Microsoft Word - OpenScienceCloud-EIROforum-Nov2015

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EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015

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ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.

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AEu ropean OpenScienceCloud

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Abstract

ThisdocumentoutlinesthepositionofEIROforumonaEuropeanOpenScienceCloud.Itexplores

theessentialcharacteristicsofaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudifitistoaddressthebigdataneeds

ofthelatestgenerationofResearchInfrastructures.Thehigh‐levelarchitectureandkeyservices

aswellastheroleofstandardsisdescribed.Agovernanceandfinancialmodeltogetherwiththe

roles of the stakeholders, including commercial service providers and downstream business

sectors,thatwillensureaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudcaninnovate,growandbesustained

beyondthecurrentprojectcyclesisdescribed.

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AbouttheEIROforum

EIROforum partners are intergovernmental research organisations–CERN,ESA,EMBL,ESO,

EuroFusion,EuropeanXFEL,ILLandESRF–coveringdisciplinesrangingfromparticlephysics,

spacescienceandbiologytofusionresearch,astronomy,andneutronandphotonsciences.The

partnerorganisationshaveatrulyEuropeangovernance,fundingandremit,andinmanycases

shareaglobalengagement.Theyareworldleadersinbasicresearch,aswellasinmanagingand

operatinglargeresearchinfrastructuresandfacilities.TheEIROforumcollaborationishelping

Europeansciencereachitsfullpotentialthroughexploitingitsunparalleledresources,facilities

andexpertise.Bycombininginternationalfacilitiesandhumanresources,EIROforumexceedsthe

research potential of the individual organisations, achieving world‐ class scientific and

technological excellenceininterdisciplinary fields. EIROforum worksclosely withindustry to

fosterinnovationandtostimulatethetransferoftechnology.

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PreparedbyCERNITdepartmentonbehalfoftheEIROforumITWorkingGroup.

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EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015

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i

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.

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ExecutiveSummary

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EIROforummembersandotherResearchInfrastructureoperatorsfaceunsustainabledemandfor

computingandnetworkingservicestodeliverthepromiseofOpenScience.Theyneedmorecost‐

effective approaches to collecting, processing, distributing and re‐using the rapidly growing

amountsofdatabeingproducedbytheirinstruments.

This will require innovative ways of providing an integrated IT infrastructure and

operationsexpertiseneededtorunapplications.

Currently in‐house resources, public e‐infrastructure and commercial cloud services are not

integratedtoprovideaseamlessenvironmentfordata–intensivescience.Existingservicesdonot

cover the full lifecycle of research from proposal submissions requesting access to Research

Infrastructures,throughtodataacquisition,sharingandpublication.Researchersareby‐passing

theirin‐houseITdepartmentsandpubliclyfundede‐Infrastructurestomakeuseofcommercial

cloudservicesthatofferinnovative,easy‐to‐usesolutionsandfilltheservicegaps.Thisshadow

ITinnovationrepresentsanopportunitytointroducechangebutmustbeundertakenwithfull

knowledge of the policy aspects including data protection, intellectual property rights and

applicablelegislation.

A European Open Science Cloud has the potential to provide the means to link such

services

togetherandincreasescientificoutput.

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TheHelixNebulainitiative(HNI)hasbroughttogethermorethan40serviceproviders,research

organisations,dataprovidersandpubliclyfundede‐infrastructures.Ithasdevelopedahybrid

cloud model with procurement and governance components suitableforthedynamiccloud

market.APre‐CommercialProcurement(PCP)isbeingnegotiatedtobuildanewformofITasa

Service(IaaS)platformusingopensourcesolutionsinafederatedScienceCloud.

Procuring cloud services from providers on a pay‐per‐usage model on the operations

budgetratherthanthecapitalbudgetoffersbothflexibilityandscalability.

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E‐infrastructurecostswillbecomeanintegralpartofthecostofdoingscienceand,consequently,

must be cost‐justified in terms ofbenefits and impact.Moving tothecloudcanenablemore

flexiblepricingmodelssuchaspercore/hourorperrequest/transactionormigrationtoOpen

SourceSoftware(OSS)tocontrolgrowingsoftwarelicensingcosts.

Mostpubliclyfundedresearch

organisationslackdetailedcostmodelsinhibitingfinancial

comparisonsbetweentraditionalandcloud‐basedsolutions.

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RIsneedtounderstandthebenefitsaswellasthefullcostsof‘bigdata’servicesandbeableto

managetheirownprocurementsinacompetitivemarketplace,migrateusecasesandexisting

infrastructurestothecloudparadigm,andadoptanappropriatecollaborativegovernancemodel.

Serviceswillbeprovisionedfromcommercialsupplierswhentheyarenotavailablein‐houseor

can be delivered externally on better terms (i.e. at shorter notice, lower cost or better

performance etc.). Publiclyfundeddatacentreswillcontinuetoguaranteelong‐term data

preservationand service supplier independence. Amarket assessmentof the public research

sector and downstream business sectors that could build on the data produced by Research

Infrastructuresisneededtobuildconfidenceinthebusinessmodelandjustifyinvestmentsina

EuropeanOpenScienceCloudbythesupply‐side.

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EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015

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ii

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.

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A significant difference compared to the current model is that funding agencies and

research organisations will no longer provision services exclusively from their own in‐

houseresources .

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Stakeholdersinthepublicandcommercialsectorsmustnotonlyinvestinthebuildingblocksfor

thedevelopmentofe‐InfrastructurelistedinTable1,butalsoinend‐userfacingservicesandin

trainingthenextgenerationofIT‐savvyresearchers.Thiswillleveragetheinvestmentsalready

madeinthepubliclyfundede‐infrastructuresandcommercialcloudservices.

All stakeholder groups need to work together to ensure wide adoption of competitive,

secure,reliableandintegratedcomputingservices.

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Manyresearchorganisationsthatoperateresearchinfrastructuresdonothavethemandateto

provideITservicestotheirusersforthemanagementandprocessingoftheirexperimentaldata

andwillrequireassistancetobridgethegapfromdatatoknowledgeacquisition.Theguiding

principle isthat funding from stakeholderslike the EC and national funding agencies will be

focusedoninnovationofservicesanduptakebynewusercommunitiesandbusinessactorswhile

theoperationalcostswillbebornebytheoperatingorganisationsandtheusercommunities.

The funding model for a European Open Science Cloud must be designed so that the

servicescanbesustainedbytheiroperatingorganisations.

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The EC’s INFRASTRUCTURES 2016‐2017 work programme foresees new e‐Infrastructure for

dataanddistributedcomputingandapilotforthefederation,networkingandcoordinationof

pan‐Europeanresearchinfrastructuresandcloudsingeneral.Lookingfurtherahead,theEChas

taken steps to ensure funding for GÉANT over the full duration of H2020 by introducing

‘Framework Partnership Agreements’ (FPA). The FPA model represents a more long‐term

engagementthatcouldencouragetheintegrationofe‐infrastructuresco‐fundedviaECprojects

intotheResearchInfrastructures’computingmodels.TheapplicationoftheFPAapproachtoa

EuropeanOpenScienceCloudcouldestablishthebasisfortheEuropeanResearchArea’sdigital

commonsandleadtowardsScience2.0.

AEuropeanOpenScienceCloudrepresentsastrategicvisionthatcanbeavectorforintroducing

changeintheserviceprovisioningandcomputingmodelsforthepubliclyfundedresearchsector

inthemediumtolongterm.

A European Open Science Cloud has the potential to greatly improve the provisioning of IT

servicesforResearchInfrastructurestoaddresstheirbigdataneeds.Itcanencompassallthe

phasesoftheresearchlifecycleandofferaplatformofjointinnovationforthepublicandprivate

sectors.ItwillsignificantlychangethewayITservicesareprocured,organisedandfunded.The

keychallengesareintegratingfrequentlychangingtechnologies,managingthecomplexityand

identifyingtheoptimalorganisationalandfinancialmodels.Researchersmustbeconvincedthat

theywillnotlosecontroloftheirpreciousdata.Itisanambitiousundertakingrequiringtheactive

engagement of many stakeholders and careful planning of the technical, financial, legal and

governanceaspects.Forittosucceeditmustbecomeapriorityforalltheactorsinvolvedwith

monitoringbythefundingagenciesandregularassessmentbytheusercommunities.

Thispositionpaperis arallyingcallforadoptionofsucha strategicapproach–wit hinthe

ECandotherfundingbodiestoworktheoperatorsofResearchInfrastructures.

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EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015

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iii

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.

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Table1–majorstakeholdergroups

Nationalfundingagencies

 Policymakers

 Thirdsector

 Grantingbodies

EuropeanCommission

 DGCONNECT

 DGRTD

Researchcommunities

 Thoughtleaders

 Peers

 Scholarlypublishers

ResearchInfrastructures

 Policy‐makers

 Operationalstaff

 Datausers

Publice‐infrastructures

 Serviceproviders

 Hostorganisations

 Technologyproviders

Commercialcloudserviceproviders

IndependentSoftwareVendors

OpenSourcedevelopercommunities 

Standardsbodies

Table2‐relevantECco‐fundedprojects

AARC

https://aarc-project.eu

Cloudfor

Europe

http://www.cloudforeurope.eu/

EGI

https://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/Main_Page/

EUDAT

http://www.eudat.eu



GÉANT

http://www.geant.net/

Helix

Nebula

http://www.helix-nebula.eu

Indigo

Datacloud

https://www.indigo-datacloud.eu/



OpenAIRE

https://www,openaire.eu



PICSE

http://www.picse.eu/



PRACE

http://www.prace-ri.eu/



SLALOM

http://www.slalom-project.eu/



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



iii

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.

