Annual Review 2015

GÉANT

The leading collaboration on e-infrastructure and services for research and education

A membership organisation that acts with and for its members to further research and education networking in Europe and globally

Owned by our core membership

• 36 National Members - European national research and education network (NREN) organisations

• One Representative Member – NORDUnet, which participates on behalf of five Nordic NRENs

• Eleven Associates - commercial organisations, multi-national research infrastructures and projects

3

Foreword 4 Membership map 5

1 Strategy and vision 6 Purpose and Passion 6

The GÉANT project 8

2 Creating world-class user experiences 11 Supportingscience 11

Supportingthearts 15

Supportingeducationandlearning 16

The NREN service matrix 17

Drivingtrustandidentity 17

NRENactivityhighlight:Swedentakeseduroamoffcampus 20

DevelopingtheGÉANTnetwork–thebestitcanbe 21

Stayingaheadintechnologicalleadership 23

3 Providing exceptional value for money 26 Value-added services 28

GÉANT Learning 30

NREN Compendium 30

NRENactivityhighlight:Educationusecase:HEAnet 33

4 Building the community 36 Fosteringcommunitycollaboration 36

Eventparticipation 39

Internationalrelations 40

GÉANTactivityhighlight:TNC15–bringingthecommunitytogether 44

5 Running an efficient, cost-effective organisation 45 Network-relatedsystemsandenhancements 45

Corporatesystems,processintegrationandstreamlining 47

Sharingwithpartners 49

Financial statements 51

Contents

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I am honoured to have been entrusted as chair of the GÉANT board, when elected in

November 2015.

GÉANTandEuropeanNRENshavelongbeenatrustedpartneroftheEuropeanCommission,building

andoperatingnetworksinEuropeandaroundtheworld,leadingcollaborativeinnovation,federated

service-deliveryandsupportforknowledge-sharing.TheEuropeanCommission’snewambitionforthe

nextyearsisthatallresearchinEuropehasaccesstoworld-classsupercomputing,datastorageand

analysistosupportresearch-driveninnovationecosystems.

Withtheannualreport2015,weillustratethepivotalroletheGÉANTcommunityalreadyhasin

realisingthis,notonlythroughoursupportofmanyworkprogrammesandinitiatives,butalsothrough

theserviceswejointlydevelop,buildandoperatetothebenefitoftheEuropeanandglobalresearch

andeducationenvironment.TheseachievementspositionGÉANTwelltowardstheEuropeanCloud

Initiative,inwhichGÉANTisconsideredafoundingelementofthesocalledEuropean

DataInfrastructure.

In2015,wehavealsoinvestedrenewedvigourintoourrelationshipswiththedifferent

ECdirectorates,withstaffandcommunitymembersbyidentifyingandpursuing

opportunitiesforourcollaboration,usingourcommunity’sexpertise,channelsand

resources.

Theseachievementshelptofurtherourcollaborativeeffortsandindoingso,tohelp

securetheroleofeachNRENwithinitsownnationalinterestsandstakeholderbase.

Christian Grimm

Chairman

The GÉANT General Assembly elected a new Board of Directors and a new Chair of the Board on 25-26 November 2015. From left to right and front to back: Alberto Pérez, Dorte Olesen, Marko Bonač, Valter Nordh; Ivan Marić, Erik Huizer, Sabine Jaume-Rajaonia, Christian Grimm (Chair), Raimundas Tuminauskas.

Foreword

ICELAND*RHnet

SWEDEN*SUNET

NORWAY*UNINETT

FINLAND*CSC

ESTONIAEENet

LITHUANIALITNET

DENMARK*DeiC

UNITED KINGDOMJISC

NETHERLANDSSURFnet

IRELANDHEAnet

GERMANYDFN

BELGIUMBelnet

FRANCERENATER

LUXEMBOURGRESTENA

CZECH REPUBLICCESNET

SWITZERLANDSWITCH

AUSTRIAACOnet

POLANDPCSS

BELARUSUIIP NASB

SLOVAKIASANET

HUNGARYHUNGARNET

BULGARIABREN

SLOVENIAARNES

CROATIACARNet

ITALYGARR

ALBANIAANA

MONTENEGROMREN

SERBIAAMRES

ROMANIARoEduNet

MACEDONIAMARnet

GREECEGRNET

SPAINRedIRIS/RED.ESPORTUGAL

FCT|FCCN

MALTAUniversity of Malta

TURKEYULAKBİM

CYPRUSCynet

ISRAELIUCC

MOLDOVARENAM

AZERBAIJANANAS

ARMENIAASNET-AM

ADVA Optical Networking

Alcatel-Lucent

Ciena Corporation

Cisco Systems

*CSC (Finland)

EMBL

*DeIC (Denmark)

Level 3 Communications

Coriant GmbH

European Space Agency

Tata Communications

ASSOCIATES

Google UK Ltd

ECI Telecom GmbH

CERN

*UNINETT (Norway)

*RHnet (Iceland)

*SUNET (Sweden)

REPRESENTATIVE MEMBER NORDUnet*

NATIONAL MEMBERS 1 per country

LATVIAMinistry of Science and Education

GEORGIAGRENA

ownCloud

5

Membership map as per 31 December 2015

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Purpose and Passion

Purpose and passion are two things that make the research and education networking

community unique.

Alongwithmanyinourcommunity,weatGÉANTbelieveourpurposeistomakeadifference.

Unlikemanyprofessions,oursisn’tobsessedwithprofits.Ourworkissomuchmorefulfillingthanthat;

wemakeadeepandlastingimpact.BybringingdistancelearningtoremotecornersofEurope,

childrenhavetheopportunitytolearnaprofessionthatwillallowthemtoonedayprovidefortheir

families.Bymakingcomputingresourcesavailabletoclimatescientists,wecanhelpmitigatethe

effectsofglobalwarming.ByconnectingentrepreneurstoresearchersandNRENs,wewillhelpdrive

theEuropeaneconomyforwardinasustainableway.

Andlikeourcommunity,weareanorganisationfullofpassionatepeople–passionateaboutwhatwe

do,servingourcommunity,achievingourpurpose.Werealisethatwemustalldoourjobs,notjust

well,butextremelywell.Anythingless,andourchildrendon’treachtheirpotential,scientistsdon’t

makebreakthroughs,andmillionsremainjobless.

AstheinauguralCEOofthenewGÉANTAssociation,itismyresponsibilitytoputallthepiecesin

placetomaximiseourimpact–tomakeEuropeanresearchandeducationnetworkingthebestinthe

world.

Togetthere,we’llbefocusingonfourhigh-levelobjectivesin2016:

• deliveringaworld-class,end-to-enduserexperience;

• providingexceptional‘ValueforMoney’;

• buildingandstrengtheningthecommunity;

• runninganefficient,highlyeffectiveorganisation.

1•Strategyandvision

Steve Cotter, CEO GÉANT

Supporting our membership,

serving the community

6

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Thiswillrequirecreativity,dedication,andhardwork,buttogetherwiththecommunity,wecan

achieveourpurpose.

Gettingtherewillrequiregoal-setting.Therearetwotypesofgoals:‘OrganisationalGoals’

and‘CommunityGoals’.Thinkofthemas‘MeGoals’and‘WeGoals’.AtGÉANT,wewillfocuson

WeGoals.

MeGoalsareaboutaccomplishingsomethingbyourselves,forourselves.However,ourpurpose

istoliftthecommunityandwithouttheNRENs,wedon’texist.Therefore,GÉANTmustcontinueto

provideserviceswhichsupportEuropeanNRENstobe/becomebetterNRENs.That’swhyWeGoals

willtakepriority.

Thepayoff?Realimpact.Andresilience.Itislikeintheoldfable‘TheFather,HisSons,andTheBundle

ofSticks’thatteachesusthatsticksinabundlecan’tbebroken,butstickstakensinglycanbeeasily

broken.Thesameappliestoourcommunity–strengthisintheunion.

WhenwesetWeGoals,andgivecontext,meaningandpurposetothem,weinspireothersto

joinus.WeGoalspromptpeopletojumpinandevensacrificeforasharedvision.Why?Thereward

ismuchmorethantheachievementofthegoalitself.It’sthebond,therelationshipandthestronger

foundationwecanrelyonforthenextchallenge.

Howcoolwillitbetosay‘We’vebuiltthistogether.”Iexpecttosaythatoftenin2016.

Steve Cotter

CEO GÉANT

"There are two types of goals:

‘Organisational Goals’ and ‘Community

Goals’. Think of them as ‘Me Goals’

and ‘We Goals’. At GÉANT, we will focus

on We Goals."

– Steve Cotter, CEO GÉANT

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Co-fundedbytheECandEurope’sNRENs,theflagshipGÉANTProjectrepresentsasubstantial

proportionoftheorganisation’swork.Together,webuildandoperatethe500Gbpspan-European

researchandeducationnetwork,undertakecollaborativeresearchprogrammes,anddevelopand

deliveraportfolioofinnovative,federatedservices,includingconnectivity,trustandidentity,cloud,

real-timecommunicationsandmediaservices.ThecurrentphaseoftheGÉANTproject,GN4-1,marks

thestartoffundingfromtheEuropeanUnion’sHorizon2020researchandinnovationprogramme.

• Thesuccessfultwo-yearGN3plusprojectended30April2015,havingbeenextendedbyone

month.ItconsolidatedGÉANT’spositionasthebest-connectedR&Enetworkintheworld,which,

togetherwithitsassociatedservices,madeadifferencetoinnumerableresearchcommunitiesand,

ultimately,totheEuropeancitizen.ThefirstOpenCallsprogrammewasanewinitiativeforthe

GÉANTProject,whichbroughtfreshideasfromthirtynewpartnersandtwenty-onenewresearch

projectstotheJointResearchActivities.

• Thetwelve-monthGN4-1phaseoftheGEANTprojectstartedon1May2015,markingthefirst

stepinimplementingtheactionsdefinedinthe68-monthFrameworkPartnershipAgreement

(FPA).TheFPAistheinstrumenttodeliverworld-leadingnetworkingandemphasisesthevitalrole

ofNRENs.TheProject’sobjectiveistoprovideastable,thoughinnovativeenvironmentforthe

growthofGÉANTastheEuropeanCommunicationsCommonsfortheEuropeanResearchArea

(ERA)andprovidingthebestpossibledigitalinfrastructuretoensurethatEuroperemainsatthe

forefrontofresearch.

The GÉANT Project

Accelerating research, driving innovation and enriching education

"The collaborative efforts of the project

were recognised by the EC, as it achieved a

fourth consecutive “Excellent” rating in the

GN3plus EC Review."

– Tryfon Chiotis, Head of the GÉANT

Project Office

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• InpreparationforthenextphaseoftheGÉANTProject(GN4-2),whitepaperswerepreparedby

groupsofActivityLeadersandmembersoftheGÉANTProgrammePlanningCommittee(GPPC)to

informaboutfuturework,andNRENpartnersfedbackprioritisationoftheservicesandinitiatives

thatshouldbeincluded.ActivityLeaderswereappointed,theworkprogrammewasdraftedand

invitationsforparticipationwereissued.ThroughouttheGN4-2phase,GÉANTwillmaintainthe

operationalexcellenceoftheestablishedGÉANTservices,andcontinuetodriveinnovation,while

stillachievingeconomiesinthecostsofthebackbonenetwork.

