We’re at a critical juncture to adopt cloud computing.

Internet2 helps U.S. Research and Education (R & E) organizations to solve shared technology challenges and develop innovative solutions in support of their educational, research, and community service missions.

Internet2’s membership sees this time as a critical juncture for the adoption of commercial cloud and attaining the benefits of cloud computing for the broader U.S. R&E community and enabling rapid innovation, scalability, as well as on-demand, persistent and secure access. Cloud computing represents the opportunity to democratize access to these advanced capabilities for communities and institutions not served by existing advanced resources.

In the summer of 2021, Internet2 convened a series of discussions with cloud service providers and federal agencies in recognition that accelerating the adoption of commercial cloud is critical to advancing the U.S. R&E community over the coming decade. These discussions identified key blockers to the broader adoption of commercial cloud computing and potential solutions to remedy these.

Strategic investments in defining the market, supporting enabling technologies (Identity and Access Management, Data and Multi-cloud management tools, Cost and Financial Management Tools), and developing portals were some of the areas identified as enablers to accelerate the adoption of commercial cloud across the R&E community and federal agencies’ extramural and intermural research communities.

Investment in ‘the people infrastructure’ needed

Most importantly, equal investments in “the people infrastructure” to support these new technologies and capabilities (workforce development and training, support for communities of practice) are necessary for the U.S. to continue to remain the world leader in science, research, and education.

This report is being shared with all the participating federal agencies and cloud service providers as well as the National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Resource Task Force, co-chaired by Dr. Lynne Parker from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Dr. Erwin Gianchandani from the National Science Foundation. Download the report.