Following on a longstanding and successful collaboration, GÉANT and EUNIS (European University Information Systems) recently held an online workshop focused on the OCRE 2024 Framework and on the GÉANT Community Strategy for Above-the-Net Services. This regular series of joint events brings together experts and users from NRENs and institutions to share knowledge and resources.
Under the Hood of OCRE 2024
The first part of the workshop featured presentations from Monique Pellinkhof (GÉANT) and Garvan McFeeley (HEAnet), the GÉANT project leads overseeing the preparation, execution and delivery of the OCRE 2024 tender, as well as the management of OCRE 2024 contracts.
Their presentations covered the Framework’s background, from the initial market engagement phase to the active procurement, which resulted in the signing of 416 framework agreements. This was followed by the evolution of the tender’s scope and lot structure, consisting of 39 country-specific lots and sub-lots for each platform. While the framework continues to be aimed primarily towards European research and education institutions, the new OCRE 2024 Framework is also open to public organisations where they are among the respective NREN’s customers.
The presentation also emphasised the many benefits of the framework – most notably its ease of use. Through the OCRE 2024 Framework, institutions can procure commercial cloud services in a simple, quick and compliant way. They can then easily set up their own cloud environments and get local training based on their needs and requirements. Another key advantage is economic: framework services are offered with significant discounts and at advantageous terms and conditions.
Sustainability was also taken into high consideration during the procurement process. For instance, the OCRE 2024 tender set minimum requirements around the use of renewable energy, with increasing thresholds over time, and suppliers were scored on effective power usage.
The three awarding methods available under the framework were also covered: cascade, mini competition and desktop mini-competition. Attendees were encouraged to access the documentation, review the offerings, and start procuring services via the framework.
The scale and growth of the GÉANT Cloud Frameworks
Garvan McFeeley (HEAnet), next on the virtual stage, offered participants a look at the gargantuan effort involved in evaluating and scoring the mass amount of bids received in response to the OCRE 2024 tender. The scale of the task was impressive, involving a dedicated cross-NREN team of 14 people working for three days a week over five months to read and assess more than 12,000 documents.
He proudly highlighted the progress made since the first GÉANT Cloud Framework back in 2016, as well as the growth in terms of countries, institutions involved and overall spending. Excitement about the future was expressed, with expectations of even greater uptake, and satisfaction with the balanced mix of platforms and providers per country available through the Framework, including a consistent number of European platforms.
An Eye on the Future
In the second part of the workshop Jan Meijer (Sikt) led a discussion on long-term strategic planning to identify the most effective, impactful, and sustainable solutions for European research and education.
After an introduction on the work that led to the recent GÉANT Community Strategy for Above-the-Net Services, the broad analysis of the variegated landscape of Research and Education organisations, pan-European research infrastructures, consortia, larger storage processing facilities, HPC sites was covered. Also included were the consideration on policy pushes towards a single European Research Area and single European Learning Area.
The strategy acknowledged the great traction and continued success of the collective procurement of cloud services, but also noted that on the service development side, there is still limited evidence of the effectiveness of the collective development model. The added value of such initiatives remains in fact an open question, influenced by budgets and politics, and depending on ongoing challenges like data autonomy and digital sovereignty.
Interestingly, while at a national level the size of the country defines the ceiling in terms of budget, number of institutions and market size, the strength of the Research and Education Networking community lies in its market aggregation and in its ability to scale and share expertise and resources. At the same time, expectations on NRENs and institutions around increased service quality and cost-effectiveness continue to grow, creating pressure to rethink how services are developed and delivered.
As part of the GN5-2 project, a new Above-the-Net services strategy team is now exploring Proofs of Concept on collective development initiatives aimed at helping R&E institutions access and make the most of modern cloud infrastructures. Rather than spending effort on numerous small initiatives, the aim is now to join forces in fewer and more impactful initiatives, supporting public values alongside technical infrastructures, and with a long-term view.
The event ended with a brief survey to gather topics for future joint workshops between GÉANT and EUNIS. Feel free to suggest a topic for one of our future events via our contact form: https://clouds.geant.org/contact
