The University of California, San Diego (UCSD)'s San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and Information Technology Services (ITS) Division, the University of Washington (UW)'s eScience Institute, and the University of California, Berkeley (UCB)'s College of Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS) have developed and operate CloudBank, a cloud access entity funded by the National Science Foundation (Awards #1925001 and #2505560).

CloudBank provides 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 is complemented by a cloud usage monitoring system that gives U.S. researchers the ability to easily grant permissions to research group members and students, set spending limits, and monitor spend. These systems support multiple cloud vendors and can 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 commercial cloud services significantly advance the state of the practice and understanding of how to use these resources in science and engineering. Collaboration among CloudBank, cloud providers, and the research community will drive new research and offer a unique chance to explore the operational, technological, and business aspects of an innovative public–private partnership model.

It is a primary objective of CloudBank to broaden the access and impact of cloud computing across 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, and the CloudBank Advisory Board. CloudBank offers a long-term vision for service and sustainability that will broaden the impact of commercial 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.

More Information

  • Michael Norman, Vince Kellen, Shava Smallen, Brian DeMeulle, Shawn Strande, Ed Lazowska, Naomi Alterman, Rob Fatland, Sarah Stone, Amanda Tan, Katherine Yelick, Eric Van Dusen, and James Mitchell. 2021. CloudBank: Managed Services to Simplify Cloud Access for Computer Science Research and Education. In Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 45, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1145/3437359.3465586
  • CloudBank FAQ page