Date: 27 September 2023
Facilitators: Jakob Tendel, Jan Meijer
Attendees: ACOnet, AMRES, BELNET, CARNet, CYNET, DeiC, DFN, EENet, FCT, GARR, GÉANT, GRENA, GRNET, HEAnet, KIFÜ, LAT/Sigmanet, MARnet, NORDUnet, PSNC, RedIRIS, RENAM, Sikt, SUNET, SURF, SWITCH, URAN
Workshop Objective
CTO workshops are meant to guide "What NREN and GÉANT do together".
...
Infrastructure-cloud. The current roadmap includes three key areas: service (OCRE FW), product (eduMEET), and a collective strategy. The collective strategy aims to explore areas beyond infrastructure cloud and consider joint technical platforms, personal data protection, and large-scale storage services in the EOSC context, emphasising the importance of long-term sustainability and financing. It underscores the importance of collective action, strategic alignment, and maximising impact, aligning with GN5-1, GN5-2, and research cloud initiatives. The presentation concluded with a call to dream bigger dreams and contribute to the new IaaS+ agreements in 2023 to ensure their relevance upon arrival in 2024.
Joint activity towards commercial suppliers. GÉANT has established a capability for EU wide joint procurement on behalf of the NRENs and their institutions. This has so far been applied to the OCRE IaaS Cloud Frameworks, but need not be limited to this. This procurement function represents sufficient market size to get a level of access and concessions from even the largest market Suppliers, that smaller buyer (groups) would not, and there are a number of plausible avenues for the GÉANT community to leverage this influence with commercial suppliers. Some options might be, driving the market towards addressing more specific R&E needs, procurement with European values around common good in the focus, claiming the role as procurement hub for commercial services within the EOSC marketplace.
Research Data Sharing. The presentation discussed the role of collective NREN actions in the context of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and the sharing of research data. EOSC aims to create a web of scientific insight by connecting various data sources and services based on the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles. The presentation highlighted the status and future plans for EOSC, the role of NRENs, and potential areas for collective NREN actions within EOSC, such as sharing resources, procurement, and expanding services to support EOSC nodes.
...
Key discussion points
Infrastructure-cloud.The general discussion covered choices between community and commercial clouds, cloud procurement, data protection, NRENs' role in accessing commercial tools, collaboration challenges, and the importance of eduMEET. The need to avoid limiting choices and build communities around tools like eduMEET was highlighted. The value of NRENs' strong role in negotiating access to commercial tools within the EOSC context was emphasised, as was the importance of unity for NRENs dealing with commercial cloud providers.
Community Clouds and Commercial Solutions: The choice between discussion touched the choices around selecting from community and commercial clouds was discussed. Participants emphasised not limiting options and the need to build communities around products like eduMEET. Maintaining and renewing the IaaS Framework into the future is now a GÉANT community priority, while further investigating options for collective action on community clouds. One likely candidate here is working together for integrating middleware layers on top of infrastructure cloud (of any origin, community or commercial) that provide seamless integration with the sovereign identity and data services provided by the NREN community. This feeds into highly current developments around Trusted/Virtual Research Environments (TRE/VRE) that are rapidly gaining traction in the research space.
Cloud Procurement and GEANT GÉANT 's Role: The conversation touched on cloud procurement, particularly GEANT GÉANT 's role in infrastructure services (OCRE Framework). It was noted that well-defined objectives, resources, and strategy are vital , with regular monthly meetings as part together with operational support of the coordination effortFramework.
Data Protection and Digital Sovereignty: The importance of data protection laws and digital sovereignty was acknowledged, aligning with EC priorities. The key will be to refine actionable guidance for making sourcing decisions on an case-by-case basis without losing alignment with the aforementioned priorities.
NREN Roles and Collaboration: NRENs' unique role in facilitating access to commercial tools for the GÉANT community was underlined, recognising their negotiation strength. GEANT GÉANT 's potential role as the commercial services supplier within the EOSC context was highlighted.
