Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

The October 2nd AWS NET+ Tech Share covered collaborative projects, disaster recovery solutions, and cloud migration experiences. Here's a summary of the key discussions.

Recent Highlights and Upcoming Events

• NET+ AWS Tech Jam on AWS Marketplace (recording available)
• Ongoing Landing Zone Accelerator (LZA) Community of Practice meetings
• NET+ AWS Town Hall on October 16 at 11am PT/2pm ET: CCoE and AWS Organizations Best Practices

Collaborative "Barn Raisings"

The group continued to discuss the proposed "barn raisings" – collaborative sessions where community members get together with AWS experts to build out a solution in their environment. Here are some potential sessions that interest the community:

1. Indiana University's Audio Transcription Service: A tool that could benefit many institutions dealing with audio content.
2. Secure research environments: A crucial need for institutions handling sensitive data.
3. Arizona State University's PDF accessibility project: Addressing the important issue of document accessibility in higher education.

Disaster Recovery and Migration Insights

James from Old Dominion University sparked a discussion on AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS) experiences. Tommy from AWS explained that DRS, formerly CloudEndure, offers block-level replication from source to target, with both migration and DR options.

Rob from Loyola Marymount University shared valuable insights on using AWS Application Migration Service (MGN): While generally effective, MGN presented challenges with edge cases.

Gerard from Boston University (BU) added historical context, noting past issues with VMware agents and instance sizing during migration. These experiences highlight the ongoing challenges in cloud migration and the importance of careful planning.

SAP HANA in the Cloud: Balancing Performance and Cost

Gerard from BU raised a question about running SAP HANA in AWS. Currently using an on-premises solution across two data centers, they're exploring AWS as part of a tech refresh. Some participants with past SAP HANA experience shared how this is a big undertaking and would be interested to hear the outcome of it. Solutions Architects on the call recommended Gerard to talk to his dedicated AWS SA to loop in an SAP HANA specialist from AWS to discuss potential migration plans and their forecasted cost.

Data Lake and Account Management: A Holistic Approach

Max from Wayne State University (WSU) shared insights on their ongoing Data Lake project and AWS migration. His and his team’s work are mainly greenfield efforts, e.g. creating a new AWS Organization, setting up Control Tower, designing VPCs, and even building an integration for account provisioning with Grouper and EntraID.

For many folks on the call, this was a trip down memory lane, reminiscent of when they had to migrate their first set of workloads into AWS. We hope that the collective wisdom and experience of this group can help teams like Max’s navigate their AWS migration more smoothly and avoid common pitfalls

Control Tower in Academic Settings

Ethan from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) inquired about experiences with decommissioning AWS Control Tower. Someone from a quantum computing course in CMU had set up Control Tower in their AWS environment. While no direct experiences were shared, the discussion pointed to AWS documentation and highlighted the growing use of AWS in course settings.

While initially talking about Control Tower, this conversation highlighted similar adoption of an uncommonly used AWS service: AWS Braket. Both CMU and BU have a quantum computing course which uses AWS Braket. BU claims that the course was well received.

Conclusion

The October AWS NET+ Tech Share demonstrated the higher education community's commitment to collaborative problem-solving and knowledge sharing. From exploring joint projects to discussing the intricacies of cloud migration and specialized use cases like SAP HANA, the discussions reflected the complex and evolving nature of cloud adoption in academic institutions.

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.

Take your AWS Private Marketplace knowledge from theory to practice in this engaging 90-minute hands-on build lab. Designed as a follow-up to our August introduction to Private Marketplace, this session provides cloud and procurement teams from NET+ AWS institutions the opportunity to set up their own Private Marketplace with expert guidance from AWS specialists.

You'll work through a step-by-step process to configure your marketplace, applying the concepts and best practices discussed in the previous session. Our AWS experts will be on hand to provide real-time assistance, ensuring you leave with a functional Private Marketplace tailored to your institution's needs.

This practical session is your chance to implement powerful controls, streamline procurement processes, and optimize cloud resource management for your organization. Don't miss this opportunity to transform your cloud procurement strategy with AWS Private Marketplace.

CICP Subscribers can find slides, recordings, and any other assets here after the meeting. There's even a blog post of it!