GN4-1andfutureprojectswithintheframeoftheFPA

arepartoftheEC’sExcellentSciencee-infrastructures

programme,withavitalroletoensurethatHorizon2020

projectparticipantsarefullyabletocollaborate,share

andaccessdata,discussandlearntogether,andtesttheir

innovationsacrossthenetworkunimpeded.Aninitiative

isunderwayforthee-infrastructurestoworktogetheron

disseminationmaterialsandonactivitiestopromotean

integratedservicesportfoliototheresearchcommunity.

Stability for Users – The GÉANT Framework Partnership Agreement

On23April2015,theGÉANTConsortiumandtheECsigneda68-monthFrameworkPartnershipAgreement(FPA)to

contributetotheeffectiveEuropeanResearchAreabymakingEuropethebest-connectedregionintheworld.

TheAgreementaimsto“...make every European researcher digital, increasing creativity and efficiency of research and bridging

the divide between developed and less-developed regions.”

Six“actions”underpintheFPA:

- drivetheevolutionofthenetwork;

- supporttheknowledgecommunity;

- providesecurity,trustandidentity;

- deliverGÉANT’scollaborativeecosystem;

- developthehumancapitaloftheGÉANTpartnership;

- ensurethelong-termfutureoftheGÉANTinfrastructure.

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GÉANT Project* funded activities

Network Europe:terabit-readynetwork,interconnecting41countriesvia37NRENsand

NORDUnet(representingfiveNordiccountries)

Global:reachingafurther66countriesoutsideEuropethroughinterconnectionswith

regionalnetworks

Services GÉANTconnectivity:IP,Plus,Lambda,Open,VPN,Testbeds,eduroam,eduPERT,

perfSONAR

Trust,Identity&Security:eduGAIN,eduPKI,FaaS

CloudsCatalogue:guidetoserviceprovidersandprocurementassistance

Real-timecommunicationsandmultimedia:eduCONF,eduOER

Joint research programmes Networkarchitectures,networkservices,trustandidentity,OpenCallprojects

Community development CampusBestPractice,GreenTeam,training,CommunityAwards,supportfor

taskforcesandspecialinterestgroups

*GN3plus and GN4-1

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Whether we are serving a member, researcher, educator or innovator, GÉANT aims to always

deliver a service and experience that does what it says on the tin (and more).

Westriveforgreatinteractionsinourcollaboration,supportanddevelopmentactivitiesandworkhard

toreallyunderstandwhatourmembers,projectpartners,andtheirconstituentsneedthatwecan

provide.Thereisalwaysmoretolearnanddeliver.

Supporting scienceGÉANTdeliversrealvalueandbenefittosocietybyenablingresearchcommunitiesacrossEuropeand

therestoftheworldtotransformthewaytheycollaborateonground-breakingresearch.

A focus on earth observation

Apriorityfor2015wastoengagewiththeearthobservationcommunity.Theatmosphere,oceans

andlandscapesrequireanewlevelofunderstandingtohelpmakeinformeddecisionsaboutnatural

hazards,energy,climate,healthandotherenvironmentalandsocietalchallenges.Analysinginformation

fromthousandsofair,water,seismicandmeteorologicalsensorsisdata-intensivework.TheGÉANT

communityprovidesthehighbandwidththatnetworkscientistsandresearchersneedtocollaborate

andstudytheEarth’sphysical,chemicalandbiologicalsystems.

On22-23January,GÉANTandEGIhostedanEarthScienceWorkshop in Amsterdam

(TheNetherlands)fortheearthsciencesresearchcommunitieswiththeEuropeane-infrastructure

providers,EUDAT and PRACE.

TogetherwithNRENpartners,GÉANTassistedmanyresearchprojectsandorganisations,including:

• Copernicus(earthobservationandmonitoringprogramme);

• EUMETSAT(monitoringweatherandclimatefromspace);

• GEO(GrouponEarthObservations);

2•Creatingworld-classuserexperiences

“We’ve been proactively engaging with

our user communities and collaborators,

and working closely with NRENs to develop

and deliver a range of networking and

value-added services.”

– John Chevers, Chief Business

Development Officer, GÉANT

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• EIDA(theEuropeanIntegratedDataArchive);

• ESA(EuropeanSpaceAgency).

SSO for EIDA: facilitating the archiving and accessing of seismic data

TheEuropeanIntegratedDataArchive(EIDA)isadistributeddatacentre,whichsecurelyarchives

seismicwaveformdataandmetadatagatheredbyEuropeanresearchinfrastructures.Itprovidesthe

geosciencesresearchcommunitieswithtransparentaccesstothosearchives.GÉANT(underGN4-

1)providedEIDAwithatailoredAAI(AuthenticationandAuthorisationInfrastructure)solutionthat

includedaServiceProviderprototypeandtheset-upofanIdP(IdentityProvider)forthemainnode,as

wellasintegrationofallnodesinthenationalIdPandeduGAIN.

Theresult?Seismologistsarenowabletoaccessglobally-gathereddataviasinglesignon.EIDAisthe

biggestcommunitywithintheEuropeanPlateObservingSystem (EPOS);thesolutionthatworksfor

themisscalableandcouldbeadaptedforthewholeEPOScommunity.

Multicast for EUMETSAT: ensuring delivery of meteorological data

EUMETSATisanintergovernmentalnot-for-profitorganisationthatsupplies

weatherandclimate-relatedsatellitedata,imagesandproducts.Itoperatesasystem

ofmeteorologicalsatellitesgatheringaccurateandreliablesatellitedataonweather,

climateandtheenvironmenttwenty-fourhoursaday,365daysayear.

EUMETCastisEUMETSAT’sprimarydatadisseminationservice.Itisthe

EuropeancomponentofGEONETCast,theglobalnetworkofsatellite-baseddata

disseminationsystemscoordinatedbyGEO.

Inspring2015,thefirstphaseofaEUMETCastTerrestrialDemonstrationservice

usingGÉANTwasestablished.ThedataisdisseminatedviaIPmulticastfrom

EUMETSATHQinGermany,simultaneouslyreachingclientsitesacrossEurope

usingtheinfrastructureandservicesprovidedbyGÉANTandtheNRENnetworks.

Itisenvisagedtoreachselectedsitesin31Europeancountriesby2018.

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Conceptually,MulticastallowsthedisseminationofthesamedataovertheIPinfrastructure

ofanetworkfromasingledatasourcetomultipleendsitesatthesametime.Technically,

enduserscanaccesstheserviceviatheirrespectiveNREN.

Throughouttheentireimplementationprocess,GÉANTactedassinglepointofcontact

andcoordinatorbetweenEUMETSATandtheNRENpartners.GÉANTsupportedthe

implementationoftheEUMETCastTerrestrialDemonstrationservicefurtherbyprovision

ofacentralisednetworkandoperationscentreandnetworkservicemanagementusinga

specificallydevelopedmonitoringandreportingplatformandfirstlevelsupportincluding

thecoordinationofanomaliesbetweentheinvolvedNOCs.

ThisusageofexistingnetworkcapacitiesbyGÉANTandtheinvolvedNRENswasseen

asamajorstrength.ThisincludedhowGÉANTandtheNRENsaddressedthespecific

demandsformonitoringandprovidedtechnicalservicesupport.Thesewhereimplemented

bydeployingnetwork-levelmonitoringfunctionsanddevelopingarelatedweb-based,

nearlyreal-timemonitoringplatform.Bothallowanefficientescalationprocessincaseof

anomalies.

Extending LHC’s network

ToimprovetheLHC(LargeHadronCollider)userexperience,GÉANThelpedtosetuptheLHC

OpenNetworkEnvironment(LHCONE)inAsia-PacificandBrasilin2015.WorkingcloselywithTEIN,

ThaiREN,RedCLARA and RNP,GÉANTstaffdesignedandconfiguredtheGÉANTnetworksothatit

openedupLHCONEtousersinLatinAmerica(RedCLARA)andAsia(TEIN).Thiswasthesinglemost

successfulattemptatprovidingamulti-domainnetworkserviceforasciencecommunity.

Strenghtening ties with the European Space Agency

Aseriesofstrategicdiscussionstoimprovemutualunderstandingandstrengthentherelationship

between the EuropeanSpaceAgency and European NRENs (RedIRIS,SURFnet,GARR,andDFN) led

tomoreopportunitiestoworkwithESA,which,inturn,enablesresearcherstomakeuseofESA.

EUMETSAT supplies weather and climate-related satellite data, images and products – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year – to the National Meteorological Services of many European countries and other users worldwide.

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Networking expertise for SKA: creating the largest radio telescope

Theworld’slargestradiotelescope–SquareKilometreArray(SKA)–is

beingbuiltbyaninternationalresearchproject.Itwillbemanytimes

moresensitiveandhundredsoftimesfasteratmappingtheskythan

today’sbestradioastronomyfacilities.GÉANT’snetworkingexpertise

iscrucialtotheSKA’sdesignandplanningphase.Twocomplementary

telescopescoveringdifferentsectionsoftheelectromagneticspectrum

willbebuilt,oneattheMurchisonObservatoryinWesternAustraliaand

theotherintheKarooinSouthAfrica. IncollaborationwithSANReN(SouthAfrica)andAARNet(Australia),

GÉANThasbeenleadingthedesignandspecificationofthemulti-

terabitnetworksrequiredinternallybytheSKAradiotelescopes.These

willmovetheinformationdigitisedbytheantennastothecomputersystemsthatextractthesignals

fromthenoise,andthenontotheHighPerformanceComputers(HPCs)thatconvertthedataintosky

maps.

TherearethreeverydifferentnetworkingrequirementswithintheSKAproject,eachwithitsown

specificchallenges:

• transportingreal-timedatafromindividualantennae(upto100Gbpseach)tothecentralsignal

processors,whichrequireshundredsoflinksacrossaradiusofover100kmandextremely

accuratetimingfortheoperationoftheantennae;

• transportingthisdata(nearly5Tbps)totheHPCcentre800-900kmawayinCapeTownorPerth;

• providingaccesstothisdataforresearchersacrosstheglobe.

Some of the KAT7 dishes in the Karoo that, with MEERKAT, form part of the SKA precursor Photo credit: R. E. Hughes-Jones, GÉANT

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Crossing boundaries between technology and culture

Supporting the Arts Overtheyears,GÉANThasrespondedtothecommunity’sdemandsforexploring

culturalandartisticchallengeswithnetworkingtechnology.

Network Performing Arts Production Workshop 2015

InMay,GÉANTandInternet2co-organisedaNetworkPerformingArtsProduction

Workshop,hostedbyJISCandtheRoyalCollegeofMusicinLondon.Itwasthemost

successfulworkshopintheseriestodate,withthelargestnumber

ofparticipants,several‘firsttimeever’demos,andaground-

breakingeveningperformancebyRCMstudentstoanaudienceof

over400people.Forthefirsttime,theaudiencewitnessedtheuse

ofPolycomandLOLA(lowlatency)technologiesinamultimedia

symphony.

