Cloud Foundations Service

Public Cloud Broker provides access to centrally provisioned public cloud services for administrative, teaching & learning, and research needs. This includes new and existing applications, big data workloads and other workloads well suited to the major public cloud services.

OIT is continuing to build a more robust cloud foundations service (see table below for details), with the following offerings:

  • Baselines (e.g AWS Public Data Hybrid)
  • Consulting (e.g. Architectural consultation, Cost Optimization)

Utilizing Cloud Foundation Services

Ways to Utilize Public Cloud Services (direct, with consulting, through OIT supported services)

Snapshot Build Out Status

Amazon Web Services

AWS

  

Microsoft Azure

Azure

  

Google Cloud Platform

GCP

  
Enterprise Agreement Done Enterprise Agreement Done Enterprise Agreement Partially Done
Enterprise IAM Integration Done Enterprise IAM Integration Done Enterprise IAM Integration Partially Done
Public Data Baseline Done Public Data Baseline Done Public Data Baseline Not Done
Highly Confidential Baseline Not Done Highly Confidential Baseline Not Done   Highly Confidential Baseline Not Done
Network Hub or Direct Network Peering Done Network Hub or Direct Network Peering Partially Done Network Hub or Direct Network Peering Not Done
Shared Services (DNS, AD, etc) Partially Done Shared Services (DNS, AD, etc) Partially Done Shared Services (DNS, AD, etc) Not Done
Billing and Financial Processes Done Billing and Financial Processes Partially Done Billing and Financial Processes Not Done
User Support/Consulting Partially Done User Support/Consulting Not Done User Support/Consulting Not Done
Common Application Components Library Not Done Common Application Components Library Not Done Common Application Components Library Not Done

 

Features & Benefits

Public Cloud Foundations benefits, in general, include:

  • All the benefits of public cloud
    • Scalable and elastic compute
    • Fractional consumption
    • Eliminates need to purchase hardware for “peak” consumption
    • Improves speed of delivery
    • Allows for innovation – quick successes and quick fail trials
    • Shortened time to market
    • Improves service levels
    • Improves access to data
  • Managed services to simplify usage
    • Support for Speedtype/PO based billing (no more need for PCARD reconciliation)
    • Cost Monitoring/Management
    • Integration with Identikey, MyGroups and other CU Boulder tools for managing access
    • Optional network connectivity back to campus (for access to campus hosted data, or other applications)
    • Basic security and fraud detection monitoring

How to get it

In the current state of the cloud foundations service, faculty and staff can request the following services:

  • AWS account setup: For assistance with creation of AWS accounts for departments for hosting Public Data and for any of the three networking options (Cloud Only, Campus Only, Hybrid), please contact rc-help@colorado.edu

Not every workload is well suited to cloud foundations, please review Choosing Cloud for important considerations when making this decision.

 

Cost

Cloud Foundations services generally have publicly available cost calculators. All costs for cloud services are paid by the department or unit utilizing the cloud service - there is no central funding available for public cloud services.

OIT does not plan to add to these costs for basic services but may at a later time offer value added services that would have additional charges.

Where possible (e.g. networking, cost management, etc.) OIT will look to provide shared services that may save on the overall campus cost for use of a particular cloud platform.