What CloudBank does

CloudBank is an NSF-funded managed services platform that provides free access to commercial cloud resources for U.S.-based academic researchers and educators. Operated as a multi-institutional collaboration led by UC San Diego's San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), with UC Berkeley, the University of Washington, and Strategic Blue as core partners, CloudBank simplifies procurement, onboarding, cost estimation, and account management for users who would otherwise face structural barriers to commercial cloud adoption.

The platform is built around a unified web portal with CILogon-based institutional authentication that aggregates five hyperscalers (AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, and Oracle Cloud, with Oracle estimated for 2026). It offers two primary products: CloudBank Research, a service-based platform for scientific computing workloads including AI/ML training, HPC, genomics, and quantum computing via Amazon Braket and Azure Quantum; and CloudBank Classroom, a cloud-hosted JupyterHub built on Python, R, and C++ with JupyterLab, RStudio, and VSCode for teaching. Cost monitoring and optimization are handled via Nutanix Beam, with batch ML/scientific workloads supported through integrations with SkyPilot, Dask, and NextFlow.

CloudBank's business model is grant-funded rather than commercial. Funding flows from NSF Awards #1925001 and #2505560, including a $20 million CloudBank 2 grant awarded April 2025 covering five years. End-user access is free, with resources allocated through tiered ACCESS program awards (Explore up to $10K/year, Discover up to $37.5K/year, Accelerate/Maximize up to $75K/year) and the NAIRR Pilot for AI-related research. A small community-request channel caps single grants at $2,500, and CloudBank Enterprise offers separately contracted cost optimization services for institutional cloud users outside the NSF flow.

Name

CloudBank

Legal name

The Regents of the University of California

Website

https://cloudbank.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CloudBank is an NSF-funded platform providing free managed access to commercial cloud resources (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, IBM, Oracle) for U.S. academic researchers and educators, distributed through the ACCESS program and NAIRR Pilot.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Research Cloud Computing

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518), Educational Support Services (61171)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Cloud Data Platforms & Analytics Migration (BPAEACAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Cloud FinOps & Cost Optimization (BPAEACAH), Cloud Computing & Infrastructure (AWS/Azure/GCP, Virtualization) (EDABAFAB), Cloud-Native Development (Containers, Kubernetes, Microservices) (BPAEACAD)

Keywords

• Research cloud computing
• Multi-cloud infrastructure
• Academic cloud access
• Cloud cost optimization
• Educational cloud services

Headquarters

HQ city

Mount Kisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. NSF-Funded Access Program: CloudBank provides free access to commercial cloud resources for U.S. researchers and educators through NSF sponsorship via ACCESS and NAIRR Pilot. CloudBank is supported by U.S. National Science Foundation Awards #1925001 and #2505560. The $20 million CloudBank 2 grant enables continued free access to commercial cloud resources.
2. Enterprise Cloud Services: CloudBank Enterprise helps reduce friction and save money for general campus or enterprise cloud instances through financial engineering and cost optimization services.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

CloudBank provides U.S. researchers and educators with free managed access to commercial cloud resources through a unified multi-cloud portal supporting AWS, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud. The platform offers two primary products: CloudBank Research for scientific computing workloads and CloudBank Classroom for teaching environments, both funded by NSF grants and distributed through the ACCESS program and NAIRR Pilot ecosystem.

Product overview

CloudBank is a multi-cloud infrastructure platform that provides U.S. researchers and educators with free access to commercial cloud resources through NSF-funded programs. The platform operates two primary offerings: CloudBank Research for scientific computing workloads and CloudBank Classroom for educational purposes. CloudBank Research supports AWS, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud, while CloudBank Classroom provides a cloud-hosted JupyterHub environment for teaching. Resources are allocated through ACCESS and NAIRR Pilot programs. The platform integrates with various tools including Jupyter, SkyPilot, and Dask, and offers quantum computing capabilities through partner services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CloudBank Research A service-based platform enabling U.S. researchers to access commercial cloud resources using flexible multi-cloud infrastructure. Currently supports AWS, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud (Oracle estimated 2026 availability). Provides streamlined access with funding through ACCESS and NAIRR Pilot programs for research computing, data analysis, ML/AI training, HPC workloads, simulations, genomics, quantum computing, and scientific workflows.
• CloudBank Classroom A lightweight, cloud-hosted JupyterHub designed for teaching data science, computer science, and related courses. Built on open-source stack including Python, R, and C++ with browser-based development tools such as JupyterLab/Notebook, RStudio, and VSCode. Provides each student with persistent storage, compute resources, and seamless login using university credentials. Includes nbgitpuller for sharing notebook content and Otter Grader for assignment management.
• NAIRR Pilot CloudBank for Research Access to CloudBank Research through the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot program. U.S.-based researchers can request AI-related cloud resources through this program with cloud awards for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud managed by CloudBank.
• NAIRR Pilot CloudBank for Classroom Access to CloudBank Classroom through the NAIRR Pilot program for educators to request AI-related cloud computing resources for teaching data science and computer science courses.
• CloudBank Community Resource Requests Modest cloud resources available on a non-competitive basis for community purposes including classes, workshops, training, exploratory purposes, and hosting community datasets. Single requests range $500-$1,000 with a maximum of $2,500 and a total annual budget of $25K. 5-day turnaround for community requests.
• Berkeley Data Stack A collection of open-source tools hosted by CloudBank for educators, including Jupyter notebooks, interact links, and a Kubernetes-based JupyterHub deployment. CloudBank received HPCwire Reader's Choice Award in 2023 for Best Use of HPC in the Cloud for this work enabling data science education programs.

