TUcloud

Overview

TUcloud enables Temple University departments to host applications and/or store data using the infrastructure of Temple's state-of-the-art data center. This resource eliminates the need for departments to purchase and maintain their own servers or storage devices. TUcloud is internally-hosted, secure, and climate-controlled.

TUcloud is not only cost effective but is also energy efficient as it makes use of a technology called virtualization. Virtualization enables multiple servers to run on one piece of hardware. This reduces the environmental impact to the university.

Benefits
TUcloud provides the following benefits:

  • Your IT staff no longer needs to allocate resources for managing the base server services. Your resources can be freed up for other activities to support your business applications.
  • The base server services are managed, patched, and backed up on a regular basis following a standard set of procedures.
  • The resources are ready when you are. There is no need to wait for hardware to arrive.
  • The cost is much less than purchasing and managing your own hardware.
  • You can plan for a predictable yearly budget instead of having to factor in unknown costs.
  • The virtual server infrastructure is energy efficient compared with separate physical servers and reduces the environmental impact on the university.
  • The systems are automatically monitored 24x7. Information Technology Services support staff are notified immediately if problems are detected.

For additional benefits, please see the following:

Virtual Server Hosting

Virtual Server Hosting provides a highly available, cost-effective alternative to purchasing your own departmental servers. Prices are very reasonable and are based on the type of services your department needs at any given time. If necessary, resources can be easily expanded. In addition, data is hosted on-site at Temple, therefore, security and data privacy are ensured. This option is for departments that require file, application, database, or web servers.

Features

  • Disaster recovery capabilities
  • High-availability and clustering support
  • Snapshots for quick resource
  • Choice of Windows or Redhat Linux
  • Raid 5 SATA disks. Fiber disks available upon request
  • No setup fees, pay month-to-month
  • Grow disk space, memory, or virtual CPU on demand
  • Solid State Disk (SSD) storage
  • Daily backups

Active Backup Restoration (ABR) - Allows for the rapid reconstruction of a virtual machine from backup. Most servers can be back online in under an hour. It is a less-expensive option than a fully active/active server, but it does involve human intervention to restore the service.

Note: A typical operating system (OS) installation will need around 30-45GB of space depending on the OS selected.

Additional Storage for Virtual Servers

This option is for departments that want to:

  • customize the storage configuration for the Virtual Server, or
  • purchase additional storage for their own physical servers

Features

  • High-availability storage area network (SAN) and clustering support
  • High-speed connections
  • Snapshots of data for upgrades or copies upon request
  • No setup fees, pay month-to-month
  • Grow disk space or memory by request
  • Backups are included in the above pricing

Packages

There are two TUcloud packages to choose from depending on the needs of your department. All packages are billed monthly. See Service Level Agreements for details on what responsibilities Information Technology Services will assume and what responsibilities your department will assume.

Virtual Server and Application Hosting provides a highly available, cost-effective alternative to purchasing your own departmental servers and eliminates the need for IT staff to manage the servers. Prices are very reasonable and are based on the type of services your department needs at any given time. If necessary, services can be easily expanded. In addition, data is hosted on-site at Temple, therefore, security and data privacy are ensured. This option is for departments that require application, database, or web servers.

Features

  • Two data centers for disaster recovery capabilities
  • High-availability and clustering support
  • Multiple virtual CPU capabilities
  • Snapshots for upgrades
  • Choice of Windows or Redhat Linux
  • Raid 5 SATA disks - Fiber disks available upon request
  • No setup fees, pay month-to-month
  • Grow disk space, memory, or virtual CPU on demand
  • Backups are included in the above pricing

Note: A typical operating system (OS) installation will need around 30-45GB of space depending on the OS selected.

Additional Storage for Virtual or Physical Servers connects servers via fiber or iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface) to enterprise level storage. This option is for departments that want to:

  • customize the storage configuration for the Virtual Server Hosting option above, or
  • purchase additional storage for their own physical servers

Features

  • Two data centers for disaster recovery capabilities
  • High-availability storage area network (SAN) and clustering support
  • Fiber or iSCSI connections
  • SATA or Fiber disks
  • Raid 5 or Raid 10 solutions
  • Snapshots of data for upgrades or copies
  • Data mirroring between data centers depending on plan
  • No setup fees, pay month-to-month
  • Grow disk space on demand
  • Backups are included in the above pricing

Data Backups

Data backups are automatically included with each TUcloud package:

  • TUcloud data backups are retained for 30 days.
  • A successful backup does not guarantee that the data is recoverable. Data owners/system administrators must verify that the integrity of the data being stored and backed up is intact by performing restores on a regular basis. For questions about performing restores, please submit a TUhelp request. Information Technology Services will make every effort to restore corrupt or incomplete data resulting from unsuccessful backups, but is not responsible for data that is lost.

For more information, please see the Data Backup Protection Policy .

Requirements

  • You must have a FOAPAL and obtain budget head approval.
  • The software must be licensed.
  • Applications must undergo a security assessment before they are publicly available.
  • Applications must be owned by Temple University and run on the Temple University network.
  • Storage must be used for Temple University business needs.
  • Red Hat Linux and Windows are included in the standard builds; other operating systems can be installed when requested.
  • Physical access to servers is not provided.

Requesting Instructions

Rates

Service Monthly Rate
Base VM
$62.51
Processor (Per vCPU)
$2.32
Memory (per GB)
$0.19
Disk (per GB) $0.05
Print Article