Technology: the Regis Cloud
The Regis Private Cloud is being developed in three phases over three years.
For most people, a technological Cloud is just a place to store files. For the IT community, it’s a place to offer a range of services, including software, platforms, and infrastructure. For CCIS, it’s a strategic change to help its community and continue to lead in the computer science and information assurance space.
For most people, a technological Cloud is just a place to store files. For the IT community, it’s a place to offer a range of services, including software, platforms, and infrastructure. For CC&IS, it’s a strategic change to help its community and continue to lead in the computer science and information assurance space.
More than 15 years ago, CC&IS established its Academic Research Network enterprise (ARNe) as a data center for hosting labs. This provided students of all IT disciplines around-the-clock global connectivity to a safe, state-of-the-art technology environment. Within it, they could gain hands-on experience in developing, modeling, testing, and delivering operating systems, applications and curriculum.
A few years ago, CC&IS considered moving ARNe to the Cloud. From its inception, providers have pitched the Cloud as a money saver. By using the Cloud, organizations could decrease costs by reducing the amount of equipment, space, and power needed to manage their own servers and networks.
Those saving haven’t necessarily come to pass, as higher operating expenditures can balance out decreased costs elsewhere. In fact, after conducting two internal studies that included cost/benefits analyses, CC&IS determined the costs were too prohibitive to make the move to a public Cloud.
In addition, the transition wouldn’t provide the College with the necessary services for the learning environment. For example, information assurance courses were delving into security analysis, penetration testing, and hacking detection. Amazon Web Services, a Cloud provider, said it didn’t want students performing those tasks on its system.
Instead of savings, organizations gain flexibility, business continuity, and disaster recovery solutions. With those critical benefits in mind, CC&IS decided to build its own Cloud—a robust technological ecosystem that provides a cutting-edge, real world environment for the CC&IS community. Like other Cloud-based systems, three major services will be available:
- Software as a Solution: SaaS (e.g., Microsoft Office, course software, OneDrive)
- Platform as a Solution: PaaS (e.g., Salesforce Heroku, Amazon Web Services Elastic Beanstalk, Microsoft Azure, and Engine Yard)
- Infrastructure as a Solution: IaaS (e.g., Oracle Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure)
The Regis Private Cloud is being developed in three phases over three years. Phase One began earlier this year and entails redesigning ARNe to provide the architectural framework to support Cloud services.
Phase Two will begin next summer. During this period, single sign-on functionality will be established, allowing students to log on to one account to access all resources, assets, and services. Some SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS already exist in ARNe and will be moved to the Cloud at this time. In addition, CC&IS will assess which of the services are the priority and build further capability in that order.
Finally, Phase Three will focus on disaster recovery and business continuity capacity, including the determination as to which services, if any, will go to a public Cloud. All phases will be completed in 2021.
Posted 04, 2021