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Contents

ExecutiveSummary.................................................................................................................................................................................i

Contents......................................................................................................................................................................................................iii

Overview.....................................................................................................................................................................................................1

Sustainabilityinaworldexperiencingthedatatsunami.................................................................................................1

MindtheGap........................................................................................................................................................................................1

NeedfornewwayofprocuringICTservices.........................................................................................................................1

OpenSciencerequiresanintegratedapproach...................................................................................................................2

Hybridcloud‐basedsolutions......................................................................................................................................................2

Background................................................................................................................................................................................................2

Progresstodate..................................................................................................................................................................................2

Pre‐CommercialProcurement.....................................................................................................................................................3

ChallengesfacingResearchInfrastructureoperators.......................................................................................................3

Benefitsofahybridapproachforscalability.........................................................................................................................4

Commercialconsiderations................................................................................................................................................................4

Supply‐side...........................................................................................................................................................................................4

Demand‐side........................................................................................................................................................................................5

Procurement........................................................................................................................................................................................6

Theroleofstandards.......................................................................................................................................................................7

Implementation:Scope.........................................................................................................................................................................8

FederatedApproach.........................................................................................................................................................................8



Supportservices.................................................................................................................................................................................9

Implementation:Connectivity........................................................................................................................................................10

Transportofhugeamountsofdataandthelackofhigh‐performancelinks.......................................................10

Identitymanagement....................................................................................................................................................................10

Implementation:OpenData............................................................................................................................................................11

Providingbroaderaccesstocommunity‐specificsolutions........................................................................................11

Datapreservation...........................................................................................................................................................................13

Reproducibilityofresearch........................................................................................................................................................14

Governance.............................................................................................................................................................................................14

Investment..............................................................................................................................................................................................17

Proprietarysolutionsarenotsolutions................................................................................................................................17

Publicinvestment...........................................................................................................................................................................18

Investmentinskills........................................................................................................................................................................18

Long‐termstrategicinvestment...............................................................................................................................................19

Conclusions.............................................................................................................................................................................................20



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



1

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



Overview

 Sustainabilityinaworldexperiencingthedatatsunami

 MindtheServiceGap

 NeedforanewwayofprocuringICTservices

 OpenSciencerequiresanintegratedapproach

 Hybridcloud‐basedsolutions



Sustainabilityinaworldexperiencingthedatatsunami

Traditionalwaysofmeetingthegrowingdemandforcomputingandnetworkingservicescapable

ofaddressingthe‘DataTsunami

’areseentobeunsustainablebyfundingagenciesaswellasthe

infrastructureoperatorssuchasGÉANTandEGI.Thecostofcollecting,processing,distributing

and re‐using the rapidly growingamountsofdataproducedbytheir instruments is a major

concern for Research Infrastructure operators including the EIROforum members.  A

collaborativeshifttowardsmorecost‐effectivewaysofgeneratingandusingscientificdataanda

greaterrolefortheusersofthatdataisrequiredinordertodevelopasustainablefutureforthe

evolutionofOpenScience.

MindtheServiceGap

Overthelastdecade,drivenwithsustainedfundingfromtheEC,thee‐Infrastructurelandscape

acrossEuropehasgrownfromregionalprototypestoasetofpan‐Europeanproductionresources

includingEGI,GEANT,PRACEetc.Thishasresultedinanumberofserviceswithinthecontextof

eachproject butthereisno common,overarching goaland souser communitiesmust invest

significantefforttobringtheseservicestogether.

Currently in‐house resources, public e‐infrastructure and commercial cloud services are not

integratedtoprovideaseamlessenvironmentfordata–intensivescience.Existingservicesdonot

cover the full lifecycle of research from proposal submissions requesting access to Research

Infrastructures,throughtodataacquisition,sharingandpublication.Researchersareby‐passing

theirin‐houseITdepartmentsandpubliclyfundede‐Infrastructurestomakeuseofcommercial

cloudservicesthatofferinnovative,easy‐to‐usesolutionstofill‐intheservicegaps.Thisshadow

ITinnovationrepresentsanopportunitytointroducechangebutmustbeundertakenwithfull

knowledge of the policy aspects including data protection, intellectual property rights and

applicablelegislation.

AEuropean Open Science Cloud has thepotential to providethe meansto link suchservices

togetherandincreasescientificoutput.

NeedforanewwayofprocuringICTservices

Publicresearchorganisationshavetofindalternativestothetraditionalrouteofpurchasingand

operating in‐house IT equipment which requires capital investment on the physical

infrastructure(servers,network,storage)neededtorunanapplication as wellas operations

expertise.CloudcomputinghasthepotentialtoreduceITexpenditurewhileatthesametime

improvingthescopeforinnovativeandflexiblehigh‐qualityservices.Procuringexternalcloud

services from providers on a pay‐per‐usage model implies that infrastructure is no longer

‘institutionalised’andthecostofcloudservicescanbefoundontheoperationsbudgetrather





http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/e‐infrastructure/docs/hlg‐sdi‐report.pdf



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



2

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



thanthecapitalbudget.Thereis‘elasticity’incloud‐basedservices and cloud‐based

infrastructureisinherentlyscalable.

OpenSciencerequiresanintegratedapproach

‘OpenScience’isstillinitsinfancy‐drivenpredominantlyby the availability of enabling

technologiesandtheopportunitiesfornewwaysofworkingratherthanbydemandfromsociety

atlarge,accordingtoarecentconsultation

.Lackofintegrationoftheexistinginfrastructures

(and,byinference,accesstothedatatheycarry)wasseentobeabarriertoadoptionofthose

technologiesandworkingpracticesby86%oftheindividualscientistswhorespondedtothe

survey.

Hybridcloud‐basedsolutions

The Cloud for Europe project

hasshownthatuptakeofcloudservicesbyEuropeanPublic

AdministrationsisstillveryfragmentedintermsofdemandandprocurementofITservices.The

HelixNebula

initiative,however,hasdemonstratedthepotentialofahybridmodelinwhich

serviceproviders,researchorganisations,dataprovidersandpubliclyfundede‐infrastructures

arebroughttogether.Buildingonthatpotentialwillallowustosupportandtransformpublicly

fundedresearchintodatadrivenknowledgewhichisofvaluetothewiderresearchcommunity

anddownstreamindustries.

HelixNebulahasalreadybroughtinnovationtotherelationshipbetweensuppliersandusersand

introducedawiderrangeofnewplayerstothemarketplace.Thisprovidesaplatformontowhich

aEuropeanOpenScienceCloudinitiative

willaddafurthermuch‐neededdoseofinnovationand

accountabilityinthewaytechnologyisprocuredanddeployed.

The goal of this position paper is to allow the EIROforum members to articulate their own

expectationsof the initiativebyhelping themto understandthenew EuropeanOpenScience

CloudandthewaythatitaddressestheneedsoftheInfrastructureoperatorsandusers.

Background

 Progresstodate

 Pre‐CommercialProcurement

 ChallengesfacingResearchInfrastructureoperators

 Benefitsofahybridapproachforscalability



Progresstodate

MilestonesonthejourneyinitiatedbyHelixNebulahaveincluded:

 Creationofavibrantpublic‐privatepartnershipofmorethan40organisationsand

companies.

 Developmentandcontinuedmonitoringofastrategicplanforcloudcomputinginthe

publicresearchsector

.





Publicconsultationon"Science2.0:Scienceintransition"



http://www.cloudforeurope.eu/downloads



http://www.helix‐nebula.eu/helix‐nebula‐vision



http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16001



http://www.helix‐nebula.eu/publications/deliverables/d92‐strategic‐plan‐scientific‐cloud‐computing‐

infrastructure‐europe‐three



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



3

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



 Identificationandevaluation(throughtestingandproductionuse)ofahybridcloud

modelmeetingtheneedsofpubliclyfundedresearchbylinkingcommercialcloud

serviceswithe‐infrastructures

.

 Validationofinclusiveprocurementmodelsthataddressmanyexamplesofkey

procurementbarrierswithawizardtoolallowingpublicorganisationstoanalysetheir

procurementprocessesanddetermineasuitableprocurementmodelforcloudservices

whentheirexistingmodelsarenotagoodmatchforthedynamiccloudmarket.



 Aninclusive,transparentanduserdrivengovernancestructurecapableofdeliveringon

theinitiative’sobjectives.

Hybrid clouds combine private infrastructure and operations with shared infrastructure and

operations.Atypicalhybridcloudusecasewouldbetherelocationofthepresentationtier(user

interface)andlogictierwheretheapplicationknowledgeisencapsulatedtoanoff‐sitecloudand

havethemcommunicatewiththedatabasestoredandmanagedwithintheorganisation’sownIT

infrastructure.Inorderforthedemand‐sideuserstobeencouragedtopurchasecloudcomputing

services,theservicesofferedmustbeeconomicallyadvantageouscomparedtoothermeansof

procuringITservices.

Pre‐CommercialProcurement

Promotionofjointprocurementhasledtothecreationofanexpandingprocurementnetworkof

publiclyfundedresearchorganisationsandestablishmentofanewPre‐CommercialProcurement

(PCP),theHelixNebulaScienceCloud(HNSciCloud).

HNSciCloud is designed to pull together publicly‐funded e‐Infrastructures using open source

solutions,tobuildahybridInfrastructureasaService(IaaS)platform.Itwillhostacompetitive

marketplaceofEuropeancloudplayerswheretheycandeveloptheirownservicesforawider

range of users beyond research andscienceincludingdownstreambusiness sectors that can

makeuseofpubliclyfundedresearchdata.

ThegoalistoestablishasustainableEuropeanOpenScienceCloudservingEurope’sResearch

Infrastructures,communitiesandrelatedbusinesssectorsandsurpassingthecapacitycurrently

availableviaexistingpublice‐infrastructuresandthein‐housefacilitiesofresearchorganisations.

ItwillbebasedonthemigrationofInfrastructureasaServiceintothemoregeneralITasaService

consistingofsoftwaretoolsandapplicationsandtheplatformsonwhichtheyrun.Serviceswill

be provisioned from commercial suppliers when they are not available in‐house or can be

deliveredexternallyonbetterterms(i.e.atshorternotice,lowercostorbetterperformanceetc.).