CERN and GÉANT unveil ‘Music of Physics’ at Montreux Jazz Festival

Anotherexciting‘artmeetssciencemeetstechnology’eventtookplaceatthe

world-famousMontreuxJazzFestival.Usinglivedata,thesoundoftheproton

collidersfromCERN’sLargeHadronCollider(LHC)

wasbroughttolife,withimprovisedaccompaniment

fromfamousjazzpianist,AlBlatter.

The Montreux Jazz Festival poster announcing the ‘Music of Physics’ performance

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Supporting education and learning Onlinecommunicationsarecrucialtoresearchandeducation.Students,researchersandinstitute

staffrelyone-learningservicesandaudioandvideoconferencingtolearnandshare.Thisisarapidly

developingareaandGÉANTisworkingtosupportandfosterinnovationforthenationalresearchand

educationnetworking(NREN)organisationsandtheircommunities.

Developing real-time communications

Enabling communication and collaboration across the community

AnewserviceactivityintheGÉANTProjectlooksafterallservicedevelopments,pilotsandproduction

roll-outsintheareasofreal-timecommunicationsandmultimediamanagement,inordertostreamline

effortsinthecommunityandsafeguardastructuredwayforward.

eduOER - a search hub for Open Education Resources

eduOERsupportsaccessbyuserstomultimediacontent(e.g.,lecturerecordings,webinars,audio-

visuallearningobjects,animations)thatispublishedacrossmultiplerepositories,promisingawider

poolofstudentsandresearchersforcontentproviders,whoarekeentoopenupaccesstotheir

repositories.HavinggrownfromtheseedofanideaintheTaskForceonMediain2014,theinitiative

todevelopanOpenEducationalmultimediaResource

(eduOER)waspickedupbytheGÉANTProject.

Conference materials archive:allsessionrecordingsforTheNetworkingConference(TNC)backto2001

areindexedineduOERandcanbeaccessedbyamuch

wideraudience.Soon,eduOERwillalsoindexrecordings

fromtheNORDUnetconferencesandtheResearch Data

Alliance(RDA)events.

Training resources:morethan160multimediatrainingmaterialsfromPRACE(PartnershipforAdvanced

ComputinginEurope)havebeenindexedoneduOER.

Othere-infrastructuresarefollowingsuit.

“Through eduOER, the European NREN

community can build easy sharing and

access to a wealth of resources, greatly

enhancing the richness of materials

available to students and researchers,

serving minority populations, improving

the teaching and learning process and

potentially lowering the cost of higher and

adult education.”

– Peter Szegedi, GÉANT Project

Development Officer

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NRENum.net growth

Interconnecting multiple dialling methods for real-time communications

Seven new members joined the NRENum.netservicein2015:Mexico,Ecuador,ElSalvador,Uruguay,

CzechRepublic,NorwayandSriLanka,bringingthetotalnumberofcountrycodedelegationsto

43.Theservicenowlistsover200,000phonenumbersunder43countrycodesandisanessential

supportserviceforVoIPandvideoconferencing.

The NREN service matrixThe NREN service matrixprovidesacomprehensiveoverviewofalltheservicesthatGÉANTNRENs

offernationally,fully-integratedwiththeCompendiumofNRENs’data.Itisatooldevelopedtohelp

NRENswithserviceportfoliostrategy,toidentifygapsandsynergies,andtohelpusersidentify

servicesavailabletothematnationallevel.

Driving trust and identityGÉANTprovidesservicesthatbuildtrust,promotesecurity,andsupporttheuseofonline

identities,througharangeofactivitiesandinternationalcollaborations.

Identityisanincreasinglycriticalcomponentofresearch(data)infrastructures.Witha

decadeofexperienceinauthenticationandauthorisation(AAI),thereputationofthe

GÉANTcommunitygoesfromstrengthtostrength.TogetherwearedrivingAAIprojectsand

solutionsonaglobalscale:AARCproject,eduroam,eduGAINandREFEDS.

The AARC project bringstogetheraconsortiumoftwentyorganisationstofurtheracommon

goaloffederatedaccessandinter-operableAAIs.AARCfollowstwomainpathstoachieve

itsvision:

•improvingtheadoptionoffederated

accessamongdifferentcommunities;

•designinganAAIframeworkbuilton

existingproductioninfrastructures

toenablesingle-sign-onamong

e-infrastructures.

“The service matrix is an

invaluable tool and its

very existence, setting

out all this data in such

a simple way, impressed

many of the ministry and

university people on our

Board.”

– Martin Bech, DeiC

AARC project

Project title Authenticationand

AuthorisationforResearchand

Collaboration

Topic Adressingchallengesof

interoperabilityandfunctional

gapsinauthenticationand

authorisationstructures

Start 1July2015

End 30 June 2017

Programme H2020

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“The composition of the consortium, with so many parties represented - NRENs,

e-infrastructure providers and libraries - will enable us to progress on some very

critical technical and policy areas.” – Licia Florio, AARC activity leader

AARCofferstraining,bestpracticesandvalidationsoftechnicalworkforresearchers,

institutions,serviceprovidersandinfrastructures.In2015,AARCdeliveredaninitial

trainingpackage,recommendationsontheMinimalAssuranceLevelProfiletosupport

low-riskresearchuse-cases,andkickedoffanumberofpilotsforlibrariessothatthey

canprovidefederatedaccesstoresources.

eduGAIN

Unlocking global research and education collaboration

TheuptakeoftheeduGAINserviceinterconnectsidentityfederationsaroundtheworld,simplifying

accesstocontent,servicesandresourcesfortheglobalresearchandeducationcommunity.eduGAIN

support,developmentandpromotioninEuropeisprovidedthroughtheGÉANTProject.GÉANT

participatesintheMAGIC and TANDEMprojects,whicharehelpingtopromoteeduGAINuptakein

otherworldregions.

• Federations:37

• Newmembersin2015:GIFfromGeorgia,LEAFfromMoldova;KIDfromOmanandFEBASfrom

Belarus(bothvoting-onlymembers).

• IdentityProvidersandServiceProviders:2,600(10percentincreasein2015,nowcovering50

percentofallIdPs)

• FederationasaService(FaaS):pilotstagewithsevenNRENs

• Support:providessupportforNRENSinbuildingtheiridentityfederations

REFEDS – happy 10th birthday

The voice of research and education identity federations worldwide

GÉANTprovidessecretariatsupportforREFEDS,theneutralforumwhereallidentityfederation

operatorsmeetandagreeonbestpracticesintheareaoffederatedaccess.

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REFEDSlaunchedtwocampaignsin2015:

• to help promote entitycategoriestoIdPsandSPs;

• to provide guidanceonhowtojustifytheuseofentitycategoriesaccordingtotheEUregulations

ondataprotection.

Europe leads eduroam onwards and outwards

Seamless Wi-Fi access for research and education around the world

eduroamhasseenhugegrowthoverthelastfiveyears,andin2015theGÉANTcommunitycontinued

togrow,sometimesbyinvitingpublic,commercialandcityWi-Fiinitiativestooffertheservice.

eduroamcanbefoundinairports,citycentresandotherpublicspacesthroughoutEurope,notably

Luxembourg,Norway,Sweden,Switzerland,andTheNetherlands.

•Territories:76(upfrom69in2014)withan

additionaltwenty-onepilotroamoperator

initiativesunderway

•Newroamingoperators:Trinidad&Tobago,

China,Qatar,UnitedArabEmirates,Ugandaand

Lebanon

•Authentications:doubledto180millionper

month

•AnewNREN:eduroamprovidedthetipping

pointforthedecisiontoestablishanNRENin

Lebanon.Lebaneseeduroammembersagreed

tojoinforcesanddevelopanNRENtofurther

expandeduroamandotherservices.

eduroam territories at the end of 2015

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The implementation and use of eduroam in Sweden has been a great success. eduroam

operates in most Swedish universities and colleges, has more than 100,000 unique devices

authenticated per month, and a potential user base of 500,000 individuals in higher education.

Now Sweden is moving to new markets.

SUNET(TheSwedishresearchandeducationnetwork

organisation)partneredupwithThe Cloud to provide

eduroamoff-campusinplaceswherestudentshangout

throughexistingaccesspoints.

• SUNETfirsttargetedtravelhubs,suchasairportsand

railwaystations,andtodayprovideseduroamin934

locationsthrough16,146accesspointsalloverSweden:

fromuniversitiestomunicipalitiesandcommercial

venues,coveringcitycentres,railwaystations,airports,

ferryterminals,municipalbusesandlibraries,hotels,fast

foodrestaurants,cafés,gasstationsandmalls.

• PärWeilow,ProductOwnerformobilesolutionsat

SwedaviaAirportTelecomAB,theSwedishairport

operator:“We offered free Wi-Fi connections to all airport

visitors from May 2012 and although we gave quite

generous amounts of data, customers complained about the

data limitations. As soon as we launched eduroam in March 2015 the complaints almost disappeared.

Overall, airport visitors are a crowd that expect excellence, and Wi-Fi is an extremely important part of

the experience. So, today we are very happy to be able to offer eduroam together with SUNET and The

Cloud.”

Swedentakeseduroamoffcampus

NREN activity highlight

The Netherlands: eduroam for school visitors

Institutionscanoffereduroamtovisitorsbyusingtheeduroam

VisitorAccessfeature.IntheNetherlands,forexample,the

ROCMNschoolgroupstartedofferingeduroamtovisitorsfrom

February2015,throughreceptiondesksinallschoolbuildings

acrosssixtowns.Guestaccountsaregiventoindividuals,and

duringevents,groupaccountsaremadeavailable.

Frank Pinxt, ICT Manager at ROC MN: “Visitors are very

happy with this service, and it works great!”

Links:tocheckeduroamcoverageinspecificcountries,go

to http://eduroam.xx,wherebyyoureplacethexxwiththe

applicablecountrycode,forexamplehttp://eduroam.nl and

http://eduroam.no.

21

Europe’s essential terabit-ready network

Developing the GÉANT network – the best it can beTheGÉANTnetworkcontinuestosetthestandardsforspeed,service

availability,securityandreach:500Gbpssuper-channelsarenowon

offertousers,withrapidscalabilityto2Tbpsandfarbeyond,butwe

donotrestonourlaurels.Instead,wecontinuouslystrivetoimprove

ourlevelofservice,implementupgradestothenetworkandengage

intwo-waycommunicationwithourcommunityexpertstoobtain

feedbackandideasforfurtherimprovement.

Overtheyear,theteamfocusedonfindingcostefficiencies,staying

aheadofuserneeds,increasingnetworkperformanceandoperational

effectiveness,andsupportingnetworkinnovationforthedevelopment

offuturenetworkenhancements.

• 100percentavailabilitywasdeliveredforIP,Plus,Lambda,L3VPN

andGÉANTOpenservices.

