Research Technology Services (ResTech) supports hosting research applications through cloud infrastructure providers, primarily Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the national eResearch cloud infrastructure Nectar.
An advantage of building on cloud is the ability to access and combine compute, storage, database and other resources on demand, and to provision and release resources as needed without a fixed setup or lock-in commitment.
How Cloud can help your research:
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Cloud Computing: AWS allows you to access computing resources, such as virtual servers, storage, databases, networking, and more, over the internet. This eliminates the need for owning and maintaining physical infrastructure, reducing costs and providing flexibility.
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Services and Solutions: AWS provides a vast array of services to address various computing needs. These services include Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) for virtual servers, Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) for object storage, Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service) for managed databases, AWS Lambda for serverless computing, and many others.
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Scalability and Elasticity: One of the significant advantages of AWS is its ability to scale resources based on demand. You can easily increase or decrease computing power, storage, and other resources to match the needs of your applications. This scalability ensures that you can handle traffic spikes or accommodate growing workloads efficiently.
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Pay-as-you-go Pricing: AWS follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where you only pay for the resources you use. This provides cost savings by avoiding upfront investments in hardware and software. Additionally, AWS offers various pricing options, including reserved instances, spot instances, and on-demand pricing, to suit different usage patterns.
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Global Infrastructure: AWS has data centers located worldwide, allowing you to deploy your applications closer to your target audience for reduced latency and improved performance. With AWS's global infrastructure, you can expand your applications globally without significant infrastructure investments.
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Security and Compliance: AWS places a strong emphasis on security, implementing robust measures to protect customer data and infrastructure. They offer encryption services, identity and access management, and tools to help you comply with various industry standards and regulations.
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Integration and Ecosystem: AWS integrates well with other Amazon services and provides a broad ecosystem of third-party tools and services. You can easily combine AWS services with tools like Amazon S3 for storage, Amazon CloudFront for content delivery, or Amazon DynamoDB for NoSQL databases.
Our support includes:
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Advice: matching cloud services to your application’s requirements and your research needs;
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Security: meeting UNSW data handling requirements and hosting within UNSW-supported environments;
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Estimation: pre-project estimation advice or pilot project test workloads to enable more accurate estimations for grants;
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Grant support: in-kind subject matter expertise or cash contribution towards platform hosting costs to include in competitive external grant applications (these must be discussed with ResTech and are for projects which leverage our existing platforms and skills);
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Hosting: support to host your application inside UNSW environments to make administration, billing and reporting easier.
We can provide in-kind support and advice on application migration, re-platforming and architecting applications on cloud. We cannot contribute to or fund application development or system administration.
Please contact restech@unsw.edu.au outlining the application you are looking to host or develop – we’d be happy to discuss the support ResTech can provide.
During 2023 we are able to fund hosting/provider costs for a new or existing research cloud application that will be used for estimation for research grant application or is a deliverable of a recent grant application, for up to AUD $12,000. For more information visit out ResTech Cloud Grants page.
