A Sustainable future is in the hands of CLARA and the Latin American NRENs Roberto Barbera (Univ. of Catania and INFN) on behalf of Luis Nuñez (RedCLARA) ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Latin America/CLARA Specificities The GISELA business strategy Actions Outline Latin America/CLARA Specificities The GISELA business strategy Actions Conclusions ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Latin America/CLARA Specificities A non-profit organisation with 15 National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) With diversity of technical skills and maturity of local scientific communities of its members The Brazilian and Venezuelan NRENs are the only ones that have structural governmental support The rest of the LA countries have built their NRENs with the support of their members, charging them for operations and services For the rest of LA countries several different organisational schemes can be found, sometimes involving also the private sector Mature Developing Starting Gov. Supported The multi-country membership nature of CLARA, a non-profit organisation, and the multi-diversity of technical skills of its members, derived from dissimilar Academic Communities in the Latin American region, have resulted in a very peculiar way of building a business plan for any service that needs to be deployed to its broad community and yet be sustainable. However, Grid knowledge and skills maturity in the region need more improvements. Slight individual progress has been accomplished in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Panama and Uruguay. Greater progress has been observed in Colombia that has already installed its NGI and Grid Operation Centre (GOC). Mexico is also consolidating a GOC, RCs and Network Operation Centre (NOC) interrelationship, through its Joint Research Unit (JRU). CLARA has a membership of 18 National Research and Education Networks (NRENs). Eleven Latin American countries are represented in GISELA, either by NRENs (five), or by a NREN and an Academic Institution (1), or only by Academic Institutions. It is worth noting that these countries / institutions have different levels of maturity in Grid e-infrastructure skills. CLARA has to find the most efficient way to operate infrastructures with a minimum budget and a maximum benefit for its members ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

The evolution … EELA --01/01/2006 --31/12/2007 GISELA --31/08/2012 --01/09/2010 EELA-2 --01/04/2008 --31/03/2010 18 Resources Centres provide skilful personnel to support and develop services in the region 435 trained users / 73 inst. 1794 cores platform Operation 24/7 The projects EELA, EELA2, other projects ( Latin American Grid (LAGrid) in 2006, financed by IBM; and now Open Science Grid (OSG9) voluntary initiative ) created a potential (and apparently a real) market for the use of Grid services. Academic and Research communities in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Chile have developed greater expertise than Cuba and Venezuela. Furthermore, during EELA-2, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico established a country JRU. Some of them have even evolved to a NGI or EDGS. There is support from the National Organisms of Science and Technology that, in their majority, finance these national initiatives except in Mexico where the JRU has no funding for its operation. Mexico and Brazil have gained greater expertise followed by Colombia, in the certification of RCs premises and setting them into production, as well as, the build-out of a Regional Operation Centre (ROC) infrastructure. The rest of the countries are either in a basic configuration of RCs ready to become productive, or have reached the production status modestly. Services. LA counts with few but effective trainers in the region to setup administration RC sites, and to support VRCs or individuals in the customisation of their applications to use the Grid infrastructure. Two groups have acquired the knowledge to manage a ROC (ROC-LA and ROC IGALC). However, there has not been success in the consolidation of NGIs and the expansion of VRCs and applications using GISELA Grid Infrastructure for different reasons GISELA 34 production applications inherited from EELA / EELA-2 represent potential communities e-Infrastructure inherited from EELA and EELA2 projects ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Current CLARA Services : Connectivity + Communication+ Content Webconference (VCEspresso) Videoconference (SIVIC) Content Management (DSpace) E-Learning System (Moodle) Video on Demand (CLARAVe) Web 2.0: Wikis, Blogs Researchers/Funding opportunities/Partner search News, Agenda, etc GISELA triggered the first Advanced Computing Service ! ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Generic business models… ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