...
eduMEET and Collaboration Tools: Discussions focused on integrating eduMEET and similar collaboration tools, emphasising their importance in cross-border educational collaboration. For instance, Moodle integration with eduMEET was highlighted. Also, there is a real opportunity right now to lift eduMEET deployment across the NREN space to a higher level, possibly up to a GÉANT wide federation. This would fill a number of needs around sovereign communications infrastructure, community interfederation for mutual support and resilience, open systems and solutions, and a greater independence from future developments around commercial solutions, while not impeding free choices around solutions in any individual case.
Commercial providers. The discussion centred on using commercial and non-European services in education and research, with NRENs playing a crucial role in improving access to commercial tools for the GÉANT community. As cloud service costs rise, collective procurement and community cloud offerings are increasingly vital. The post-COVID era emphasises the need for expertise in videoconferencing. The main point is the significance of choosing between commercial and community clouds. For example, Zoom's success reflects the value of community demand, and there's a desire to foster communities around products like eduMEET. Data outside the network and user access from home are now important considerations. NRENs have a unique opportunity to negotiate better terms for their communities.
Research Data sharing. The discussion emphasised the value of trust within the community and the need to establish GÉANT EOSC nodes. These nodes serve as platforms for NRENs to explore new tools and services for sharing research resources among themselves, essentially functioning as proof of concept (POC) vehicles. While some participants found the concept more relatable than others, the collective engagement of NRENs was proposed as a more impactful approach, at least for those NRENs with a formal national role toward EOSC. The central question revolved around the services and resources that NRENs should provide through these channels. The discussion highlighted the importance of focusing on the services and resources NRENs can offer and the most effective means of making them available to researchers and EOSC, with GEANT GÉANT nodes serving as a practical vehicle to aggregate efforts at the GÉANT level. It was also brought up that developing the software layer of GÉANT/NREN data services could greatly increase the ability among EOSC and other research data infrastructures to optimally exploit the R&E network infrastructure while providing a common layer for greater interoperability also.
Education. The discussion focused on the need for streamlined collaborative efforts in education mobility services, highlighting the significance of thorough analysis. Legal constraints in managing academic records presented problems, leading to the exploration of personal data wallet concepts for educational data management. The discussion stressed the importance of NRENs working together to create a European higher education interoperability framework.
...
AI Topics: The discussion revolved around exploring AI topics, assessing AI tools, and NRENs' role in this growing field. Efforts to collaborate with research groups on digitisation and language models were noted.
Role of NRENs in AI: NRENs play a crucial role in facilitating high-scale computing and addressing the demand for GPUs in AI. Plans for compliant ChatGPT access were in progress.
AI in Education: AI's extensive use in educational activities, community organisations, and initiatives in network security data using AI models were discussed.
Key take-aways
NRENs:
- further unite their efforts around cloud procurement, as one pillar of the community's cloud service offerings
- play a crucial role in EOSC, aligning with FAIR data principles, and should prioritise collective actions for community data resource sharing unite their efforts for procurement, particularly when engaging with commercial cloud providers.
- have expressed interest in investigating research data storage and interoperability frameworks and potential future services, built on collaboration and contributions from NRENs and organisations
- recognise the necessity for user-centric educational tools, open-source solutions, and an interoperability framework to enhance education mobility and identity management.
- have expressed interest in contributing to a higher education interoperability framework, advocating for collaboration and contributions from NRENs and organisations.
- will continue discussions regarding AI on fairness, data attribution, and collaboration, with NRENs facilitating dialogue and promoting data diversity
GÉANT
- will consider other opportunities for collective engagement with commercial suppliers where they appear
GÉANT
- has a strong mandate for continuing operations and renewals will provide guidance on continuing operations around the OCRE 2020/2024 Framework.
- has the choice between community and commercial clouds, having also the need to avoid restrictions and build a responsibility to build sustainable communities around products like eduMEET.
...
Selection of specific activities for inclusion in imminent project calls are made together with the GÉANT Project Planning Committee - GPPC, based upon the most current roadmap available at the time.
Lessons Learned
Conclusion
The GÉANT CTO Workshop "Above-the-net Services" proved to be a remarkable success, offering invaluable insights that both affirmed current activities and enhanced the future roadmap. The discussions not only confirmed the importance of collective action and alignment but also charted possible directions and activities for the forthcoming GN5-2 project, ensuring GÉANT's continued commitment to staying at the forefront of network research and education.
...