Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

The November AWS NET+ Tech Share brought together participants from various institutions for discussions ranging from digital preservation strategies to artificial intelligence collaboration initiatives. Here's a summary of the key discussions:

Community Updates and Upcoming Events

Several important deadlines and events are approaching for the research and education community:

  • The NERCOMP Annual Meeting (March 31 - April 2, 2025, in Providence, RI) call for proposals closes November 18. AWS's Jan Day is available to assist with submission preparation.
  • Got a cloud deployment project that you’ve been working on this past year? Eager to share this story with your peers? Lucky for you, the Cloud Forum 2025 is accepting proposals for both Cloud and Research tracks until December 20.
  • Mark your calendars for the R&E FinOps Virtual Conference on January 23, 2025 (10am-2pm PST/ 1-5pm EST).

Institutional Highlights

Carnegie Mellon University's Billing Evolution

Carnegie Mellon University shared their transition to a centralized billing model. They're implementing a single purchase order system to address billing discrepancies, though this approach requires swift monthly processing of all charges.

Getty's Digital Preservation Journey

The Getty Trust provided fascinating insights into their digital preservation efforts. With a mandate to "digitize everything," approximately 95% of their digital assets are stored in AWS. Their team has developed innovative solutions for media migration and will be presenting their approaches at the upcoming TechEx conference.

Data Management Insights

Several institutions shared their experiences with data management:

  • Carnegie Mellon discussed their solution to data archival challenges, noting that investing in more robust resources has helped ensure long-term data integrity.
  • Multiple institutions highlighted their approaches to supporting library use cases, with dedicated teams handling long-term storage for public resources and specialized scanning equipment for book digitization.

Technical Updates

The discussion touched on several technical developments:

  • Amazon's transition from Apache Spark to Ray was noted, though the consensus was that this change primarily impacts large-scale operations.
  • The University of California system's research data protection project was highlighted, with their tool available on GitHub at rcs3.
  • Participants discussed various disaster recovery approaches, including VM archival strategies and challenges with specific storage solutions.

AI Initiatives and Working Groups

The AI landscape continues to evolve in higher education, with several upcoming events and initiatives:

  • Purdue and Notre Dame are hosting AI forums in the coming weeks.
  • The Internet2 AI Working Group is accepting new participants (contact tfrank[at]internet2[dot]edu for more information).

Be sure to check out the other blog posts we've written. As always, feel free to send any feedback to tmanik[at]internet2[dot]edu.