Experimenting with AWS Direct Connect using Chameleon, ExoGENI, and Internet2 Cloud Connect

Many scientific research communities and institutions are adopting the cloud as a primary platform to support their computing needs. Rapid adoption of the cloud for scientific computing is a result of the simplicity with which an individual researcher can obtain large amounts of customized compute and storage resources. At the same time, most public cloud providers have rolled out many advanced networking services. Many of these services, like their compute services, are simple to access by any cloud user (e.g. routing between regions and private networking spaces within a cloud). However, it is not possible for most researchers to access expensive low-level, externally facing cloud network services without complicated support by campus IT staff, as well as national and regional network providers. This paper describes how to use Chameleon, ExoGENI, and Internet2’s Cloud Connect service to deploy research experiments that use AWS Direct Connect without requiring a privately owned Direct Connect endpoint or support from local campus IT staff.