Quistor and SURF have made more cloud technology accessible to education and research. SURF Research Cloud allows researchers and educational institutions to work with Oracle and Microsoft cloud services. Swiss IT service provider Bechtle also contributed to a tender from GÉANT, the European data network for research and educational purposes.
SURF Research Cloud revolves around virtual research environments, where users can choose from workspaces and supplement them with their own datasets. The solution integrates with Oracle Cloud, among others, and bypasses “administrative hassles” when addressing new technologies and hardware.
GÉANT project
To further develop this platform, the project received a 400,000 grant from GÉANT, which has been connecting European researchers with digital resources since 2000. In the case of SURF Research Cloud, the use of cloud services is guided through credits, which can be spent by researchers on the platform “as they see fit”. Manager of SURF Research Cloud Ivar Janmaat said: “We wanted to maximize flexibility for our researchers, and thanks to the collaboration with Quistor, Oracle, Microsoft, and Bechtle, we were able to realize this vision.”
Oracle partner Quistor worked extensively with SURF on the project. Sales Manager Cloud Benelux at Quistor Mark Verhorst talks about a positive collaboration: “We thought from the solution’s perspective, making it interesting for universities, maintainable and scalable, with all the benefits of a public cloud without limitations.”
According to Janmaat, the SURF platform is suitable “for both real research and hands-on workshops. With Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) as a solid foundation, we can continue to innovate and contribute to thriving technological developments.” A first test has already been conducted through a workshop on AI at the Hogeschool Utrecht, for which OCI provided support.
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