The NET+ GCP community reconvenes for an exciting project pitch session, taking over the usual Tech Jam slot. This event marks the culmination of efforts sparked by the August Strat Call, where participants learned about the Rapid Innovation Team (RIT) initiative and began formulating their project ideas (recording).

During this session, members of the NET+ GCP community will have the opportunity to present their project proposals to the NET+ GCP Service Advisory Board (SAB) and Chris Daugherty from Google. Each pitch will showcase innovative ideas that leverage GCP to address critical needs within higher education institutions and potentially benefit the broader academic community.

Presenters will outline their project's objectives, potential impact, and how it aligns with RIT's goal of creating impactful prototypes for the research and education sector. The audience can expect to hear a diverse range of concepts, from AI-driven solutions to data management tools to advising systems and beyond.

After this session, the SAB and Chris will vote to select the top three projects. These finalists' ideas will be presented to the RIT at the face-to-face SAB meeting at Google's NYC offices on October 10.

This pitch session represents a pivotal moment for participants to transform their innovative concepts into tangible plans with the potential for realization through RIT's collaborative engagement. It's an unparalleled chance for higher education institutions to drive technological advancements in their field with the support of Google's expertise and resources.

CICP subscribers can find the slides, recordings, and other meeting assets here.

Higher education is a uniquely complex industry, with many independent groups building unique solutions that are all expected to comply with university policies and applicable regulatory frameworks. Working in AWS introduces a number of new tools: Organizations, Landing Zones, and Control Tower. We’ll discuss the roles of each of these and how you can build a secure and predictable environment for your customers across campus.

AWS Solution Architect for EDU, Chris Kuehn takes us through this month's topic on Wednesday, October 16 at 11am PT/2pm ET.

CICP Subscribers can find slides, recordings, and any other assets here after the meeting.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

On September 24, 2024, the Google Rapid Innovation Team (RIT) hosted a Project Pitch Session, bringing together innovative minds from various institutions within the Internet2 NET+ GCP community. This session, which replaced the usual Tech Jam, was a follow-up to the initiative introduced during the GCP Strat Call on August 20 by Google's Chris Daugherty. The goal was to present ideas for prototype game-changing solutions addressing real-world challenges in the research and education community.

The RIT Opportunity

The RIT offers a unique chance to work in 6-week sprints with teams from subscribing institutions to build functional prototypes of software applications. These applications aim to enhance research capabilities, improve student engagement, or streamline administrative processes in higher education.

Presented Ideas

Unlocking Historical Insights with AI and Big Data

Sheila Marie Zellner - Jenkins from the University of Maryland, College Park presented "Applying DocumentAI and BigQuery to diplomatic correspondence from the Allied Occupation of Japan." This project aims to:

• Use DocumentAI for OCR conversion of multilingual documents
• Ingest data into BigQuery for advanced SQL querying
• Employ Looker for data visualization and analysis

The project demonstrates the potential of AI tools in converting archival materials, regardless of language, into accessible digital databases, potentially revolutionizing approaches in various academic fields.

Cloud Migration Coach: Simplifying the Path to GCP

Bob Flynn from Internet2 proposed a "Cloud Migration Coach," addressing the challenge of getting started with Google Cloud. This tool aims to:

• Analyze on-prem architecture diagrams and workflows
• Provide customized migration plans and cost calculator input recommendations
• Pull in targeted learning resources from Google Cloud Skills Boost

Modernizing Applications with AI-Driven Analysis

Gabe Geise from Penn State University proposed an AI application to streamline application modernization efforts that builds on the Cloud Migration Coach idea. It does this by:

• Analyzing GitHub repositories to suggest containerization strategies
• Recommending relevant GCP services for deployment
• Providing documentation and training resources for implementation

This tool could assist in modernizing applications, identifying technical debt, and improving long-term code maintenance.

Pacer: Personalizing Student Time Management

Building on an idea initially mentioned during the August Strat Call, Bob presented "Pacer," a tool designed to help students manage their time more effectively. This concept aims to:

• Create personalized work plans based on students' curricula and commitments
• Ingest syllabi and class calendars to develop day-to-day personal work plans
• Integrate with Google Calendar and learning management systems
• Adapt to individual productivity patterns and preferences

Pacer represents a practical application of technology to address the common challenge of time management faced by students juggling multiple responsibilities. By providing personalized scheduling assistance, it has the potential to significantly improve students' academic performance and overall college experience.

