NORC at the University of Chicago Joins the Open Cloud Consortium
CHICAGO, Sept. 4, 2013 — NORC at the University of Chicago (NORC) and the Open Cloud Consortium (OCC) announced today that they have entered into a multi-year agreement that brings NORC into the OCC. NORC will be involved in several OCC Working Groups, including the Open Science Data Cloud Working Group. The Open Science Data Cloud already has rich collections of data from the earth sciences and the biological sciences. Working together, NORC and the OCC plan to add a variety of interesting datasets to the Open Science Data Cloud.
As partners, NORC and OCC plan to take the experience they gained in separately designing, configuring, operating, and managing their respective data analysis portals – the OCC’s Open Science Data Cloud and NORC’s Data Enclave – and work to cooperatively create the Omni Science Data Enclave. This Enclave will serve as a secure open source cloud platform for researchers to both access and analyze selected large datasets.
“Our collaboration with the Open Cloud Consortium is a great opportunity for the social science research community to extend the OCC’s user base and contribute to its sustainability,” said Josh Seeger, Vice President of Technology at NORC at the University of Chicago. “As we work together with the OCC to develop an economical version of virtual desktop infrastructure, we’ll be creating a secure, high-performance computing environment for analyzing huge volumes of data and supporting research across a wide range of scientific disciplines.”
The Omni Science Data Enclave will be a secure computing environment where researchers can access and work with data without the struggles of building their own customized computing infrastructure, maintaining and operating it, and managing the movement of large datasets.
“We are very pleased to welcome NORC as the newest member of the Open Cloud Consortium,” said Robert Grossman, Director of the OCC. “A growing number of our researchers require both a secure environment that protects sensitive data and an elastic environment that can scale on demand to manage big data. The Omni Science Data Enclave is designed to serve these researchers.”
For more information about joining the Open Cloud Consortium and our expanding membership roster, go to: www.opencloudconsortium.org/members
“Our collaboration with the Open Cloud Consortium is a great opportunity for the social science research community to extend the OCC’s user base and contribute to its sustainability.”
About the Open Cloud Consortium
The Open Cloud Consortium (OCC) is a not for profit that manages and operates cloud computing infrastructure to support scientific, medical, health care and environmental research. OCC members span the globe and include over 10 universities, over 15 companies, and over 5 government agencies and national laboratories.
Contact: Contact: For more information, please contact Walt Wells at Open Cloud Consortium at walt@opencloudconsortium.org.
About NORC at the University of Chicago
NORC at the University of Chicago conducts research and analysis that decision-makers trust. As a nonpartisan research organization and a pioneer in measuring and understanding the world, we have studied almost every aspect of the human experience and every major news event for more than eight decades. Today, we partner with government, corporate, and nonprofit clients around the world to provide the objectivity and expertise necessary to inform the critical decisions facing society.
Contact: For more information, please contact Eric Young at NORC at young-eric@norc.org or (703) 217-6814 (cell).