Boost for cloud computing

The Digital Curation Centre, hosted by the University, is to share in HEFCE's £12-million funding programme for cloud computing.

The JISC-managed programme aims to help UK universities and colleges deliver better efficiency and value for money through the development of shared IT infrastructures and data storage and management services.

Cost-saving potential

Cloud computing is the provision of convenient, on-demand access to remote computing resources and services that offer a significant degree of independence from local institutional IT infrastructure.

The JISC 'community cloud' project will aim to offer higher education institutions cost savings from pooled resources and added-value services unobtainable from commercial cloud offerings.

The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) will be working closely with partners including JISC, JANET and Eduserv to realise the benefits of this new programme.

At a time of pressure on university resources, it is critical that technology is used in a collaborative and cost-effective way. Cloud computing has the potential to do this in ways which will serve the academic community, leading to improvements in research, teaching and administration.

Leading centre

A sum of £1.55 million has been allocated to the DCC, which also partners the universities of Glasgow and Bath.

The Centre is the UK’s leading centre of expertise in the digital curation field.

Aside from its involvement in the cloud-computing project, the funding will enable the DCC to develop and enhance its own services and activity.