The discussion around Pacer highlighted the importance of user privacy and the potential for the system to learn and improve its recommendations based on user behavior over time.

Next Steps

Following this pitch session, the Service Advisory Board (SAB) and Chris Daugherty will discuss the submissions, maybe add some of their own, and ultimately vote to select the top projects. These projects will be presented to the RIT leadership at a face-to-face SAB meeting on October 10 at Google's NYC offices.

Conclusion

The Google Rapid Innovation Team Project Pitch series of meetings highlights how the NET+ GCP community facilitates collective community conversations and innovative projects leveraging Google Cloud technologies in higher education. As the selection process moves forward, these projects have the potential to contribute to how universities address challenges in research, teaching, administration, and student success, furthering the superpower of collaboration for shared benefit within the higher education community.

You can always find details and recordings of the NET+ GCP quarterly calls on the Cloud Infrastructure Community Program (CICP) calendar. 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.

The NET+ AWS program recently concluded a comprehensive two-part series on AWS Private Marketplace, offering valuable insights for the research and education community. The series, which included a strategic call, office hours, and a hands-on Tech Jam, illuminated the potential of this innovative tool to streamline procurement processes in higher education institutions.

Key takeaways from the series include:

• Private Marketplace enables institutions to curate catalogs of approved contracts, ensuring compliance with procurement policies.
• Institutions can create customized marketplaces for different schools or departments, offering flexibility in implementation.
• The tool supports private offerings with custom-negotiated terms, enhancing procurement options.

During office hours, the AWS Marketplace team addressed questions about the differences between Private and Public Marketplace, providing clarity on how to engage procurement and finance teams effectively. The Tech Jam session offered a practical demonstration of setting up private offers and configuring Private Marketplace within AWS organizations, complete with access control strategies.

Participants praised the clarity of the presentations and the relevance of the service to their institutions' needs. Many expressed enthusiasm about implementing Private Marketplace in their own environments, recognizing its potential to enhance procurement efficiency and policy compliance.

As institutions continue to navigate the complexities of cloud procurement, AWS Private Marketplace emerges as a powerful tool for ensuring compliance, streamlining processes, and maximizing the value of AWS services in higher education settings

Resources:

• Kickoff meeting recording and slides
• Creating a private partner offer on AWS Marketplace for public sector customers - demo
• Private Marketplace - Demo | AWS Public Sector
• Hands-on session recording

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

The September 18th NET+ AWS Tech Share dug into issues that keep the research and education cloud professionals up at night: measuring cloud maturity, justifying costs, and simplifying storage decisions. Here's what you need to know:

Cloud Elevation Index (CEI): Penn State's Approach to Benchmarking Cloud Journey

In the meeting, we briefly talked about Penn State University’s innovative internal project: the Cloud Elevation Index (CEI). For those of you that missed their presentation this year at Cloud Forum here are the slides and recording. In a nutshell, this new metric could potentially offer research and education institutions a standardized way to quantify cloud maturity progress.

Stay tuned for updates regarding Penn State's CEI. NET+ subscribers will see CEI for their own accounts in the upcoming release of the Data Benchmarking project. Internet2 is working with Penn State to set up a working group open to the broader research and education community on this initiative.

Cloud Costs Under Scrutiny: CMA Investigation Sparks Debate

Joshua (University of Virginia) shared a recent article about AWS’s responses in the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) investigation into anticompetitive behavior by the public cloud providers and the other major cloud providers, igniting a lively discussion:

• Bob mentioned that The Register has a history of posting anti-public-cloud articles. He also cautioned against viewing the cloud as a universal solution.
• Kelly (University of Washington-Madison) highlighted often-overlooked cloud benefits, particularly in security.
• The group explored differences in compliance and security between cloud and on-prem:
• Cloud platforms handle some compliance aspects at the platform level.
• On-prem setups vary widely in control and security ("All bets are off for researchers who have a server under their desk").

Key takeaways:

1. Evaluate cloud benefits holistically, beyond just infrastructure costs.
2. Consider how the cloud simplifies certain compliance requirements.
3. Recognize the challenges in making direct cloud vs. on-prem comparisons.
4. A more balanced analysis, including links to the hearings with each of the three public cloud vendors in the CMA investigation, can be found at How Big Cloud defended itself in the U.K. 

