

Building an Inter-University Private Cloud with Open Source ownCloud - lclark
http://www.linux.com/news/enterprise/cloud-computing/779737-why-germanys-public-universities-need-an-open-source-private-cloud

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dekhn
(note: I used to implement production grids, which included secure file
sharing between institutions, and I work for a cloud provider. So I have some
background experience in the theory and practice of file sharing in clouds,
public and private).

I find it really interesting they concluded they had to build an alternative
because they considered public clouds insecure and non private. Making such a
decision has to take into account a very large amount of information (and they
should be talking closely with potential vendors to get that information).

How do we know the university department will do a better job? It's been two
years since they started the project and they have just begun procurement.
They have a single vendor. How are they dealing with security and privacy-
unlike a cloud company whose reputation is on the line, for whom this is an
existential threat?

Running a 6Pbyte cloud is a non-trivial matter. There are large capital costs
as well as operational costs (you have to buy and run lots of servers, employ
24/7 admins, etc). If you purchase a service, it's just operational (and you
need far fewer admins).

Many US universities are already moving their IT departments to Amazon,
Google, and Microsoft clouds. They conducted due diligence, and came to a
conclusion. It's interesting the German universities came to a different
conclusion- one I'm not sure included enough factual data.

