implementation of a european e-infrastructure for the 21st century

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2013

EIROforum ITWorkingGroup12thJuly2013

This document produced by Members of the EIROforum and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

License.Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.eiroforum.org/

Implementation of a European e‐Infrastructure for the 21st Century

Executive Summary Thisdocumentproposesanimplementationplanforthevisionofane‐infrastructureasdescribedin“AVisionforaEuropeane‐Infrastructureforthe21stCentury”.Theobjectiveof the implementation plan is to put in place the e‐infrastructurecommons that willenable digital scienceby introducing ITasa service to the public research sector inEurope.The rationale calls for a hybrid model that brings together public and commercialservicesupplierstobuildanetworkofCentresofExcellenceofferingarangeofservicestoawideuserbase.TheplatformwillmakeuseofandcooperatewithexistingEuropeane‐infrastructures by jointly offering integrated services to the end‐user. This hybridmodelrepresentsasignificantchangefromthestatus‐quoandwillbringbenefitsforthestakeholders: end‐users, research organisations, service providers (public andcommercial)andfundingagencies.CentresofExcellencecanbeownedandoperatedbyamixtureofcommercialcompaniesandpublicorganisations.Theirportfolioofservices,startingwith those listedbyeIRGand theHighLevelExpertGrouponScientificData,will be made available under a set of terms and conditions that are compliant withEuropeanjurisdictionandlegislationwithservicedefinitionsimplementingrecognisedpolicies for trust, security and privacy notably for data protection. A funding modelengagingallstakeholdergroupsisdescribed.Theabilitytofullyexploitthepotentialforknowledgeandjobcreationthatislocked‐upinthedatasetsandalgorithmstobehostedbytheCentresofExcellencewillrequirethenurturingofanewgenerationofdatascientistswithacoresetofICTskills.A management board where all the CentresofExcellence operating organisations arerepresentedwillprovidestrategicandfinancialoversightiscoupledwithauserforum,throughwhich the end‐users themselves, in a cross‐disciplinary body collaborate todefinerequirementsandpoliciesfortheservices.Apilot service isproposed that canbe rapidly establishedby buildingon theexistinginvestments. The pilot servicewill demonstrate the feasibility of the e‐infrastructureCentres of Excellence model for a range of scientific disciplines and evaluate thesuitabilityfortheESFRIResearchInfrastructures,thatarecurrentlyunder‐developmentand represent Europe’s future “bigdatafactories”. Implementationwill start in 2014,initiallyofferingalimitedsetofservicesataprototypeCentreofExcellence.




Contents

ExecutiveSummary............................................................................................................................1

Introduction..........................................................................................................................................3

Rationale.................................................................................................................................................4

Benefitsofthehybridmodel.....................................................................................................6

PilotService...........................................................................................................................................7

PortfolioofServices......................................................................................................................7

TrainingandEducation....................................................................................................................7

Integrationofpublicandcommercialservicesuppliersintoahybridmodel..........8

GovernanceModel..............................................................................................................................8

RelationshiptoexistingEuropeane‐Infrastructures..........................................................9

GEANT.................................................................................................................................................9

PRACE..................................................................................................................................................9

EGI......................................................................................................................................................10

Engagementoffundingagencies...............................................................................................10

APrototypeCentreofExcellence..............................................................................................13

FundingModelforthePrototypeCentreofExcellence..............................................15

Timeline...............................................................................................................................................17

ThisdocumenthasbeenpreparedbyCERN’sITdepartmentonbehalfoftheEIROforumITworkinggroup.