Taming the Wild West of Cloud Procurement

Familiar procurement headaches shared across institutions:

• Challenge: Corralling departments and researchers under a single contract. Many are either unaware of university contracts or are unwilling to comply with or have their accounts controlled by central IT management.
• Risk: If controls are too tight or if the value of joining the institutional contract and org are not made clear and compelling, there is a chance that departments and researchers (primarily researchers) will create accounts with non-university credentials, pushing IP and any chance of university support, to personal accounts.

Best practices mentioned: Consider increasing closer collaboration between IT, Procurement, Research to develop streamlined cloud account creation processes that make the value proposition clear and balance flexibility with control.

AWS Storage Simplification

Jan from AWS has an internal project she’s working on to simplify AWS storage selection:

• Challenge: Researchers and others struggle to choose optimal AWS storage configurations for their use cases.
• Initiative: Developing user-friendly tools for accurate object storage pricing estimates.
• Goal: Enable precise cost estimation without requiring deep architectural expertise.

This initiative aligns with recent discussions in the research and education community about research data storage challenges. In fact, this past June, Oren Sreenby of Internet2 wrote an insightful blog on "Top Issues Around Research Data Storage in Higher Ed."

Jan is actively seeking insights from those working with the cloud within the research and education community to create a potential solution. This is your chance to shape tools that could make your storage decisions easier and more cost-effective! Contact Jan at janday[at]amazon[dot]com. 

Conclusion

From Penn State's Cloud Elevation Index to the ongoing debates about cloud costs and procurement strategies, it's clear that our community is still wrestling with challenges to making the most efficient use of cloud in their institutions. As we navigate these complexities, the collaborative spirit of the NET+ AWS Tech Share community remains a valuable resource. We hope you’ll join us at the next NET+ AWS Tech Share and add your voice to the conversation!

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.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

The September 19th GCP Tech Share explored the highs and lows of Google Cloud adoption in higher education, from billing headaches to cutting-edge AI projects. Here's what you need to know:

GCP Experience: The Good and the Bad

The session kicked off with a discussion led by a business student from Indiana University, part of a project where Bob Flynn from Internet2 is collaborating with IU students to analyze and quantify barriers to adoption for GCP users within the research and education community. This open dialogue revealed both strengths and challenges:

Institutions praised GCP's tech support and documentation, with Pennsylvania State University highlighting positive experiences. However, challenges emerged:

• Northwestern University reported difficulties with Apigee support post-acquisition. Google seems to take a long time to fully integrate the products they acquire.
• Washington University in St. Louis cited billing as their "biggest headache," especially with third-party resellers. Better communication about charges for non-GCP Google services is needed..

To mitigate some of these issues, Washington University suggested restricting Google project creation. Google's representative assured the group that teams are working to improve integration of acquired products and enhance user experience.

RIT Pitch and Innovative Ideas

The meeting continued discussions on the Google Public Sector Rapid Innovation Team (RIT) initiative, introduced during the August 20 GCP Strat Call (recording and assets). This program offers institutions the chance to collaborate with Google on innovative prototypes for higher education challenges.

For more details, see the blog post "Google's Rapid Innovation Team Seeks Ideas from Internet2 NET+ GCP Community".

Here are a few of the potential proposals that were discussed during the call:

1. An AI-powered app for personalized GCP training suggestions (Internet2).
2. An app recommending GCP solutions for researchers based on current tools (Pennsylvania State University).
3. A tool for assessing per-user GCP cost estimates (Pennsylvania State University).

These ideas will be presented at the September 24 pitch session, with selected projects working with Google's RIT in 6-week sprints.

Cutting-Edge Projects and AI Advancements

The discussion then shifted to showcase the innovative work being done across institutions, highlighting the practical applications of GCP and AI in academic settings. Below are some of the GCP and AI projects shared by participants on the call:

• Washington University in St. Louis (WashU): Testing LLM deployment across cloud providers and developing a medical voice-to-text app.
• An AI tool for predicting cancer therapy responses was highlighted by Steven from WashU.
• Tim from Internet2 talked about his testing of Google's speech generation tools:
• NotebookLM: Converting blogs to podcasts.
• Illuminate: Generating podcasts from research papers.
• Jeff from Google highlighted the AlphaProteo project, which generates novel proteins for biological research.

