By
Sean O’Brien - Associate Vice President, NET+, Internet2
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Internet2 and the NET+ Team are keeping lots of cloud coming your way. We want to ensure you’re aware of some upcoming opportunities to learn with your peers in the research and education (R&E) community. In addition, we would like to offer some suggestions about which of our upcoming events might best meet your needs since there’s a lot of cloud to go around.
As cloud adoption continues to grow and new innovations become available, it’s important for professionals in the R&E community to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and best practices. During the next several months, Internet2 will convene the community at three separate events to bring together its members and the broader R&E community to share ideas, collaborate on solutions, and network with colleagues.
Internet2 Technology Exchange: There’s still time to register!
Get on the cloud track at the 2023 Internet2 Technology Exchange (TechEX), September 18–22, in Minneapolis, Minn. (Register now.) Here are some of the strategic sessions a planning committee of your peers curated with you in mind:
- Automating AWS Org Management – Co-presenters Kelly Rivera and Hallah Hussein from the University of Wisconsin Madison will explore using Terraform to automate organization management on AWS and Azure.
- AzureAD Proxying for InCommon Federation – Jared Johnson and Harpreet Singh Gill from Children’s Mercy Research Institute will demonstrate the steps needed to securely proxy AzureAD with Shibboleth to support SAML 2.0 and join the InCommon federation.
- Creating and Managing Secure Research Engagement – Helen Mitchell and Allen Karns will discuss how they’re leveraging the cloud to provide researchers at Vanderbilt University with secure computing environments that are consistent, compliant, and manageable at scale.
- Cloud Security By Default – Matthew Stout and George Holbert will highlight how the University of California Office of the President leverages Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to make it as easy as possible to deploy in the cloud with security by default.
We’re also especially excited about some of the practical cloud-focused pre-conference workshops, such as the Security & Resiliency in the Cloud Tabletop Exercise, Google Cloud Hero – Visual, ML, & BigQuery Tutorial, and the Compute at All Scales—No Server Required Tutorial.
Led by community members and industry experts, these sessions and tutorials are just a sampling of what’s in store for you during the vibrant cloud track at TechEX. Join us for some of the most important discussions about the R&E cloud happening this year.
Be a part of the cloud services and solutions track at Internet2’s Community Exchange (CommEX), March 4-7, 2024, in Chicago, Ill. Submit a proposal for a session. The cloud track consists of three main themes:
- Optimizing Cloud Service Deployments
- Impact of Evolving Cloud Technologies
- Leveraging the Cloud for Core Mission
CommEX is a wonderful opportunity to focus on exploring the latest trends and innovations in cloud computing for research and education (R&E) and implications for the community. We hope you’ll join as an attendee, presenter, or both.
Higher Education Cloud Forum: Save the date!
The Cloud Forum continues its on-the-road series, heading out west to California. Next year we’ll be at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, April 30 – May 2, 2024.
The Higher Education Cloud Forum is a gathering for higher education IT professionals to discuss the challenges, potential, and best practices for using hyper-scale computing tools and platforms to support enterprise computing, and academic research as well as teaching and learning. The event is created by higher ed, for higher ed. Want to get a sense of the program? Check out the content from previous forums.
The Forum consists of presentations, panels, lightning talks, and research presentations by faculty researchers working on the major cloud platforms. The Call for Proposals opens October 16, 2023. Mark your calendar, and join us for the Cloud Forum experience. Registration will open February 1, 2024.
Which Events Are Right for You?
Which event is right for you depends on your interests and audiences you want to engage with. Here’s our breakdown specifically for those interested in cloud to help you decide.
If you’re looking to have technical conversations at the cloud implementation level with peer practitioners
If you’re interested in discussions with R&E leaders about the role and direction of cloud in your IT strategy
If you’re interested in building your network of R&E cloud professionals, while discussing the latest trends and challenges in cloud computing
No matter which event you choose, you’re sure to learn something new and connect with other professionals in the research and education community. Feel free to reach out to us at netplus@internet.edu to learn more!
About the Author(s)
Sean O’Brien leads Internet2’s NET+ cloud service program working with institutions on the collaborative development, evaluation, and management of cloud services for the research and education community. He has worked in a variety of roles in higher education and the private sector focusing on cloud enablement, institutional research, and project management.