Introduction Thisdocumentproposesanimplementationplanforthevisionofane‐infrastructureasdescribed in a separate document1“AVisionforaEuropeane‐Infrastructureforthe21stCentury”.Theobjectiveoftheimplementationplanistoputinplacethee‐infrastructurecommons that will enable digital scienceby introducing ITasa service to the publicresearchsectorinEurope.TheEC, in itsCommunication “HighPerformanceComputing:Europe’splaceinaGlobalRace”2called for the creation of a network of HPC Centres of Excellence and thisimplementationplanisameansofaddressingthisneed.EIROforum3partnersareintergovernmentalresearchorganisations–CERN,ESA,EMBL,EFDA,ESO,EuropeanXFEL, ILLandESRF–coveringdisciplinesranging fromparticlephysics, space science and biology to fusion research, astronomy, and neutron andphotonsciences.ThepartnerorganisationshaveatrulyEuropeangovernance,fundingandremit,andinmanycasesshareaglobalengagement.Theyareworldleadersinbasicresearch, as well as in managing and operating large research infrastructures andfacilities. The EIROforum collaboration is helping European science reach its fullpotential through exploiting its unparalleled resources, facilities and expertise. Bycombining international facilities and human resources, EIROforum exceeds theresearchpotential of the individual organisations, achievingworld‐class scientific andtechnological excellence in interdisciplinary fields. EIROforum works closely withindustrytofosterinnovationandtostimulatethetransferoftechnology.Thisimplementationplanestablishesapilotserviceaimedataddressingthechallengesahead to capture,manage, andprocess the vast amounts of data to be generated, notonly by the established fundamental research domains but in a growing range ofscientific disciplines, large and small. This pilot service is seen by the researchorganisationsasanexploratoryactivitytobeoperatedandfundedinadditiontotheirbaselineplansfortheproductionservicestheyoffertotheirusercommunities.

1 http://cds.cern.ch/record/1550136/files/CERN‐OPEN‐2013‐018.pdf 2 COM(2012)45, 15.2.2012. http://eur‐lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2012:0045:FIN:EN:PDF 3 http://www.eiroforum.org/




Rationale

TherationaleforthisimplementationapproachisinspiredbytheHelixNebulaproject’spublication “HelixNebula –The Science Cloud:A catalyst for change inEurope”5fromwhichextractshavebeentaken.HelixNebulawasconceivedasawayofbringingcoherence toahighly fragmented ITservices industry through the vision of a federated ‘science cloud’ integrated withpublicly‐fundedscientifice‐Infrastructures.TwofundamentalstepsremainifthevisionofHelixNebulaistobecomereality. Oneistobringtogetheracriticalmassofsupply‐sideinterestsandtheotheristodothesameforthedemand‐side.The work of Helix Nebula on an architecture model6has produced a number ofscenarios exploring the means by which publicly funded infrastructures caninteroperatewithcommercialcloudservices7.Suchhybridsystemsareintheinterestofthe users of publicly funded infrastructures and funding agencies because they willprovide ‘freedom and choice’ over the source of resources to be consumed and themanner inwhichtheycanbeobtained, facilitatingthegoalof ‘makingeveryresearcherdigital’.Hybridsystemsservetheinterestsofsuppliersbyencouragingtheadoptionofcloud services by more researchers and thus creating a larger and more vibrantmarketplaceinwhichtheycanoffertheirservices.This integrationwill allow thepublic infrastructure users to strike their ownbalancebetween publicly funded resources and commercial cloud services while taking intoaccount aspects of policy and cost. Private sector service providers can supplyresources/services and additional capacity not available in the public fundedinfrastructures. Research and innovation activities that have the potential forcommercial exploitation can work with the private sector to unlock that potential,demonstratefeasibilityandmarketacceptance.Itisexpectedthatserviceswillmigratefrom publicly funded infrastructures to commercial suppliers as suitable offers,addressing cost and policy aspects, become available on themarket. In thismanner,HelixNebulais implementingwhatthee‐InfrastructrueReflectionGroup(eIRG)referstoasthee‐InfrastructureCommonsinits2012Roadmappaper8.

Thishybridcloudhasthepotential tobringthepublicandprivatesectorstogethersothat the public sector has something to offer the private sector more than a simpledemand for cloud services. Thecreationof a continuumof services across thepublicandprivatesector, insteadofasimplesupply‐demandmodelwillalleviatethecurrentsituationwhichisinhibitingtheestablishmentofhybridcloudinfrastructures.Itisalsoinhibiting the establishment of big‐data services since there are a number ofsensitivities,explainedbelow,thatneedtobeaddressedbeforeamodelcanbeenvisagewherealldatasetsarehostedoncommercialcloudservices.

5 http://cds.cern.ch/record/1537032/files/HelixNebula‐NOTE‐2013‐003.pdf 6 http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1478364/files/HelixNebula‐NOTE‐2012‐001.pdf

7 http://cds.cern.ch/record/1548323/files/HelixNebula‐D6_1.pdf 8 http://www.e‐irg.eu/images/stories/publ/e‐irg_roadmap_2012‐final.pdf




Business models need to be developed that ensure the Data Stewards9, which arefrequentlypubliclyfundedresearchcentres,retaincontroloverthecurationandusageof the datasets and the associated intellectual property. Researchers also needguarantees about the long‐termavailability of the cloud services and thedata. Such ahybrid model would address these points and allow the progressive migration ofservicesbetweenpublicandprivateproviders.Furthermore,itisofupmostimportancethatdatacatalogueservices,suchasthosebeingdevelopedbytheEUDATproject10,areavailabletoallresearchcommunities’datasetshostedbybothpublicandprivatecloudservices.