Quantifiable outcome

• Reduced cloud costs by 90% through proper uptime estimation
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration12 records

AI capability10 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• UC San Diego (SDSC)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 6 August 2019UC San Diego leads the CloudBank initiative through the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC). SDSC provides operational expertise and infrastructure support for the CloudBank platform.
• University of WashingtoncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 6 August 2019University of Washington is a key partner institution contributing to CloudBank operations, research, and education initiatives.
• UC BerkeleycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 6 August 2019UC Berkeley contributes to CloudBank through the Berkeley Data Stack platform for educational use and research computing expertise.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreTechnology or IntegrationAWS provides commercial cloud infrastructure for CloudBank researchers. CloudBank support email: [email protected].
• Google CloudcoreTechnology or IntegrationGoogle Cloud provides cloud infrastructure including GCP cost calculator support. Contact: [email protected].
• Microsoft AzurecoreTechnology or IntegrationMicrosoft Azure provides cloud infrastructure and AI services including Azure OpenAI and Azure Quantum for CloudBank researchers.
• IBM CloudcoreTechnology or IntegrationIBM Cloud provides cloud infrastructure including quantum computing access through IBM Quantum Platform and Watson Studio.
• Oracle Cloud InfrastructurecoreTechnology or IntegrationOracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) for Research Computing provides high-performance, scalable cloud solutions for academic and scientific research. Estimated 2026 availability.
• Nutanix (Beam)supportingTechnology or IntegrationNutanix Beam provides cloud cost monitoring and optimization tools used by CloudBank to monitor usage and optimize funds for researchers.
• ACCESS (NSF-funded ecosystem)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorACCESS is the NSF-funded advanced cyberinfrastructure ecosystem through which CloudBank 2 provides access to commercial cloud resources. Integration began December 2025.
• NAIRR PilotcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorNational AI Research Resource Pilot program provides AI-focused cloud funding managed through CloudBank for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• ACCESS (Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem): NSF-funded ecosystem through which CloudBank distributes cloud allocations to U.S. researchers. ACCESS is the parent cyberinfrastructure program that CloudBank 2 integrates with as a commercial cloud resource provider.
• NAIRR Pilot (National AI Research Resource): NSF-led pilot program that channels AI-focused cloud resources to U.S. researchers, managed in part through CloudBank. Directly comparable as a federally-funded research cloud allocation program targeting the same academic user base.
• Jetstream2: NSF-funded research cloud built on OpenStack for U.S. academic researchers. Comparable as a peer NSF-funded cloud resource serving the same academic HPC/research computing community, though operating as infrastructure rather than a managed multi-cloud interface.
• Chameleon Cloud: NSF-funded cloud testbed designed for computer science and systems research. Directly comparable as a peer NSF-funded academic cloud platform, though more focused on systems experimentation than managed commercial-cloud access.
• OSG (Open Science Grid): NSF-funded consortium providing distributed high-throughput computing for research. Comparable as a peer NSF-funded cyberinfrastructure provider serving the U.S. academic research community, complementing rather than overlapping with cloud offerings.
• PCCI (Partnership to Advance Throughput Computing): NSF-funded partnership operating computing resources for research and education. Comparable as a peer NSF-funded academic research computing consortium that CloudBank users may also access.

Emerging players

• Strategic Blue: Cloud financial engineering and resale partner of CloudBank (and listed as a core partner). Comparable because it provides cloud cost optimization and financial engineering services to academic and research clients—directly overlapping with CloudBank's FinOps value proposition.

Broad incumbents

• AWS Cloud Credit for Research: AWS's direct program offering cloud credits and resources to academic researchers. Comparable as it provides an alternative, direct-from-hyperscaler route to commercial cloud for the same U.S. academic user base that CloudBank serves.
• Microsoft Azure for Research: Microsoft's program providing Azure credits and AI tools to academic researchers. Comparable as a hyperscaler-direct alternative to CloudBank's managed multi-cloud access, particularly for AI research workloads.
• Google Cloud Research Credits: Google Cloud's program offering credits and resources for academic research. Comparable as another hyperscaler-direct alternative to CloudBank's managed multi-cloud offering, potentially competing for the same U.S. academic AI/ML research workloads.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@cloudbank8907
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cloudbank-enterprise

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CloudBank