Alliance Cloud Connect Pilot

The Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance) is pleased to announce The Alliance Cloud Connect Pilot (ACCP), a unique opportunity for vendors, institutions, researchers and individuals to participate in the development of a cutting-edge initiative that will transform how Canadian researchers access community cloud and key commercial cloud services. 
The ACCP includes three distinct calls for participation:

• Call for Participation: Providers
• Call for Participation: Platform Development
• Call for Participation: Researchers

More information can be found on the calls below.

ACCP Updates

• [July 23, 2024] The deadline for the Call for Participation: Researchers has been extended. Submissions are open for Cohort #2 until the deadline of Sept. 1, 2024. Submissions are open for Cohort #3 until the deadline of Oct. 15, 2024.
• [June 12, 2024] The Call for Participation: Researchers was circulated and is open until the deadline of July 3, 2024.
• [May 17, 2024] The Call for Participation: Providers is now closed. The Call for Participation: Researchers will launch soon.
• [April 24, 2024] The Call for Participation: Platform Development is now closed.
• [April 15, 2024] FAQ published for the Call for Participation: Platform Development.
• [April 3, 2024] The Call for Participation: Providers was circulated to a targeted list.
• [March 27, 2024] The open Call for Participation: Platform Development was circulated and is open until the deadline of April 24, 2024.

Details

The Alliance is inviting participants from diverse sectors to work together in an open and collaborative context to facilitate researcher use of cloud infrastructure. Whether commercial vendors, open-source developers or members of the Canadian digital research infrastructure (DRI) ecosystem, participants will work with community stakeholders to develop a single “pane of glass” or portal for seamless access to commercial and community cloud.

The ACCP is a pilot project that aims to build national cloud research capacity and deliver on the Alliance’s mandate to meet the increasing DRI resource demand from the Canadian research community. As a pilot project, users can opt in to use the cloud service that suits their needs – whether it is the Alliance’s community cloud solution or another provider’s solution.

The call is now closed.

This targeted closed call for participation (CfP) is directed to cloud service providers (CSP) awarded the Government of Canada’s Cloud Framework Agreement. This allows the Alliance to streamline its call to meet the deadline and objectives of the ACCP while adhering to security and regulatory requirements defined by the federal government. As the project develops, the Alliance will seek opportunities to work with a wider range of CSPs. As this is a targeted call, service providers on the list will be contacted directly with the CfP.

The call is now closed.

This call for participation presents a unique opportunity to help build a platform that will advance researcher access to critical computing infrastructure.

The objective of this call is to create and operate a unified platform that streamlines the process of accessing and administering community and commercial cloud services. This platform aims to provide better access to compute, software, storage, and hosting services through a centralized and user-friendly interface, ensuring efficiency, security, and compliance for the Canadian research community seeking cloud services.

For more information, including project overview, submission guidelines, criteria for acceptance, and more, read the Call for Participation: Platform Developers here.

• Cloud Connect - Potential Use Cases
• Cloud Connect MVP Description

The call remains open.

To ensure the final product is viable and of value, we will make a call to the researcher community to test the platform and provide feedback. The anticipated completion date of the pilot is March 2025; however, testing will be required throughout the building phase.

For more information, including project overview, submission guidelines, criteria for acceptance and more, read the Call for Participation: Researchers here.

• Cloud Connect - Potential Use Cases
• Cloud Connect MVP Description

Apply

To apply, participants must complete the application form here.

The researcher call for participation will include three researcher cohorts from July to October 2024:

• Cohort #1 includes submissions received by July 3.
• Cohort #2 includes submissions received between July 3 and  Sept. 1.
• Cohort #3 includes submissions received between Sept. 1 and  Oct. 15.

Oct. 15, 2024 is the final deadline for all submissions.

Submissions will be evaluated after each cohort closing date. Researchers will be informed as to whether their proposal is accepted and successful participants will be onboarded based on the schedule below.

Cohort #1: Submissions for this cohort are now closed

Cohort #2:

Cohort #3:

Please note that the ACCP cloud environment and cloud platforms will be operational until March 31, 2025. At this time, all services will be shut down and participating researchers will no longer have access.

It is strongly recommended that researchers have a plan to move any data, code, applications, etc. out of the ACCP cloud environment before this date.