• Morethan200engineeringchangesweremadetooptimisethe

network.

TheGÉANTnetwork,thebackboneoftheEuropeanresearchandeducationcommunity,

reachesmorethan100countries–anaveragetransferrateof180Gigabitsofdatapersecond

or1.9PB(1,900Terabytes)perdaywithapeakactivityof300Gbps.Ifwelookatacomparison

ofallroutedIPtrafficacrossournetwork,thisisestimatedbyourtrafficstatisticexpertstohave

grownfromovernearly117PetabytesofdatainQ1of2015tonearly156Petabytesofdatain

Q4of2015,anincreaseofover33percent.

22

• Atestandresearchfacilitywassetup,forevaluatingandcertifyingsoftwareandhardwarebefore

itgetsdeployed.

• IPaccessbandwidthincreasedby19percent:fourNRENsupgradedtheiraccessconnectionto

100Gbps,fiveNRENsupgradedto10Gbps;andfivenew100Gconnectionswereaddedto

GÉANTOpen.

• GÉANTstaffcoordinatedthedeliveryof59networkservicesforNRENsin2015,establishing

servicesacrossmultipledomains,ensuringservicesweredeliveredmoreefficientlyandaccurately.

• Terabitlinecardandalienwavetrialssupportednetworkinnovationforthedevelopmentoffuture

networkenhancements.

• 100percentuptimewasachievedforsoftwaredevelopmentsupportsystems.

• GÉANTTestbedsService(GTS)completedthefirstphaseinitsdevelopment,androlledouttofour

citieswiththreemoreplannedanddemoswereperformedatkeyindustryevents.

Network service operations

Supporting the GÉANT networks - ensuring reliability, security and integrity

In2015,theGÉANTNetworkOperationsteamconsolidatedtheGÉANTnetworkinfrastructureto

matchthecapacityrequirementsofpartnerNRENswithprovisioning.

• ResilientnodesinLondonandMarseillewereexpanded,andconnectivitytothePoznańPoPatthe

SupercomputingandNetworkingCenterwasenhanced,usingCBF(charge-basedflooding).

• WedeliveredstronglyontheESNetExtentiontoEurope(EEX)servicetoESNetandservices

deliveredtoEUMETSAT.

• State-of-the-artnetworkmonitoringsystems:tworeportingportalswerecreatedforESNETand

theANAprojectstodisplayavailabilityandtrafficutilisationdatafortheirservices.Thesetools

keepthecommunityupdatedonthestatusoftheseservices.

• SecuritymitigationthroughNSHaRP:theNSHaRPprocessprovidesamechanismtoquicklyand

effectivelyinformaffectedusersandtomanagemitigation.During2015,theNSHaRPsecurity

servicemanagementwasenhancedwiththedeploymentofNetFlowAlerts,plusanewservice

deskandanOTRS(OpenTechnologyRealService)ticketingsystem.

23

•FirewallonDemandenhanced:threatstotheGÉANT

networkaremitigatedinvariousways.In2015,theFirewall

onDemandtoolwasaddedtothetoolkitandwasdeployed

ontheGÉANTnetwork.Trainingwasprovidedonsecure

codingandsecurityauditswereundertaken.NineNRENs

currentlyuseFirewallonDemandaspartoftheirDDoS

mitigationstrategy.

Staying ahead in technological leadershipTheGÉANTnetworkhasmovedtowardsseparationofthe

control/managementplanesandthedataplane.Thisseparation

ismadepossiblewiththeuseofdiscretemanagement

systemstomanagetheJuniperMXIP/MPLSroutersandthe

InfineraDTN-Xopticaltransmissionequipment.Whilethisis

animportantstepforwardinevolvingtheGÉANTnetwork

architecture,thissolutionisbasedinherentlyonmanagementsystemsthataffectvendorlock-in.

Tobeabletocontinuouslyintroducethenewfeaturesmostneededbytheresearchandeducation

community,GÉANTisdevelopingitsownSoftwareDefinedNetworking(SDN)operatingenvironment.

Thiswillinvolvebothin-housedevelopmentandworkingwithexistingopen-sourceSDNinitiativesto

furtherevolveSDNcontrollersanddevelopnewservices,implementedasapplicationsrunningontop

ofthesecontrollers.

Tostayontopofthegameinthenetworkingarea,GÉANThaspreparedthenetworkevolution

planforthenextthreeyearsandinitiatedtwomajorstudiesthatarecurrentlyongoing:theLayer1

InfrastructureStudyandtheMulti-DomainNRENTransitNetworkStudy.

24

Software Defined Network

GÉANTstaffledtheworkonGÉANTbackbone-

relatedusecases.

• SDN-IP

•SDNBoD

• Transport SDN

GÉANThasbeenleadingthedevelopmentofanSDN

strategy.TogetherwithCorsa,InfineraandOn.Lab,the

CTOteamhavedesignedatransportSDNapproach

thatwillallowGÉANTtomanagebothlayer2/3and

opticallayerequipmentusingthesamecontroller.

GÉANT - helping develop standards across research and education networking

GÉANTisheavilyinvolvedincreatingstandardsandpoliciesthatsupportresearchandeducation

networkingandservices.TwogoodexamplesofthisaretheCloudServiceProviderconnectionpolicy

andtheNSIConnectionServicestandards.

AtrialconnectivitypolicywasformulatedtofacilitateconnectionofcloudproviderstoNRENor

GÉANTnetworknodes.ThepolicydefineshowCloudServiceProviderscanbeconnectedtoGÉANT

orNRENs.Thismeansthat,forthefirsttime,GÉANThasapolicyenablingustoconnectService

Providersdirectly,ifnecessary.ThepolicydirectlybenefitstheHelixNebulaInitiativeanditsmembers

ESA,EMBL,CERN,byprovidingthemwithaccesstoCloudSPsviaGÉANTandNRENnetworks.

Thisalsomeansthatscientistsandeducatorswillhaveeasieraccesstocommercialproviders’research

andeducationservices.ThepolicyensuresthatNRENsarenotobligedtoconnectSPswheretheyare

unabletorecovercosts.

GÉANTcontinuestoworkonhelpingtodefineNSIConnectionServicestandardstosupport

thegrowingneedformulti-domainpoint-to-pointservices.Theseservicesgofarbeyondthe

capabilitiesofcommercialserviceprovidersanddemonstratehowresearchandeducationnetworking

organisationscanworktogethertodeliveruniquelypowerfulservicestothecommunity.

The CTO team has been working very closely with different vendors to work on SDN use cases and has built on the work carried out in the GN3plus Open Call DyNPaC (Dynamic Path Computation Framework) to evolve the GÉANT Bandwith on Demand service to a vendor-independent implementation.

25

Cloud Service Strategies

Researchandeducation,ingeneral,issettobenefitsubstantiallyfromthegrowthincloudservices.

Theseservicesofferimprovedflexibilityandcostsavingsacrossthecommunity.Inordertomaximise

thebenefitsofcloudservices,GÉANTisleadingarangeofactivities.

• AcollectiveNRENcloudstrategyguidewascompletedwithNRENsastrustedadvisors,brokers

andproviders.

• The GÉANTcloudcataloguebecameavailablewithfourteenserviceslisted.

• Collaborationoncloudswithothere-infrastructureprojectsacrossEuropeissettoexpand.

• Progresshasbeenmadeondevelopingrelationshipswithmajorcloudserviceproviderstoreduce

dataingressandegresscharges.

• TheInfrastructureasaServiceframeworktenderwillofferNRENsandinstitutionsaccesstocost-

effectiveIaaSservices.ThismajorpieceofworkhasseenGÉANTworkingwithNRENsandService

Providerstodevelopastrongunderstandingoftheneedsofallstakeholders.

Open Cloud Mesh project

GÉANTisastrongadvocateoffederatingon-premisesync-and-sharesolutionsinanopen,

standardisedway.Inthisway,filesandfolderscanbesyncedandsharedbetweendifferent

administrativeclouddomains,inthesamewaythatemailscanbesentandreadwithdifferentemail

systems.

Inordertoprogressinthisarea,GÉANTlaunchedtheOpenCloudMeshproject,incollaborationwith

ownCloud and CERN,whichshareddraftspecifications.DuringtheOpenCloudMeshdemonstration

on18November,userswereabletosyncandsharefilesandfoldersbetweenindependentservice

domainsoperatedbytheUniversityofMünsterinGermany,UniversityViennainAustria,SWITCH

(Switzerland)andAARNet(Australia).

26

By continuously listening to our community and seeking out ways in which we can add value

– be it the provision of additional support, refinement of services and their delivery, or gaining

savings by harnessing combined demands – GÉANT is in a permanent cycle of improvement to

assist our members in adding value for their constituents.

Access to expertise

AcrosstheGÉANTorganisationandcommunity,thereisprovenexpertiseinwinning,runningand

administeringECprojects:procurement,disseminationanduserengagement,networkengineering,

research,andsecretariatservicesforcollaborations.Membersareabletogainthebenefitofthis

expertisethroughinformalknowledge-sharingorbyamoreformalarrangementifspecificassistanceis

required.

NREN interests and EC Influence

GÉANThasstayedabreastofECdevelopmentsandopportunities,andhascoordinatedtheeffort

oftheNRENcommunitytopositionourcollaborationasnearlyaspossibleatthecentreofthe

deliberationsinordertoinfluencedevelopments,withthefollowingresults.

• Horizon20202016-17WorkProgramme:developingourcombinedpositiontowardsthe

proposedResearchInfrastructuresandcoordinationofNRENinterventionatnationallevelacross

theEUandbeyondresultedinamendmentsbeingmadetotheECWorkProgramme.

• Horizon20202016-19WorkProgramme:ECfundingforGÉANToperationsanddevelopment

workcontinuestobecombinedinasingleprojectanditsflexibilityretained,inorderto

incorporatetechnologydevelopmentsintheoperationalplatform.

• e-InfrastructuresConcertationinitiative:CoordinatingGÉANT’sinvolvementintheEChas

assuredusaplaceintheeditorialgroupworkingwiththeECtodevelopservicedescriptionsof

consolidatede-infrastructures.

3•Providingexceptionalvalueformoney

27

• IntelligencegatheringhasraisedGÉANT’sprofilewithintheEContheEuropeanOpenScience

CloudandotheraspectsoftheDigitalSingleMarketpolicies,suchasOpenEducation,Security

andTrust&Identity.

• GÉANTcontinuouslymonitorsdevelopmentsinEUpolicyareas,suchasdataprotectionandthe

ConnectingEuropeFacility.

GÉANT Open Call results exceeded expectations in all areas

ThefirstGÉANTOpenCall(2014-15)wasaresoundingsuccess.Itfundedtwenty-onenewproject

ideasatthecuttingedgeofinnovation,andbroughtthirtynewprojectpartnersfromindustryand

academia.Freshideas,newexpertiseandnewusesofthenetworkcamewiththem,feedingintothe

researchprogrammesasaninnovationpipeline.

