Blog Automation & Orchestration Continuous Compliance Financial Management Higher Education
Last updated on March 1st, 2023 at 2:26pm
Learn how Princeton and Washington State are ensuring cloud control - without impacting team productivity
We're pleased to announce our collaboration with Internet2! Kion is now a service offering available through the Internet2 NET+ program, a research and education peer community that evaluates leading cloud services across several key dimensions, including functionality, pricing, and contract terms. Front and center for Internet2's mission with the NET+ program: save cost, manage risk, and deploy optimized services quickly.
Our inclusion in the Internet2 NET+ program is a direct result of calls from the research and education community for account automation, cost management, and security monitoring tools for cloud enablement across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
Beyond the cloud enablement capabilities delivered by Kion, the research and education community will benefit from:
- Exclusive pricing of the Kion platform
- A streamlined contracting process
Survey Says: Cost, Security, and Automation Are Key
Internet2 surveyed their cloud community to determine the most pressing needs around infrastructure and platform services. The following were among the needs the Internet2 team identified through this survey:
- Cost tracking, management, and savings
- Security monitoring and remediation tools
- Account automation and maintenance
In fact, account automation and maintenance and security monitoring and remediation tools were identified as the top two needs.
Multiple respondents highlighted Kion as a solution they would like to see join the NET+ portfolio. Our three pillars – Automation & Orchestration, Financial Management, and Continuous Compliance – align to the needs expressed by the community in the survey.
Evaluating Kion for Research and Education
The service evaluation for Kion to join the NET+ program began in May 2022 with the participation of 12 public and private universities. This evaluation included a security, identity, accessibility, and functional evaluation of the platform.
"I’ve been involved with NET+ service evaluations since they began in 2011, and I’ve never seen so many schools volunteer their brain power and sweat equity to put in the work to not only satisfy their own curiosity and due diligence but to save the rest of the community that effort," said Bob Flynn, Internet2 Program Manager, Cloud Infrastructure & Platform Services.
The result of the evaluation: Kion was well positioned to satisfy the the cloud services needs of the community.
"Kion provided excellent support and guidance throughout the Internet2 NET+ evaluation process. The design of their solution appears particularly fitting for the funding models and organizational structures often found in higher education," said Mark Ratliff, Director of Cloud Infrastructure Services, Office of Information Technology, at Princeton University, and a member of the Internet 2 NET+ evaluation team. "Kion promises to help institutions improve visibility, control, and accountability for cloud costs."
To learn more about the Kion evaluation, check out the Internet2 blog, Kion Checks the Top Boxes.
Putting Feedback On the Roadmap
During the process, members of the evaluation team worked with our team to highlight feature requests that would be beneficial for the research and education community.
For example, the review team recommended several accessibility enhancements. These are now in our accessibility backlog, and our design system task force is working to ensure a11y is central to our design and development process.
Connecting Kion's Value to Community Needs
Cloud solutions can offer research and education institutions speed, cost savings, and access to leading services and technologies. Research, academics, and administration can all benefit significantly from cloud adoption. However, many institutions are hesitant or have yet to fully realize the benefits of the cloud because of a fear of high costs, lack of control and visibility, and a shortage of talent on staff.
Kion resolves this dilemma with a single platform that delivers control, context, and actionable insight to help you centrally manage innovation in AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
Get the details on how Kion facilitates cloud adoption for research and education.
Learn More About the Kion and Internet2 Collaboration
We're proud to support research and education institutions - several of whom became customers in advance of this collaboration with Internet2. And we look forward to partnering with more institutions to help them go farther, faster in the cloud.
Visit our listing on Internet2 for additional details and to subscribe to NET+ Kion.
Contact our team to learn more about our capabilities for the higher education community, our free guided evaluation, and to discuss pricing.