… and the GISELA implementation Knowledge Dissemi- nation User supp. Fostering e-Science International dimension Domain specific applications e-Research CLARA NRENs Resource Centres (RC) EU and LA research groups e-Infrastruc- ture and applications as a service SGs and IdFs Competitiveness w.r.t. commercial providers e-Infrastructure pay per use back to the RCs ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Sustainability Recipe Take a look around and identify all products you can offer. Thinking out of the box, exploits those services based on your most competitive skills Wrap out all your products in a incremental model Simplify the service deliver methodology Aiming to the widest group of users Making Do your math to evaluate your cost and to explain the way you did your math Be competitive but also solidary leaving spaces for those who can not afford the services Workout a marketing plan to reach users ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Grid Services Replicating Networking Services In CLARA’s network activities a Regional Network Operation Centre (RNOC) catches the functions of the countries that have no domestic NOC When domestic network infrastructures grow, the NRENs are going to be able to install their own NOC Once this happens, the RNOC will transfer the domestic networking functions to the NOC that has been installed CLARA auctions, among its members NRENs the operation of the regional NOC every four years The Grid pioneer Infrastructure could follow the same model Those countries that can support the creation of a GOC (Grid Operation Centre) will have one, and those who cannot afford it or are not mature enough to create one, can use the Regional Grid Operation Centre (GSC) Domestic GOCs are responsible for their domestic services and interact with the ROC when services have a regional scope Those countries without a GOC, will use the ROC for domestic functions in their country. ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

CLARA Advanced Computing Services Adv. Comp. (AC) Expertise Transfer. Technical Consulting to assist in house applications Customising an existing application to profit the existing Adv. Comp. e-Infrastructure Developing in house new applications required by the customer organisation (Research, Industry or NREN) SDK/SourceFourge Training To increase the awareness on the AC environments Wizard for basic applications. Allows the less expert users and/or NREN to install their applications Federated Authentication Resources. Grant authorized access to use the federated resources at a continental scale Application Shelf Service: Application Shelf Allows users, industrial partner and/or NREN to contract computing resources Virtual Resources Grid Allocation. Virtual services e-Infrastructure, such as: Allocation of AC resources allowing the member institutions to configure AC environments (cores/storage/network provisioning) and elements needed to execute their applications Running Services records, tracking the processes submitted to the e-infrastructure Data Preservation Services. Offer the possibility to store their data for a period of time Training and Capacity Building Service. To increases the usage and the culture of Advanced Computing Services by providing people the information and the skills needed to access the AC Services ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Cooperative Broker Model CLARA Grid VRC Organisational Model 11 11 11 11 NOC Regional NOC+NOC NETWORK MANAGER (NSC) CLARA Country LA–1 REUNA Country LA–2 Country LA–N GOC Regional GOC+GOC NGI or EDGS APPLICATIONS MANAGER Grid Community Coordinator Complex Model Cooperative Broker Model ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

A Regional Cooperative Solution Offers 12 12 12 12 A Regional Cooperative Solution Offers On demand resources (Hardware, Software & Manware) from the research groups to the research groups High bandwidth and low latency from the Experimental academic advanced Networks Replicating other services in the RedCLARA Operational Structure Added value to the existent infrastructure Better use of the existent computational infrastructure and expertise from different countries Promoting local middleware solutions better suited for the region User Grid Science Gateway Authentication Cloud Virtual Instruments Virtual Servers Commercial Providers ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Science Gateway Service Centric Model ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

CLARA Grid-VRC Support Model Science Gateway Centric Model Developer Administrator Autentication User Cloud Virtual Instruments Virtual Servers VRC Check Service Description RedCLARA RC Submit Service Request Consult the Advance Computing Resources Available Find the Suitable Resources Send the VR availability Shows Budget Login & Send Data Data Processing Accept Budget OUT Elaborates contract Register and login Virtual Resource on demand 2 Yes Storage Consult Read Display Basic View ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Regional Competitive Solution Business Model Parameters   RC Profit Margin % 300% RedCLARA Profit Margin 60% % RedCLARA Capacity 30% Max-Cores- GISELA Capacity 1794 MAX-Cores-RedCLARA Capacity 538 Max Num days/year (80% UpTime) 292 Hours per day 24 RedCLARA Price € 0.17 ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Two Examples of RC Costs (€) ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Operation Evolution ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

