Exchanging services between NRENs: Challenges, Initiatives and recent results TERENA Networking Conference 2011, Prague Deputy Director Martin Bech, UNIC / Forskningsnettet.dk 17/5-2011

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech The services that make up an NREN – where do they come from? NRENs provide a range of services – from basic internet provision to advanced database and cloud services These services make up what we call the service portfolio of the particular NREN The typical number of services of a “standard NREN” is around 30 Source: Nordunet InterNREN service map and TERENA Service Map pilot NRENForskningsnettet (DK) Uninett (N) SUnet (S) FUnet (FI) RHnet (IS) RedIRIS (ES) Services

Service Exchange between NRENsMartin Bech The services in the service portfolio – where do they come from? SourceTypical examples Home made by the NRENDNS, NTP Direct re-sale of a commercial product (with little or no value addition to the service itself) RedIRIS Spam Filter, iPass, virus scanner software Produced by members of the NRENGrid services, WAYF.dk, media repositories [Edumedia] From a regional network organization (NORDUnet) MCU Service From GEANT/Dante/EU ProjectsiSHARE, AutoBAHN, PerfSONAR A combination, probably with some local value addition Adobe Connect Service And then there is the case we look at here: Directly from another NREN, where it is originally produced in one of the ways above

Why do we pursue the idea of direct service exchange between NRENs? If the service is already a success in one NREN community, it will probably be a good first approximation of what your own NREN needs A way to a more complete service portfolio for the NREN Better economy of scale for the providing NREN More value for money for the in-sourcing NREN As many services are quite similar across the NRENs, this makes all the more sense. Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech The basic idea of the NORDUnet CTO Forum… The (CTO-like people of the) Nordic NRENs discuss all practical topics relevant to their community, e.g.: Common projects Cost sharing models for cross-border fibres Compare service portfolios Exchange of services when feasible

The InterNREN service provisioning working group Initiated by the CTO Forum (after a EU-proposal on the subject that was not funded) Making the relevant people in the NRENs work on service exchange Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Services in this context are mostly above basic connectivity

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Source:

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech How we work with service comparison Inspiration for what my NREN is missing Get good ideas for new services Gradually harmonize terminology Compare service offerings, category per category Finding best-of-breed among comparable services Exchanging services Operating services jointly

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Obstacles To move beyond mutual inspiration is easier if we remove some of the obstacles: 0.Knowledge of what is available (service map) 1.A model for payment/cost recovery/procurement 2.Inter-NREN service exchange must be foreseen in calls for tenders and contracts 3.Federated AAI 4.Translation enabling 5.IPR clearing

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Removing obstacles (1): Model for cost recovery and procurement NORDUnet UninettSUNETFUNet ForskningsnettetRHnet Payment Service Today, we have NORDUnet as a common serviceprovider

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Obstacles(1): Direct exchange presents a procurement problem EU procurement rules demand a regular call for tender Difficult to create pilot trials, because everyone should have the same information as the trial partner in a subsequent call for tender Also a burden for the supplying NREN UninettSUNET Payment Service ?

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Removing obstacles (1): How procurement is handeled Simply by adding it to the NORDUnet portfolio NORDUnet UninettSUNETFUNet ForskningsnettetRHnet Payment Service

Removing obstacles (1): The legal status of a clearing-house According to a recent legal expert opinion, if a service is in the portfolio of NORDUnet, it may be procured directly by the NRENs without a call for tender process, because The NRENs are part of their state government administrations The governments or the NRENs own NORDUnet jointly NORDUnet has no other owners and is entirely economically dependent on its owners Obtaining a service from such a joint venture is considered just like producing it yourself Therefore: No call for tender However, there may be a remaining question concerning the obligation of NORDUnet to procure by call for tender Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech

Removing obstacles (1): Still a basic obligation to call for tender No clearing-house can make the obligation to call for tender go away completely If an NREN supplies to another NREN a service procured from outside by call for tender – then there is no problem (provided this is forseen in call and contract) If an NREN supplies to another NREN a service which is home- made, then the procuring NREN still has an obligation to call for tender The solution to this is to make the service a community project, where all participating NRENs contribute with development resources, making the supplier/procurer roles disappear. The ongoing development of NSI is an example of this Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech

Removing obstacles (1): Relying of the call of tender by one NREN Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Supplier1 Supplier2 NREN1 Supplier3 Supplier5 Supplier4 Maybe a clearing-house NREN2 Call for tender process – also on behalf of NREN2 and the Clearing-house

Removing obstacles (1): Other NRENs have to call for tenders to procure a home-made service Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Supplier1 Supplier2 NREN1 Supplier3 Supplier5 Supplier4 Maybe a clearing-house NREN2 Home-made service

Removing obstacles (1): Dissolving the supplier/procurer roles by making the service a community effort Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Supplier1 Supplier2 NREN1 Supplier3 Supplier5 Supplier4 Maybe a clearing-house NREN2 Home-made service

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Removing obstacles (2): Foreseeing service exchange When a service is entirely home-made by one NREN, it is normally simple to supply it to another NREN. Think of web-site hosting as an example. The contracts must allow for providing the service to other than your own NREN When you do procurement using EU rules, you must tick the box ”purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities” But beware: When the service / products are sourced through a general State Procurement Process that do not include other territories, they can not be used.

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Removing obstacles (2): Example of EU Call for Tenders NORDUnet made a contract with Juniper stating that the connected NRENs could also buy equipment under the contract However, in the original call for tender, they forgot to tick the box:

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Obstacles (2): Foreseeing service exchange in contracts This is not always easy as can be seen from this example: Forskningsnettet in Denmark has an Adobe Connect service, based on a contract covering the national NREN SUNet in Sweden has an Adobe Connect service, based on a similar contract We call Adobe in order to negotiate a common procurement and hope for better prices, but their reaction was that now we are not academic, but a service provider and hence will have to pay more than double…

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Removing obstacles (3): Federated AAI Not mandatory to have in place (i.e. Forskningsnettet provides iPass to SURFnet in a pilot trial) The Kalmar Union

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Service exchange – existing and proposed Sharing of housing and facilities Basic server operation iPass H.323 MCU and gatekeeper Filesender/LOBBER Anti-SPAM service …and more are to come as can be seen from the Inter-NREN service exchange map

Source: Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Taking this idea to the next step: Europe A topic for recent activities in the TF-MSP taskforce in TERENA Starting with a service map for the European NRENs

TF-MSP Service Map example: RedIRIS Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech

RedIRIS Service Map (cont’d) Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Source:

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Further ideas for service exchange for European NRENs TERENA or Dante could act as a ”cleaing-house” for cost recovery etc. This should be studied closer! A set of ”best practices” for creating ”exchangable” services has been proposed Pan-European federated access for NREN services are created in GN3: eduGAIN Examples of shared services already exist (fibres out of Europe, cross-boarder fibres, …)

Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech Are we sharing e-Infrastructures today? Indeed, we are: Grid and cloud computing is exactly about sharing Unique research equipment is accessible to users everywhere: accelerators, visual astronomy, radio astronomy, satellites, … Central databases are accessible via the network (from genomes to the death sea scrolls) Examples of remote controlled lab equipment Do we want to do more sharing? Naturally! and I hope this approach could help this trend in other areas.

Status of service exchange initiatives today (May 2011) Nordic Inter-NREN initiative TF-MSP initiative Service Map Harmonizing concepts Procurement model Contracts and calls allow service exchange Federated AAI Translation enabling IPR issues resolved (where applicable) Service Exchange between NRENs Martin Bech