Nectar Research Cloud - 2021 User Survey Summary report and recommendations

ARDC undertook its Nectar Research Cloud user survey during November and December 2021. As per previous years the survey was based on using the Net Promoter Score system and again this year we asked additional questions pertaining to some of the Nectar Research Cloud services, support, training and new services we are planning to implement in 2022. Invitations were sent to 3,511 active users (active users are defined as users that have logged into the dashboard within the last 6 months.) of the Nectar Research Cloud, with 415 survey responses received (11% response rate). There were a total of 40 (10%) detractors, 91 (22%) passives, and 284 (68%) promoters, resulting in a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 58, on a possible scale of -100 to +100. This indicates that the Nectar Research Cloud is viewed positively with an excellent level of satisfaction amongst responders and sees a rise in the NPS from last year’s score of 54.

There were some common themes that emerged from the survey responses for the Nectar Research Cloud to improve upon that were similar to previous surveys. Common themes for the Passive and Promoter NPS rating were usability, general service, user support, reliability/performance, functionality, cost, access, flexibility, allocation process and security. The majority of the 40 detractor comments ranged across reliability/performance, user support, haven't used it, functionality. Not all detractor comments were negative, 7 of them were due to not having used the Nectar Cloud so they couldn’t recommend it.

Recommendations

Based on the survey responses, it is recommended that ARDC consider:

1. Continuing a programme of user surveys utilising NPS to track the  Nectar Research Cloud’s NPS score over time and to collect valuable feedback to drive continuous improvement, enhance services and develop new functionality. Additional questions that focus on specific aspects of services to inform service performance, improvement and development are useful to continue. 

2. Make access to support and training more prominent from the dashboard.

3. Consider providing the database service in project trials.

4. Develop a proposal for implementing appropriate improvements and report on suggested improvements that have already been implemented based on suggested improvements for tutorials and responses and suggestions for improvements for the support resources.

5. Review and incorporate suggestions for improving usability of the Dashboard in the upcoming Dashboard refresh.

6. Review and consider offering application packages in the application catalog.

7. Continue to offer security training as 16% of responders do not understand their responsibilities regarding Cyber Security while using the Nectar Cloud. 

8. Continue to implement planned new services to provision national large memory, simpler container service and National GPU service.

9. Review and improve support materials for the Cloud Orchestration Service and evaluate how the service’s usability and reliability could be improved.

10. Promote and make the Application Catalog more prominent in the dashboard menu.

11. Ensure that a clear description of which version and what level each application is patched to is detailed in the application catalog.

Progress on Recommendations (as 10/05/2022)