Powering Higher Education
Platform
A long-term, UK-hosted home for a university department's research project websites, databases and applications. Education Host manages the underlying infrastructure, so a project does not depend on one researcher's server.
Secure Research Cloud is a managed research hosting service for university departments. The department gets one place to host its research projects in a UK data centre, with Education Host maintaining the servers, hosting platform and infrastructure underneath them.
Research projects often end up on a researcher's own server, an old departmental machine or a personal hosting account. When funding ends or the researcher leaves, nobody is sure who maintains the site, where the data is or how to restore it. Secure Research Cloud gives the department a supported alternative that it can keep using through grants and staff changes.
Each project gets the environment it needs. Most project websites and database-backed sites run in a hosting account. A research application that needs its own operating system, software stack or background services runs on a virtual machine.
Use a hosting account when a project needs an ordinary website and database. Use a virtual machine when a research application needs its own operating system, custom software or services that run all the time.
Hosting accounts, managed through cPanel, for project websites and databases. Built for university hosting at scale, it provides the same managed accounts for research project sites.
Suits
Virtual machines for research applications that need their own environment.
Suits
A department runs five research project websites. One project also has a specialist application that needs its own environment. It does not need a virtual machine for every project.
Illustrative example only. It does not describe a customer, and real quantities are agreed when the service is scoped.
| What the department needs | What it is provided as | How it is counted |
|---|---|---|
| Five project websites, each with a database | Student Web Host Manager | 5 hosting accounts, one per project |
| Researchers and administrators who update those sites | Access granted to the relevant account | Users are people. One account can have several users, and one person can work on more than one account |
| One specialist application with its own software stack | Cloud Pulse | 1 virtual machine, sized for that application |
| A named owner for the whole arrangement | Departmental contact agreed at scoping | Not tied to any one researcher's account |
Accounts, users and virtual machines are counted separately. Adding a researcher to an existing project does not add a hosting account, and a new website does not need a new virtual machine.
A department starts with the research projects it already hosts. It then adds hosting accounts or virtual machines as other groups join, without a new procurement each time.
Identify the websites, databases and applications the department already runs or is about to launch, with an owner and funding dates for each.
Agree which projects need a hosting account and which need a virtual machine, and what each project's software, storage and access requirements are.
Record who maintains each application, how backups and restores work, and who the departmental contact is. This becomes the service scope.
Move existing projects across or start new ones, with Education Host providing deployment help where it is part of the agreed scope.
When another research group needs hosting, add accounts or virtual machines under the same departmental arrangement and update the scope.
Education Host maintains the infrastructure and hosting platform. The research team usually maintains its own application. Four things are agreed and written into the scope before launch: operating-system updates on virtual machines, backups, restores and support routes.
| Question | Typical arrangement | Agreed when the service is scoped |
|---|---|---|
| Who maintains the servers and infrastructure? | Education Host maintains the data-centre infrastructure, servers and the hosting platform that hosting accounts run on. | Maintenance windows and how changes are communicated. |
| Who maintains the operating system on a virtual machine? | Depends on the project. Education Host can manage operating-system updates, or a team that needs root access may take on parts of that work. | Which party applies operating-system updates and security patches for each virtual machine. |
| Who maintains the research application? | The research team or its developer, including application code, plugins, frameworks and content. | Any deployment help or application support Education Host provides, and what it costs. |
| How are backups and restores agreed? | Backup and restore arrangements depend on the service and the project's needs. | What is backed up, how often, how long copies are kept, how a restore is requested and whether restores are tested. |
| Who can ask for help if the researcher who built the project leaves? | The departmental contact, and anyone else the department names as an authorised contact. | Authorised contacts for each project, how access is transferred and what happens at project end. |
Secure Research Cloud hosts projects in the UK, gives each its own hosting account or virtual machine, and runs on infrastructure Education Host maintains. Whether a dataset may be hosted is decided by your institution's review and the agreed scope.
Services run in the 6DG Birmingham Central data centre in the UK. The facility's ISO 27001 certification is held by its operator, Six Degrees.
Education Host Ltd is Cyber Essentials certified. This is the company's own certification.
Each project has its own hosting account or virtual machine. Access is granted to the people the department names.
Clinical, confidential or participant data is not assumed to be suitable. Describe the data categories in your brief and agree the controls with your institution before any such data is transferred.
Education Host provided a managed Linux server, deployment support and annual pricing for an anonymous academic team's geospatial web application, so it could stay online beyond the funded project period. The case study is published anonymously at the customer's request.
Secure Research Cloud is priced as a departmental quote, based on the number of hosting accounts and virtual machines, their resources, the support and backup arrangements, and the length of the agreement.
Ask for setup, ongoing hosting, support and any change costs to be shown separately so the department can budget across grants.
Answers for departmental administrators, research IT managers and researchers planning departmental research hosting.
University departments, research centres and faculties that host several research projects and want one managed, UK-hosted arrangement for them, rather than a separate server or hosting account bought for each project.
Research Hosting is a managed server for one research project. Secure Research Cloud is a departmental arrangement that combines hosting accounts and virtual machines for many projects. The department adds to it as research groups join.
No. Most project websites and database-backed sites run in a hosting account. A virtual machine is only needed when an application requires its own operating system, custom software or services that run all the time.
Often, depending on the software and data. List the existing projects, their software and data in your brief. Migration help and any changes needed are agreed and quoted in the scope.
The department decides whether the project stays online, is exported, is handed to another owner or is deposited in a repository. Agree the end-of-project arrangements when each project is added, so nothing depends on one researcher remembering.
Only after your institution has reviewed the proposed environment and the controls are agreed in the scope. UK hosting on its own does not establish that a particular dataset is suitable. Do not send sensitive data in an enquiry.
Education Host Ltd is Cyber Essentials certified. Services are hosted in the 6DG Birmingham Central data centre, whose ISO 27001 certification is held by the facility's operator, Six Degrees, not by Education Host.
Request a departmental quote with a short, non-sensitive list of your projects. For each, say what it is, the software it uses, how many people need access and any backup or support needs.
Send a short list of your current projects and we will propose the hosting accounts, virtual machines and support arrangements they need.
