using the amazon cloud to host digital scholarship projects
DESCRIPTION
Using the Amazon Cloud to host Digital Scholarship Projects. Emory University // Robert W. Woodruff Library Digital Scholarship Commons ( DiSC ) Jay Varner, @ jaysvarner Stewart Varner, @ stewartvarner. (some relation). The Digital Scholarship Commons ( DiSC ). Collaborative Projects. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Using the Amazon Cloud to host Digital Scholarship Projects
Emory University // Robert W. Woodruff Library
Digital Scholarship Commons (DiSC)
Jay Varner, @jaysvarner
Stewart Varner, @stewartvarner
(some relation)
The Digital Scholarship Commons (DiSC)
Collaborative Projects
Fast, experimental, cheap.• Empower scholars to do the work themselves• Some home-grown projects
DiSC Projects: Small
Complex projects, considerable time and/or financial commitment.• Selection Committee• Project Charter• Developer Time
DiSC Projects: Bigger
Alternatives
Cost-effective
Accommodating Stable Flexible
University Web Architecture
Y N Y N
University VM Y Y Y N
Library Server Y N Y N
Shared Hosting Service
Y N Y N
Virtual Private Server
Y Y Y N
Elastic Cloud Y Y Y Y
What we are running in AWS
• Production– 11 WordPress Sites– 1 Auto publishing script– 1 Twitter Harvest
• Dev– Development Sites (WordPress and Django)
• Backups– All instances and volumes are backed up in
AWS
AWS Terms
AWS How to think about it
Instance Server
EBS Volume Attached Storage
Security Group Firewall Rules
AMI Image
Snapshot Block level copy of data
AWS Terms
AWS How to think about it
Instance Server
EBS Volume Attached Storage
Security Group Firewall Rules
AMI Image
Snapshot Block level copy of data
BUT DON’T THINK THIS WAY
Architecture
• Separate system from software stack
Instance: bare system and service packagesEBS Volume: mounted to instance contains:• Software Stack/Application files• Database files• Configuration files
Pros
• Scalability• Low admin overhead• API• Makes experimentation easy and cheap
Cons
• Learning curve• Fear• Outages• Variable bill• Domain names/DNS
Questions?
Thanks!
[email protected] // @stewartvarner
[email protected] // @jaysvarner
s3.amazon.aws.com/emorydisc/resources.html