It was announced that the Pawsey Nimbus Cloud is being decommissioned by the end of 2024, and is no longer accepting allocation requests. The ARDC Nectar Research Cloud was suggested as an option for Nimbus users or researchers who were planning to use Nimbus.

The following options apply both to current Nimbus and to researchers interested in using the ARDC Nectar Research Cloud for the first time.

Eligibility

Whether you have an existing project on Nimbus or were planning to create one, to get started on Nectar you will need to apply for a project allocation. This can be done via our allocation form on the Nectar Dashboard. When you log into the Dashboard for the first time, this will create a project trial for you to try out Nectar with a small amount of resources.

Eligibility criteria

If you fulfil at least one of these criteria, you will be eligible for a national project allocation (which means you can launch resources in any of our zones):

  1. Your research is currently funded through a national or international research grant.
  2. Your research is funded by, or supports, a National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) capability, including the ARDC (for example an ARDC Research Data Commons project).
  3. You have a grant from a federal or state government department or agency for research projects that supports industry, or university research that is directly or jointly funded by industry.
  4. You have been approved by the Nectar Allocation Committee as warranting a nationally prioritised allocation.

You may also be eligible for local allocation if collaborating with members of one of our node partners.

Interim Support

If you do not fulfil the eligibility criteria, we will provide interim resource support for existing projects on the Pawsey Nimbus Cloud.

Managed Services

If you do not fulfil the criteria, and do not have an existing project on Nimbus, you are not eligible to use the ARDC Nectar Research Cloud via the Dashboard at this time.*

However, there are managed services with limited resources available to use, for anyone with an AAF (University/Institutional) login. These include:

Useful support resources for Nectar

Migrating from Nimbus to Nectar (for users with existing Nimbus projects)

If you applied for a Nectar project allocation and received approval, then you need to migrate your project across to Nectar. For more detail and technical support with the transition, contact the Pawsey Helpdesk.

For migration timelines, it is preferred that projects coming to Nectar start doing this in September 2024**, when the supporting infrastructure is ready. However, if a project must complete the transition before this, and they fulfil the national project criteria above, they may be accommodated on existing infrastructure.


*There may be support available in late 2024 for non-national projects when there is further capacity on ARDC infrastructure.

**This timeline is subject to change.