Therehavebeenmanycommunityspecificresearchdatainfrastructuresestablishedinrecent years, such as The Catalog of Life indexing the world’s known species11,iMARINE12and GENESI‐DEC13, which have produced valuable data curation tools andexpertise, along with data sharing policies. Being able to interface these data e‐infrastructures into a hybrid cloudmodel will allow a larger userbase to exploit thedata, bigger opportunities to contribute scientific data to multi‐disciplinary research,andprovidesustainabilitymodelsfortheircontinuedexistence.Initial investigations on the potential impact of cloud services in the researchcommunitysuggest that thecommercialpubliccloudservicesare likely tobeadoptedinitiallyforthe‘longtailofscience’conductedbyresearchersthatdonothaveaccesstosignificant in‐house computing resources and skills. Effortsmust bemade to simplifyaccesstocommercialcloudservicesforsuchgroupsthatgenerallyhavestraightforwardrequirementsandfrequentlydonothavesufficientin‐houseITexpertisetomanageandoperatetheirowncomputingresources.

Conversely,itwillrequirefurtherreductioninthecostsofcommercialservicesforlargeresearch userswith important in‐house computing capacity to find commercial cloudservices as financially attractive as is the case for small scale users. As one industryrepresentativeputit ‘whywouldIhireacaronadailybasisifIknowinadvanceIwilluseiteverydayfor3years–itwillbecheapertobuymyown’14.

It isrecognisedthatnotallpublicly fundedresearchcentresare inapositiontomakeaccurateestimationsof the total costofownershipof in‐house IT servicessince somecontributingcostsarebornebydifferentdepartments.Butinorderforthedemand‐sideuserstobeencouragedtopurchasecloudcomputingservices,theservicesofferedmustbeeconomicallyadvantageouscomparedtoothermeansofprocuringITservices.

These alternatives include purchasing and operating IT equipment internally whichrequirescapitalinvestmentandITexpertisebutremainseconomicallyattractiveforIT‐intensiveapplicationswithasustainedandpredictableusage.

9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_governance 10 http://www.eudat.eu/

11 http://www.catalogueoflife.org/

12 http://www.i‐marine.eu/Pages/Home.aspx

13 http://www.genesi‐dec.eu/ 14 Similar cost arguments are made in this article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/26/cloud_magic_number/




Benefits of the hybrid model Thehybridmodeloutlinedintherationaleaboverepresentsachangefromthestatus‐quobut isnecessary tokick‐startnewandemergingsciencesuseofe‐infrastructures.Theidentifiedbenefitsofthismodelforthestakeholdersinclude:Users

Awiderangeofintegratedservicesanddataresourcesprovidingamorecompleteworkingenvironmentsupportingthefulllifecycleofresearchactivities

Easymeanstopublishtheirownresearchresultsanddata Freedomandchoiceoverwhichservicestouseaccordingtopreferencesfor

functionality,policyandbudget Anenvironmentintowhichtheirownbespokeservicescanbeintegrated Readilyavailabletrainingmaterialandsupport Timetofocusontheirresearchobjectivesratherthanhavingtolearnaboutand

dedicatetimetooperateITinfrastructure Keepcontrolovertheirresultsanddatawiththeassurancethattheywillbe

availableoverthelong‐term Haveavoiceonhowtheservicestheyusearegoverned

ResearchOrganisations

Ameanstoexposetheirresearchproductstoawidercommunity Aplatformthroughwhichresearchorganisationscanbemorecloselyconnected

totheirusersandreactmorequicklytotheirchangingneeds Abilitytoprocureadditionalresourceson‐demand Groupednegotiationofserviceprocurementwithotherresearchorganisations Aready‐madechannelforimprovingknowledgeandtechnologytransferwith

industryServiceproviders(publicandcommercial)