Conclusion

The September GCP Tech Share revealed both the value and challenges we all face with GCP in higher education. While administrative issues, billing and integration can hamper adoptions, innovative projects and AI advancements demonstrate GCP's potential in advancing research and education. As the academic community leverages these tools, we anticipate groundbreaking applications in cloud computing and AI. We invite you to join us at next month’s NET+ GCP Tech Share on October 17.

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.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

The September 4th AWS NET+ Tech Share covered a wide range of topics including the Landing Zone Accelerator (LZA), campus-wide help desk unification, cloud engineering recruitment, and the state of DevOps education in universities. Here are the key points from the discussion:

Recent and Upcoming Events

• NET+ AWS Strat Call - Unlocking AWS Private Marketplace (recording | blog)
• REMINDER: Office Hours 9/11 11am PT/2pm ET https://internet2.zoom.us/j/81114348919  
• NET+ AWS Tech Jam - Building Your AWS Private Marketplace: Hands-On Lab 9/18 11am PT/2pm ET (Registration required)
• Technology Exchange registration rates increase by $200 on Friday, September 6th. If you are reading this after the price change, it’s still worth attending!
• Call for proposals for Community Exchange closes on September 13th. If you have been or are working on an interesting project or encountering unique challenges that you think others should hear about, consider submitting a proposal!
• AWS Landing Zone Accelerator (LZA)Community of Practice continues to meet monthly. Sign up and join in.

LZA Community of Practice: Purpose and Potential Spin Off

The discussion on LZA began with a question from Loyola Marymount University (LMU) about where institutions can discuss maintaining customized landing zone deployments, and whether the LZA Community of Practice was the right place for such discussions.

In response, AWS clarified the dual purpose of the LZA Community of Practice:

1. To gather feedback from institutions currently using LZA
2. To provide a platform for those seeking to learn more about LZA

An important point raised was the need for a dedicated space where institutions can discuss maintaining customized lower-case lz/landing zone deployments. This is different than LZA. See the blog I wrote for September’s AWS LZA Community of Practice meeting for more explanation.

To address these growing needs, a suggestion was made to dedicate a quarterly call to Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) and/or custom landing zone deployment. It's worth noting that this was just an initial idea proposed during the discussion, and the most suitable platform for such conversations is yet to be determined.

Help Desk Unification: Seeking Success Stories

Jan from AWS raised an interesting question about unifying multiple independent help desks across a campus with a central service desk. If any institutions have experience with such a project, AWS is keen to facilitate connections and share learnings. Contact Jan at janday@amazon.com

Hands-on "Barn-raising" Topics

The community expressed interest in hands-on sessions to collectively build out modular projects together. A couple of suggestions to start with are:

1. Vanderbilt University's Amplify AI Platform
2. Indiana University's Automated Transcription Service 

These practical sessions would guide institutions through the steps of deployng them in their own environments. If you have ideas for similar done-in-a-day-or-less projects with broad appeal, contact Bob Flynn bflynn@internet2.edu. 

Cloud Engineering Recruitment and Cloud Computing Courses 

The University of Wisconsin-Madison shared their experience in hiring for a new Cloud Engineer position. The role requires multi-cloud experience (AWS, Azure, GCP) and proficiency in Infrastructure as Code (IaC). 

They are seeing lots of resumes for the position. More than a few cover letters and even some resumes look AI generated. The discussion turned from the challenge many organizations are facing finding experienced candidates to cloud computing and DevOps courses offered at universities and technical institutes. Kelly Rivera shared her insights into the training offered at a local Wisconsin technical college:

• They offer courses on Terraform, cloud platforms, and CI/CD pipelines.
• While the program provides a solid foundation, graduates lacked the stresses of managing production environments and the benefits of working in a team. AWS GameDays were suggested as a way to help bridge those gaps. .
• The University of Wisconsin-Madison has considered sourcing interns from this program.

Another institution mentioned that they offer a few Master's level courses in the Business School using cloud services for data analytics and machine learning. These courses use AWS Cloud Academy, but most computer science and MIS coursework remains theoretical rather than applied. This discussion highlights the growing need for practical, hands-on cloud and DevOps education in academic settings to prepare students for the evolving job market.

The AWS NET+ Tech Share continues to be a valuable venue for knowledge sharing, community building, and addressing the evolving needs of research and education institutions in their cloud journey.

