Cloud computing

• I use “cloud computing” to mean:– Virtual machines,– running Somewhere Else,– with configurable resources,– some of which can be made persistent.

Other definition: more abstract compute resources, including disk and CPU; see e.g. picloud. This is less

useful for me than VMs, because data.

My uses for cloud computing

• Teaching computation & Web development.– Standardized environment, no surprises!– Teaching grants available.

• Testing and benchmarking software– Completely configurable environment.– Shareable.

• Reproducible papers and publishing data– “Here’s exactly what I ran, and how.”– “Here’s my data.”

• Doing new science– I need 20 computers, stat!– Sharing big data sets with students.

(Most important first)

Cloud computing providers

We have used, in some cases extensively:• Amazon – most advanced/configurable/complex• Rackspace – seeking partners• iPlant – academic/free, but resource limited

We have not used:• Google Compute Engine?• MS Azure?