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When JISC and Eduserv wanted to explore “Repositories and the Cloud” we were intrigued.  What similarities and differences would higher education (HE) have over other education sectors with utility computing?  Were HE ahead of other sectors?  Were they willing to throw everything onto the cloud or did they want a hybrid approach?  So a place on their conference was booked…

The Magic Circle.  A fantastically, quaint place to hold the conference, full of university lecturers, IT staff and anyone else with an interest in utility computing.  What was really cool about sitting in the old auditorium, with members’ names scribed onto each chair is the amount of technology being used.  The speakers were being videoed with a tiny camera and people were using Skype, checking email and even posting comments on Twitter which were automatically appearing on the large screen as the conference got under way.

From comments such as ‘kicking off #repcloud here in London’ to ‘omg I’m in the Magic Circle’, people were using technology to instantly update and feedback on what was happening.  Wouldn’t it have been great if this theme could have continued through the show so that people could automatically feedback/comment on presentations and make them more interactive?

One thing that struck me was when the first presenter introduced her company and the person in front of me started looking at their web site to gather more of an overview on them – how brilliant to be able to choose how much information you can get.

But the real purpose of the day was to look at repositories and utility computing.  Many issues raised were the same for any institution or business.  One issue that kept appearing was data preservation.  Universities have so much research data to archive and it was clear that many people attending had an interest in this, as they wanted a secure and simple way of storing large data-sets.

Duracloud completed a survey recently that showed the following issues:

• trusting a third party to manage critical assets;
• long-term reliability of solution;
• data security.

As utility computing is seen as a commodity, it can be very difficult to build a relationship with providers.  Similarly, some of these companies e.g. Amazon, Rackspace, Atmos etc. may feel that there is no longevity in utility computing.  Think of Yahoo Briefcase – no longer exists as an on-line storage option.

What would happen to an institution’s data if the cloud provider stopped their service?

How do we challenge the misunderstandings or fear?

All very good questions and worthy of careful consideration.  For sure, there are a number of strategies that we can put in place to protect against this, but let’s not underestimate the level of investment that goes into the adoption of a cloud infrastructure, and coupled with that the time, money and pain that would be involved in backing out of that.  At Educloud, we have started to think this through for education and we have our own view on the relative risks and rewards (not to mention the strategies that should be in place to minimise the former and maximise the latter).

But we are, after all, just one voice.  So, what do you, the wider cloud provider and customer community think?  We’d love to hear from you!

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