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.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

On September 3, 2024, the AWS Landing Zone Accelerator (LZA) Community of Practice gathered for its monthly meeting, bringing together representatives from various institutions and AWS experts. The session focused on providing a comprehensive introduction to LZA, its architecture, and best practices for implementation.

LZA 101: Understanding the Foundations

The meeting began with an informative LZA 101 presentation by Brian from the AWS LZA team. He introduced attendees to landing zones and their role in cloud adoption. Key takeaways include:

1. Landing Zone Defined: A critical cloud foundation component that provides a framework for account provisioning and management, establishing a secure and compliant multi-account AWS environment.
2. Cloud Foundation Alignment: The importance of aligning with the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework's Platform, Operations, and Security pillars.
3. Historical Context: The evolution from customer-built systems to AWS-managed services like Control Tower.
4. Differentiating landing zone and LZA: While a landing zone is the overall environment and structure for AWS account management, LZA is a specific tool for implementing and managing that environment.
5. LZA Overview: An open-source solution accelerating the implementation of security controls and infrastructure foundation on AWS.
6. Key Benefits: Well-Architected framework alignment, compliance documentation, and ability to programmatically implement and track AWS Organization-wide configuration changes.
7. Architecture: Utilizes AWS CloudFormation, CodePipeline, and Cloud Development Kit (CDK) for deployment.

Q&A Insights: Real-world Implementation Concerns

The Q&A session provided valuable insights into the practical aspects of implementing LZA:

• Configuration Management: The University of Idaho raised questions about best practices for editing YAML files, particularly for CMMC compliance. AWS experts recommended establishing a RACI matrix for effective people and processes management.
• Change Management: Internet2 inquired about config management locations, to which AWS said one way is to use internal code repositories (like GitHub) with actions to trigger the LZA deployment pipeline.
• Testing Strategies: The importance of having separate test and production organizations for making changes was emphasized, with AWS experts noting that account boundaries alone are insufficient for containing organization-wide changes.
• Third-party Integrations: While specific third-party tools weren't recalled, AWS highlighted the LZA account creation workflow available on GitHub as a valuable resource.

Looking Ahead: Roadmap and Community Engagement

The meeting concluded with important announcements and future plans:

1. TechEx Check-in: Internet2 and Amazon have a session at  TechEx conference to talk about the effectiveness of these community gatherings. They are looking for members of the CoP who are attending the event to join the discussion.
2. Next Meeting Preview: The October meeting will feature a roadmap discussion, requiring an NDA with AWS for participation. This session promises to provide exclusive insights into the future direction of LZA. If you wish to attend, please email bflynn@internet2.edu with confirmation that your institution has an NDA.

The September AWS LZA Community of Practice meeting successfully demystified Landing Zone Accelerator, providing attendees with a solid foundation for understanding the benefits of implementing this powerful tool. As institutions continue to navigate their cloud adoption journeys, the insights shared in this session will undoubtedly prove invaluable.

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.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

This week, the NET+ AWS program kicked off a two-part series introducing the AWS Private Marketplace to the research and education community. This innovative AWS service promises to be a useful tool for institutions’ contract procurement process.

The first session, attended primarily by university cloud enablement teams, provided a comprehensive overview of the AWS Private Marketplace. Here are the key takeaways:

• Approved contracts only: Private Marketplace allows your institution to curate catalogs of approved contracts from AWS Marketplace.
• Procurement compliance ensured: Private Marketplace ensures AWS users at your institution only purchase from contracts that comply with your procurement policies, including private offerings with custom terms you’ve negotiated.
• Customize Private Marketplace for departments or schools: Your institution can create individual private marketplaces for different schools or departments within their organization.
• Flexibility: Configure your Private Marketplace now and decide when to expose it and to whom, allowing for thorough preparation before full implementation.

Following this introductory session, attendees are encouraged to engage with their procurement colleagues to identify contracts for inclusion in their Private Marketplace. This collaborative approach ensures that the tool is tailored to each institution's specific needs and policies.

The series will culminate in a hands-on lab session, guiding cloud teams through the process of building their private marketplaces. To bridge the gap between the introduction and the practical session, an open office hour has been scheduled for participants to address any questions or concerns.

Next Steps

Whether you attended the initial session or not, NET+ AWS subscribers can access the recording, slides, and other resources at this Google Drive folder.

