By the end of next year Curtin University will have moved a "vast majority" of its IT systems and data into a digital platform hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) as part of a multi-year agreement between the two organisations.

The agreement will see AWS assist Curtin University replace its current IT architecture made up of multiple data centres with an AWS cloud-hosted platform. The university described that the existing architecture resulted in "fragmented IT systems, application islands, and data siloes that made it difficult for the university to innovate and build new experiences or services for students, researchers, and staff".

"We are moving from fragmented and siloed systems to a self-managing platform in the cloud," Curtin University CIO Jason Cowie said.

"Through this AWS collaboration, Curtin will be powered to deliver elevated digital experiences for students and staff and allow better insights into how to enhance campus life, enable lifelong learning, and develop a future ready workforce while ensuring their data is secure.

"We will use AWS's suite of unmatched digital capabilities to enhance experiences across teaching, learning, researching, and day-to-day operations."

Curtin University has also launched an AWS Skills Guild, called ElevateU, which is aimed at equipping more than 200 employees with the skills necessary to assist with the project and deliver other digital technologies, such as data analytics and machine learning. 

Shifting to the cloud has become an increasingly popular option among Australian universities. At the end of last year, the Queensland University of Technology spoke about how it has continued to push ahead with its five-year cloud strategy, noting the move would mean the university can provide consistency for students and other staff members, as well as access to quality data.

Also last year, the University of Sydney turned to AWS cloud to accelerate genomics research to prevent the Tasmanian devil from extinction, and more recently to establish a koala genome library.

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