For several years, Information and Technology Services (ITS) offered Amazon Web Services (AWS) at U-M as its sole cloud computing IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) offering. That is changing. U-M recently signed enterprise agreements to offer Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The addition of these industry leading vendors provides a strong foundation of cloud computing solutions, and will enable ITS and U-M to be more nimble and resilient in their efforts to support the university’s key initiatives in innovative ways.
U-M has also executed business associate agreements with these three vendors and is working with Michigan Medicine Compliance and Information Assurance on guidance to allow use of the three cloud services for protected health information (regulated by HIPAA) and other sensitive institutional data. Until that work is complete and guidance on use of the services is available, users should not store HIPAA data on these services. Additional information on using these services with other types of sensitive university data will soon be available in the Safe Computing Sensitive Data Guide.
By working with these vendors to secure better terms and discounts available only through ITS, the U-M community can more easily consume public cloud computing. The ITS service also provides integration with campus resources and security monitoring, as well as limited consulting and training.
Faculty, researchers, and staff on all U-M campuses, including Michigan Medicine, can now use AWS, Azure, and GCP for their cloud computing needs. Check out the overview document Comparing Cloud Computing Services at U-M for more information.
What can U-M expect from Azure? The new service will include:
- University enterprise agreement
- Shortcode billing
- Network egress waiver
- Shibboleth integration (UMICH single sign on) for Azure authentication
- Preconfigured network and security resources with optional VPN
- Azure account level activity logs exported to Splunk
- Safe computing approval and guidance for sensitive data coming soon!
The Google Cloud Platform service at U-M will include:
- University enterprise agreement
- Optional shortcode billing with negotiated pricing
- Network egress waiver
- Shibboleth integration (UMICH single sign on) for GCP authentication
- Preconfigured network and security resources with optional VPN
- GCP account level activity logs exported to Splunk
- Safe computing approval and guidance for sensitive data coming soon!
ITS recently rolled out improved functionality for the AWS service. Beginning immediately, all new AWS ITS accounts come with these additional features. Go to the ITS AWS service page to open a new account or to add these new features to an existing AWS account through ITS.
AWS now includes:
- University enterprise agreement
- Optional shortcode billing
- Negotiated pricing
- Network egress waiver
- Shibboleth integration (UMICH single sign on) for account management
- Preconfigured network and security resources with optional VPN
- AWS Cloud Trail and VPC security log retained in Splunk
- Safe computing approval and guidance for sensitive data coming soon!
To learn how to get started with AWS, Azure and GCP, visit the Virtualization and Cloud Computing site. Sign up to get updates on these services by subscribing to the MCommunity notification groups for AWS, Azure, and GCP.
