# The GEANT IaaS Framework for Education

### About the GEANT Project
* [GEANT](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/G%C3%89ANT), the (Gigabit European Academic Network), and its National Research and Education Network (NREN) partners is a pan-European data and communication network aimed at further accelerating the adoption of cloud services by research and education institutions.

* It is co-funded by education networks, European national research and European commission, and coordinated by the limited liability company [DANTE](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/DANTE).

###### GEANT Project (GN4-2) Key Facts
|                   |                     |
| ----------------- | ------------------- |
| Start date        | 1 May 2016          |
| Duration          | 32 months           |
| Total budget      | €96m = 424m SAR     |
| EC contribution   | €59m = 261m SAR     |
| Participants      | 500+                |
| Project Partners  | 35 NRENs and GEANT  |

### The IaaS Framework Agreement
* The IaaS Framework Agreement is the result of a joint procurement 'umbrella agreement' between GEANT and [IaaS Suppliers](https://clouds.geant.org/geant-cloud-catalogue/geant-cloud-catalogue-iaas/).

* The framework agreement sets out the terms under which NRENs may acquire and provide IaaS cloud services to their end-user organizations via individual contracts, throughout the four-year duration of the agreement. The terms address price, quality, quantity, the procedure for ordering services, and the obligations of the suppliers. Individual contracts can be established via direct call-offs or mini-competitions.

* Institutions will be able to buy and use Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure directly (and other services), without the need for complex contract procedures, and benefit from volume discounts, while the framework contracts themselves are compliant with EU privacy and data security regulations.

* GEANT and NRENs can provide procurement and technical advice to their member institutions and may assist in brokering contracts under the framework on behalf of individual institutions. Alternatively, setting up agreements without NREN involvement directly with [COMPAREX](http://www.comparex-group.com/web/microsites/microsoft/licensing/microsoft-licenses-business/licensing_research-education/GEANT_IaaS_Framework_Agreement.htm) is possible within the framework as well.

* For NRENs, a single digital market ensures an equal playing field within the community, and saves time and resources negotiating the complexity legal terms and conditions. Pre-pared legal due diligence and contracts, thereby substantially reducing legal costs and offering better legal conditions.

* Ensures data is handled safely and meets European and national regulations.

* In many cases, the needs of the Research and Education community go beyond the basic commodity offerings of many cloud service providers.

###### How it works
* Main goal is to make it easy for Education and Research Communities to transition to the cloud, and to adopt and use IaaS cloud solutions in an easy, safe, predictable and controlled manner.

* Collaborations such as this allows the research and education community to benefit from advancements in technology such as cloud computing, which can propel breakthroughs in research as well as enhance and optimize student engagement and institutional operations.

* Europe’s research and education institutions are eager to use and benefit from cloud services. However, the cloud brings a paradigm shift in distribution and usage models, requiring a new approach to connect the supply and demand sides and establish the right conditions of use.

* GEANT is uniquely poised to offer the resources and services to assist NRENs roll out compelling and relevant cloud services and products for users.

###### Role of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) / How GEANT and the NRENs can help the R&E community
* Each country’s NREN acts as a specialized Internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the Research & Education communities within their geographical area.

* NRENs can act as brokers for third-party providers that host hardware, software, servers, storage and other infrastructure components on behalf of users.

* IaaS Framework Agreement Providers include: AWS Cloud for Higher Education and Microsoft Azure.

* It is usually distinguished by support for a high-speed backbone network, often offering dedicated channels for individual research projects.

* NRENs are agile and can best provide users with a wider range of relevant IT services at a faster pace than commercial providers, to facilitate the dynamic collaboration academic research needs.

* **(SAUDI ARABIA)**, in Saudi Arabia there is an NREN called "the Saudi Academic Research and Innovation Network (SARInet)"


### Services provided by GÉANT to NRENs
GÉANT provides its services to NRENs, which in turn facilitates custom or specific services to educational institutes. Provided services are:

###### Connectivity & network management
The connectivity services support the NRENs in delivering world-class network facilities to the research and education community.

* **GÉANT IP**, provides core connectivity that supports inter-NREN connectivity.
    * On-fiber NRENs: 10–100Gbps: 10Gbps increments.
    * Off-fiber NRENs: depends on what is locally available.
    * GÉANT World Service (GWS) can offer NRENs provision flexibility on Internet Access to their uses, via BGP routing, IPv4 and IPv6 support.
    * GÉANT IP provides no access control or security services. Access control and security are the responsibility of the NRENs.
    * Network traffic costs will also be significantly reduced, thanks to connection to the high-performance data networks.

