Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Cloud Services

Why is Penn State IT pursuing cloud services?

Penn State students, faculty, and staff members require modern computing capabilities that deliver on agility, flexibility and scalability to achieve mission and research related outcomes. Penn State is positioning itself to deliver those through the adoption of cloud services.

Which cloud providers are available through the Cloud Services offerings?

Penn State has existing contracts with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to provide the most business value to the university. These vendors were chosen based on their current standing as market leaders as well as customer demand.

Who can have access to the Cloud Services offerings?

The offerings will be available to all Penn State faculty and staff members. Students can have access to the current offerings when working directly with faculty, staff. We are pursuing additional academic opportunities to offer students.

What are some of the advantages of using Penn State IT Cloud Services?

Moving to cloud storage and computing from physical servers provides cost reductions, higher security, and an improved user experience. Some additional benefits faculty and staff members receive when using University offerings include:

Enterprise agreements with contractual addenda including intellectual property and HIPPA protections.
Penn State Cloud Services is a multi-cloud offering from the industry leaders in cloud computing. We maintain strong vendor relationships with quick access to vendor support resources.
Our team provides consulting engagements and enterprise project support, both focused on cloud education and awareness across the university.
Hybrid cloud connectivity provides access to on-premise systems and services. Data transfers from cloud to campus systems are typically covered by the Data Egress Waivers provided by each vendor..
Account management through Penn State Identity and Access Management.
Scalable on-demand computing resources to meet various jobs and workloads.
Pay only for the individual services you need, for as long as you use them, and without requiring long-term contracts or complex licensing.

What is the Data Egress Waiver?

Data egress can be one of cloud computing’s biggest hidden costs. Our current cloud providers allow data moved to the cloud (ingress) for free, but typically charge fees to move data out of the cloud (egress). The current Penn State agreements include a waiver for a portion of these fees. This fee is waived up to 15% of the total cloud spend.

Where can I find training resources for Penn State Cloud Services?

Information about in person and online training opportunities can be found in the training section. More information about support models specific to Penn State Cloud offerings will be shared on our Cloud Support page as it becomes available.

Which public cloud provider should I choose?

There are various criteria that should be evaluated to select the right provider and varies depending on the workload. The Cloud Services team is willing to help in this selection. Contact us to discuss the best location for your workload.

What information can be stored in the Cloud Services offerings?

We take security and compliance requirements seriously and comply with all University policies and controls. We collaborate regularly with the Office of Information Security (OIS) and other organizations within the University to protect you, your data and University assets to the best of our abilities.
That said, security is a shared responsibility.

For data with specific compliance needs, the following has been completed:

FERPA

- Through our current agreements, our selected cloud vendors are considered a “School Official” for purposes of FERPA, and will comply with all associated FERPA regulations.

HIPAA

- We currently have Business Associate Agreements (BAA) with all of our cloud vendors.

The Penn State Cloud Services offerings are approved for the storage of information up to High (Level 3) which requires an Authority To Operate (ATO). This process should be started prior to requesting an account. For more information and to begin your ATO process, visit the Security Enclave page.

How do I connect my Penn State cloud account to an on-premise Penn State resource?

To connect with an on-premise resource that is publicly accessible, create a network for your cloud account/environment that enables outbound internet access using standard protocols. See the links below for more information and examples.

To connect with an on-premise resource that utilizes a private RFC 1918 address space, Contact the Penn State Cloud Services Team.. Let the team know how much IP space you need and we will setup a managed, cloud-native service that will provide private connectivity from your cloud network to the on-premise network.

Who can I contact for help?

How does billing work?

All vendor invoices are received and paid centrally within the Cloud Service team. These invoices are then broken down by account and billed via Penn State IT’s Pinnacle billing system using the SIMBA billing information collected at the time of account creation.