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US higher education institutions, Internet2 affiliates, and federal affiliates may now utilize the Internet2 NET+ Amazon Web Services (AWS) agreement to realize the benefits of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, Experimentation, and Sustainability (STRIDES) Initiative. As a result, institutions will now be able to leverage the Internet2 NET+ AWS agreement to access AWS for both their enterprise and NIH-funded research needs as part of the STRIDES Initiative. NET+ AWS subscribers will also have the ability to manage all of their institution’s AWS workloads under a single organization for improved security and compliance.
The NIH STRIDES Initiative provides researchers access to commercial cloud services, including advanced computational tools and state-of-the-art data storage. This, coupled with biomedical and data science expertise, enables researchers to use the latest cloud-based tools and technologies to advance and accelerate their work. STRIDES has expanded access to cutting-edge cloud resources for more than 2,500 academic institutions across the nation, offered training to over 4,000 researchers, and has already supported 700 research programs and projects to date.
“AWS continues to accelerate innovation across research and educational institutions, providing access to artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, supporting high-performance computing, and delivering a comprehensive portfolio of services,” said Josh Weatherly, director, US education, state and local government verticals at AWS. “Internet2 NET+ is at the forefront of increasing access to the latest technology, and AWS is pleased to expand our collaboration with this organization to include the NIH STRIDES Initiative, highlighting our commitment to the research community.”
Efforts to provide NET+ AWS subscribers with access to the NIH STRIDES Initiative were community-driven. The terms and conditions were negotiated by Internet2 higher education members specifically to meet the unique needs of research and education institutions. NET+ AWS is enabling this option for US higher education institutions as a direct result of their requests as well as those from community groups, such as the NET+ AWS Service Advisory Board.
“In another example of community collaboration with Internet2, I am pleased to see the announcement of the NIH STRIDES Initiative for NET+ AWS subscribers,” said Gerard Shockley, enterprise architecture, Boston University and chair, NET+ AWS Service Advisory Board. “I wish to thank all the contributors, including the NIH, for bringing this new feature into reality.”
DLT Solutions and Four Points Technology were essential contributors to this collaborative effort. David Stephens, DLT’s senior director of cloud sales, noted that, “This agreement with Four Points provides flexibility for our partners and customers to utilize additional government funding for their AWS environments. We are excited about the ability to continue working with universities across the United States as they increase their consumption of AWS resources and further accelerate technology adoption in the US public sector.”
Four Points Chief Operating Officer Joel Lipkin echoed these sentiments about the importance of the two vendors working together for the benefit of the research and education community: “Four Points continuously works with our partners to understand customer requirements and enhance the services we provide our customers. We are pleased to support the addition of Internet2 NET+ to the NIH STRIDES initiative for our customers and the program at large. With this step, NET+ participants will have easier access to the extensive portfolios of AWS and all the benefits that the STRIDES initiative provides.”
“This collaboration means we can onboard many additional research institutions to the NIH STRIDES Initiative,” said Andrea T. Norris, NIH chief information officer and director of the NIH Center for Information Technology. “STRIDES is changing the way that we do science, helping to expand access to data, so it can be broadly leveraged across studies and institutions. This moves NIH’s cutting-edge research forward and accelerates the path to discoveries for the American people.”
Internet2’s NET+ Cloud Services program shares the NIH STRIDES Initiative’s goal to reduce barriers to utilizing cloud computing resources for the research and education community. The NET+ program allows Internet2’s higher education members to work together to evaluate cloud services, negotiate custom contract terms, and convene communities of practice in meaningful ways to support the adoption and ongoing operations of these services.
Register for our upcoming webinar on Tuesday, May 3, 10 a.m. PDT/1 p.m. EDT to learn more about the benefits of the NIH STRIDES Initiative and how to take advantage of it through the NET+ AWS program. For additional questions, contact netplus@internet2.edu.