Cloud Research Computing Consulting
Consulting service for researchers wishing to use Columbia-provisioned cloud accounts for research computing.
CUIT’s Research Computing Services (RCS) team offers consulting services for researchers that would like to use Columbia-provisioned cloud accounts for their research computing.
Depending on your needs, our consulting services can address any of the following topics:
- Overview of the features of the Cloud service provider
- Creation and initial configuration of images
- Software installation and license management
- Storage configuration
- Planning workflow for efficiency and/or price
In order to provide as effective a service as possible, we ask that interested researchers contact the RCS team at [email protected] before beginning to use an account for research. Please note that this service is only available for accounts that have been provisioned by CUIT.
For more information, please see the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) and listings in CUIT’s Service Catalog.
Recent Events

Using Google Cloud at Columbia: Fundamentals for Researchers [Recording]
This March 2025 session was designed to introduce researchers at Columbia to the fundamentals of research in the cloud, covering the following topics:
- How to create a Columbia-linked GCP account (and the benefits of doing so)
- Credits available to researchers
- GCP analogs to AWS modules
- How to set up an instance (server) in the cloud for data analysis
- How to run a job / scripts
- How to store data in the cloud
- How to estimate and monitor expenses
Free cloud opportunities for researchers
AWS (Amazon Web Services)
- AWS cloud credit for research
- Data egress waiver for researchers
- Amazon Research Awards (funding, datasets, cloud credits)
- AWS Open Data Sponsorship Program
- AWS trainings, tutorials and webinars for researchers