Humans Advancing Research in the Cloud — HARC: Indiana University

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The Pervasive Technology Institute at Indiana University (PTI@IU) is conducting a project—Humans Advancing Research in the Cloud (HARC)—to explore, advance, and develop evidence of how human resources support and increase the use of cloud-based cyberinfrastructure (CI) by researchers in university environments in North America.

HARC explores the critical importance of people in the provision of CI—beyond just hardware, software, and advanced networks components—that supports research in the 21st century. This concept is based on decades of experience and success in broad areas of leveraging IT support resources, as use of technology became decentralized and distributed starting in the 1990s. The concept was first described in the 2011 NSF Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure Task Force on Campus Bridging.

Indiana University has a 30-year track record in successfully enabling the effective use of information technology in higher education environments by understanding and leveraging the power that people play in support of that use. The HARC project will demonstrate that this established concept can be successfully applied to a new area—specifically, to aid in the adoption and successful use of cloud-based resources as a key element of CI supporting research.

HARC seeks to support the work of those who serve in support roles, enabling the use of cloud-based CI in research. Key outcomes are to produce contributions to the academic record (e.g., papers and presentations) and the development of resources (e.g., training and tools) for the community.

HARC provides direct financial support to research associates in these key support roles. HARC also facilitates workshops, gatherings, and online resources so that they can share experiences and broaden their knowledge, leading to more effective use of cloud offerings. HARC also seeks to improve the understanding of the effectiveness of cloud offerings as compared to traditional premise-based and other community CI options. We do this by examining aspects of the return on investment (ROI) of cloud options, and working to raise awareness in the commercial market of the unique needs of the research community within higher education.

Indiana University is a leader in the development of concepts, programs, and processes that enable successful adoption of information technology across higher education, and sees this new endeavor as yet another way in which the concept will be applied. This project will demonstrate that this established concept can be successfully applied to a new area—specifically, to aid in the adoption and successful use of cloud-based resources as a key element of CI supporting research. The project will explore and illuminate the potential (positive) impact people have on increasing ROI in the use of cloud-based CI, as well as the potential (positive) impact of the use of cloud-based CI on increasing ROI of research endeavors in higher education in North America.

IU’s Pervasive Technology Institute is a collaborative organization with seven affiliated research and development centers, representing collaboration among the IU Office of the Vice President for IT and CIO (which leads the effort), University Information Technology Services, the Maurer School of Law, the Kelley School of Business, the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, and the College of Arts and Sciences at IU. Its mission is to transform new innovations in cyberinfrastructure and computer science into robust tools and support the use of such tools in academic and private sector research and development. IU PTI does this while aiding the Indiana economy and helping to build Indiana’s twenty-first century workforce.

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