Redfern Steve Tuecke
- Source(s) and Collection(s):
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Sources(s): Community
- ParentTopics:
Abstract
A National Science Foundation-sponsored cloud user survey was conducted from September 2012 to April 2013 by the XSEDE Cloud Integration Investigation Team to better understand how cloud is used across a wide variety of scientific fields and the humanities, arts, and social sciences. Data was collected from 80 cloud users from around the globe. The project descriptions in this report illustrate the potential of cloud in accelerating research, enhancing collaboration, and enriching education. Cloud users provided extensive data on core usage, preferred storage, bandwidth, etc. and described cloud benefits and limitations for their specific use cases. Educators, research administrators, CIOs, and research computing practitioners may find value in this data when considering the use and/or deployment of public, private, or hybrid clouds to complement current cyberinfrastructure.
This report is intended to help educators, research administrators, CIOs, and research computing practitioners envision what role cloud might play in research, teaching, and learning at their respective institutions. While cloud technology is still maturing, it is the author's belief that it is here to stay. Academic institutions need to ascertain how cloud fits in their cyberinfrastructure (CI) strategy and plan and adapt accordingly.