Columbia University has arrangements with a number of cloud providers, below is a list of these with the other resources available to academics and the general public which should help get you started in the cloud. While Research Computing does not directly support the cloud, we can help you get started, if you have any questions that aren't answered in our wiki or documentation drop us a line.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Amazon Web Services is the largest of the cloud providers for good reason. They pioneered the modern cloud paradigm and have continued to launch new services revolutionizing the potential for leveraging resources on the fly.
Getting an AWS account
Columbia has Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with AWS, so if you are a faculty member or administrator who uses AWS for Columbia purposes, your AWS account is required to go through the CUIT. Student and personal AWS accounts are not covered under the enterprise agreement.
You will need a Chartstring to request an account and there is a good deal of documentation to read on that page, including what is and is not permitted to use a Columbia AWS account to do.
Columbia AWS resources
Direct Connect - The Columbia campus network has a 10Gb dedicated link to which connects to AWS US-East-1 enabling faster transfers as well as discounts on data egress charges.
Internet2 - Columbia is a member of the Internet2 consortium and researchers are eligible for a data egress discount by applying for it.
Training - Columbia accounts have the ability to access LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) courses for free which has a number of training classes for general cloud practices and AWS in particular.
AWS specialists - Columbia has limited access to cloud architects and other AWS specialists as part of our relationship with Amazon. To find out more reach out to Research Computing.
Other AWS resources
AWS official training has free digital workshops in addition to their classroom sessions
The AWS Events YouTube Channel has a number of resources available from their events which provide helpful deep dives into some of their technology.
AWS Cloud Credits for Research
Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
Columbia has multiple arrangements with Google, which include the Google Workplace (formerly G Suite) applications (Lionmail) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
GCP accounts can be linked to CUIT through the process listed on their Web site, which lists the advantages of linking your project to Columbia, including the ability to pay through the Columbia accounting system, and links to the uni authentication system.
Columbia GCP resources
CUIT's Research Computing Services offers training courses on using GCP for research.
GCP also has an egress discount for Internet2 members who sign up for it.
Not specific to Columbia, but Google has a form where you can apply for Google Cloud research credits.
Other Google resources
Lionmail Drive comes as part of all Lionmail email accounts and Columbia's agreement allows for unlimited storage, however there are, undocumented, transfer throttling limits in place, which limit its usefulness.
Colab is a free service which offers access to Jupyter notebooks with attached GPUs, and can leverage Lionmail Drive for storage. Colab 101.
Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) vs GCP
While Lionmail Drive and Colab are from Google, they are separate products from GCP and transferring from GCP to them will incur egress charges.
Microsoft Azure
Columbia has a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with Azure via the CUMC, however at this time there is no special Columbia process or documentation for setting up Azure accounts.
Columbia Azure resources
$100 in credits, no credit card required, when signing up for an Azure for Students account.
Additional cloud resources
DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean is one of the many alternative cloud providers who offer more conventional services with fixed costs, which can sometimes be a better fit if your project. Columbia has no arrangement with DigitalOcean.
The case for DigitalOcean from an AWS-centric blog.