Developing Community Cloud & Data Management Frameworks at Janet Brokerage

Janet Brokerage at RDMF9 15thNovember 2012 john.milner@ja.net

The Brokerage Aims to broker relationships between the sector and suppliers or between groups within the sector Objective is the development of a community cloud of dynamically available resources As it happens Janet has been a community cloud for over 40 years, but with a restricted range of resources New technology opens up wider opportunities A priority is Research Data Management Tools and Services (& yes I know preservation isn t dynamic)

So whats the plan? Develop Frameworks and other procurement structures such as DPS to facilitate access to services Work with DCC and JISC to ensure sensible requirements and priorities Accept that not everything will work as expected (or at all!) Work with and learn from others here in UK e.g. RLUK UCISA UUK Research Councils Work with other NRENs across the globe, Internet2 CENIC, SURFnet, Nordunet etc. Live with the Luddites and try not to let them get in the way

The story so far One major framework in place offering eight suppliers for equipment co-lo and infrastructure services One framework supplier already partnering with SRF at Southampton if that goes well other deals may follow Sector wide deal with Microsoft for Office 365 to replace Live@edu Work started with Amazon Web Services on sector wide deal, Google, Dropbox and Microsoft Azure will probably follow Suggestions for other services are very welcome

Research Data Management Opportunities for a tape storage service being looked at with Bristol, could be the bones of a national tape archive service Workshop with JISC and DCC being planned for January to look at RDM requirements in detail Have established that Research Councils will accept grant funding applications for Janet services in the cloud Some existing sector services have potential but sadly others may simply not scale If you have or know of a service and want to try the opportunity to promote it to a wider audience Janet can help.

ISSUES Some bigger universities wedded to self provision because they believe that rate relief, VAT, capital availability etc. make build cheaper than buy Flexible access to commercial services may help some institutions. E.g. Grant for HPC recently decided between two Russell Group sites on the basis of who had access to data centre space! We are convinced that hybrid solutions involving some campus provision with a range of commercial and/or shared services will be the right outcome for all in the end because FLEXIBILITY is key

The sometimes difficult question Rarely asked at the right time Sometimes substituted with dangerous and ill-formed assumptions Is equally difficult for most service providers and many researchers. ???????????????

The sometimes difficult question What is it for?

A way to answer If a researcher wants to do X then Janet would like to be able to say: If you want to do X you could choose to use one of these services on these terms and conditions at this price and you should be able to put that into your grant application with confidence

Institutional IT and Libraries Should be able to engage with the services available Should be able to help their research communities engage too May offer or share services with other institutions BUT competition considerations are a constraint The role of DCC and JISC RDM is central to developing policies and skills that will guide the development of services and tools Janet s role is to help make services and tools available across the sector without duplicating procurement and deployment work