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ARDC Nectar Research Cloud Service Schedule

By signing into or otherwise using the Service, you agree to the terms of this Service Schedule and ARDC's Standard Terms of Service

  1. User

    User means any end user of the Service.

  2. Service

    The Nectar Research Cloud, a single integrated cloud service provided by ARDC and its partners, is comprised of computing infrastructure and software.

  3. Term

    The Term is the time period approved for your Nectar Research Cloud resource allocation.

  4. Additional terms

    1. Nodes

      1. The Service is provided, operated and maintained by ARDC and organisations that have partnered with ARDC (Nodes). A list of Nodes is available here.

      2. From time to time a Node may be added or removed, which may affect Users' use of the Service. If that occurs, while ARDC will endeavour to provide notice before migration, ARDC may migrate Users' material and any relevant virtual infrastructure to another Node without notice.

    2. Use of the Services

      1. Users must:

        1. have an Australian Access Federation (AAF) or Tuakiri account and be a student or employee of, or a collaborator with, an Australian or New Zealand research institution; and

        2. use the Service only for research purposes, or for related purposes as approved by ARDC or a Node.

      2. Users:

        1. are responsible for maintaining and configuring any virtual infrastructure they may use, and for backup of their data and configuration;

        2. are responsible for determining whether Nectar is a suitable and appropriate environment for their data and compute needs, and ensuring that their use of Nectar conforms to their institutional policies and guidelines;

        3. are responsible for conforming to Nectar's security guidelines, for applying appropriate security measures to their data and their use of Nectar infrastructure and services, including encrypting sensitive data and not allowing unauthorised access to any Nectar resource;

        4. must conform to the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research in connection with their use of the Service; and

        5. must notify Nectar Research Cloud support immediately if they notice any breach of security or unauthorised use of their allocation or user account.

    3. Attribution

      Users must:

      1. attribute provision of the Service and its partner Nodes to ARDC when using the Service in accordance with ARDC's Attribution and Acknowledgement Guidelines; and

      2. do all things reasonably necessary to preserve the integrity and security of the Service and to protect the Service from any modification, defacement or disparaging treatment.

    4. Expiry, Suspension, or Termination

      1. Any data, virtual environments or other material created or stored in the Service by Users will be deleted 3 months after the expiry of the Term.

      2. ARDC and its Node partners reserve the right to monitor, search for, and investigate violations to the Terms of Service and may remove, suspend, or terminate access if there are actions that violate the Terms of Service.

      3. At any time prior to the expiry of the Term, ARDC may:

        1. limit, attenuate, suspend or terminate Users' use of the Service at its discretion and without notice; or

        2. immediately remove any material on the Service (including any virtual environment Users create or contribute to) in any of the following circumstances:

          1. inappropriate use of the Services (including any use that breaches this agreement);

          2. a detected vulnerability or compromise in the security of the Services;

          3. a request or direction by a law enforcement agency; or

          4. ARDC reasonably determines that there is an operational need for the content to be removed.

    5. End of Life of Service Components

      1. ARDC reserves the right to discontinue or deprecate any capability, function, feature, or software version that is part of the Service. When a component part of the Service approaches end of life, where possible, ARDC will provide Users with advance notice of at least 6 months via email.

      2. During this period, the component part of the Service may receive limited support and updates. Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to supported alternatives within this timeframe.

      3. After the end of life date, the component part of the Service will no longer receive security updates, technical support, or guaranteed functionality.

      4. ARDC may, at its discretion, terminate access to end-of-life component parts of the Service to maintain the overall system integrity and security.

      5. Users are responsible for managing their transition to supported component parts of the Service and for any data migration required. ARDC will provide guidance on migration paths where possible, but cannot guarantee compatibility or data integrity for the component parts of the Service that have reached end of life.

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