Creationofamarketwithanextensiveuserbaseintowhichproviderscanoffertheirservices

Privilegedcommunicationchannelwithend‐usersandpurchasingorganisations Ameansofestimatingthescaleandsophisticationofservicesthatwouldbe

suitableforthepublicresearchsector Reducedriskandup‐frontinvestmentduringthedevelopmentandintroduction

ofinnovativeservicesFundingagencies

Ameansofencouragingtheuptakeofcloudservicesbythepublicsector Creationofanpublic‐privateinnovationplatformforICT Asimplemeansforimplementingopenaccesspoliciesofpublicationsanddata Democratisationofaccesstodataandcomputeresourcessotheyareavailable

toanyusers,laboratoryorproject,regardlessofsize Achannelforincreasingtheimpactandexploitationofpubliclyfundedresearch Ameanstomonitortheimpactofpublicinvestments




Pilot Service Inordertoverifythefeasibilityofthisvisionandrationale,apilotserviceisproposedthatcanberapidlyestablishedbybuildingontheexistinginvestmentstodemonstrateadded‐valuetotheresearchcommunityandthesustainabilityoftheapproach.Implementation will start in 2014, initially offering a limited set of services at aprototypeCentreofExcellence. This ramp‐upphasewill includea roadmap forhow toextend the e‐infrastructure to a group of independently operated and cooperatingCentresofExcellenceofferingarichersetoflayeredservicesandhighertotalcapacitytoservetheEuropeanResearchArea.SuchfacilitieswillbeCentresofExcellenceprovidingcapacitystyleHighPerformanceComputing(HPC)servicesfordatacentricapplicationsandwillbefederatedintoanetworkofsuchcentresacrossEurope.

Portfolio of Services The CentresofExcellencewill offer an initial portfolio of services taken from the listdocumented by eIRG in its blue paper of 201015with the technical characteristicsidentifiedbytheHighLevelExpertGrouponScientificDataintheir“RidingtheWave”reportfromthesameyear16.All services will incorporate state‐of‐the‐art security measures, including host‐basedprotections, system logging and access traceability. All services will make use of afederatedidentitymanagementsystemaddressingauthenticationandauthorizationtoensure seamless and secure access to the services and data. While the Centres ofExcellencewill take the role and responsibilitiesofDataCustodians17, theStewardsofthe data‐sets hosted by the CentresofExcellencewill be responsible for defining andmanagingtheaccesspolicyfortheirdata.BrokeringserviceswillbedeployedsothatthefullportfolioofservicesfromallCentresofExcellenceisvisibletoallusersandcanbecomparedandaccessed.

Training and Education Thedesign,creationandoperationofe‐infrastructureservicesareessentialtoolsinthedevelopmentofskillsandcompetenciesfortheEuropeanmarket.Theservicesofferedby the e‐infrastructure Centres ofExcellencewill provide a focus for the creation ofpublic‐privateteamsofskilledpersonnelacrossthecooperatingresearchorganisations,servicesuppliersandusers,enabling thesharingofknowledge todevelopaco‐designapproach18to services and applications. The ability to fully exploit the potential forknowledgeandjobcreationthatislocked‐upinthedatasetsandalgorithmstobehostedbythecentrewillrequirethenurturingofanewgenerationofdatascientistswithacoreset of ICT skills. To ensure the training and education services impact as large anaudienceaspossiblewhilecontrollingthecostsofofferingsuchservices,massiveopen15 http://www.e‐irg.eu/images/stories/eirg_bluepaper2010_final.pdf 16 http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/e‐infrastructure/docs/hlg‐sdi‐report.pdf 17 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_governance 18 http://echallenges.org/e2010/outbox/eChallenges_e2007_ref_195_doc_3562.pdf




online course (MOOC19) techniqueswill be employedwhichwill be supported by theCentres of Excellence model itself via the digital library services. The EIROforumorganisations have core competences in training and education20which can form thebasis of this activity. Since its formation in 2002, EIROforum joint initiatives havealreadyresultedinanimportant impact intheareasofOutreachandEducation.High‐profile activities have involved thousands of European science teachers and students,thus emphatically supporting Europe‐wide efforts to raise interest in science andtechnology and to secure a sound recruitment base for European R&D efforts in thefuture. Such collaboration in the area of human resources also have a bearing on theEuropeanResearchArea:byattractingandretainingworld‐classresearchersinEurope,through technological exchange and common development, and by organising multi‐disciplinaryscientificconferences.