Externalevaluationsconfirmedthehighqualityofinnovativeresearchworkundertaken,

with70percentofprojectsscoringveryhighly(thirteenormoreoutoffifteen)andfour

projectsreceivingmaximumscores.

Collaboration opportunities

GÉANT’sNRENmembershavetheopportunitytobenefitfromandengagewitharangeof

projectsaccordingtotheirresourcesandinterests.BelowisalistofGEANT’sportfolioof

projectsin2015.

Networkingprojects

GÉANT Project - Europe

EaPConnect - Eastern Partnership countries

EUMEDCONNECT3–theMediterranean

CAREN2–CentralAsia

AfricaConnect2-Africa

Trust&Identity

AARC

REFEDS

Collaboration

MAGIC

TANDEM

28

Value-added ServicesTrusted Certificate Service

Animportant,establishedvalue-addedserviceofferedbyGÉANTisTCS,theTrustedCertificate

Service.Overtheyear,twenty-eightNRENsmadeuseofTCS,issuing31,626certificates,acrossa

rangeofeighteentypes.Theservicewasre-tendered,takingNRENfeedbackintoaccountandan

enhancedversionlaunchedinJuly2015,withanewsupplier,DigiCert.Thissimpler,moreattractive

serviceoffersbundleswithcertaintypesofcertificate.

ownCloud agreement

Backin2014,GÉANTsecuredagooddealformembersandtheiruserswiththeopensource-based,

on-premisesfilesync-and-shareprovider,ownCloud.Thetotalnumberoflicensespurchasedgrew

from80,000in2014to100,000inthesixmonthstoJune2015.Thisbroughttheunitpricedownto

1.90europerlicenseperyearfor2016.Themorelicensesarepurchasedundertheagreement,the

“The Open Call projects have proven to be

a good investment, with over 75 percent

of projects continuing their work and many

wanting to continue to work with GÉANT,

including their use of the testbeds. Over 40

scientific papers were published as a result

of the programme, and Open Call projects

participated in more than 100 events,

raising GÉANT’s profile internationally,

including at the IETF and IEEE forums.”

– Annabel Grant, Open Call leader

Open Call Spotlight on: Secure Enterprise Networks Simple and Easy (SENSE)

The SENSEOpenCallprojectsoughttoimprovetheusabilityofeduroamwhilstmaintaining

securitythroughaddressingIEEE802.1Xsupplicants.TheSENSEprojectprovidesabenefitfor

developersandadministratorsinthenetworkaccessnicheoftheITindustryby:

• havingcreatedtoolstoverifyoperationsand

performanceofEAPsupplicants;

• providingmetricstoassesssecurityandusability;

• providingguidanceandstandardisationfortheindustry

regardingnetworkauthenticationconfiguration

metadata.

Manyofitsideasandresultsaregenuinelynewandpush

theenvelopeinthisareaoftheITindustry.Thefullwork

areadescriptionsandlinkstotheresultscanbefoundon

the SENSEhomepage.

29

cheapertheunitpricewillbeaccordingtothescaleagreed.Intotal,over2014and2015,morethan

400,000licenses(250,000byGWGD)werepurchasedbysixteenorganisationsthroughtheGÉANT

agreement.

TheownCloudframeworkiswidelyusedwithinthecommunity,suchasinCERNbox,SURFdrive,

CloudStor,GARRbox,SWITCHdrive,AustriaCloud,andmanyothers.Attheendof2015,GÉANTand

ownCloudagreedanotherspecialdiscountfornewparticipantsjoininginDecember.

Community communications channels

GEANTprovidesmembersandthewidercommunitywithanumberofcommunicationstoolsthrough

whichtheycansharetheirnewsandevents.

• PeaR newsletter:thecommunitynewsletterforandaboutthecommunitywaspublishedweekly.236storieswereissued,contributedbyeighteenEuropeanNRENs,onenon-EuropeanNRENand

ninee-infrastructureandresearchprojects.

• CONNECT: threeissuesoftheGÉANTcommunitymagazinewerepublished.Copieswerehandedoutatkeyevents,senttomembersandglobalpartnersonrequestandavailableonline.90feature

articleswerewritten:twenty-twoservices-related;threeopinionpieces;sixuserstories;fourteen

global-related;twenty-threecommunity-submitted;twenty-twoopencall/technicallyrelated.

Onlinereadershipaddedto2,613readsand14,051impressionsforthethreeissues.Additionally,

over3,000copieswereshippedtoNRENsandglobalpartnersanddistributedatevents,suchas

TNC15,SC15andICT2015.

• EventR: theGÉANTeventsplanningsystem,EventR,isforusebythecommunityandaresourceforGÉANTstaff.Throughincreaseduse,weareastepclosertoaunifiedresearchandeducation

communityeventscalendar.Withfederatedlogin,EventRisalsousedasaneventmanagement/

registrationinterface.

In 2015, 185 events, such as training courses, task force

meetings, conferences and seminars were organised by the

community. In total, these events hosted 4431 participants

of 455 different organisations.

The CONNECT innovation issue

In2015,aninnovationissueoftheGÉANTCONNECT

magazinewasissued,tosharetheOpenCallresearchresults

withthecommunity.FifteenoftheGÉANTOpenCalls

contributedpapersofanacademicstandardtothisissue.

30

GÉANT LearningThemissionofGÉANTLearningistosupportGÉANTexcellencethroughpersonalgrowth,discovery

andthesharingofknowledge.Torealisethisobjective,coursescontinuetobedevelopedthatrange

fromonlinetocoachingandface-to-facetraining.ThesesolutionsareavailableforGÉANTemployees,

variousprojectparticipants,suchasGÉANTProject,AARCandtothewidercommunity.

GÉANTLearningsolutionsofferarangeofknowledgeandexpertiseandcanbebroadlystructured

aroundthreekeyareas:

• leadershipandpersonaleffectiveness;

• technicalmanagementexpertise;

• technicaltraining.

Forinstance,inthecourseof2015,theManagingPerformanceinVirtualTeams course was developed

tofocusonmanagingteamsthataregeographicallydistributed.MPiViTdeliveredknowledge,skillsand

toolsformanagingperformance,meetingfacilitationandcoaching.ItalsodeliveredAdobeConnect

throughanexperienceofavirtuallearningenvironment.Thereweretwenty-fourparticipantsonthe

coursefromtenNRENs.

Equally,GÉANT’sflagshipcybersecuritycourse,calledTRANSITS,washeldthreetimesduring2015

andtrainedover70participantsfromvariouscountriesandsecurityteams.Thecourseoffersbasic

(TRANSITSI)andadvancedtracks(TRANSITSII).Anoteworthyfeatureisthatthecoursehasbeen

createdthroughacollaborativeeffort,whichisoneoftheprioritiesofGÉANTLearning.

NREN CompendiumTheannualNRENCompendiumisoneoftheresourcesbywhichGÉANTNRENsshareinformation

andbenchmarkeachother.Theonline Compendium tooldocumentstheworkthatisbeingdone

byNRENs,examiningthedifferentcontextsinwhichtheyoperateandexplainingimportanttrends

inresearchandeducationnetworkingthatconcernthem.GÉANThasuniquedataforEuropeand

beyondgoingbackto2001,andthus,itservesasanauthoritativereferenceforpolicymakers,

funders,NRENsandtheirusers.

Jim Buddin

Itwaswithgreatsadnessthatwehad

tosayafinalgoodbyetoourfriendand

colleague,JimBuddin,whosuddenly

passedawayon12September2015.Jim

startedatTERENAin2003andhiswork

tookhimfromsupportingtheEnabling

Grids For E-SciencE (EGEE) Project to

coordinatingprojectconferencesand

organisingworkshops,tobecoming

trainingcoordinatorApril2013.Jim

playedguitar,rodeamotorbike,spoke

Spanish,andwasastalwartmember

ofAmsterdam’sEnglish-language

improvisationalcomedycommunity.

Hisdedication,humourandpersonality

continuetobemissedbyusall.

31

The 2015 edition shows some interesting trends.

Jump in connectivity

Modest increase in cloud services

Topthreein-servicetypesare:

•InfrastructureasaService;

•filestorageandbackup;

•SoftwareasaService,collaborationservices,

videoconferencing.

SomeNRENsarebuildingtheirowncloudservices,

whileothersoffercloudsolutionsfromcommercial

vendorsandsomeusebothmodels.

Increased attention to security

Also worth noting

• Growthinservices.Thetopthreeinthegrowthofservice

typesareInfrastructureasaService(IaaS),filestorageand

backup,andSoftwareasaService,collaborationservicesand

videoconferencing.

• TherewasalmostuniversaladoptionofeduGAINacross

GÉANTNRENmembers.

32

• eduroamcontinuedtogrow.

• 56%oftheGÉANTpartnerNRENsarecurrentlyactiveindeliveringcloudservicesandafurther

22%areplanningtobeinvolved.

• ThereisgrowinginterestinprovidinganddevelopingWebRTCsolutions.

• ManyNRENsprovidemorethanjusttheunderpinningnetworkservices.

• Thereisamovetowardshybridmodelsofprovision–fromsolelyinternaltomixedinternaland

externalservices.

• e-infrastructuredevelopmentscausenewanddifferentdemandsonNRENsandtheirservice

portfolios.

33

Educationusecase:HEAnet

Establishedin1983byIreland’sUniversities,withthesupportoftheHigherEducationAuthority,

GÉANTmember,HEAnet,providesessentialconnectivityandICTservicesacrossalllevelsofthe

Irisheducationsystem.Their100Gbit-capable,resilientnetworkconnectsallIrishUniversities,

InstitutesofTechnology,publiclyfundedthird-levelcollegesandresearchorganisations,inadditionto

approximately4,000schools.

VLE Hosting

HEAnetprovidesamanagedMoodleVLE(anopen-sourceVirtualLearningEnvironment)service

tohelpclientsdealwiththeincreasingcostandcomplexityofprovidingacontinuouslyavailable,

highlyinteractiveVLEexperience.VLEsarepivotaltothedeliveryofclasses,tutorialsand

educationalcontentforbothteachersandlearners,leadingtoincreasingdemandforfastcontent

deliveryandlowlatencyinteraction.

HEAnetdeploysdistributedstorageandserverresourcestoprovideascalable,fault-tolerantand

fastplatformforthisMoodleservice,deliveredoveraverylowlatencynetwork.Theprincipal

benefitsforclientsaretheabilitytoscaletheirservicewithoutworryingaboutinfrastructure,

andthecapabilitytotakeadvantageofoptimisationsandeconomiespertainingtoamulti-client

operatingenvironment.

Themanagedserviceallowsclientstodedicatemoretimetothedevelopmentofonlineteaching

andlearningtools,andlesstimeonmanagingthetechnicalaspectsofit.Thisenablesclientsto

betterconcentrateonthedevelopmentofeducationalcontentandthecorebusinessofdelivering

education.HEAnetmanagesthetechnicalcomponents,thusensuringthattheserviceisoptimised

tomeettheneedsoftheclient.

A National Education Network for Shared ICT Services

NREN activity highlight

34

Media Hosting

HEAnethasbeenhostingvideosforlecturersandstudents

formanyyears.Theservicedeliverssimplicityforusers,with

allpopularmediaformats(andlivestreaming)supported.

