Overview of giCloud in the Genomics Institute

giCloud is the Genomics Institute implementation of OpenStack. OpenStack is a IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) based platform in which you can launch VM instances in a cloud environment. More about OpenStack can be found here:

https://www.openstack.org

Our particular implementation of OpenStack is located behind the GI VPN service, and as such, you cannot launch VM instances to provide "public" services available on the Greater Internet. The VM instances you create are meant for testing software or processing data pipelines. The instances are not backed up and should be treated as such. They have access outbound to the Greater Internet, such that you can download data from the Internet and install software from the Internet, etc, but no one originating from the Internet outside of the VPN can see your instances.

The instances you create are also meant for the processing of secure data, hence being behind the VPN, and also the disks are encrypted to provide an additional layer of physical security to satisfy certain requirements of FISMA and HIPPA.

Once you connect to the GI VPN, you can access the web console for giCloud here:

http://gicloud.prism

Note that the connection is over http and not https. This is expected and normal, and even though your web browser may complain about the connection not being encrypted, it actually IS encrypted due to the VPN software. But your browser isn't aware of the VPN connection.

You can get access to the GI VPN service if you are affiliated with the UCSC Genomics Institute. If you need VPN access, please fulfill the requirements as detailed here:

http://giwiki.gi.ucsc.edu/index.php/Requirement_for_users_to_get_GI_VPN_access

After you have VPN access, make an appointment with the Genomics Institute Cluster Admin group by emailing 'cluster-admin@soe.ucsc.edu' and we can set you up with a giCloud account.