- Macquarie Cloud Services & CAUDIT launched ‘CAUDIT Cloud’, a cloud solution tailored for the research and education sector across Australasia.
- Purpose-built for universities and research institutions, the platform offers a cost-efficient, secure, and sovereign alternative to traditional cloud setups.
- CAUDIT Cloud aims to ease budget pressures, enhance compliance, and support AI and HPC needs, addressing challenges of legacy infrastructure and future-proofing IT environments.
Macquarie Cloud Services, a division of Macquarie Technology Group launched CAUDIT Cloud, a research and education-specific cloud solution, developed in partnership with CAUDIT, the Australasian peak body for ICT in higher education and research. The solution will provide for the entire range of university ICT requirements.
Overwhelmed by mounting pressure of burgeoning budget pressures, heightened standards of compliance and regulation, and having to handle burgeoning amounts of data while serving the needs of technological progress, much of the Australia research and education sector's infrastructure is not well-positioned to face the test.
Supported by enterprise-level infrastructure and brought to market by Macquarie Cloud Services, CAUDIT Cloud has been designed to address that challenge. The solution will serve contemporary education and research institutions by providing a pre-vetted, cost-efficient solution specific to the needs of the individual organisation.
The need for flexibility
CAUDIT Cloud is intended to enable institutions to have an alternative to costly or unreliable cloud environments that doesn't entail the risks involved in constructing from the ground up, said Jonathan Staff, Head of Private Cloud at Macquarie Cloud Services.
"The Australasian education and research community's needs are changing and will change". We embarked with the objective to assist the sector in navigating uncertainty through the provision of choice, flexibility, and an affordable cloud solution through our partnership with CAUDIT", said Staff. "CAUDIT Cloud is more than technology it's about providing universities and research institutions with the flexibility and security to future-proof their IT supply chains and environments with a solution that is secure, sovereign, and future-ready".
Future-proof infrastructure without the cost
Universities and research organisations face increasing pressure to cut IT expenses while rapidly evolving in response to change. Yet, with increasing cloud cost and the challenges of legacy infrastructure, many organisations worry about the bottom-line effect of keeping up.
"The strength of this initiative lies in how well it's aligned with CAUDIT's purpose creating value for our members". This partnership provides our Australasian member institutions with a chance to leverage AI and cloud capabilities cost-effectively and securely through a proven vendor," commented Greg Sawyer, CAUDIT CEO. "Macquarie Cloud Services specialize in minimizing cloud expense while managing risk and are well placed to assist our members as they get ready to face the future challenges".
With greater emphasis on AI and high-performance computing for research, CAUDIT Cloud will enable institutions to acquire advanced computing services more readily without the traditional high upfront investments in infrastructure. "CAUDIT Cloud provides universities with greater choice, less procurement complexity, and the ability to implement cutting-edge technologies without high initial cost", said Staff.
The project will be launched on 25 May at THETA (The Higher Education Technology Agenda), Australasia's premier conference for higher education and research professionals.