Publiclyfundeddatacentreswillcontinuetoguaranteelong‐term data preservation and

commercialservicesupplierindependence.

ChallengesfacingResearchInfrastructureoperators

HNSciCloudwillenablethefederation, networking and coordination of existing Research

Infrastructuresandscientificcloudsinpreparationforwhatthe2016INFRASTRUCTURESWork

Programmecallsthe“EuropeanOpenScienceCloudforResearch”.ItbringsEurope’stechnical

development,policyandprocurementactivitiestogethertoremovefragmentationandsupport

ResearchInfrastructureoperatorsfacingthreekeychallenges:

 Empoweringthemtounderstandthebenefitsaswellasthefullcostsof‘bigdata’

servicesandmanagetheirownprocurementsinacompetitivemarketplace

 Migratingusecasesandexistinginfrastructurestothecloudparadigm





http://www.helix‐nebula.eu/publications/deliverables/d62‐roadmap‐the‐integration‐and‐interoperation‐of‐

commercial‐cloud‐e



http://www.picse.eu/publications/deliverables/d‐21‐research‐procurement‐model



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



4

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



 Selectinganappropriatecollaborativegovernancemodelthatavoidsthebarriersthat

currentlyinhibita‘joinedup’wayofworkingbyinvolvingtheresearchusercommunity,

theresearchinfrastructuresandtheresearchfundingbodies.

We expect the scale and range of services being provisioned from commercial suppliers to

graduallyincreaseovertimeasthecloudmarketmaturesandOpenSciencebecomesembedded

intheresearchlifecycle.Asignificantdifferencecomparedtothecurrentmodelisthatfunding

agenciesandresearchorganisationswillnolongerprovisionservicesexclusivelyfromtheirown

in‐houseresources.

InananswertoawrittenquestionintheEuropeanParliamentaboutthecurrentposition

regardingprocurementoftheEuropeanScienceCloud,CommissionerOettingerstatedthat:“The

Commissionhassupportedpathfindingstudieson theuseofhybridmodels,bringingtogetherpublic

researchorganisationsande‐infrastructureswithcommercialsupplierstobuildacommonplatform

offering a range of services to research communities. This

can be achieved by building on cloud

technologieseasilyaccessibletousersandbypromotingprocurementofcloudservicestoencourage

innovation on the supply side.” The role of Helix Nebula and the HNSciCloud in shaping that

positionisclear.

Benefitsofahybridapproachforscalability

Ifthereissignificantvariationindemand,theremaybeanopportunity to reduce operating

expenditurebymatchingthesupplyofresourcestothelevelofdemand.Byemployingahybrid

cloudmodel,anorganisationcanquicklyandeconomicallyaddresourcesasneededbybursting

outofitsprivateITinfrastructuretoacommercialcloudprocessingandstoragecapacity.Acloud‐

burstingscenariocanprovidethebenefitsofcostsavings,maximumutilisationofon‐premises

resources and rapid innovation, but also has its own set of challenges in ensuring the

performance,agility,securityandmanagementaspectsofahybridcloudinfrastructure.

Byintermixingprivateandpubliccloudinfrastructures,organisationsareabletousethehybrid

modeltoleveragein‐houseandoff‐siteresources.Thehybridmodelallowsorganisationstorely

onthecost‐effectivecommercialcloudfornon‐sensitiveoperationsandontheprivatecloudfor

critical,particularlysensitiveoperationsprovidingenhancedagilitytomoveapplicationseasily

betweenthein‐houseandoff‐siteresourcestakingintoaccountaspectsofpolicy,cost,security

andavailability.

Commercialconsiderations

 Supply‐side

 Demand‐side

 Procurement

 Theroleofstandards



Supply‐side

Oneimportantconsiderationisthatthisapproachmustgeneratebenefitfortheproviderswho

havetheresponsibilityofensuringthattheyhavethephysicalinfrastructuretomeettheirusers’

demandandthattheirperformancemeetsagreedservicequalitylevels.Withoutanaccurateview

offuturedemand,planningforvariablecostssuchasstaff,replacementserversorcoolers,and

electricitysuppliescanallbeverydifficult,andoptimisingthedistributionofvirtualmachines

presentsamajorchallenge.Themoreunpredictableandspikeytheworkloads,thegreaterthe

economicbenefitofsharingthesameservicesacrossdiverseresearchcommunitiesinthepublic

and private sectors. Analysis of the procurements made via Helix Nebula, suggests there is



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



5

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



insufficient installed capacity currently available in the Europeanmarkettosatisfythe

exceptionaldemandthatwillbegeneratedbythelatestgenerationofresearchinfrastructures.

Significantinvestmentsbythesupply‐side,basedonaccuratefuturepredictionsofusagewillbe

necessary.Consequentlyitisimportantthatamarketassessmentofthepublicresearchsector

and downstream business sectors thatcouldbuildonthedataproduced by Research

Infrastructuresis performed(similar thatperformed bytheUK governmentforpublicsector

information

)inordertobuildconfidenceinthe businessmodel and justifyinvestmentsina

EuropeanOpenScienceCloudbythesupply‐side.

Therearealsolicensingimplicationswhentransitioningfromascale‐uparchitecturetoascale‐

outarchitecture:someapplicationsarelicensedper‐instanceorper‐CPU,oftenoveranannual

term.Inthisinstance,therecanbesignificantcostimplicationsofaddingnewinstancestoapool

ofresources.Intime,applicationvendorswillfollowinfrastructureserviceprovidersinmoving

tomoreflexiblepricingmodelssuchaspercore/hourorperrequest/transaction.Thealternative

istouseOpenSourceSoftware(OSS)wherethelicensecostissueisnon‐existent.

Demand‐side

AsidentifiedintheGEANTExpertGroupreport

, theuser communities will increasingly be

calledupontopayfortheservicestheyreceiveife‐infrastructuresonwhichuserscandepend

aretocontinuetosurvive.E‐infrastructure costswill bean integral partof thecost of doing

scienceand,consequently,e‐infrastructureinvestmentsmustmakeasubstantialandsustainable

impactinordertobejustifiedintermsofcostsandbenefits.

AstudyofthecosteffectivenessofEuropeandedicatedHTCandHPCcomputinge‐infrastructures

forresearchcomparedtoequivalentcommercialleasedoron‐demandofferingswasperformed

bytheeFISCALproject

 in 2011. The conclusion was that the ratio of CAPEX (CAPital

EXpenditure) to OPEX (OPerational EXpenditure) for e‐infrastructures was 30%‐70% and

manpower accounted for approximately 50% of the costs (CAPEX+OPEX).ATotalCostof

Ownership(TCO)study

wasperformedbySAPResearchonspecificCERNin‐houseservices

withinthecontextoftheHelixNebulaFP7project.

Bothofthesestudiesindicatedthatmostpubliclyfundedresearchorganisationslackdetailed

costmodelsforindividualservices.Financialcomparisonsbetweentraditionalandcloud‐based

solutionswouldneedasetofguidelinesforsuchorganisationsproposingwhichcategoryofcosts

shouldbeincludedorexcluded.ItisimportanttorecognisethatshiftingtheprocurementofIT

servicestoapay‐per‐usagemodelwillnormallyhavealimitedimpactonTCOsincethebulkof

expenditure over the lifetime of an application is not related tothepurchaseofphysical

infrastructure.Itisalsothecasethatnotallpubliclyfundedresearchcentresareinapositionto

makeaccurateestimationsoftheTCOofin‐houseITservicessincesomecontributingcostsare

bornebydifferentdepartments.

Theadoptionofcloudcomputingservicesbypublicresearchorganisationsrequiresadditional

justificationintermsofthebenefitsofthenewwaysofworkingthatcloud‐basedservicesenable.

ResearchorganisationsjustifytheirinvestmentsbytheimpactmadeinITservicesontheend‐

usercommunitiesintermsofscientificoutput.Togaugethisimpactitisnecessarytounderstand





MarketAssessmentofPublicSectorInformation,May2013,

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/198905/bis‐13‐743‐market‐

assessment‐of‐public‐sector‐information.pdf



http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/e‐infrastructure/docs/geg‐report.pdf



http://www.efiscal.eu/files/deliverables/D2%203%20Executive%20Summary%20‐%20Computing%20e‐

Infrastructure%20cost%20calculations%20and‐business%20_models_vam1‐final.pdf



http://www.helix‐nebula.eu/publications/deliverables/d73‐costing‐exercise‐comparing‐in‐house‐vs‐cloud‐based‐

operation‐the‐cern



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



6

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



theneedsandactivitiesoftheend‐users.Factorssuchaspatternofdemandandtransitionalcosts

needtobeincludedinanyfinancialanalysisofapotentialcloudcomputingsolution.

A European Open Science Cloud will need to perform IT capacity planning for all engaged

research communitieson a regular basis. As an example,the WLCGproject hasa Computing

ResourcesScrutinyGroup

whichreviewsthecomputingresourcesfortheLHCexperimentson

anannualbasis.



Procurement

The EC‐funded ‘Procurement Innovation for Cloud Services in Europe’ (PICSE

) project is

identifyingbarriers to procurement of cloud services bypublicresearchorganisationsandis

developinganewprocurementmodeltoovercomethem.Withtheadventofcloudcomputing,

the delivery of ICT services is going through a fundamental change. However, while cloud

technology service options continue to evolve, procurement processes and policies of public

researchorganisations haveremained firmly rootedinhistoricalpracticesthat arenolonger

effective.Inorderforpublicresearchorganisationsofallsizestotakeadvantageofthebestthe

cloudmarkethastooffer,amoreflexibleandagileprocurementmodelmustbeidentifiedand

implemented.

