The cloud activity of the GÉANT project (SA7) has published its first edition of the GÉANT Cloud Catalogue. The activity has engaged extensively with cloud service providers regarding the needs of the European research and education community. One tangible result of this is the online cloud services directory.
The cloud activity of the GÉANT project (SA7) has published its first edition of the GÉANT Cloud Catalogue. The activity has engaged extensively with cloud service providers regarding the needs of the European research and education community. One tangible result of this is the online cloud services directory.
The directory gives a comprehensive overview over how cloud service providers comply with the needs and demands of the European research and education community, as stated in a coordinated list of pan-European core requirements.
A step towards procurement
So far, the list consists of services from
- Advania
- BOX
- CARNet
- Code42
- CloudSigma
- EduZone
- GRNET
- Microsoft
- Netskope
The plan is that the directory will be the basis for a series of tenders for cloud services, the first being Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). More providers and services are in the pipeline.
Comprehensive list of requirements
The list of requirements created by the GÉANT clouds team in close collaboration with the NREN community cover the following areas:
- intellectual property rights and ownership
- legal aspects
- security
- continuity
- confidentiality
- communication
- billing
- technical requirements
This requirements list provides suppliers positions in a transparent RAG status (Red for not compliant, Amber for partially compliant and Green for fully compliant) in relation to the requirements that GÉANT members will be seeking in future commercial relationships with suppliers. This helps providers to understand how to offer their services to the research and education market.
Value for NRENs and R&E institutions
For the research and education community, the catalogue offers clarity about providers’ capabilities and the opportunity to compare them, and their compliance with the needs of the NREN or the R&E institution.
IaaS framework agreements coming up
Currently, a group of NRENs is working together through the GÉANT activity, in preparing a joint IaaS procurement. This aims to make the IaaS services currently listed in the cloud catalogue, as well as providers that will join through the procurement, available to NRENs and their connected Institutions under Framework agreements. The agreements will provide the legal safeguards for usage over National and European procurement thresholds. This approach will allow the community to consume these services at large, without the need for each institution to run a tender on their own. When agreements with providers on behalf of the community are in place, this will be reflected in the directory.
NORDUnet is actively participating
The Nordic NREN collaboration, NORDUnet, is an active participant in the clouds team and the procurement activity. Representatives from NORDUnet, SUNET and UNINETT are members of the clouds team. NORDUnet’s ambition is, in collaboration with the Nordic NRENs, to provide a variety of cloud services to the Nordic HE community.
About GÉANT
GÉANT is the leading European collaboration on e-Infrastructure and networking for research and education. Read more at www.geant.org.
More information:
Contact:
- The GÉANT Clouds team, clouds@geant.org
