Get free access to cloud computing services through a national, government-funded program (Views: 20731)
Wed, 19 Jun 2013
The Digital Accelerator for Innovation and Research (DAIR) program launched in January 2013, with the goal of helping Canadian businesses and researchers gain a competitive edge through providing subsidized access to cloud computing technology. The program is aimed at startups and small to medium sized businesses, with 500 employees or less, who want to try out cloud computing but don’t want to take a financial risk doing so. If accepted into the program, you get access to four servers (or “cores,” central processing units) for a one-year period. If you want to try out additional cores too, you can rent extras at $100/per core for a year, a highly subsidized rate. The cloud resources are located in Canada and managed by CANARIE, a national organization that operates Canada’s research and education internet, which connects Canadian universities to other universities around the world through a non-commercial network.
So, what exactly can you do with these cores?
Well for starters, for entrepreneurs who are creating digital products — say an online video game, or a website that tracks your groceries and favorite recipes — the cores come with Gigabytes of secure, online storage space. The infrastructure also gives creators the chance to test out their products virtually. For example, a developer of computer security software can create thousands of “virtual” computers, each taking the place of a normal physical device, on which he can simulate thousands of different virus and spammer attacks. The results provide reliable proof of effectiveness that can be shown to potential customers and investors.
Either way, the entrepreneur is free from having to buy or max out their own server equipment, or pay a large sum of money to rent virtual space from a large commercial cloud provider like Amazon. One of the greatest offerings of cloud environments like DAIR is their ability to create virtual computers that can do the same thing a physical computer can do — run programs, login to websites, etc — only without the need for hardware or users. And you can run hundreds, or sometimes thousands, of virtual machines (VMs) at the same time. Working simultaneously, these VMs can accomplish tasks at an amazingly fast rate. (Picture 1,000 monkeys at 1,000 typewriters, versus one monkey at one typewriter — who’s going to write the complete works of Shakespeare first?)
And for those researchers who need to carry out computationally heavy calculations — ones that would weigh down a single computer — DAIR can spread the computing work over many VMs, again, saving time and money.
This tool is an equalizer, allowing people with big ideas, but limited resources, to test and demonstrate their innovations on a scale that previously only rich, large corporations could reach.
Have a killer digital idea and need some “cores” to prove it? Click here to apply to the DAIR program.
So, what exactly can you do with these cores?
Well for starters, for entrepreneurs who are creating digital products — say an online video game, or a website that tracks your groceries and favorite recipes — the cores come with Gigabytes of secure, online storage space. The infrastructure also gives creators the chance to test out their products virtually. For example, a developer of computer security software can create thousands of “virtual” computers, each taking the place of a normal physical device, on which he can simulate thousands of different virus and spammer attacks. The results provide reliable proof of effectiveness that can be shown to potential customers and investors.
Either way, the entrepreneur is free from having to buy or max out their own server equipment, or pay a large sum of money to rent virtual space from a large commercial cloud provider like Amazon. One of the greatest offerings of cloud environments like DAIR is their ability to create virtual computers that can do the same thing a physical computer can do — run programs, login to websites, etc — only without the need for hardware or users. And you can run hundreds, or sometimes thousands, of virtual machines (VMs) at the same time. Working simultaneously, these VMs can accomplish tasks at an amazingly fast rate. (Picture 1,000 monkeys at 1,000 typewriters, versus one monkey at one typewriter — who’s going to write the complete works of Shakespeare first?)
And for those researchers who need to carry out computationally heavy calculations — ones that would weigh down a single computer — DAIR can spread the computing work over many VMs, again, saving time and money.
This tool is an equalizer, allowing people with big ideas, but limited resources, to test and demonstrate their innovations on a scale that previously only rich, large corporations could reach.
Have a killer digital idea and need some “cores” to prove it? Click here to apply to the DAIR program.
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