SERVUCTION & Operational Profit First and Second year of operation after GISELA end (31/08/2012 →) ½ FTE for administrative purposes as contracts, bills and expenditures ½ FTE for technical support 1 FTE fore marketing and sales Third year (1 FTE - Administrative, 1 FTE - Technical, and 1 FTE – sales) Fixed Costs ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Business Model Supported by 3 Actions Science Gateway Technical Capacities Funding sources from S&T Agencies Marketing towards VRC/User Communties ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Action Plan (1/3) Raise awareness, sensitize and inform on the different opportunities of the Advanced Services Sensitizing and informing research communities of the opportunities that Advanced Services could bring to their environment Organize Virtual Days on Technology and the Community Organize courses and competencies for students who have applications of general use Document the existing applications of the GISElA Science Gateway, by creating tutorials to ease the use and appropriation. Raise awareness, sensitize and inform the decision makers of S & T and the Directors of the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) on the opportunities that Advanced Computing Services could bring to Science and Technology Interviews with Latin American high authorities of decision makers in Science and Technology. CLARA’s Academic Manager is coordinating interviews with decision makers (Ministers, Directors and General Secretaries) of S&T in the LA region ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Action Plan(2/3) Identify the real needs of Advanced Computing Services by research communities. It is necessary to understand real needs of advanced computing services in the LA region. The communities need to produce a positive social impact in their research results in order to attract the S&T decision makers’ and NRENs Directors’ attention Identify communities that produce research results with high positive social impact as potential users of advanced computing services Identify “ambassadors” of each community to conduct a series of actions to first understand the communities’ needs and then to induce the communities into advanced computing services  Increase technical potentialities and capacities of the GISELA Science Gateway to provide an easy and friendly interface that can be used to access different web services through different platforms ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Action Plan (3/3) Train research communities so they adopt the GISELA Science Gateway into their daily research. Communities need to be able to build and maintain their own portals and include all the applications they need to develop research projects Creation of a Task Force (in collaboration with EPIKH) to implement and give technical support to applications running in the GISELA Science Gateway environment. Deploy applications of communities with social impact: seismology and climate Install Identity Federation Systems in at least two countries of the Latin American region Document extensively the processes of adaptation and configuration of the GISELA Science Gateway Redefine the web interface and usability of the portal Create on line and detailed technical documentation to have a permanent reference for the Task Force professionals and local technical representatives of the different institutions involved in the e-infrastructure and resource centers. Create a AuthN &AuthZ Infrastructure (AAI) in Latin America based on federated indentity services, "cloning & adapting" the existing "catch all" services developed at INFN Catania Update of the CP/CPS documents of the Certification Authorities established in Latin America to allow them issue "robot certificates" that are necessary for the GISELA Science Gateway Organise a cycle of technical seminars to follow up of the installation of applications ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Conclusions (1/2) The service architecture based on GISELA SG centric model includes all possible services to be offered by RedCLARA The cooperative shared cost broker model is economically viable and competitive with the present commercial offer It has been validated with the Directors on NRENs at the RedCLARA Assembly (Oct 27th, 2011) Need to be explained to the S&T Agencies Need to be aligned with National Initiatives Good idea: 30% National capacity to be share regional + Funds for RC Need to be related with other EU projects (RISC, CHAIN, ProIdeal) Application Committee (Nov 18th, 2011) Need to allow the possibility to “credit cores” for research projects Need to allow possibility to offer 5% financed resources for good proposals with no funding opportunities ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

Conclusions (2/2) RedCLARA Assembly (Nov 10th, 2011) and RedCLARA Board Meeting (Dec 2nd , 2011) recommended to: Evaluate the cost/performance of the GISELA e-Infrastructure Convince two or three candidates to start/test the model Look for funding for the test period (~2 years) Develop a LA Call for a Science Gateway Task Force Training at LA and EU technical people from VE, CO, PE, MX, EC F2F meeting and workshop at the Joint GISELA-CHAIN Conference Aggressive plan to interact with LA Science & Technology Agencies (AR, CL, MX, PE, EC, CO, VE) Marketing strategy aiming to VRC and ComCLARA Communities CLARA Market Study for Cloud Services for standard computing services ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)

ISGC’ 2012, 26th February to 02nd March 2012 Taipei (Taiwan)