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NCI operates an Openstack based private cloud computing environment which is available to NCI users and projects who have a dynamic or long running service requirement. At its core Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services including servers, storage, networking, software, analytics and intelligence over the Internet (or "the cloud") to offer faster innovation, flexible resources and economies of scale. Typically, you only pay for cloud services you use, helping you utilise NCI services budget more effectively, operate the infrastructure you need more efficiently and scale across NCI Cloud and HPC environments as your research needs change.

This guide covers how to request access, login, setup or upload a key pair, allocate Public IP address, creating, starting, stopping Virtual Machines, creating and connecting additional volume storage. The intended audience is for user who are beginning their use of NCI Cloud services.

The NCI Cloud environment provides NCI users with the capability to compose a dynamic and scalable compute environment, built using Virtual Machines (VMs) for compute, Volume and Object storage to hold data, Private and Internet access for networking, and access to NCI gdata filesystems.  

This guide covers how to request access to Nirin; log in to the dashboard; set up or import an SSH key pair; create, start and stop Virtual Machines; create and connect additional volume storage; and allocate and attach externally accessible IP addresses. The intended audience is for users who are beginning their use of NCI Cloud services.

Types of Cloud computing

Most cloud computing services fall into four broad categories; infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), serverless, and software as a service (SaaS). NCI Cloud is used to provide many of the data services and capabilities like the Australian Research Environment (ARE) which uses NCI's IaaS (Nirin Cloud) to build a PaaS (ARE) to deliver SaaS.

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

The most basic category of cloud computing services. With IaaS, you rent IT infrastructure – servers and virtual machines (VMs), storage, networks, operating systems – from NCI on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Platform as a service (PaaS)

Platform as a service refers to cloud computing services that supply an on-demand environment for developing, testing, delivering and managing software applications. PaaS is designed to make it easier for developers to quickly create web or mobile apps, without worrying about setting up or managing the underlying infrastructure of servers, storage, network and databases needed for development.

Serverless computing

Overlapping with PaaS, serverless computing focuses on building app functionality without spending time continually managing the servers and infrastructure required to do so. NCI handles the setup, capacity planning, and server management for you. Serverless architectures are highly scalable and event-driven, only using resources when a specific function or trigger occurs.

Software as a service (SaaS)

Software as a service is a method for delivering software applications over the Internet, on demand and typically on a subscription basis. With SaaS, cloud providers host and manage the software application and underlying infrastructure, and handle any maintenance, such as software upgrades and security patching. Users connect to the application over the Internet, usually with a web browser on their phone, tablet or PC.

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