Theserviceprovidesasimple(federated)userinterfaceto

all,andallowsuserstouploadunlimited-lengthcontent,

whichtheycansharewithintheirinstitution,orthewider

world.TheserviceleveragesthefunctionalityofFileSender

tomakesureverylargefilescanbeaccommodated.

In2015,HEAnetintegratedtheservicewiththeVLEMoodle

tomakeiteveneasierforlecturerstouse,andstaffare

currentlyworkingtoaddsupportforaBlackboardplugin.The

servicehasquicklybecomethego-toplacetokeepallvideo

contentforeducators,withself-developedmultimediacontent,

suchasvideolecturesandtutorialsbecomingquitepopular.

Similarly,studentsfindtheserviceanexcellentrepository

foralltheirvideocontent,andquicklylearntouseitas

amultimediaportfoliomanager,andtomakepodcasts

forprojects.Videoproductionexpertshavealsoadopted

theserviceforitsstraightforwardadaptivetranscoding

capabilities,andthebridgeitprovidesfromvideofilesto

afullyfeaturedonlinestreamingservice,whileretainingall

licencingrightsforthecontentowners.

Schools

HEAnetfirstextendeditsnetworkconnectivityservicestoIreland’sschoolsin2005.Underthis

programme,HEAnetprovidedallofIreland’sprimaryandpost-primaryschools(approx.4,000

schools)withhigh-availabilityInternetandnetworksecurityservices.Schoolsareprovidedwitha

portfolioofservices,includingnetworkmonitoring,IPmanagement,amanagedrouter,securityand

filteredInternetaccess,inadditiontowebhostingandblogservices.

HEAnet connectivity and shared servicesGraphic: HEAnet

35

In2009,HEAnetwasappointedtomanageanewhigh-speednetwork,providing100Mbit/sto

Ireland’s750post-primaryschools.Followingasuccessfulpilot,thisprogrammewasextendedto

allpost-primaryschoolsnationwidebytheendof2014.

ConnectingschoolstotheHEAnetnetworkbuildsontheinvestmentmadeinhighereducation

andupto59,000teachersand884,000studentsusetheschoolsnetworkonadailybasis,

enablingstudentstolearnandcollaborateonline.

Theprovisionofhigh-speedbroadbandtoIreland’spost-primaryschoolsaffordsagreater

opportunityforschoolstoembedtechnologyintheteachingandlearningprocess.Thisopens

thedoortoafaster,richer,moreinteractiveandmoreinformativeInternetexperiencethanwas

possiblebefore,andthestreamingofvideos,plays,movies,animation,documentaries,concerts

cannowbeseamlesslyincorporatedintotheteachingday.

TheservicesfeaturedaboveillustratethatHEAnethasextendeditsrolebeyondthatofanetwork

provider,tothatofanNRENthatprovidesadiverseportfolioofsharedservicestoitsclientbase.

Today,HEAnetisavaluedproviderofICTsharedservices,offeringawiderangeofservicesacross

alllevelsoftheIrisheducationsystem,andservingclientneedsinatrusted,collaborativeandcost-

effectivemanner.

36

4•Buildingthecommunity

GÉANT’s raison d’être is to act for and with our members to further research and education

through our networking and services. A fundamental goal is to provide collaboration and

(human) networking opportunities, which support and develop European NRENs in their quest

to be the ICT cornerstone of their national communities.

Fostering community collaborationSupportingcollaborationacrosstheresearchandeducationnetworkingcommunityandworkingwith

thecommunityisacoreattributeofGÉANT’smission.

Task forces

Gettingthecommunitytogetherandfosteringcollaborationhappensinmanyways.GÉANTfacilitates

taskforcesandspecialinterestgroupsintheareasofwebreal-timecommunications(TF-WebRTC),

datastorageinfrastructures,applicationsandservices(TF-Storage),informationsecuritymanagement

(SIG-ISM),computer incident response (TF-CSIRT),mobilityandnetworkmiddleware(TF-MNM),

marketingcommunications(TF-CPR),managementofserviceportfolios(TF-MSP),andnetwork

operationscentres(SIG-NOC).Thegroupsareopento

anyonewhocancontributewithappropriateexpertiseand

manpower.In2015,morethan600participantsjoined

thesetaskforceandspecialinterestgroupmeetings.

International initiatives

Global CEO Forum

GÉANThasplayedaroleintheGlobalCEOForum,

contributinginareas,suchassecurity,knowledgesharing,

AttheendofNovember,anew‘greenhouse’SpecialInterest

Group (SIG) was launchedtosupportopen-sourcesoftware

developmentandtokeepitsustainablewithintheNREN

community.SIG-Greenhousecanofferadviceandguidance

onlicensing,legalagreementsandgoodpracticeforcode

management.Thegroupalsohelpstoprovideaframeworkfor

managingdonationstoopen-sourcesoftwareprojects.The

groupattractedinitialfundingfromNLnetandwillcontinueto

growwithinthecommunity.

37

globalnetworkarchitectureandmobility.Thegroupconsistsofexecutiveleadersfromarangeof

leadingnationalandregionalresearchandeducationnetworksfromaroundtheworld.TheCEO

Forum’sobjectiveistostimulateandaccelerateglobalimplementationandadoptionofnewnetwork

solutionsandservicestocreateadditionalvaluefortheglobalresearchandeducationcommunity.

In2015,theGlobalCEOForumwasinstrumentalinexpandingeduGAINintoaglobalservice.

The Case for NRENs web portal

During2015,inresponsetodemandfromregionalnetworks,GÉANTcoordinatedthedevelopment

ofaweb portalwithresourcestohelpNRENsandRRENsarguethecaseforresearchandeducation

networkingwithkeystakeholders.Globalexperiences,bestpracticesandatoolkitwithguidance

materialaresharedfromthesite.ThisinitiativecomplementsanactivityofTF-MSP,focusingon

argumentsinsupportofNRENsinEurope.

In The Field Stories blog

Aninspiringandexcitingcollaborativeeffortthatcametofruitionin2015istheIn The Field Stories

blog.Kick-startedbyAARNetwithsupportfromTF-CPRandtheGlobalPRNetwork,theblog

wasjointlydevelopedandeditedbyGÉANTandNORDUnetteammembers.Thiscommunityblog

publishedmorethanfiftystoriesbytheendoftheyear.

Fortyorganisations(NRENsandRRENs)acrosssixcontinentsprovidedarticlescoveringadiverse

rangeoftopics:supportingIndia’sDepartmentofAtomicEnergy,genomicsresearchpavingtheway

forpersonalisedcancertreatment,howweatherandclimateresearchaffectsourdailylifeandmore.

Itisagreatblogforallwhowanttoseehowresearchandeducationnetworkinghasareal,positive

impactaroundtheworld.

Workshops

DDoS workshop

Inresponsetocommunityrequests,GÉANTofferedaworkshoponDDoS(DistributedDenialof

Service)mitigation,hostedbyACOnetinVienna.Morethan50representativesoftwenty-four

organisationsfromaroundtheworlddiscussedawiderangeofissuesconcerningDDoSandhow

tomanagesecurity.Follow-upmeetingswithproviderswereundertakenimmediatelyfollowingthe

workshop.

38

WISE: Joining organisations in information security

GÉANTispivotalinbringingtogetherothere-infrastructureorganisationsontopicsofhighrelevance

totheresearchandeducationcommunity.InOctober2015,WISE (WiseInformationSecurityfor

collaboratinge-Infrastructures)wasborn.Thegoalistobuildaglobaltrustcommunityinwhich

securityexpertsshareinformationandwork

together,creatingcollaborationamongdifferent

e-infrastructures.

Thefirstthree-day‘WISE’event was held in

Barcelonaon20-22October2015,hostedby

theBarcelonaSupercomputingCentre.Itwas

organisedthroughthejointeffortoftheGÉANT

groupSIG-ISM (Special Interest Group on

InformationSecurityManagement)and

ofSCI,the‘SecurityforCollaborationamong

Infrastructures’groupofstafffromseverallarge-

scaledistributedcomputinginfrastructures.

Theworkshopbroughttogetherfourbige-infrastructures-EGI,EUDAT,GÉANT and PRACE - as

wellasnationalresearchandeducationnetwork(NREN)organisations,usercommunitiessuch

as HEP/CERN and theHumanBrainProject,andotherinitiativessuchasXSEDE,NCSA,andCTSC,

inordertofacilitatetheexchangeofexperienceandknowledgeoninformationsecuritymanagement

andothertopicsofrelevance.

Earth Sciences workshop and handbook

CreatinganimprovedmutualunderstandingbetweenGÉANTandthee-infrastructuresontheone

hand,andtheearthsciencesectorontheotherhandwasoneofthespearheadsfortheGÉANT

BusinessDevelopmentteamin2015.InJanuary2015,theteam,togetherwithothere-infrastructures,

helditsfirstuser-focusedworkshopwithEuropeanearthsciencecommunityresearchers.Intotal,

eightusercommunities,researchinfrastructuresanddataprovidersattended,includingEGI,EUDAT

and PRACE.Theearthsciencesresearcherswereabletoengagewithalle-infrastructuresandleft

Attendants of the ‘WISE’ event, held in Barcelona on 20-22 October 2015

39

withamuchbetterunderstandingoftheservicesoffered.Userswereabletodiscusstheirneedsand

problemswithGÉANTandthee-infrastructuresdirectly,leadingtoabetterunderstandingoftheir

requirements.

GÉANTalsoproducedanupdatedversionofadedicatedEarthscienceuserhandbookforGEO

(GrouponEarthObservations)andwasappointedtoleadanewNetworkArchitectureWorkPackage

intheGEOWorkProgramme.Allthisraisesawarenessandvisibilityofresearchandeducation

networkingandensuresthatGÉANTandNRENarchitecturesarecentraltotheearthobservation

community.ThisworkcomplementsandbuildsoninitiativeswithCopernicus,ESAandEUMETSAT.

Event participationParticipationateventsisanintegralpartofthecommunicationsandoutreachprogramme.60staff

representedGÉANTatmorethan35externalevents,withalargeboothatICT2015andSC15.

GÉANT at ICT 2015: featuring MD-Paedigree and CARDIOPROOF

ICT 2015ranfrom20-22OctoberinLisbon,andshowcasedthebest-in-classresultsofexisting

EuropeanICTresearchandinnovation-advancedproductsfromindividualcompaniesthatstarted,

havegrownandbenefitedfromEuropeanfunding.GÉANTexhibitedintheECVillageunderthetitle

‘OpenScience’,featuringtwohealthuserprojectsasguests(MD-Paedigree and CARDIOPROOF),and

receivedseniorECofficials,AugustoBurgueñoArjonaandCarlosMoedas,atthebooth.

