TEAMS Cloud

Introduction

Now you can run TEAMS-Designer for a nominal hourly charge without having to download and install any software on your computer. This is ideal for customers needing temporary licenses of TEAMS-Designer, for testing and evaluation purchases.

This new way of subscribing to TEAMS-Designer is made possible by  the cloud infrastructure called Elastic Compute Cloud or EC2 provided my Amazon.  It enables us to setup a virual computer (called Amazon Machine Image, or, AMI) with Windows and TEAMS-Designer preinstalled that you can subscribe to and use it just like a regular computer. You can use a web interface (called Amazon Web Services Console, or, AWS Console) to control access to this computer, and to turn it on or off just like a regular computer. Amazon takes care of the billing, and charges you an hourly fee for each hour the computer is at an ON state, irrespective of actual usage activity. When the computer is on, you can access the windows desktop using the Remote Desktop Connection program. If you have good internet connection the interactive performance is so smooth that  it is very easy to forget that TEAMS is running in some virtual computer in a far away place (or the cloud), thus giving you the full experience of using TEAMS on your desktop without having to download and install any software.

The setup and usage includes the following four steps:

1. Sign up to use Amazon EC2. If you already have an Amazon account, you need to add EC2 privileges to it. If they do not have an Amazon EC2 account, you will be asked to create one during the subscription process.
2. Subscribe to the TEAMS AMI. The pricing and the terms and conditions are listed below.
3. Log into AWS console to boot up the TEAMS AMI and login using windows Remote Desktop Connection program.
4. When you are done, remember to copy all data back to your own computer and shutdown the AMI. (When you shutdown the AMI, it resets to a clean state)

TEAMS Subscription Pricing

Before you begin, you must purchase a subscription to TEAMS. A few things to remember:

1. Pay by the hour: You pay for every hour that the AMI is running on Amazon’s EC2, until you terminate the instance. The usage fee is based on the hours that the AMI is kept running, and not based on the hours that you are logged into the server. Partial hours are rounded up to full hours. Once your usage for the month reaches a certain level, you qualify for a lower rate for the remainder of the month. The rate resets to the regular rate at the beginning of every month. Amazon keeps track of the total usage per month, and bills you at the end of month.
2. Setup fee: There is also a small initial setup fee. You are billed a one-time setup fee when you subscribe. This fee is incurred even if you do not use the AMI at all. This fee helps us offset some of the upfront costs associated with setting up the server, including the initial data transfers.
3. Monthly Account Maintenance fee: There is a  nominal monthly account maintenance fee. This fee is incurred every month even if you do not use the AMI at all. This charge keeps on accruing every month until you cancel the subscription.  If you subscribe or cancel in the middle of the month – the monthly charges are prorated accordingly.
4. Data Transfer Charges: The first 10 GB of data per month (incoming and outgoing) is included with the monthly account Maintenance fee, and should be sufficient for most users. Usage beyond that limit is charged a small per gigabyte fee. If you subscribe or cancel in the middle of the month – the monthly charges are prorated accordingly.

QSI TEAMS Subscription Terms and Conditions

Fair Usage of the TEAMS Amazon Machine Image (The Server): You guarantee usage of the Server solely for the purposes of testing and evaluating and using TEAMS software. You shall not use the Server for production use, or for any other purpose except for using TEAMS software.

Sensitive Information: You recognize that the Server is accessible to the internet, and choose to put any sensitive information in the Server solely at your own risk. You may set firewall rules to limit access to the Server from a single Internet Protocol Addresses (IP address) or a specific range of IP addresses (See Section 8: Create a security group). You may also change the default password of the Server on first access. Irrespective of the circumstances, QSI assumes no liability for loss or dissemination of any of your data, information and intellectual property on the Server.

Limitation of Liability and Exclusion of Consequential and Related Damages: IN NO EVENT SHALL QSI’S AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO HOSTING EXCEED THE TOTAL AMOUNT PAID BY YOU IN THE MONTH PRECEDING THE INCIDENT.

BY SUBSCRIBING TO QSI TEAMS, YOU ACCEPT THIS AGREEMENT.

(NOTE – The following links will take you to Amazon.com’s subscription page).

Subscribe to TEAMS-12

Once you have subscribed, follow the simple procedures below to get a TEAMS AMI instance up and running. To review your account history related to this subscription with Amazon, change your credit card, or cancel your subscription, please visit the following web page: http://www.amazon.com/dp-applications.

Additional Resources

• Guide to Using TEAMS on Amazon EC2 R1.0