On 10 April 2018, SWITCH hosted the 3rd Higher Education Cloud Day at the University of Bern. The Higher Education Cloud Days are an open and collaborative environment to gain knowledge shared user experiences and best practices.
Registration exceeded expectations, with around 65 attendees filling the meeting room to capacity. Almost all universities participated, along with university hospitals and CERN.
The program highlighted sessions with speakers from Google, Microsoft, AWS, amanox and SWITCH. The sessions were accompanied by a lively discussion of the GÉANT tender and framework agreements.
Topics covered included:
- G Suite and Google Cloud
- A captivating, nearly 2-hour presentation on experience-based solutions on Microsoft Azure
- An excellent presentation on AWS by Paul Grist
- Microsoft Azure data protection & security (GDPR) by Marc Holitscher who thoroughly explained two new Swiss based data locations and his findings about the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service compared to other services and the new cloud act.
- Cloud Onboarding Processes by amanox
- SWITCHengines showed the difference between global players and individual solutions
- Successful cloud usage and powerful networks, illustrating the importance of powerful networking and their costs
According to Immo Noack, Team Leader Procurement at SWITCH, the event was a resounding success. “Who else but a neutral NREN could bring all the big players and a small one together in one room,?” he says. “The audience response was also very positive.”
The 4th Higher Education Cloud Day is scheduled for 28 August 2018 which will focus on legal issues. For more information, please contact Immo Noack.