1. Review the checklist in meeting folder
2. Discuss with your procurement team
3. Bring questions to Office Hours: September 11 at 2pm EDT - Zoom Link
4. Get accounts and IAM roles in place ready for your build
5. Join Tech Jam to build your Private Marketplace on September 18 at 2pm EDT - Registration Link

The AWS Private Marketplace presents an exciting opportunity for higher education institutions to streamline their procurement processes and ensure compliance. We encourage all NET+ AWS subscribers to take advantage of this series and explore how Private Marketplace can benefit your institution.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Google's Public Sector Rapid Innovation Team (RIT) is reaching out to the Internet2 NET+ GCP community for innovative project ideas. Introduced during the recent GCP Strat Call on August 20 by Google’s Chris Daugherty (recording and assets), this initiative aims to help develop prototype game-changing solutions for higher education challenges.

The Opportunity: Collaborating with Google's RIT

The RIT offers a unique opportunity to work in 6-week sprints with teams from subscribing institutions to build functional prototypes of software applications addressing real-world challenges in the research and education community. The applications built could enhance research capabilities or efficiency, improve student engagement, or streamline administrative processes.

Examples of RIT Success Stories

The team shared examples of prototypes they've already built:

1. Grant AI: Assisting with grant-related tasks
2. Podcast Generator: Creating dialogues about academic papers
3. Transcript Capture: Processing academic transcripts
4. Personalized Learning System: Building custom learning paths for subjects like Anatomy

What the RIT is Looking For

Project ideas should meet the following criteria:

• Software-based applications
• Clear outcome and strategic value
• Repeatable and scalable
• Unique in the market
• Potential for prototype creation within 6 weeks on Google Cloud

Chris Daugherty emphasized, "We're looking for prototypes that can be used by everyone within the community."

From Ideation to Pitch

During the August Strat Call, participants have been developing their ideas. A couple ideas put out during the call were:

• A tool for students to ingest all their syllabi and class calendars to develop a day-to-day personal work plan
• A tool for data science departments to use to spin up Jupyter Notebooks, using their preferred tools with Colab for data analysis.

As requested during the call, a one-pager summarizing the RIT initiative and project requirements has been created and added to the meeting resources to help socialize the program around your institution.

Individuals and institutions have a month to put together ideas to present. The next step is a session on September 24 to pitch the ideas to the NET+ GCP Service Advisory Board (SAB) and Chris Daugherty from Google. Presenters will outline their project's objectives, potential impact, and alignment with RIT's goals.

Possible proposals include:

1. AI-driven solutions for academic processes
2. Advanced data management tools for research
3. Innovative advising systems
4. Collaborative platforms for controlled unclassified information
5. Tools to streamline financial aid processes

Next Steps: Selection and Presentation

The engagement timeline is as follows:

1. Office Hours: September 10, 3pm EDT
2. Pitch Session: September 24, 3pm EDT (replacing the usual Tech Jam)
3. Selection of Finalists by SAB: Post-pitch session
4. SAB presentation to RIT Leadership: October 10 at Google's NYC offices

After the pitch session, the SAB and Chris will vote to select the top three projects. These finalists will have the opportunity to present their ideas to the RIT at the face-to-face SAB meeting in October.

The Bigger Picture

This initiative represents more than just individual projects; it's about fostering a culture of innovation within higher education. By leveraging Google Cloud technology and developer expertise, selected projects have the potential to create significant impact across campuses and potentially transform how universities approach challenges in research, teaching, and administration.

The pitch session is a pivotal moment for participants to showcase their innovative ideas and potentially see them realized through RIT's collaborative engagement. It's an unparalleled opportunity for higher education institutions to drive technological advancements in their field with the support of Google's expertise and resources.

Stay tuned for updates on this exciting initiative, and for those participating, best of luck with your pitches!

You can always find details and recordings of the NET+ GCP quarterly calls on the Cloud Infrastructure Community Program (CICP) calendar. Also, be sure to check out other blog posts we've written. As always, feel free to send any feedback to tmanik[at]internet2[dot]edu.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

The August 21, 2024, AWS NET+ Tech Share gathered several institutions and organizations, including AWS, to discuss cloud migration strategies, technical updates, and resource optimization. Here's a summary of the key points and insights shared.

