CloudBank: Managed Services to Simplify Cloud Access for Computer Science Research and Education

CloudBank：简化计算机科学研究和教育云访问的托管服务

• 批准号: 1925001
• 负责人: Michael Norman
• 金额: $ 500万
• 依托单位: University of California-San Diego
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1925001&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CloudBank; Managed; Services; Simplify; Cloud

The University of California, San Diego's San Diego Supercomputer Center and Information Technology Services Division, the University of Washington's eScience Institute, and the University of California, Berkeley's Division of Data Science will develop and operate CloudBank, a cloud access entity that will help the computer science community access and use public clouds for research and education by delivering a set of managed services designed to simplify access to public clouds. Driven by the profound potential of the public cloud and the associated complexity in using it, CloudBank will serve as an integrated service provider to the research community through a comprehensive set of user-facing and business operations functions. These services will span the spectrum from novice to advanced cloud users, including front line user support, cloud solution consulting, training, and assistance in preparing proposals that include cloud resources. CloudBank will provide innovative financial engineering options that will give researchers more flexible cloud terms tailored for their needs and contribute to the sustainability of CloudBank operations. CloudBank will help NSF by bundling multiple small requests that come directly to NSF into a bulk request to cloud providers, dis-incentivizing more costly direct connections. Through this aggregation and innovative financial contract types, CloudBank will pass along savings to researchers that would otherwise be unavailable to them.CloudBank will provide on-ramp support that reduces researcher cloud adoption pain points such as: managing cost, translating and upgrading research computing environments to an appropriate cloud platform, and learning cloud-based technologies that accelerate and expand research. It will be complemented by a cloud usage monitoring system that gives NSF-funded researchers the ability to easily grant permissions to research group members and students, set spending limits, and recover unused cloud credits. These systems will support multiple cloud vendors, and be accessed via intuitive, easy-to-use user portal that gives users a single point of entry to these functions.The CloudBank project and associated portal software, outreach and training materials, and experience in negotiating and delivering public cloud services will significantly advance the state of the practice and understanding of how to use these resources in computer science research and education. The close collaboration between the CloudBank project, cloud providers, researchers, and students will simultaneously enable new research while providing a unique opportunity to develop and study the operational, technological and business dimensions of fundamentally new model of public/private partnership in the service of the research enterprise.It is a primary objective of CloudBank to broaden the access and impact of cloud computing across the many fields of computer science research and education. The project will reach hundreds of researchers and students through allocated research projects and classes. A far larger group of stakeholders will benefit by CloudBank outreach efforts, such as workshops, publications, the CloudBank Center of Excellence on Cloud-Enabled Research and Education, and the CloudBank Advisory Board. CloudBank offers a long-term vision for service and sustainability that will broaden the impact of public cloud computing across all sciences and help ensure that students entering the workforce and research enterprise will be able to contribute and compete in the global economy.This project is accessible at http://tiny.cc/cloudbankThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

加州大学圣地亚哥分校的圣地亚哥超级计算机中心和信息技术服务部、华盛顿大学的eScience研究所和加州大学伯克利分校的数据科学部将开发和运营CloudBank，这是一个云访问实体，将通过提供一套旨在简化对公共云访问的管理服务，帮助计算机科学界访问和使用公共云进行研究和教育。在公共云的巨大潜力及其使用复杂性的驱动下，CloudBank将通过一套全面的面向用户和业务运营功能，作为研究社区的综合服务提供商。这些服务将涵盖从新手到高级云用户的范围，包括一线用户支持、云解决方案咨询、培训和帮助准备包含云资源的提案。CloudBank将提供创新的金融工程选项，为研究人员提供更灵活的云术语，以满足他们的需求，并有助于CloudBank运营的可持续性。CloudBank将帮助NSF，将直接发往NSF的多个小请求打包成发送给云提供商的批量请求，从而减少成本更高的直接连接。通过这种聚合和创新的金融合同类型，CloudBank将为研究人员节省资金，否则他们将无法获得这些资金。CloudBank将提供入口支持，减少研究人员采用云计算的痛点，如：管理成本，转换和升级研究计算环境到合适的云平台，以及学习基于云的技术，以加速和扩展研究。它将由一个云使用监测系统补充，该系统使nsf资助的研究人员能够轻松地向研究小组成员和学生授予许可，设置支出限制，并恢复未使用的云信用。这些系统将支持多个云供应商，并通过直观、易于使用的用户门户进行访问，使用户可以通过单一入口点访问这些功能。CloudBank项目和相关的门户软件、外联和培训材料，以及在协商和提供公共云服务方面的经验，将大大促进如何在计算机科学研究和教育中使用这些资源的实践和理解。CloudBank项目、云提供商、研究人员和学生之间的密切合作将同时实现新的研究，同时为开发和研究为研究企业服务的全新公私合作模式的运营、技术和商业层面提供独特的机会。CloudBank的主要目标是在计算机科学研究和教育的许多领域扩大云计算的访问和影响。该项目将通过分配的研究项目和课程覆盖数百名研究人员和学生。更多的利益相关者将从CloudBank的拓展工作中受益，例如研讨会、出版物、CloudBank云支持研究和教育卓越中心以及CloudBank咨询委员会。CloudBank为服务和可持续性提供了一个长期愿景，将扩大公共云计算在所有科学领域的影响，并帮助确保进入劳动力市场和研究企业的学生能够在全球经济中做出贡献并参与竞争。该项目可访问http://tiny.cc/cloudbankThis，奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。