The UK's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) executive secretary Dr Malcolm Read has called for more investment in cloud computing in front of an international audience recently.
Speaking to policy makers, funders, vendors and researchers at a workshop in Belgium run by e-Infranet, which develops policies to promote ICT infrastructures, Dr Read said that cloud computing can give universities access to economies of scale which offers real financial benefits. Cloud computing also has the potential to improve carbon footprint and deal more flexibly with the changing needs of students and staff in the fast-moving university environment, he added.
JISC's studies last year revealed that few universities have formal polices on the adoption or use of cloud computing - even though it is widely accepted that a centrally managed approach to contracting cloud computing services is required for real efficiency benefits.
JISC is currently funding 11 pilot cloud projects together with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to look into the usefulness of the cloud for research in more detail and find out what the benefits and issues are.
JISC is also funding projects that are transitioning service solutions into the cloud in research management, core and corporate information management and student services. These projects will be reporting in July 2011. It is also managing HEFCE's university modernisation fund to establish a central brokerage service for a central UK higher education cloud.
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