PICSEhascontactedanumberofpublicsectororganisationsandinitiatives(includingCERN

,

Cloud for Europe

, DG DIGIT

, ECMWF

, EMBL

, ESA

, ESRF

, Europeana

, GRNET

and

UmeåUniversity

)todiscusstheircurrentpractices.

Themainchallengesidentifiedthatneedtobeaddressedintheprocurementofcloudservices

canbesummarisedasfollows:

 Aswithallpurchasesofnewtechnologies,procuringinnovativeservicesrequiresnew

skillsandcompetences.

 Organisational/culturalbarrierstocloudadoptionareveryimportant,especiallywhen

theorganisationispurchasingcloudforthefirsttime.

 Financialissuesmayariseduetothenewwaytoevaluatecostsinmovingtothecloud.

 Legal/organisationalissuesmaybeencounteredduetothecloudservicedeployments

particularitiese.g.applicablelaw,datalocationrestrictions,dataprotection,etc.

 Security,includingnetworksecurity,dataprotection,privacy,dataandservice

portability,interoperabilityareallelementstobeconsideredwhenidentifyingthecloud

solutionstopurchase.

 Vendorlock‐in(dependencyonthevendor)andvendorviabilityareaspectsthathaveto

beconsidered.





http://wlcg.web.cern.ch/collaboration/management/computing‐resources‐scrutiny‐group



http://www.picse.eu/



http://home.web.cern.ch/



http://www.cloudforeurope.eu



http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/informatics/identity_en.htm



http://www.ecmwf.int/



http://www.embl.de/



http://www.esa.int/ESA



http://www.esrf.eu/



http://www.europeana.eu/



https://www.grnet.gr/



http://www.umu.se/



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



7

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



 Dynamicandchangingcloudservicesmustbemonitoredtoensureproperperformance

andbenefitrealisation.Servicelevelagreements(SLAs)mustbedraftedandmanaged

diligently,anareawheretheEUSLALOMprojecthasbegunworking

.

 Vendorcontractnegotiationiscomplicatedandcritical.Therearenostandardcontracts

forcloud.TheSLALOMprojectisfinalisingacloudservicecontracttemplatewith

equitabletermsandconditionsforsuppliersandcustomers.

 Contractterminationconditionsneedtobecarefullyevaluated.Portingdatatoanother

cloudornon‐cloudsolutionmayinvolvehighcosts.Cloudescrowisalsomissing.

Thesechallengeshaveanimpactonallthestepsoftheprocurementprocess.Thereisaclear

impact on skills and knowledge required. IT managers within public research organisations

shouldhaveaclearunderstandingofthenewtechnologybeingpurchased.

Functionally similar to financial market brokers, cloud brokers match provider supply with

consumerdemand.Thismodelbenefitsallparties:experiencingmorepredictabledemand,cloud

providerscanbetteroptimizetheirworkflowtominimizecosts;cloudusersaccesscheaperrates

offered by brokers; and cloud brokers generate profit from charging fees. Including such

brokerage models in a European Open Science Cloud could reduce the risks that arise from

marketinstability.Theadoptionofahybridcloudmodelwillalsohelptoreducetheimpactof

marketinstabilitiesonaEuropeanOpenScienceCloud.

Theroleofstandards

Standardsimprovetransparencyandcomparabilityforserviceusers.Theyopenupnewmarkets

for suppliers and offer equal access conditions, particularly forsmallandmedium‐sized

companies. Standards also improve the quality, security and sustainability of products and

servicesandadoptionofsuitably defined standards exposes the supplier’s unique selling

propositions.Openstandardscanbeadoptedtoprovideinteroperabilitybetweenpartsofthe

infrastructure,portabilityfromonecloudserviceprovidertoanotherandtrustintheintegrity

(provenance,reliability,etc.)oftheinfrastructurethathasbeenbuilt.

Emergingcloudstandardsforapplicationorchestrationprovidetemplate‐drivendescriptionsof

applicationsasatransparentwayofabstractingtherelationshipsbetweencloudapplicationsand

servicesandtheunderlyingplatformorinfrastructure.OneexampleofthisisTOSCA(Topology

andOrchestrationSpecificationforCloudApplications)fromOASIS

,selectedbytheHorizon

2020 EC co‐funded Indigo Dataclouds

project.Thisgivessuppliersandusersinteroperable

descriptionsofcloud‐hostedservicesandapplications,includingtheircomponents,relationships,

dependencies, requirements, and capabilities. TOSCA has the potential to expand customer

choice,improvereliability,andreducecostandtime‐to‐value,facilitatingtheagile,continuous

deliveryofapplications(DevOps)acrosstheirentirelifecycle.

Portabilityisanothersignificantpropertysinceprospectiveuserswanttoavoidvendorlock‐in

whentheychoosetousecloudservices.Usersneedtoknowthattheycanmovetheirdataand

applicationsbetweenmultiplecloudserviceprovidersatlowcostandwithminimaldisruption.

Portability through the appropriate standardisation of APIs, data models, data formats and

vocabularieswillhelpautomatebusinessprocessessurroundingcloudcomputingprocurement,

enable straightforward technical integration between the client and provider, and allow for

flexibleanddynamicapplicationdeploymentsacrossmultipleclouds.





http://www.slalom‐project.eu/





https://www.oasis‐open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=tosca



https://www.indigo‐datacloud.eu/



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



8

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



TrustandconfidenceincloudcomputingservicesreliesonworksuchasENISA’sCIIP

(Critical

InformationInfrastructureProtection)initiativewhichdefinesappropriatestrategies,policies

andspecificmeasuresforprotectinginformationonthecloud.Theunderlyingcauseofmanyof

the risks and challenges associatedwithcloudcomputingisthat the user passes over

responsibilityfordataandforapplicationstothecloudserviceproviderandtheproviderhasa

multi‐tenantenvironmentinwhichresourcesareshared.Inadditiontothemanyeconomicand

technologicaladvantagesthatcloudcomputingofferstoresearchcommunities,therearealso

significantsecuritybenefitsinmigratingapplicationsandusagetothecloud,asnotedbyENISA.

The shared resources available in clouds also potentially include rare expertise, shared best

practicesandadvancedsecuritytechnologies,beyondthemeansorabilitiesofthevastmajority

ofSMEs,manylargercompaniesandevenmanygovernmentbodies,toprovidefortheirin‐house

systems.

Atrulyinteroperablecloudwillencourageadoptionbyusers,safeintheknowledgethattheycan

changeproviders,orusemultipleproviders,withoutsignificanttechnicalchallengesoreffort.

Thiswillexpandthesizeofmarketsinwhichcloudprovidersoperate.

Implementation:Scope

 Federatedapproach

 Supportservices



FederatedApproach

AEuropeanOpenScienceCloudshouldofferaninitialportfolioofservicescorrespondingtothe

listofe‐InfrastructureservicesdocumentedbyeIRGinitsbluepaperof2010

withthetechnical

characteristicsidentifiedbytheHighLevelExpertGrouponScientificDataintheir“Ridingthe

Wave”reportfromthesameyear

.



Implementationsforthemajorityoftheforeseenservicesalready exist at varying levels of

maturity. The key challenges are integrating frequently changing technologies, managing the

complexityandidentifyingtheoptimalorganisationalandfinancialmodels.Researchersmustbe

convincedthattheywillnotlosecontroloftheirpreciousdata.Thedatacentresoperatedby

publicresearchorganisationscanprovidesuchguarantees.Theycanrapidlyexpandtheavailable

capacitybymakinguseofcommercialserviceprovidersofferingcommoditycomputeanddata

servicesaspartofthehybridcloudmodel.Bykeepinga“safecopy”oftheresearchdata,thepublic

research organisationscan alsoinsulatetheresearchercommunities fromchanges inservice

providerandtechnology.



AEuropeanOpenScienceCloudshouldtakeabottom‐upapproachtoimplementation,starting

withIaaS.Integrationshouldstartwithacommoncatalogueofservicesandafederatedidentity

management system offering a single sign‐on facility to access services across all suppliers.

Startingbottom‐upisessentialtogetthecoretechnical,financial,andpolicyprinciplesright.IaaS

can be introduced without impacting higher‐level user‐facing services that will require a

significantsoftwareinvestment.ItalsorepresentsastrategywithlowerriskbecausetheIaaS

marketismorematurethanthePaaSandSaaSmarkets.







https://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/Resilience‐and‐CIIP



http://e‐irg.eu/documents/10920/238805/e‐irg_blue_paper_2010

http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/e‐infrastructure/docs/hlg‐sdi‐report.pdf



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



9

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



TheservicesofaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudwillneedtobeintegratedwitharangeof

resourcescurrentlyoperatedbypublicorganisationstoformahybridcloudsolution.

Realisationofthebenefitsofahybridcloudisinhibitedbymanybarriersrelatedtoprocurement,

trustworthiness,technicalstandardsandlegaltermsofreference,riskofvendorlock‐inandso

on. The overall challenge is to overcome these barriers in order to boost productivity by

stimulating all stakeholder groups to work together to ensure wide adoption of competitive,

secure,reliableandintegratedcomputingservices.



InorderforaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudtobedeployedrapidly,itisessentialtobuildonthe

existinginfrastructures.Thisrequiresanagreedoverarchingarchitectureandthecommitment

oftheserviceoperatorstomakeaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudapriority.Theremustalsobe

agreementbyallthestakeholdersonthegovernancestructureandfinancialmodeltoensurea

OpenScienceCloudcangrow,innovateandbesustained.



The EGI Federated Cloud

 is an example of an inter‐disciplinary approach to infrastructure

implementationallowingdatasharingandcollaborationbetweenresearchcommunities.

Itisagridofacademicprivatecloudsandvirtualisedresources,builtaroundopenstandardsand

focusingontherequirementsofthescientificcommunity.Technicalconsistencyintheservice

delivery betweenparticipating suppliersisensuredbyuseofrecommended publicly defined

interfacespecificationssuchasOCCI

,CDMI

andOVF

.



