Yesterday, Internet2 released news that they are working to allow higher learning institutions to access all Amazon Web Services via a third-party reseller. This organization, which was founded by some of the nation’s leading universities, is currently working with AWS service provider DLT Solutions to bring the cloud to their 221 member universities.
“The importance of cloud computing to the future of IT in education cannot be underestimated,” explained Michael R. McPherson, University of Virginia Associate Vice President and Deputy Chief Information Officer. “From on-demand capacity for mission-critical systems such as registration and learning management, to cost-effective provisioning of high-throughput computing, to data mining and databases, cloud resources are an inevitable component of our future computing environments.”
The new service will be available through Internet2’s NET+ Regional and Global Partner Program. This initiative is currently sponsored by the University of Virginia, with additional support from Cornell University, University of Iowa, University of Chicago and University of Wisconsin. In particular, the AWS offering will provide a self-service portal through which universities could perform invoicing, pre-payments, and general credit card services. The full offering is expected to be available to other universities in May of 2013.
For more information about this new service, please visit the site here.