Through ITS’ leadership, UNC-Chapel Hill has become a founding member of the RHEDcloud Foundation, along with 14 other universities and corporations.
The nonprofit RHEDcloud Foundation launched in March to initiate the RHEDcloud Project, an open-source project for collaborating on cloud security requirements and implementations for Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. The big three public cloud vendors provide cloud infrastructure for enterprises, known as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS).
Expanding cloud knowledge
ITS’ participation in RHEDcloud Foundation, which stands for Research, Healthcare and Higher Education Cloud Foundation, is one of multiple steps ITS is taking to further cultivate the proper use of cloud computing technologies at Carolina. “Think Cloud” is one of ITS’ four strategic focus areas.
“It is exciting for UNC-Chapel Hill ITS to participate in this (RHEDcloud) ecosystem as a contributor, partner and licensed owner of any cloud development work,” said John Mack, Assistant Vice Chancellor of ITS Infrastructure & Operations. “Our team is rapidly maturing and expanding its knowledge about cloud technologies and available solutions. By working within a community of practice, we will naturally develop expertise for effective delivery of next-generation of IT services at UNC-Chapel Hill.”
Mack serves on the foundation’s Board of Directors. ITS staff members Brent Caison, Ethan Kromhout, Stephen Braswell, John Godehn and Chuck Crews are participating in the foundation’s work.
Widespread collaboration
The RHEDcloud Project brings people together from research universities, pharma, healthcare providers, cloud service providers, and cloud platform providers to design and implement better security, automation, and integration for cloud computing.
By participating in this ecosystem, UNC-Chapel Hill can acquire additional tools and knowledge as it works toward building environments in the cloud. UNC-Chapel Hill automatically receives a license to use outside of the foundation any work that is developed within the foundation.