TheexperiencegatheredbyEGIinmanagingitsfederatedinfrastructure

willbedirectly

relevantandprovideinsightintomakingalargerportfolioofcapacitystyleHPCservicesfordata

centricapplicationsaccessibletoitsexistinguser‐base.Workingwithcommercialcloudservice

providers will inject the innovation potential created by the uptakeofcloudcomputingin

researchandbusinesssectors.

The complementary expertise developed by PRACE and related projects in efficient parallel

programmingparadigmsandoptimisingsoftwareforarangeofarchitectures isalso directly

relevant to a European Open Science Cloud and application/service developers. The HPC

capabilityservicesofferedbythePRACEcentresshouldbeintegratedtoformpartoftheoverall

ecosystem. This will require the PRACE HPC centres to participate in the federated identity

managementschemeanddatasharingservicesdescribedbelow.

Supportservices

Support services will also be required to ensure the operational staff in the public research

organisations can resolve end‐user support issues as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

Similarly,securityresponseserviceswillbenecessarytohandleincidentsthatmayaffectthe

platform.Thepubliclyoperatedinfrastructuresthatarepartofthehybridcloudalreadyhave

user‐supportandComputerSecurityIncidentResponseteams(CSIRTs)inplacebuttheydonot

fullyinteroperateandallcloudservicessupportedbyaEuropeanOpenScienceCloud,whether

operatedbycommercialserviceprovidersorpublicorganisations,willneedtobeintegratedinto

thesestructures.





https://www.egi.eu/infrastructure/cloud/



http://occi‐wg.org/about/specification/





http://www.snia.org/cdmi



http://www.dmtf.org/standards/ovf



https://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/Fedcloud‐tf:UserCommunities



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



10

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



Implementation:Connectivity

 Transportofhugeamountsofdata

 Identitymanagement



Transportofhugeamountsofdataandthelackofhigh‐performancelinks

InorderforaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudtooperateeffectively,itisnecessarytoassurethere

issufficientnetworkcapacitytopermitdataingressfromtheResearchInfrastructures.

GÉANT

isthehighbandwidthpan‐European research and education backbone that

interconnectsNationalResearchandEducationNetworks(NRENs)acrossEuropeandprovides

worldwideconnectivitythroughlinkswithotherregionalnetworks.TheGÉANTnetworkisthe

primary means of connecting the research organisations and universities to the commercial

providers.TheHelixNebulainitiativehasalreadydemonstratedthatitispossibletomake

practicaluseofthedatacentresofcommercialcloudserviceprovidersovertheGÉANTnetwork.

GÉANTOpen

isaserviceallowingNRENsandapprovedcommercialorganisationstoexchange

connectivityforthepublicResearchandEducationsectorwithNOCsupport,SLAmonitoring,a

definedpolicy

andcostmodel

.Commercialcloudserviceprovidersareexpectedtoaddthe

costofconnectionandusageofGÉANTOpentothepriceofthecloudservicesdeliveredtothe

researchcommunity.Commercialcloudserviceproviderswillalsowanttoofferthesametypes

of cloud services to customers from business sectors and will have to integrate alternative

network providers which will allow the stakeholders to compare the efficiency and cost

effectivenessofallthenetworkservicesprovidedbythedifferentsuppliers.

TheopeningupofaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudtousersbeyondthepubliclyfundedresearch

sectoris essential ifit is toattract investment fromthe privatesectorandsupportavibrant

innovationcycle.Lookingfurtherintothefuture,aEuropeanOpenScienceCloudcouldbemore

closelylinkedtothedataacquisitionandreal‐timerequirementsofResearchInfrastructures.For

example,EuropeanXFEL,ILLandESRFtogetherwithEurofusionsitesallrequireonlineorrapid

feedbackinordertoprepareforthenextexperimentalrun.Thisimpliesimportantincreasesin

network capacity. Similar real‐time needs will also be important for the applications of new

detectortechniquesaddressedbytheATTRACTconsortium

.



Identitymanagement

eduGAIN

isaninternationalinter‐federationserviceinterconnectingresearchandeducation

identity federations. It enables the secure exchange of information related to identity,

authentication and authorisation between participating federations. eduGAIN provides an

infrastructureforestablishingtrustedcommunicationsbetweenIdentityProviders(IdPs)and

ServiceProviders(SPs)indifferentparticipatingfederations.End‐usersauthenticateatIdPsand

obtainaccesstoservicesdeliveredbySPs.

Federatedidentitymanagementisalsogainingtractioninbusinesssectorsasshownbytherising

popularityofUniversal2ndFactor(U2F)asanauthenticationstandardcreatedbytheFIDO(Fast





http://www.geant.net/



http://www.geant.net/Services/ConnectivityServices/Documents/GEANT%20Open%20Service%20Brief.pdf



http://www.geant.net/Services/ConnectivityServices/Documents/GN3PLUS13‐1439‐

12_geant_open_exchange_production_policy_v4_3.pdf



http://www.geant.net/Services/ConnectivityServices/Documents/GEANT%20Open%20Service%20Description.p



http://www.attract‐eu.org/



http://services.geant.net/edugain/Pages/Home.aspx



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



11

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



IDentity Online) Alliance

 an industry group established to standardize authentication

technologyanddevicesthatcansimplifyandstrengthentwo‐factorauthenticationforbusinesses

andconsumers.SoitwillbeessentialforeduGAINtoensureitcanengagewithcommercialIdPs

andSPstoavoidisolatingtheresearchandeducationcommunity.TherecentlystartedAARC

(AuthenticationandAuthorisationforResearchandCollaboration)

H2020projectintendsto

furtherdevelopeduGAINanditisessentialthataprimarygoalofthisprojectshouldbetoensure

eduGAINcansupportaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudinproductionusage.

Implementation:OpenData

 Broaderaccesstocommunity‐specificsolutions

 Datapreservation

 Reproducibilityofresearch



Providingbroaderaccesstocommunity‐specificsolutions

Providingaccesstothird‐partyopendatarequiresappropriatemanagementstructuresfordata

aswellastheconnectivityallowinginterchangeofthedataitself.

Thevaluechainforinformationcanbeconsideredinthreelayers–dataproviders,value‐added

providersanddownstreamusers.TheGlobalEarthObservationSystemofSystems(GEOSS

)is

anexampleofacommoninfrastructureprovidedbyacommunityofdataproviders.The‘GEOSS

Portal’isasingleInternetaccesspointforusersseekingdata,imageryandanalyticalsoftware

packagesrelevanttoallpartsoftheglobe.GEOSSdoesnotoffertohostdatasetsorguaranteethat

theyarealwaysavailablebutsimplymakesthemaccessiblefromtheiroriginalsites.

GEOhasaworkinggroupwhichhasrecentlydefinedthreeconditionsforlegalinteroperability

amongmultipledatasetsfromdifferentsourcestoexist

:

 useconditionsareclearlyandreadilydeterminableforeachofthedatasets,

 thelegaluseconditionsimposedoneachdatasetallowcreationanduseofcombinedor

derivativeproducts,and

 usersmaylegallyaccessanduseeachdatasetwithoutseekingauthorizationfromdata

creatorsonacase‐by‐casebasis,assumingthattheaccumulatedconditionsofusefor

eachandallofthedatasetsaremet.



Similarly, fourteen research infrastructures in the biological, biomedical and environmental

sciences developed commonly agreed principles of data management and sharing. The

document

producedbytheBiomedBridgesprojectmakeskeyrecommendationsonhowdata

managementandsharingviatheresearchinfrastructurescanbesupportedandencouraged:

1. TheRIsencouragedatasharingandreuseandsupportthenotionthatpublicfunders

shouldencourageOpenAccesstodatafrompubliclyfundedresearchwherepossible.





https://fidoalliance.org/



https://aarc‐project.eu





http://www.earthobservations.org/geoss.php



https://www.earthobservations.org/documents/dswg/Annex%20VI%20‐

%20%20Mechanisms%20to%20share%20data%20as%20part%20of%20GEOSS%20Data_CORE.pdf



PrinciplesofdatamanagementandsharingatEuropeanResearchInfrastructures,February2014,

http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8304



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



12

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



2. Somedatamayonlybesharedundercertainconditionsandwithappropriatesafekeeping

mechanismsinplace,suchaspersonallyidentifiabledata,datasubjecttoethicalorlegal

restrictions,orrestrictionsforintellectualpropertyprotection.

3. To encourage data sharing, systematic reward and recognition mechanisms are

necessary.

4. ProposalsforpubliclyfundedresearchatRIsshouldincludeadatamanagementplan

concerningthedepositionofdatainlong‐termarchivesthataddressesspecificresources

andactivities(includingstandardisationofdataproductionandcuration/annotation).

5. Fundingfortoolsandactivitiesconnectedtodatadepositionmustbeavailable.

6. Systems, services and resources mustbeinplacetofacilitatestraightforward data

deposition by researchers, including support concerning the necessary data use

agreements and consent forms for data with data protection or intellectual property

requirements.

7. Systemsarealsoneededtocaptureandtrackdataprovenanceanduse.

8. To ensure necessary trust by data providers or depositors, RIs must guarantee high

standardsofsecurityandtraceability.



TheUKisrankedtopof86countriesbytheOpenDataBarometer

,whichmeasuresacountry’s

readinesstosecurebenefitsfromopendata,itspublicationof key datasets and evidence of

emergingimpactsfromopengovernmentdata.The2015OpenDataInstitutereport“Opendata

meansbusiness:UKinnovationacrosssectorsandregions

”providesconvincingargumentsfor

learningfromtheprivatesectorwhenitcomestomanagingthesharingofpublicsectordata,

highlightingtheroleofvalue‐addedproviders.TheUK’scentralrepositoryofpublicsectoropen

data,data.gov.uk,containsnearly15,000datasetspublishedwithanOpenGovernmentLicense.

