West Virginia University capitalizes on benefits of Amazon Web Services Technology Alliance

David Krovich, a research associate with WVU’s Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, said that Amazon Web Services is a collection of roughly 100 different products, all of which are cloud based. Perhaps the most popular initiative, he said, is the AWS Infrastructure as a Service model, which provides anything that would normally be in a data center virtually through the cloud.

“It also has a huge set of other products, as well,” Krovich said. “Since it’s in the cloud, we don’t really have any start-up costs. That’s a big issue in West Virginia. How do we compete when we don’t have the resources and can’t build these data centers out? The nice thing about the cloud for West Virginia and workforce development is ... if you have a computer and can connect to the web, you have what you need to get started.”

Through the AWS Tech Alliance, users are able to use a wide variety of workforce training materials for free, gaining access to number of resources like industry standard training materials so universities can integrate them into their curriculum.

Krovich himself developed a web application called CSSP that plugs on top of AWS, which he said allows him to more easily delegate and distribute class materials and more to his students.

“AWS gives you all of the infrastructure and everything you need, but it doesn’t have an easy way to delegate the resources,” Krovich said. “This is bridging that gap. ... I can assign Google email address to give them access to resources in AWS. CSSP is facilitating all of that. ... It’s been used in support of cybersecurity classes here at WVU. ...

“We need cloud technology. I want it to be an open-source product that any high school or college can download, point at their AWS account and be good to go. In West Virginia, we’ve got to be creative in terms of how we compete, and this is an awesome thing that gives us a level playing field. We’re not going to be behind in any regard with this kind of technology and the cloud.”

Cybersecurity is a big part of the AWS Tech Alliance, and when its arrival in West Virginia was announced, so, too, were plans to build cybersecurity education centers at WVU, West Virginia State and Marshall.

WVU received $750,000 from the U.S. Department of Education for its cybersecurity education and training facility, which will in part be hosted on an AWS Outpost, an on-premises private cloud server that will boost the training provided through the center.

“It provides a simulated environment where we can do some similar-to-real-life exercises,” Anurag Srivastava, department chair of the WVU Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources’ Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, told The State Journal in December. “We teach students in class, but without hands-on activity, they will not get some of the concepts. A cyber range is a simulated environment, but it still provides them with hands-on experience, which will be very good to understand how an attack happens and how an attack from one location can travel through a system, and what the system operator or critical infrastructure operator can do to first detect it and defend it, as well as understand the impact on the system. ...

“Our goal is to show them as close to as possible what is happening in the real world. We can emulate it and simulate it, or we could do some simulations with hardware. What that means is that some parties emulate it, and some parties use a real controller and real sensors that exist in the field. By putting that all together, (the students) can see it for real. In the cyber range, all of these possibilities exist.”

Krovich noted that all that AWS and its alliance provide to the state is enabling students — and even currently tech workers — to hone their skills through the best available training resources and technology.

“It gives our students access to the industry standard resources so they don’t have to be second-tier,” Krovich said. “They’re going to get the top-tier stuff that is basically going to enable them to go right into these high-paying AWS jobs. ... AWS is a huge company with a huge market share, so by having our students learn these resources, we know they’re going to be able to get good jobs. ...

“One really nice thing that I like about it is that they’re effectively giving us curriculum. ... This is ready to go. We’re going from like zero to 60 in one day with this tech alliance.”