* **GÉANT point-to-point services**, For when shared IP services can't provide the capacity or performance needed, provides high-performance interconnectivity for the most demanding networking requirements.
    * Allows NRENs to request point-to-point Ethernet circuits between end-points at GÉANT PoPs.
    * Provides full wavelengths at up to 100Gbps to support NREN users with particularly demanding network requirements, services can be provided unprotected or restored using GMPLS (Generalized Multi-protocol Label Switching) signaling.
    * Provides Bandwidth on Demand (BoD) for reliably transferring large data sets for short periods of time, using an automated provisioning tool to find the best path across the different networks.

* **GÉANT Open**, Facilitating open collaboration across the globe.
    * Allows NRENs and approved commercial organizations to exchange connectivity in a highly efficient and flexible manner.
    * Commercial operators and individual research facilities need to have their connectivity to the Open Exchange 'sponsored' by either the NREN to whom they wish to connect or, in the case of individual research facilities, the NREN who would normally manage their network connectivity.

* **VPN services**

* **Testbed Service**, delivers integrated virtual environments as “testbeds” for the network research community.
    * The network testbed resources are dynamically allocated from real e-infrastructure distributed throughout the GÉANT core service area allowing researchers to define, build, test and rebuild highly scalable, high capacity virtual networks quickly, easily and cost-effectively.

* **eduroam**, (education roaming) is the secure, world-wide roaming WiFi access service developed for the international research and education community.
    * Providing roaming broadband in more than 70 territories worldwide

###### Trust, identity & security
Securing access to services and providing federated identity systems to enable efficient collaboration.

* Students, researchers and institute staff rely on online services for collaboration through webmail, e-learning, teaching, conferencing, analyzing and sharing data, and for accessing journals and libraries. Trusted digital identities underpinned with secure technologies allow them to simply and securely access content and services.

* **eduGAIN**, a fast-growing initiative that interconnects research and education identity federations around the world.
    * It enables the trustworthy exchange of information between service providers and research and education institutions or other identity providers.
    * Participants from more than 1,500 identity providers are accessing services from 1,000 service providers.

* **eduPKI**, Supporting digital certificates for GÉANT services.

* **TCS - Trusted Certificate Service**, facilitating the deployment of digital certificates. The five main types of certificates available are:
    * SSL certificates – for authenticating servers and establishing secure sessions with end clients.
    * Grid certificates – for authenticating Grid hosts and services (IGTF compliant).
    * Client certificates – for identifying individual users and securing email communications.
    * Code signing certificates – for authenticating software distributed over the Internet.
    * Document signing certificates – for authenticating documents from Adobe PDF, Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, and LibreOffice.

* **Trusted Introducer**, Building mutual trust between security teams.
    * Collects, classifies, and distributes information from all all computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs), building a ‘web of trust’ between CSIRTs by listing known teams, and accrediting and certifying teams according to their demonstrated and checked level of maturity.

* **TACAR: Trusted Academic CA Repository**, Storing and securely distributing root Certification Authority certificates for research and education.

* **TRANSITS training**, High-quality training for computer security teams.

* **Federation as a Service (FaaS)**, Helping NRENs to build identity federations and deliver Authentication and authorization infrastructure (AAI) services.

* **urn:geant Uniform Resource Name (URN)**, Supporting the assignment of unique, global, persistent names to various kinds of resources by the GÉANT community and its delegates.

###### Cloud Services
Cloud services offer higher education and research organizations the opportunity to become more agile and provide their users with a wider range of relevant IT services at a faster pace to fulfill user demand.

* **GÉANT Cloud Services**, Supporting cloud collaboration in the research and education community.
    * [GÉANT Cloud Services – Connecting Research and Education to the Cloud](https://clouds.geant.org/)

* **FileSender**, Transferring large files quickly, securely and easily.

###### Real-time communications
Enabling communication and collaboration across the community.

* **eduCONF**, Video conferencing.
    * eduCONF enables users to be able to find and use videoconferencing facilities across Europe.
    * eduCONF services are helping to provide the tools for an effective pan-European videoconference infrastructure, including tools for locating, validating and certifying rooms, managing and monitoring a videoconferencing network.
    * eduCONF World Gatekeepers – a set of h.323 gatekeepers that handle call routing at world level.
    * H.323 monitoring engine – a mechanism that tests videoconference rooms and videoconference services on request.

* **eduOER**, Access to multimedia content across multiple repositories.
    * Research and education institutions are producing and storing multimedia learning content, such as webinars or lecture videos
    * Enables to find and share useful material, to support 'open education'.

* **NRENum.net**, Interconnecting multiple dialing methods for real-time communications.
    * Translates telephone numbers into addresses that can be used in Internet communications and so facilitates services such as VoIP and video conferencing.

###### Professional services
* Project management
* Consultancy
* Secretariat services
* Cloud Customization
* Purchase models and cost predictability