GEANT Signs AWS as Cloud Provider

European research organizations and educational GEANT, which operates a pan-European network of 500 Gbps, announced that it has signed a historic agreement Cloud computing with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

As part of the (GN4-1) Agreement GEANT project, AWS has a waiver called "data evacuation costs" for educational and research institutions across Europe, up to 15 percent of total monthly expenditures on AWS services . The contract was negotiated over two years by the giant cloud brokerage unit.
The partnership aims to accelerate the adoption of cloud services in research and education.

To date, payment structures offered by cloud providers were too unpredictable, leading to fears of large bills in the output data in particular "the cost of data service provider for Internet cloud. Given the vast and growing amount of data being moved by the users of research and education, the high variable cost is a real concern, especially when financial models are often dictated by funding rounds.

Commenting on this step, CEO GEANT Steve Cotter said: "This represents a radical change in the purchase and provision of cloud computing services for over 50 million users GEANT and partners of European national networks This also goes. to maximize the growth of the European digital economy, increased adoption of cloud services to improve the quality and impact of science and broaden participation in research and innovation. We highly appreciate cooperation with our partners in research and education and Amazon to bring this benefit to the GEANT community ".

John Boland, CEO of HEAnet project partner said: "We are proud of our commitment and contribution to this project because the exemption removes a barrier to cloud adoption by our customers."

Amazon Web Services is now part of the catalog of clouds Geant, a growing resource for the research community and European education with a structured more than 15 service providers and 25 different cloud computing services list. Provides national research and education networks (NRENs) with a quick and easy guide seeks to clarify the ability of service providers and their capabilities, contributing to the provision of services in the cloud.