GÉANT at SC15: featuring InfiniCortex

GÉANTalsoparticipatesinbringingtogetherresearchcommunitiesbyefficientlyaggregatingglobally

distributedHPC(HighPerformanceComputing)resources:

InfiniCortexisaworld-wideinitiativethatplacedGÉANTinacentralroleinacutting-edgenetwork

demonstration.ThishighlightedthatGÉANTcanprovidemuchmorethanbusiness-as-usual

networkingandcementedrelationshipswithorganisationsinAsiaandEurope.Itprovidedanexcellent

showcase at the important SC15 exhibitionintheUS.

40

International relations LookingbeyondtheGÉANTorganisation,awidevarietyofliaisons,

relationsandcollaborationsexistonaglobalscale.Successful

examplesofprojectsintheinternationalarenaaretheEastern

PartnershipConnectproject,AfricaConnect,MAGIC,TANDEM,

ORIENTplus.TheUnitedNationsTechnologybankandDenguefever

workshopsalsocontributedtoourrelationshipswiththeglobal

researchandeducationcommunity.

Eastern Partnership Connect

EaPConnect will enable GÉANT to reach out to a

newregionandpooloftalents,integratinghighly

specialisedcountriesinareassuchasphysics

and earth sciences into the European research

community.Indoingso,EaPConnectalsofulfilsthe

EUwishtobringtheEasternPartnershipcloserto

Europebybuildingabridgeofknowledgebetween

thetworegions.

Project title Eastern Partnership Connect

Topic Interconnectingtheresearchandeducation

communitiesacrossArmenia,Azerbaijan,Belarus,

Georgia,MoldovaandUkraineandwiththeir

European counterparts

Start 1July2015

End 30 June 2020

Programme FundedbyDG NEARandco-foundedbythe

EaPConnect NREN partners

Pierre Bruyère, Chairman of GÉANT Board of Directors, and Gerhard Schumann-Hitzler, Director at the EC’s Directorate-General for Neighbo urhood and Enlargement Negotiations signing the EaPConnect contract on 11 June 2015

TogetherwithRENATER,PSNC,TEINandtheGÉANTNetworkOperationsteam,theBusinessDevelopmentteam

carriedoutasuccessfultestofdeployingcutting-edgeHPCfabrictechnologyovertheGÉANTbackboneandtheinter-

continentallinkstoAsiaatvariousexhibitionsduring2015.Thisculminatedinacomplete,around-the-worldtopology,

showcasedatSC15inAustin,whichwasheldbetween16and19November.Thetestdemonstratedtheabilityof

researchandeducationnetworkstodeploythemostadvancedtechnology,anditnurturedcollaborationwiththeTEIN

community.

41

AfricaConnect2

AfricaConnect2wassignedbytheECinDecember.Itisapan-

Africanproject,carriedoutthroughthreeregionalclustersandin

collaborationwithASREN(NorthAfrica),theUbuntuNet Alliance

(SouthandEastAfrica)andWACREN(WestandCentralAfrica).

Theprojectwilllastthreeandahalfyearsandhasatotalcontract

valueof€26.6million.ItwillallowGÉANTtobuildoutitsAfrican

reach,furtherincreasingtheopportunityfortheEuropeanscience

communitytoengageandcollaboratewiththeirAfricancounterparts.

MAGIC

GÉANT became a partner in the TANDEM and MAGICprojects,andtheInternationalRelationsteam

wasinstrumentalinthedecisionthatMAGICshouldextendtoasmanyworldregionsaspossible,and

insupportingthediscussionswithprospectiveglobalpartners.

MAGIC,ledbyRedCLARA,buildsonthesuccessesoftheELCIRA project and aims to improve the

abilityofresearchersandacademicsaroundtheworldtocollaborate.MAGICwillexpandtheglobal

reachofeduroamandidentityinfrastructuresthroughitspartners,whichincludeLatinAmerica,the

Caribbean,Europe(includingGÉANT),WestandCentralAfrica,EasternandSouthernAfrica,North

AfricaandtheMiddleEast,CentralAsiaandAsia-Pacific.

Project title AfricaConnect2

Topic Developmentofhigh-capacityInternetnetworksacross

theentireAfricancontinentandconnectingthemto

theEuropeanGÉANTnetwork.

Start 1May2015

End 31 December 2018

Programme Co-fundedbyDG-CONNECTandtheregional

partners

42

It will also establish middleware to enable NRENs to share services and

real-timeapplicationsforinternationalandinter-continentalresearch

groupsviaacommonmarketplace,andprovidesupporttoglobaluser

groups.MAGICalsocontinuestodeveloptheColaboratorioplatform,

whichmakescollaborationtoolsavailabletoendusers(e.g.,web

conferencing,

filetransfer,wiki,

andcommunity

management).

MAGIC kick-off meeting at RENATER offices, Paris, France; 11-12 June 2015

TANDEM

The TANDEMprojectsupportsdialoguebetweentheEuropeanandAfricanresearchandeducation

networks,withspecialattentiontoWesternandCentralAfrica.Thescopeistopromotecooperation

byexploitingtheinterconnectionbetweenGÉANTandthe

establishedAfricanregionalnetworks.Thisprojectaimstoprepare

WACRENinthedeploymentofe-infrastructures,answeringend

users’needsandtakingintoaccountpolicy,financial,regulatoryand

technicalconstraints.Theprojectworksinveryclosecollaboration

withAfricaConnect2.

Project title MiddlewareforcollaborativeApplicationsandGlobal

vIrtual Communities

Topic Acooperationproject,whichaimstosignificantly

improvetheabilityofresearchersandacademics

aroundtheworldtocollaboratetogether

Start 1May2015

End 30 April 2017

Programme H2020

Project title TransAfricanNetworkDevelopment

Topic e-infrastructurepolicydevelopmentandinternational

cooperation

Start 1May2015

End 30 April 2017

Programme H2020

43

ORIENTplus

Anew10GbpslinkbetweenBeijingandLondonprovidesdirect,high

capacityEU-Chinaconnectivityandisjointlyfundedandmanagedby

GÉANT and CERNETforatenyearperiod.Thisfollowsonfromthe

ORIENTplusproject,whichendedinDecember2014.

United Nations Technology Bank

GÉANT'sworkinthedevelopmentofNRENs

throughtheEC’sDEVCOprojectshasbeen

recognisedattopleveloftheUN.Cathrin

StöverandDorteOlesenworkedwiththe

UNHighLevelPaneltowardsthecreation

ofaTechnologyBankforthe48Least

DevelopedCountries.TheHLPsubmittedthestudy,provingthefeasibilityoftheTechnologyBank,to

UNSecretaryGeneralBanKiMooninOctober2015.Inthisdocument,theUNpromotesNRENsin

emergingcountriesasvehiclestodeliverscienceandinnovationfordevelopment.

Dengue fever workshops

GÉANTwasinstrumentalindevelopinginnovativeworkshopsinJapanand

Malaysia,bringingtogetherclinicalpractitioners,medicalresearchersandNREN

ICTexpertstohelpunderstandandtackleDengueFeverintheAsia-Pacificregion.

Theadoptionofthissuccessfulapproachhasbeenadoptedinotherworldregions,

notablytheCaribbeanandAfrica,andtheinitiativehashelpedextendthese

workshopstoaddressingotherinfectiousdiseases.

Dengue Fever Workshop at APAN40 in Fukuoka, Japan in March 2015

Signing of CERNET/GÉANT MoU on 15 September 2015 in Brussels. The MoU with CERNET shows the commitment to genome projects, LHC collaborations, and radio astronomy

Handover of the Report of the High Level Panel of Experts on Technology Bank and Science to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

44

TNC is the annual GÉANT community event, to which all NRENs

from worldwide partner organisations come together to share the

latest results and developments, nurture relationships, and discuss

opportunities to collaborate.

In2015,TNCwashostedinPortobyFCT|FCCN,Portugal’sunitforthe

operationoftheNationalResearchandEducationNetworkwithinthe

fundingagencyforscienceandresearch.Theeventwasattendedby

667participantsfromarecord59countries.Theyweretreatedtosix

technologydemonstrations,achoiceof137presentationsacross36

sessions,andsevenBoFs.

• The TNC15programmecommitteeoffifteenpeoplefromacrossEuropeanandinternational

NRENsandotherorganisationscreatedaTNCFellowshipgranttosupportemergingNRENs’

attendanceatTNC(seephoto).

• ApanelsessionshonethespotlightonwomeninICTtohighlighttheimportanceofgender

equality,andanimpromptuBoFwasheld,inwhichNREN-WiT(WomeninTechnology)was

founded.

Morethan70percentofparticipantsoftheconferencewhorespondedtotheevaluation

questionnairerateditveryhighly.ThemostpopularsessionswerethoseonAAI,storage

andclouds,andstrategy

andregulations.

TNC15–bringingthecommunitytogether

GÉANT activity highlight

SURFnet, NORDUnet, SWITCH and FCT|FCCN kindly contributed funding to invite representatives from geographic regions across the world. Each region nominated attendees who could benefit from the GÉANT community support. From left to right: Carlos Guzman (CEDIA), Almaz Bakenov (National Information Technology Center Kyrgyzstan), Gyöngyi Horváth (GÉANT), Cathrin Stöver (GÉANT), Hean Samboeun (CamREN), Reiner Campillo (RADEI), Douglas Kunda (ZAMREN)

45

5•Runninganefficient,cost-effectiveorganisation

GEANT’s aim is to get the most out of every contribution that our members, funders and

partners put in. This attitude, to work in an as efficient manner as possible and to ensure that

money is well spent, is reflected in many ways, not least in our continuous improvement

programme.

Continuous improvement programme

Threemajorprojectstookplacewithintheorganisationtopursueefficienciesandcostsavings,

withoutcompromisingservicequality:

• network-relatedsystemsandenhancements;

• corporatesystems,processintegrationandstreamlining;

• sharingwithpartners.

Network-related systems and enhancements Overtheyear,networkoptimisationachievedperannumcost-efficienciesof400,000euros,witha

further580,000savedthroughre-procurementofroutes.Planswerealreadybeingactionedthatare

settodelivernetworksavingsinGN4of2.1millioneurosperyear.Othercost-savingmeasureswere

thereplacementoftheNetworkMonitoringSystem(NMS)andthealienwavetrial.

Replacement of the NMS

ThepurposeoftheNMSistoidentify,diagnoseandfixanynetwork-relatedissues.Thenewsystem

thatwasintroducedin2015ismoreaccurateinidentifyingtherootcauseofanincident.

• Theaveragerepairtimeisimprovedsinceengineerscanbemoreefficientinrestoringtheservice.

• Thecommunitybenefitsfromgreaterlevelsofserviceavailability.

• Thenewdatawarehouseandreportinginfrastructureallowsautomaticandadhocreportstobe

generatedandpublishedtothecommunity.

46

• Thiskeepsthecommunitybetterinformedandallowstheorganisationtoreviewthebusiness

intelligencetoassistincapacityplanningandsubscriptionupgrades.