Recent and Upcoming Events

Several upcoming events and resources were highlighted:

• AWS Landing Zone Accelerator Community of Practice monthly meetings (next one in September 3)
• NET+ AWS Strat Call - Unlocking AWS Private Marketplace (August 21)
• CCCG Monthly Call - Up in the Cloud: ERP Modernization (August 28)
• AWS SAAC Cohort #8 (August 26 – October 11)
• AWS Security on the Cloud course (September 9 - October 21)
• re:Invent 2024 (December 2-6)
• Community Conferences
• Internet2 TechEx in Boston (December 9-13, registration open), featuring an AWS GameDay
• Internet2 CommEx in Anaheim (April 28 - May 1, 2025, CfP open)
• Cloud Forum 2025 at NYU (May 20-22, 2025)

Attendees were also reminded of recent blog posts and a TD Synnex webinar on cost efficiency through Reserved Instances and Savings Plans (recording | slides).

Technical Updates

1. AI Opt-out Button: AWS introduced a one click button allowing organizations to opt-out in providing service improvement content to AWS for AI services.
2. S3 Conditional Writes: Amazon S3 now supports conditional writes, enhancing data consistency and control.

Institution Spotlight: LMU's Enterprise Migration

Loyola Marymount University (LMU) shared insights from their ongoing enterprise migration to AWS:

• Currently migrating Banner, including system rearchitecting
• Moving suitable services to AWS to shut down one of two data centers
• Utilizing parts of AWS's Migration Accelerator Program (MAP)

AWS representatives emphasized that the MAP program can provide unexpected insights, including potential licensing cost savings. They encouraged other institutions to consider at least the assessment phase of MAP. It can turn up a lot of useful information and opportunities.

Community Discussion: Choosing the Right EC2 Instance Type

Carnegie Mellon University raised a question about guiding end-users in selecting appropriate EC2 instance types, sparking a discussion:

• Need for simplified guidance without navigating extensive AWS documentation
• Interest in tools for both new deployments and modifications to existing workloads
• Recommendations:
• Leverage your AWS account team
• Use third-party tool like: https://instances.vantage.sh/
• Potential of AWS Q for instance type recommendations

Conclusion

The August AWS NET+ Tech Share provided valuable insights into cloud migration strategies and fostered community discussion on optimizing AWS resource usage. For those looking to dive deeper into EC2 instance selection, AWS provides a starting guide: https://repost.aws/knowledge-center/ec2-instance-choose-type-for-workload

Join us for the next AWS NET+ Tech Share, which promises more insights and collaborative discussions.

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

Our August NET+ GCP Tech Share call was packed with updates, feedback, and exciting new opportunities. Here's a quick rundown of what we covered:

All of Us Update

We kicked the meeting off with a recap of our recent All of Us meeting, where we addressed challenges faced by higher ed institutions in managing cloud resources for this groundbreaking research program. Key issues included billing visibility, metadata tagging, and support limitations. Stay tuned for more updates as we work on solutions.

Google Cloud Admin Training Feedback

We reviewed the draft syllabus for the upcoming Google Cloud Admin Basic Training course, set for December's Internet2 Technology Exchange conference. The community provided valuable feedback, particularly on expanding coverage of project creation by external applications like Apps Script, Firebase, and Colab Enterprise, which can clash with existing project creation policies.

Billing Surprises from Google Ads

Ethan from CMU raised an interesting issue: some institutions are seeing Google Ads payments unexpectedly shifting to their GCP billing accounts. Sound familiar? Like our All of Us challenges, cloud teams are left with bills but no idea which department to charge. We're looking into this to prevent future surprises.

Rapid Innovation Team (RIT) Collaboration

Exciting times ahead! We're launching a series of meetings to gather project ideas for collaboration with Google Public Sector's Rapid Innovation Team. This is a golden opportunity for NET+ GCP subscribers to work with the RIT on prototypes that could significantly impact our community.

We'll kick off with a concept presentation in August, followed by a pitch session in September. Project examples include the existing Grant AI project and a Personalized Learning System being developed with the University of Georgia System. The University of Washington's DawgPath tool shows how these projects can have broad appeal across institutions.

You can always find details and recordings of the NET+ GCP quarterly calls on the Cloud Infrastructure Community Program (CICP) calendar.

The next NET+ GCP Tech Share is scheduled for September 19th. If it is not on your calendar, email me at bflynn@internet2.edu. Don't miss out on these great opportunities to inform and learn from your cloud colleagues.