Examples include geospatial/mapping data (OpenStreetMap

), transport‐related data

(Traveline

), demographics/social data (Office for National Statistics

) and business data

(CompaniesHouse

).

BestpracticesincludetheadoptionofOpenDataCertificates

andtheuseofCreativeCommons



publicdomainlicence(CC0)andattributionlicence(CC‐BY).TheCreativeCommonsattribution

andshare‐alikelicence(CC‐BY‐SA)isalsoused,butmaylimitacompany’sabilitytousethatdata

forcommercialproductsandservicesbyrequiringthemtoalsoattachthesameopenlicenceto

thedatatheyderive.

Somedatacanneverbe“open”intheliteralsenseandspecificauthorizationmayberequired

(e.g. for medical patient data). However, the “FAIR” principles of Findability, Accessibility,

InteroperabilityandReusability

shouldstillberespectedandformthebasisforaEuropean

OpenScienceClouddatapolicy.

OpenAIRE

isanetworkofOpenAccessrepositories,archivesandjournalsthatsupportOpen

Accesspolicies.OpenAIREisanetworkofmorethan580dataproviders,integratingmorethan





http://barometer.opendataresearch.org/report/analysis/rankings.html



http://theodi.org/open‐data‐means‐business‐uk‐innovation‐sectors‐regions



http://www.openstreetmap.org/



http://www.traveline.info/



http://www.ons.gov.uk/



https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies‐house



https://certificates.theodi.org/



https://creativecommons.org/



http://datafairport.org/



https://www,openaire.eu





EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



13

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



10millionOpenAccesspublications,relatedtoabout25,000organisationsand45,000projects

from3funders.OpenAIREiscontributingtotheLinkedOpenDatamovement,andhasrecently

launchedtheDLIService

,forDataLiteratureInterlinking.AEuropeanOpenScienceCloudwill

beinterfacedasacontentprovidertothisresourceandasaconsumerofserviceAPIswhichwill

allowotherstobuildintegrateddatadiscoveryandanalysisservices.

TheZenododigitalrepositorypoweredbyInvenioandoperatedbyCERNaspartofOpenAIRE

hasbeenextendedwithimportantfeaturesthatgreatlyimprovedatasharingandithasbecome

verypopularwithresearchersfrommanydisciplinesaroundtheworld.Inparticular,Zenodo

now offers persistent identifiers for data objects so datasets and software from the popular

GitHubcoderepositoryaswellaspublicationscanbecitedandincludesinterfacespermitting

metadatatobeharvested.

EUDAT

 is developing a collaborative data infrastructure (CDI) for European research

communities.TheB2servicessuitecurrentlyconsistsoftheB2SAFEserviceforimplementing

datamanagementpolicieswithintheEUDATCDI,theB2STAGEservicewhichprovidestoolsand

API’stointeractwiththeEUDATCDI,theB2SHAREdatarepositoryservicetostoreandshare

researchdata, theB2FIND servicefor findingresearch data, theB2DROP service as EUDAT’s

DropBox‐likeservicetosynchroniseandexchangedatawithinatrustedenvironment.

Metadata and indexing facilities across the set of services from OpenAIRE repositories and

EUDATdataservicesaswellasengagedcloudserviceprovidersareseenasbeingparticularly

relevant.



Datapreservation

Datacentresoperatedbythegroupofpubliclyfundedresearchorganisationsandrelatedthird

partiesprovidecomputeandstorageservicestotheresearchcommunity aswellasaccessto

scientificdatasetsandpublications.

Nextgeneration“datafactories”,includingtheResearchInfrastructuresontheESFRIroadmap,

arecharacterisedbydatavolumesthatcanextendfrommultiplePetaBytetoseveralExaBytes

andevenbeyond(suchastheSKA

)servinguptoseveralthousandsofresearchersaroundthe

world,aswellasmanymorepotentialusersviaOpenAccess.

Datapreservation–forcurrentandfuturere‐useandsharing–isafundamentalcomponentof

on‐goingdatamanagementplansandthereiscommonagreementontheOAISmodel(ISO14721)

togetherwithcloselyrelatedstandards(ISO16363and16919).Thisapproachfocusesalmost

exclusivelyonmanagementofrepositorydataandadditionalcapabilitiesareneededtosatisfy

the key use cases driving data (knowledge) preservation, sharing and re‐use in a multi‐

disciplinaryenvironment.Theseadditionalcapabilitiesrequireagoodunderstandingofwhowill

re‐usethedata(“theconsumers”)togetherwithknowledgecapturefromtheOpenScientistswho

are“theproducers”(OAISterms)ofthedata.

Preservation policies implemented in a measurable and certifiable manner across shared e‐

infrastructurestogetherwithdomainandinstitutionalrepositorieswouldstimulatemuchwider

re‐useofdatathroughthecapturedandpreservedknowledge,aswellasthecapabilityto

preserveandre‐usedataandknowledgeforsignificantlylongerperiodsoftime.Thistranslates

toalargerreturnoninvestmentforthefundingagencies,togetherwith associatedscientific,

educationalandculturalbenefits.





https://www.openaire.eu/dliservice



http://www.eudat.eu





Inthepreprint“ImagingSKA‐Scaledatainthreedifferentcomputingenvironments”RichardDodson(ICRAR)etal.,

2 November 2015, the authors compared commercial cloud services (AWS), a cluster and a HPC installation on

performance,usabilityandcostforSKAimageworkloadsandratedthecloudserviceservicesfavourably.



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



14

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



Reproducibilityofresearch

Federated cloud‐based services will improve reproducibility and transparency (serving

ResponsibleResearch&Innovationprinciples,asenvisagedbythe OpenAIRE & FOSTER



report

),facilitatingwideraccessfortheknowledge‐basedindustries,andlettingthefreeflow

ofideasandknowledgespeedupinnovationanddeliveryofaddedvaluetothemarketplace.The

RDAReproducibilityInterestGroupdefinedasetofhigh‐priorityservicesforreproducibilityof

OpenScience,asfollows

:

1)Persistentlinkingandavailabilityofdataandcode(viarepositoriesorothermechanisms)used

inthegenerationofpublishedresearchresults,withthepublicationitself;

2)Development,encouragement,andadoptionofmeta‐datastandards for data and code,

especiallyforthoselinkedtopublications;

3)Development,encouragement,andadoptionofdataandcodepublication, authorship, and

citationpractices,especiallyforthoselinkedtopublications;

4)Developmentandadoptionofappropriatetoolsandcomputationalinfrastructurethatenable:

thesharingofresearchworkflowsandpermitreplicationofcomputationalscientificfindings;the

persistent linking of all digital scholarly objects used to generate research findings such as

datasets in repositories; and versioning of digital scholarly objects to ensure persistent

reproducibility.

TosupportreproduciblescienceaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudwillneedtointegrateanetwork

of Zenodo‐like repository services and link them to the computingservicestoensurethat

registeringandstoringresearchoutputsbecomesasimpleandstandardoperationattheendof

thecomputecycle.Inaddition,thiswillenableuserstoanalysetore‐analysetheregistereddata

withthereferencedcodesandextenditwiththeirownsoftware directly contributing open

scienceworkflows.

Governance

 ShadowITandthechangingroleofITdepartments

 Inclusivegovernancestructure

 End‐usersandprocurersattheheartofthedecisionmakingprocess



Disruptivetechnologiessuchascloudofferamyriadofpossibilitiesbutcomewithnewpressures

forserviceprovisioning.Cloudtechnologyismoreaccessibletousersmeaningtheyaremore

knowledgeableaboutwhatproductsandservicestheyneedandduetotherapidlygrowingand

easilyaccessiblecloudservicesmarket,theyhavealternativestotheirtraditionalsupplierfor

acquiringthem.Aroundtheworld,ITdepartmentsarebeingby‐passedasusersprocuretheir

owncloudservicesdirectly.Thisagrowingtendencybyindividualsandworkgroupstosign‐up

forcommerciallyoperatedcloudserviceswithoutanyinvolvementfromtheirITdepartments

whichcreatesseriousrisksforpublicorganisations.Therisksfromsuchshadowcloudservices

includeissueswithdatasecurity,transactionintegrity,business continuity and regulatory

compliance.ConsequentlytheroleofserviceprovisioningforITdepartmentshastochangeto

becomemoreofabrokerfortechnologyandservices.InthisnewroleitisimportantfortheIT

departmentto know whatisavailable onthemarket, howwellitworks,tobeabletoassess

providers,validate security, understandservice levels andensure policiesand legislation are

respected.Sothereisanurgentneedtoorganisetheintroductionofcommercialcloudservices





https://www.fosteropenscience.eu/project/





https://www.fosteropenscience.eu/sites/default/files/pdf/927.pdf



https://rd‐alliance.org/sites/default/files/case_statement/RDA‐ReproducibilityIG‐Revised‐2_0.pdf



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



15

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



inthepublicresearchsectorinaconsolidatedandsecuremanner.Forminganetworkofpublic

research organisations that can procure cloud services will attracttheinterestofservice

suppliersaswellasfundingagencies.Themajorityofthisprocurementfundingwillbedirected

to service providers and the approach has the advantage of permitting the procuring

organisationstochoosewhichservicesandprovidersreceivethesefundsandthusrepresentsa

changetotheestablishedfundingmodelforpublicsectorITservices.Bringingtogetherthepublic

andprivatesectorintheinnovationcyclewillstrengthenEurope’sglobalcompetitivenessand

encouragethecreationofnewandsustainablejobsandthepromotionofgrowth.

