Cloud computing
When one-off tasks are too much for local IT resources to cope with and investments are not economically viable, cloud computing is the answer. The advantage of cloud services such as infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is twofold: you can call up more computing power whenever you want, and you only pay for what you actually use. The flexible pay-per-use model is of particular interest for organisations that experience considerable fluctuation in their demand for IT resources over the short term but are either unwilling or unable to invest in extra capacity.
IaaS for the academic community
SWITCHengines is a form of IaaS. Researchers can use it to access additional storage space or processing power as their projects require. They simply place an order online and rent the capacity they need on a temporary basis. SWITCH provides exactly what they need straight away.
SWITCH made - Swiss made
There are lots of companies offering cloud services these days, but only one provider perfectly geared to the Swiss academic community. SWITCH operates two data centres connected to the university network in Switzerland: one in Lausanne, one in Zurich. These house the servers used for SWITCHengines. The entire infrastructure is controlled by SWITCH. No commercial cloud service provider knows the needs of this country’s universities better than SWITCH. Besides our tried-and-tested customer service team, high standards of security and data protection also make SWITCHengines the obvious choice.
Services at a glance
- Storage: two storage clusters each in Lausanne and Zurich with a combined capacity of 2.5 petabytes. Clients can order and use as much of this storage as they want.
- Computing power: 70 high-performance servers with a total of around 2.000 CPU cores. This is enough to run several thousand virtual servers with different configurations at the same time.
- Network connectivity: The infrastructure is connected redundantly with 2 x 10 GBit/s to the academic network of SWITCH.
Benefits for universities
- The cloud service provider is part of the Swiss academic community.
- No capital outlay
- No administration
- More flexibility for IT departments
- Charged on a pay-per-use basis
Benefits for users
- Available immediately
- Easy to order
- Support for academic use