-Hamburg alien wave trial – Sharing infrastructure costs

GEANTusers’dataiscarriedontheGÉANTbackboneover500Gbpssuperchannels.Thesechannels

aremadepossiblewiththeuseofInfinera’sintegratedphotoniccircuittechnology.In2012,GÉANT

rolledoutourEurope-widedarkfibrefootprint,litusingtheInfineraDTN-Xequipment.Weare

nowfocusingonachievingthebestpossiblevalue

fromthisinvestment.In2015GÉANTworkedwith

SURFnettocarryoutafieldtrialcarryinganalien

wave500GsuperchanneloverSURFnetfibre.This

trialwassuccessfulandshowedthatsuperchannels

can be carried over alien waveswithnoreductionin

performanceonthesharedspectrum.

The GÉANT dark fibre (green) and the SURFnet dark fibre (yellow) between Amsterdam and Hamburg

We determined that this parallel infrastructure offered an opportunity for the GÉANT community to save on costs by removing one fibre route and then sharing the spectrum on the remaining fibre. This system has been successfully transitioned into production and is used to carry a 100Gbps IP trunk and 3 x 10Gbps services. Our operational experience is showing that the performance of this infrastructure-sharing arrangement is equivalent to GÉANT-owned dark fibre.

The figure at the right shows a break-even level of 3 x100G services. Once service exceed this point, the spectrum-sharing solution (grey line) is cheaper than even the most competitive commercial solution available on the market (brown line) and is much cheaper than the GÉANT-owned fibre (blue line).

47

Corporate systems, process integration and streamliningEfficient governance

ThefirstefficiencybroughtinbytherestructuringofTERENAandDANTELtd.isourconsolidated

andunifiedgovernancestructure,whichunifieswhatwasformerlyembracedbytheNREN-PC,the

TERENAGeneralAssembly,theDANTEshareholders,andtheGN3plusAssembly,eachonewithits

respectiveExecutiveBoard.Atthesametime,theGÉANTgovernancehasstreamlineditsstructure

ofcommitteesandclarifiedtheauthorityofthemanagement.Onaday-to-daybasisin2015,staff

throughouttheorganisationconductedanumberofintegrationprojectstoprovideincremental

savingsacrosstheboard.

One GÉANT web presence

InNovember2015thenewGÉANTwebsitewasrolledout,replacingtheinterimGÉANTAssociation

Over-the-network for IP trunks

Inthepast,IPtrunksintheeastofEuropewerebuiltasshowninFigure0.1,where

theIPtrunksfollowthefibreanddaisychaintherouters.Thisarchitecturewas

simple,butdidnotdeliverthemostefficientuseofrouterinterfaces.Theavailability

ofthePXM(a200GEthernetswitch“onablade”intheInfineraDTN-X)card

meansthatitisnowpossibletorapidlyright-sizetheIPtrunksbetween100G

interfaces.

Figure0.2showstheplannedIPtrunkstobebuiltontheeasternringusingthePXMcard.Bybuildingthetrunks

tofollowthetrafficdemandratherthanthefibre,thecostofrouterinterfacesisreduced.Becausethesolution

usesa100GbpsinterfacebetweenthelocalrouterandtheDTN-X(InfineraDWDMequipment),theIPtrunks

canberapidlyre-configuredtorespondtochangingdemands.

Figure 0.2: Implementation of IP trunks using PXM

Figure 0.1: GÉANT IP trunks in the east of Europe

48

websiteandseparatesitesforDANTE,TERENAandtheGÉANTProject.Thenewresponsivewebsite

combinesalltheelementsofthetwocompaniesintoonesite.AsGÉANTdevelopsitsportfolioof

servicesandactivities,thissitewillbethecoreresourceforallitsactivities,andactasagatewayto

directsitevisitorstootherweb-basedandonlineresources.

Single point of contact

GÉANTstreamlinedtheinteractionwithNRENs,providingthemwithasinglepointofcontactfor

informationandservicerequests,helpingtomaintainveryhighsatisfactionlevelswiththePartner

Relations Service.

GÉANT Central Authorisation Management System

TheGÉANTCentralAuthorisationManagementSystem(CAMS)providesanelegantsolutionto

manageaccessrightsforthe530GÉANTProjectparticipants.Inthepast,GÉANTProjectparticipants

hadtorememberdifferentsetsofcredentialstoaccessthoseservices.Thankstofederatedidentity,

participantscannowlogintomostoftheseservicesusingthecredentialsissuedbytheirhome

organisation.Thisaddressestheauthenticationissuesverywellbutnarratesonlyhalfofthestory;the

term,'identitymanagement',isincompletewithoutproperauthorisationmanagement.

TheGÉANTCAMSaddressesauthorisationmanagementbycentralisingauthorisationdata,butatthe

sametime,decentralisestheaccessmanagementforthesedata.ThisapproachnotonlyallowsGÉANT

servicestofocusonthecorefunctionalitywhileleavingaccessrightsmanagementtothesystem,but

atthesametimereducesoverheadonthecentralIT.

Projectparticipantsandothercommunitymembersbenefitfromthesystem;onceregisteredwith

thesystemthroughinvitation/self-enrolment,theycanaccessGÉANTservices,suchastheProject

Intranet,SYMPA,andtheWikiseamlessly.

Tofurtherenhancecost-effectiveness,GÉANTCAMSintegratesnicelywithSharePoint2013.

ThesystemdemonstratesoneofveryfewimplementationsavailableworldwideforSharePoint2013,

ActiveDirectoryFederationServiceandGrouperintegration.OnceallGÉANTservicesareintegrated

withGÉANTCAMS,wewillbeabletoprovideanexcellentuserloginexperienceforallGÉANT

services.Theintegrationworkisstillinprogress.

49

Otherachievementsintheareaofraisingefficiencyincluded:

• theimplementationofanEnterpriseServiceBus(ESB)tools,whichallowcorporatesystemsto

exchangeinformation;

• theimplementationofadatawarehouseandreportarchitecturetofacilitatetheacquisitionof

businessintelligence;

• theinitiatingofstorageandDNSreplacementprojects.

Sharing with partnersAdvanced North Atlantic consortium

GÉANTengagedwiththeAdvancedNorthAtlantic(ANA)consortiummembersinordertobeable

toparticipateandassistinestablishingsharedoperationalandfinancialprocesses.TheresultingANA

partnershipwasestablishedasoneofthepathfinderexercisesfortheGlobalNetworkArchitecture

(GNA)initiatedbytheGlobalNRENCEOForum.TheANApartnershipmodelsorganisational,business

andtechnologicalcollaborationforamoreintegratedglobalnetworkarchitectureforresearchand

education.

Copernicus – achieving cost reductions and supporting NREN services

AspartoftheCopernicus project,theGÉANTBusinessDevelopmentteam,togetherwithDFN,

achievedanagreementinJune2015withESAtoconnecttheirdatacentreinGermany,whichhosts

SentineldatatoGÉANTviaDFN.ContractswereexchangedinOctober2015andtheconnection

becameoperationalinearly2016.

Priortothis,Copernicustrafficwasbeingcarriedviacommercialnetworks,makingitmore

challengingforNRENsanduserstoaccess,andtheagreementtodistributeviaGÉANTtook

significantlobbyingeffort.

Benefits

• Forthefirsttime,researchandeducationusersworldwideareabletoaccesstheCopernicusdata

viaGÉANTandNRENs,resultinginhighperformanceaccessatlowcost.

• GÉANTNRENsnolongerhavetopayforcommoditytrafficinordertoreceivetheCopernicus

datathattheirusersrequire.

50

• TheagreementhasbroughtnewbusinesstoDFN,whoreceivedafinancialcontributionfromESA

forconnectivity.

Multi-domain monitoring

TheconvergedperfSONARmulti-domainmonitoringservicehasbroughtwiderdeployment(over

1400endpointsbytheendoftheyear)andhasreducedoperatingcostsforeachpartner,whilst

CMon–theMultiDomainCircuitMonitoringSystem–hasmovedfromdesigntopilotphase,with

deploymentsinfourNRENs.

51

2015 2014 (restated)

€000 €000

Fixed assets

Tangiblefixedassets 6,165 7,684

Current assets

Cashatbankandinhand 42,949 33,843

Debtors 8,405 9,373

51,354 43,216

Total assets 57,519 50,900

Group equity

General reserve 7,338 7,047

SecretaryGeneralreserve 301 301

Futuresubscriptionreserve 13,750 10,900

21,389 18,248

Provisions 1,004 1,105

Short-term liabilities 35,126 31,547

Total equity and liabilities 57,519 50,900

Financial statements

52

2015 Budget 2015 2014 (restated)

€000 €000 €000

Income

GÉANT project 32,698 32,203 31,631

DevCo projects 4,312 4,920 6,323

Membershipfees 1,141 1,148 1,121

Otherincome 1,565 1,453 1,221

GÉANT World Service 971 657 753

Interest received 35 50 40

40,722 40,431 41,089

Project expenditure 25,154 30,767 28,172

Gross operating result 15,568 9,664 12,917

Other expenditure

Personnel costs 9,043 8,481 7,905

Otheradministrativecosts 2,762 2,583 2,690

Restructuringcosts 387 572 439

Depreciation 187 208 243

Financial expenses (112) 33 (192)

Total other expenditure 12,267 11,877 11,085

Non-operatingincome - - 301

Taxation 160 - 973

Result before appropriation 3,141 (2,213) 1,160

Transfer to specific reserve

SecretaryGeneralreserve - - (301)

Futuresubscriptionreserve (2,850) 2,200 (2,450)

Result 291 (13) (1,591)

53

ThefinancialresultsoftheGÉANTAssociationarepreparedaconsolidatedbasisandincludethe

resultsofitssubsidiary,GEANTLimited,aprivatelimitedcompanyincorporatedintheUnited

Kingdom.

2015wasthefirstfullyearofoperationsundertheGroup’srestructuredgovernancethatcommenced

inOctober2014aftertheAssociationacquiredamajorityshareholdinginGEANTLimited.The

Associationcurrentlyowns95.31%(2014:93.43%)ofthesharesinGEANTLimited.

Totalincomein2015amountedto€40,722k(2014:€41,089k)andisinlinewithbudgetprojections

(€40,431k).Projectexpenditureamountedto€25,154k(2014:€28,172k)andislowerthanbudget

projections(€30,767k)duetoacompliancechangeinthedepreciationpolicyadoptedbythe

Association’sUKsubsidiaryandotherunderlyingnetworkcostreductions.

Otherexpenditureamountedto€12,267k(2014:€11,085k)representinga2%adversevariance

againstbudget(€11,877k)primarilyasaresultofexchangeratefactorscausedbyunderlyingGB

poundpayrollandrentalcostsasaresultoftheGroup’soperationsintheUnitedKingdom.

Againstadeficitbudgetof€2,213k,andasaresultofdecreaseinprojectexpenditures,theyear2015

endedwithanetsurplusbeforeappropriationof€3,141k(2014:€1,160k),resultinginatransferof

€2,850ktothefuturesubscriptionreservetobeusedforinvestmentsinfutureyears.

ActivitiesdescribedinthisAnnualReportreceivegenerous

supportfromtheEuropeanCommissionthroughDG-CONNECT,

DG-DEVCOandDG-NEARco-fundedprojects.