Background

This document describes the work undertaken to supply SWITCH (NREN) with the ability to deploy Video conferencing services to replace an ageing Cisco-based MCU service currently in use.

A meeting was held at the GEANT Association offices in Cambridge in February 2015 between David Foster (CERN IT and GEANT Association board director) and GEANT Senior Management. It was discussed whether the GEANT Association would be prepared to provide a contractual mechanism to allow SWITCH to use CERN based infrastructure for the provision of video-conferencing services. The driver for this was the costly support for Cisco MCU systems that SWITCH would incur after expiry of their contract in August 2015.

Since February 2015, GEANT Association Product Management Team (GAPMT) have been working methodically through the necessary steps to deliver such a service to SwitchSWITCH, starting with discussions with Vidyo and CERN on the principle of a tri-party agreement for the supply of a managed Videoconferencing service, using Vidyo licenses hosted on CERN infrastructure.

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