Theintroductionofprocurementofpay‐per‐usecloudservicesbyfundingagenciesandresearch

organisationsonbehalfoftheirend‐usersrepresentsasignificantchangetoe‐Infrastructures

andwillimpactthegovernancemodel.Currentlypubliclyfundede‐Infrastructuresaresupplier

drivenwhileaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudputsprocuresandusersattheheartofthedecision

makingprocess.Itwillbenecessarytoestablishaninclusivegovernancestructurewhereallthe

stakeholdersarerepresentedandavoidamonopolyofanyprocurer, supplier or research

community.Thegovernanceprincipleshavetoensuretheinterestsofbothpublicandprivate

participantsaremetandthataEuropeanOpenScienceCloudbecomessustainablyattractiveand

beneficialforallstakeholdersfrombothsectors.

A European Open Science Cloud will be a cornerstone of an open science commons and its

governancemodelneedstotakeintoaccounttherealitiesofthepublicresearchsectorwiththe

followingobjectives:

1. Enableintegrationofexistinge‐Infrastructureswithcommercialcloudcomputingeffectively

andefficiently

2. Ensure alignment with the Digital Single Market, foster coherence, equitability and

inclusiveness

3. Ensureparticipationofallstakeholdersandfairbalanceoftheirneedsandinterests

4. Ensuretransparency,opennessandresponsiveness

5. Ensurevalueformoneyandfairincentivesandreturns

6. Continuouslymanagelegalandethicalcomplianceandotherrisks

7. Ensureaccountabilityandresponsibilityofstakeholdersanddecisionmakers

8. Managethe identityandbrandofaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudandensuresustainable

innovationandgrowth.



InadditionaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudwouldbecomeacriticalICTinfrastructureforthe

European Research Area and would need to be protected by identifying vulnerabilities and

ensuring an operational security plan is in place to minimize thedetrimentaleffectsof

disruptions.ThegovernancestructureiscomposedofseveralbodiesasshowninFigure1.



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015

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16

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



Eachbodyinthegovernancestructurehasaspecificroleandcomposition:

 Board of Procurers – this grouping of all procurers (research organisations, funding

agenciesetc.)istheultimatedecisionmakingbodyofaEuropeanOpenScienceCloud.

 PolicyAdvisoryBoard–expertsaddressinglegal,contractualandethicalaspectstoensure

thataEuropeanOpenScienceCloudiscompatiblewithEuropeanlegislation.Itwould

ensuretheapplicationofbestpractisesforthecontractualaspectsofdeliveringcloud

servicesincludingservicelevelagreementsimplementingrecognisedpoliciesfortrust,

securityand privacynotably fordata protection; certificationrequirements;acodeof

conduct;andtermsandconditionsthatrespectEuropeanlegislation.

 ProcurementandAssessmentAgency–oneormoreorganisationscommissionedbythe

BoardofProcurerstoperformthejointprocurementandcentralisedbillingofservices

onbehalfofallprocurersaswellasgatherdatanecessarytomeasureasetofagreedKey

Performance Indicators (KPIs). Having an organisation to oversee the procurement

process,certifyandenrolserviceprovidersaswellashandlethe contractual

arrangementsbetweensuppliersandprocurerswithcentralisedbillingwouldsimplify

theoperationandexpansionofaEuropeanOpenScienceCloud.

 End‐UserBoard–groupingofend‐usersfromengagedresearchcommunitiesincluding

thelong ‐tailofsciencetoprovideaconsultativeopinionontherelevanceandaddedvalue

ofdeliveredservices.End‐userscontributeapplicationssoftware,dataandpublications.

Responsibility for all data that is made available, linked or accessed via the services

providedbytheprojectremainswiththedataprovidersandmusthavebeenobtainedin

accordancewiththelawsandregulationsinoperationinthecountryinwhichthedata

providerresides.Thisincludesanyrequirementforapprovalfromanappropriateethics

committeeorotherregulatorybody.

 SuppliersForum–consultativeforumopentoallcloudservicesuppliers(commercialand

publiclyfunded)whowanttoenterintoadialogwiththeprocurersandend‐usersand

provideinputonallaspectsofaEuropeanOpenScienceCloud.

 Technical Board–groupingoftechnicalexperts to assess the technical maturity and

suitabilityofservices,includingsecurityaspects.

 External Advisory Com mittee–groupingofexternalexpertsfromthepublicand

commercialsectorsthatwillprovideadvicetotheBoardofProcurersonthestateand

futuredirectionsofaEuropeanOpenScienceCloud.



Thedetailsoftheappointments,votingrightsandproceduresofthevariousbodiesremainstobe

defined,togetherwithhowtohandlethesituationwhereaparticipatingorganisationisbotha

servicesupplierandprocurer.

Figure1 GovernanceStructure



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



17

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



TherelationshipofaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudtoH2020assumesthatthee‐infrastructure

programme includes two parallel tracks, production supporting the sustainability of pan‐

Europeane‐infrastructuresandinnovationrepresentingchangestotheproductionservices.The

productiontrackbuildsonnationalstructurestoensurethelong‐termoperation,maintenance

andevolutionofasetofservicesprovidedtoawiderangeofuser‐groupsacrossthebordersof

individualmemberstates.Theproductiontrackdeliversaportfolioofhorizontalcorenetworking,

computeanddataservicesthatprovidethebackboneofaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudthrough

theintegration andconsolidation ofe‐infrastructureplatformsandthecreationofacommon

servicecatalogue.Theinnovationtrackisorganisedasshort‐term,competitivecycleswherethe

bestproposalsaredevelopedintoprototypesthatareassessedagainstagreedcriteriatobecome

candidatesforinclusionasproductionservices.Aservicelifecyclemanagesindividualservices

startingfromtheirconception,developmentintheinnovationtrack,transitionintotheproduction

track,operationandeventualretirement.Thetransitionfromprototypeservicetoproduction

service is a decision that involves the stakeholders represented in the governance structure

described above. It is expected that Research Infrastructures, including ESFRI projects, will

becomestakeholdersofaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudasprocurers and end‐users.

TheInternet2NET+

initiativecontainsmanyoftheaspectsnecessaryforthegovernanceofa

EuropeanOpenScienceCloudandcanbeagoodsourceofinspiration.



Investment

 Proprietarysolutionsarenotsolutions

 In‐houseinvestment

 Investmentinskills

 Long‐termstrategy



Proprietarysolutionsarenotsolutions

ThecostofprovidinglicensestopopularproprietysoftwarepackagesfortheusersofResearch

Infrastructurescontinuestoincrease.Asanexample,between2008and2014,CERN’sspending

onsoftwaredoubledwithoutanysignificantincreaseinthenumberoflicenses.Movingtoacloud

modelwheresoftwarelicensesarerentedonapay‐per‐usebasismayhelpstemthisincrease.

Butsomeproprietarysoftwarepackageshaveaneffectivemonopolyintheresearchdomainand

theirmarketdominancecanoffsetanypotentialsavings.

Itisessentialthatthereisappropriateinvestmentinopensourcesolutionsinkeydomainsso

theycanbesupportedbymultipleproviders.Wemustleveragetherichnessinthediversityof

Europeansuppliersandtomatchitwiththeexpertiseavailableinproductione‐Infrastructures,

demonstratingthetechnicalfeasibilityofinteroperabilitybetweentheseplayers.

The European Technology Platform for High Performance Computing project

publisheda

StrategicResearchAgendaforachievingHPCleadershipinEurope

whichspecificallyhighlights

the upcoming big‐data challenges for leading research activities and the relevance of cloud

services:





http://www.internet2.edu/vision‐initiatives/initiatives/internet2‐netplus/



http://www.etp4hpc.eu/



http://www.etp4hpc.eu/wp‐content/uploads/2013/06/ETP4HPC_book_singlePage.pdf



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



18

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



“EuropeisinauniquepositiontoexcelintheareaofHPCUsageandBigDataowingtotheexperience

levelofcurrentandpotentialusers(andtherecognitionoftheimportanceofdatabysuch usersas

CERN, ESA, and biological data banks) and the presence of  leading ISVs

 for large‐scale business

applications. Europe should exploit that knowledge to create competitive solutions for big‐data

business applications, by providing easier access to data and to leading‐edge HPC platforms, by

broaden the user base (e.g., through Cloud Computing and Software as a Service (SaaS), and by

respondingto

newandchallengingtechnologies.”

ThereisnoclearbusinesscaseforpurelycommercialHPCservicesatthescaleofPRACEtier‐0

installationsbutsmaller‐scalecommercial‘HPCinthecloud’offeringsarestartingtoappearon

themarket.ThiswillhelpaddresstheshortfallbetweensupplyanddemandforcapabilityHPC

servicesasseenasPRACE

wheretypicallyonlyonethirdoftherequestscanbesatisfied.The

useofcapabilityHPCservicesbythecommercialsector,inparticularSMEs,isbeinginvestigated

bytheECfundedFortissimoproject

. This will make hardware, expertise, applications,

visualisation and tools available and on a pay‐per‐use basis. In parallel, the UberCloud

Marketplace

is offering on‐demand access to HPC services for individual engineers and

scientists

.

Publicinvestment

Thestepsdescribedabovewillneedconsiderablepublicinvestmentaswellasinvestmentfrom

commercialserviceproviderstobringtheplatformtogether.Inorderfortheresearchcommunity

tobeabletobenefitfullyfromtheexistenceofaEuropeanOpenScienceCloud,ithastoexpand

beyondthebasicIaaSlevelandprovidehigher‐levelservicesthatareclosertotheneedsofthe

dailyworkofaresearcher.TheHNSciCloudPCPprojectprovidesavehicleforjointinvestmentin

IaaSservicesandasimilarapproachshouldbeenvisagedforhigher‐levelsoftwareservices.The

naturalfollow‐on stepfor successful PCPprojects istoprocureatalargerscalewithPPIco‐

fundedprojectsthat couldsignificantlyincrease thecapacityandimpact of aEuropeanOpen

ScienceCloud.

