Google is investing in QCIF-managed ReDBox to make it easier for users to access the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) via the research data management tool.
Google is partnering with the University of Wollongong (UoW) in a project to expand ReDBox 2.0’s capabilities and add a Google workspace to the data tool.
UoW has received almost $50,000 in Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) funding to build additional platform capabilities, specifically for the cloud, for data management and provisioning using ReDBox. QCIF will carry out the development work.
The ARDC grant is covering the streamlining of new workspace implementations for ReDBox, including using GCP as the proof of concept of how streamlining will make the workspace easier to implement.
Google’s investment is in addition to the ARDC funding.
Project lead Jason Nairnsey of UoW said Google was keen to be involved to increase the opportunities for researchers to use its services.
“Google’s investment is to allow for improving the depth of the GCP implementation and to ensure we are able to make it as easy as possible to use GCP services as a ReDBox user,” said Jason.
Once the project is completed, researchers will be able to provision new GCP services or connect their research projects to existing GCP instances via ReDBox.
Additionally, any GCP data and configurations will be able to be included in a ReDBox project archive together with any other data and project-related cloud services available as a ReDBox workspace.
QCIF Data Innovation Program Manager Heidi Perrett said the work will not only mean access to GCP workspaces via ReDBox, it will also pave the way for QCIF to smoothly provision additional workspaces in future releases.
Google will provide the project team with guidance and general advice as to which of its services to offer.
QCIF Business Development and Communications Manager Troy Lockett said: “Google’s involvement with ReDBox will help to enhance the platform’s capabilities and ensure ReDBox remains a relevant and effective tool for the research community.”
For more information, read our previous article about recently-funded ARDC projects, including QCIF’s data storage and compute discovery project, and the University of Technology Sydney’s ReDBox project.
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