Thiswilltakeasustainedinvestmentbyallthestakeholdersinboththepublicandcommercial

sectors,notonlyincloudtechnology,supportinginfrastructureandstrategicsoftwarebutalsoin

end‐userfacingserviceswhichwillsimplifyaccesstoaEuropeanOpenScienceCloud.

Significant investment in software capability will be absolutely essential to obtain the best

performancefromcurrentandfuturecomputerandstoragearchitectures.Manysciencestoday

benefitfromcommodityCPUanddiskstoragebuttherearesignificantarchitecturalchangesin

modernCPUs(memorylayout,I/Opaths,accelerators,vectorunits,etc.)whichmeansitwillbe

necessaryforsciencetoinvestheavilyinsoftwareandtrainingtobeabletomigrateapplication

codesandprogrammersandfullyexploitthesenewtechnologies.Thisinvestmentinsoftwareis

essentialtomaintainEuropeancompetitivenessinthisarea,andshouldincludecoordinationof

existingexpertisetothebenefitofdiversecommunities.

Investmentinskills

The design, creation and operation of e‐infrastructure services are essential tools in the

developmentofskillsandcompetenciesfortheEuropeanmarket.Theabilitytofullyexploitthe

potentialforknowledgeandjobcreationthatislocked‐upinthedatasetsandalgorithmsatthe

centreofOpenSciencewillrequirethenurturingofanewgenerationofdatascientistswitha





PRACEannualreport2014,May2015,ISBN978902169416



http://www.fortissimo‐project.eu/project/the‐project.html



https://www.theubercloud.com/store/



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



19

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



coresetofICTskills.TheEIROforumorganisationshavecorecompetences in training and

educationwhichcancontributetothisactivity.AEuropeanOpenScienceCloudcanbuildonthis

andsimilarinitiativestohelptrainthenextgenerationofIT‐savvyresearchers,andalsoimprove

outreachtothegeneralpublic.

Long‐termstrategicinvestment

AEuropeanOpenScienceCloudmustleveragetheinvestmentsalreadymadeinEuropeforthe

publiclyfundede‐infrastructuresandcommercialcloudservices.ThroughHorizon2020,theEC

andnationalfundingagencieshaverecentlyconfirmedtheircommitmentstoGÉANT,AARC,EGI,

OpenAIRE,EUDATandPRACE.Inordertoensurefullsynergies,DGCONNECTforeseesthate‐

infrastructureprojectswillbegroupedintoclustersofrelatedprojects.Thisnewphaseoffunding

fortheclustersofe‐infrastructureprojectsofferstheECawindowofopportunityandameansto

focusonestablishingaEuropeanOpenScienceCloud.InparallelDGRTDintendstofundapilot

action that will encourage the uptake of a European Open Science Cloud by the Research

Infrastructures. Close coordination between DG RTD and DG CONNECT funded projects will

facilitatetheestablishmentofaEuropeanOpenScienceCloud.

ThefinancialplanforaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudshouldbedesignedsothattheservicescan

besustainedbytheiroperatingorganisations according to a continuum of funding models

rangingfromsponsoredresourcesforpeer‐reviewedscientificcasestocommunitieswhowould

payfortheservicestheyreceive.Additionalresourceswillberequiredinorderfortheseservices

tobeexpandedandtoserveawiderrangeofusers.TheEuropeanCommissiontogetherwith

regional,nationalandthematicfundingagencieswillneedtobecomestakeholdersandcontribute

totheexpansionofEuropeanOpenScienceCloud.Theguidingprincipleisthatfundingfromsuch

stakeholderswillbefocusedoninnovationofservicesanduptakebynewusercommunitiesand

businessactorswhiletheoperationalcostswillbebornebytheoperatingorganisationsandthe

usercommunities.

Belowisanon–exhaustivelistofareaswherefundingagenciescancontributetothecreationof

aEuropeanOpenScienceCloud:

 Developmentofnewservicestobedeployedonthee‐infrastructure.Significanteffort

willberequiredtoco‐developscalableservicesthatcanoperateinadistributedvirtual

environmentandserveawiderangeofusers.

 Financialincentiveschemetoincreaseadoptionofservicesbyusersincluding‘long‐tail

ofscience’researchgroupsandSMEs.

 Engagingtheuseoftheservicesbynewresearchcommunities(e.g.curationofdata‐

sets,connectionofidentityfederations,deploymentofcommunityspecificservicesetc.)

 Developmentoftrainingandeducationalactivitiesbuildingonthecloudservicesto

maximisetheirimpact.Thiscanalsoincludeexpansionofservicestosupportfor

volunteercomputingsothatresearcherscanbuildcitizen‐cybersciencecommunities

andfurtherengagethegeneralpublicinscience.

 Organisationofuserforumeventsaswellasoutreachanddisseminationtoarangeof

audiencesandproductionofmaterialforpolicyrelatedactivities.

 Internationalcollaboration(beyondEurope)throughinteroperationwithequivalent

structuresinotherregionsoftheworld.

 Expansionofthenetworkofserviceproviders

acrosstheEuropeanmemberstatesto

addressnationalandthematicneeds.



EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



20

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



Manyresearchorganisationsthatoperateresearchinfrastructuresdonothavethemandateto

providecloudservicestotheirusersforthemanagementandprocessingoftheirexperimental

data.Thisrepresentsagapinthescientificlifecycleandamissedopportunitytohighlightthe

results and impact of public funded research. These research organisations will require

assistancetobridgethisgapbysupportingtheiruserssotheycanmakeuseofcloudservicesto

manageandprocesstheirexperimentaldata.

TheEuropeanCommission’sINFRASTRUCTURES2016‐2017workprogrammeforeseesapilot

action addressing the federation, networking and coordination of pan‐European research

infrastructuresandcloudsforthepurposeofincreasingresearchandsciencedataavailability

and use. It also foresees Data and Distributed Computing e‐infrastructures for Open Science

whichshouldcooperatewiththepilotaction.Thecombinedfocusofthesefundingcallsshould

provideanincentivefortheexistinge‐infrastructuresandResearch Infrastructures to work

togethertoformthebasisofaEuropeanOpenScienceCloud.Lookingfurtherahead,theEChas

taken steps to ensure funding for GÉANT over the full duration of H2020 by introducing

‘Framework Partnership Agreements’ (FPA). The FPA model represents a more long‐term

engagementthatcouldencouragetheintegrationofe‐infrastructuresco‐fundedviaECprojects

intotheResearchInfrastructures’computingmodelswhoneedtoplanforfuturedecades

.The

applicationoftheFPAapproachtoaEuropeanOpenScienceCloudcouldestablishthebasisfor

theEuropeanResearchArea’sdigitalcommonsandleadtowardsScience2.0

.



Conclusions

CloudcomputingrepresentsaparadigmshiftinthewayITresourcesareprovisionedforresearch

communities. Traditionally the ITdepartments ofresearch organisations havedeveloped and

operatedin‐housetheservicesthattheirusersrequired.Butcommercialcloudservicesarea

disruptivetechnologywitheasy‐to‐usecommodityservicesmadeavailableoftenona‘freemium’

basistousersataglobalscale.ConsequentlytheroleofITdepartmentsischangingasusersby‐

passtheirtraditionalserviceprovisionchannelstogettheon‐demandservicestheywantand

therebyintroducingshadowITservicesthatareoutsidethepolicyandsecurityboundariesof

research organisations. This is impacting data intensive science and how e‐infrastructure

servicesareusedbyresearchersandjudgedbyfundingagencies.

ThiswaveofchangeistakingplacewithinthebroadercontextofOpenSciencebringingever‐

greater transparency, accessibility and accountability, whereinstakeholdersintheresearch

process increasingly expect to be able to access and reuse the outputs of taxpayer funded

research.

Fromthegrassroots,OpenAccessfirstemergedfromtheHighEnergyPhysicsscholarlyresearch

community

,whosawbenefitinnolongerwaitingfortraditionalpublicationschedulesbefore

sharingresearchfindings(and,subsequently,dataandsoftwarecode).Top‐down,governments

andotherfundersseeopennessasacatalystforincreasingpublicandcommercialengagement

withresearch,bringingaboutbothsocietalandcommercialbenefit.

Thisnewrealityrepresentsathreattotheestablishedserviceprocurementanddeliverymodels

but also an opportunity. In an era of rationalisation and budget concentration, all means of

optimisingservicedeliveryandreducingoperationalcostsmustbeconsidered.





EIROforumdiscussionpaper:Long‐termsustainabilityofResearchInfrastructures,

http://www.eiroforum.org/downloads/20150325_discussion‐paper‐research‐infrastructures‐sustainability.pdf



http://ec.europa.eu/research/consultations/science‐2.0/background.pdf



Open Access: Unlocking the Value of Scientific Research, Richard K. Johnson (SPARC), March 2004,

http://www.sparc.arl.org/sites/default/files/media_files/OpenAccess_RKJ_preprint.pdf





EIROforumITWorkingGroup

24November2015



21

ThisdocumentproducedbyMembersoftheEIROforum(http://www.eiroforum.org/)andislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsCC‐BY4.0

licence.



TheEIROforummembershaveextremeITneedsthatincreasewiththeprogressoftheresearch

infrastructurestheyoperatewhilethebudgetenvelopeforITremains,atbest,unchanged.

Cloudcomputingandthecloudservicesmarketdidnotexistwhenthecomputingmodelsfor

manyESFRIresearchinfrastructureswereconceived.

Thesecomputingmodelsmustevolvetobecomemoreagileandopportunistic,capableofusing

ITcapacityinwhateverformitisdelivered,beitinagrid,cloud, HPC or even a volunteer

structure.

Weexpectcommercialcloudservicestoplayanincreasingroleinthesecomputingmodels.

Commercialsectorsareinvestingheavilyincloudservicesleadingtoarapidexpansionofthe

marketandabreath‐takingrateofinnovationthatthepubliclyfundedresearchsectorcannot

matchbutcanleverageandsoprofitfromsuchadvances.