Integration of public and commercial service suppliers into a hybrid model The investigations within Helix Nebula have revealed that with current pricing ofcommercial services many public organisations will continue to find it financiallyattractivetoprovidetheservicesthemselvesin‐house.Hencethisimplementationplanforesees that Centres of Excellence can be owned and operated by a mixture ofcommercialcompaniesandpublicorganisations.EachCentreofExcellencewillincludeapay‐per‐usage element in its fundingmodel but the operating organisation is free todefine its own pricing strategy and implementation. The portfolio of services will bemadeavailableunderasetof termsandconditions thatarecompliantwithEuropeanjurisdictionandlegislationwithservicedefinitionsimplementingrecognisedpoliciesfortrust,securityandprivacynotablyfordataprotection.By integrating commercial and publicly operated Centres ofExcellence into a hybridmodelitwillbepossibletomigrateworkloadstocommercialsuppliersonceacceptablepricing and terms and conditions have been negotiated. In this way the Centre ofExcellencemodelwillbolsterthecreationofamarkettowhichthecommercialsupplierscanoffertheirservices.

Governance Model Thegovernancemodelforeseenforthepilotservicewillbebasedontwobodies:

A management board where all the Centres of Excellence operatingorganisations are represented and the strategic and financial aspects of theCentre of Excellence model are addressed. Policy aspects impacting theoperation of the network of Centres of Excellencewill be addressed by themanagement board. The introduction of a new Centre ofExcellence into thenetworkwillbeapprovedby themanagementboardsubject toverificationof

19 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course 20 http://www.scienceinschool.org/




thepolicies(seeIntegrationofpublicandcommercialservicesuppliers)underwhichitoperatesandthequalityoftheservicesprovided.

A user forum21, through which the end‐users themselves, in a cross‐disciplinarybodycollaborateonrequirementsandpoliciesconcerningthee‐infrastructureservices.TheUserForumwillalsoactasaconsultationbodyformanagementboard.

The pilot service will demonstrate the feasibility of the e‐infrastructure Centres ofExcellencemodelforarangeofscientificdisciplines.Thepilotservicewillalsoprovideameans for the ESFRI Research Infrastructures, that are currently under‐developmentand represent Europe’s future “big data factories”, to evaluate the suitability of theservices provided byCentresofExcellence. The integrated service portfolio offered bythenetwork ofCentresofExcellencewill enablemulti‐disciplinary research across theResearchInfrastructuresandcontributetoensuringexcellenceinscience.

Relationship to existing European e‐Infrastructures The CentresofExcellence will make use of and cooperate with existing European e‐infrastructures to build the e‐infrastructure commons by jointly offering integratedservices to theend‐user.Therelationshipwith theseexistinge‐infrastructureswillbedefinedviawrittenagreementsandisdescribedbelow.

GEANT TheCentresofExcellencewillbe connected to theGEANTnetwork inorder toprovidehighperformanceaccessforthewholeEuropeanResearchAreaandensureintegrationwithotherregionsoftheworldsoEuropecanbealeadingparticipantinglobalresearchchallenges.BuildingontheexperiencegatheredthroughtheHelixNebulaprojectwhichis extending GEANT connectivity to commercial data centreswill greatly simplify theestablishment of a hybrid model engaging both public and commercial serviceproviders.

PRACE The capacity styleHPC services for data centric applications offeredby theCentresofExcellencewill be complimentary to the capability style HPC services provided byPRACE. The expertise developed by PRACE and related projects in efficient parallelprogrammingparadigmsandoptimisingsoftwareforarangeofarchitecturesisdirectlyrelevant to the e‐Infrastructure Centres of Excellence and application/servicedevelopers. The European Technology Platform for High Performance Computingproject22recentlypublishedaStrategicResearchAgenda forachievingHPC leadership

21 David Foster, Bob Jones, “Science Strategy and Sustainable Solutions; A Collaboration on the Directions of e-Infrastructure for Science”, CERN-OPEN-2013-017, http://cds.cern.ch/record/1545615/files/CERN-OPEN-2013-017.pdf 22 http://www.etp4hpc.eu/




in Europe23which specifically highlights the upcoming big‐data challenges for leadingresearchactivitiesandtherelevanceofcloudservices:

“Europe is inauniquepositiontoexcel intheareaofHPCUsageandBigDataowingtotheexperiencelevelofcurrentandpotentialusers(andtherecognitionoftheimportanceofdatabysuchusersasCERN,ESA,andbiologicaldatabanks)andthepresenceof leading ISVs for large‐scalebusinessapplications.Europe shouldexploit that knowledge to create competitive solutions for big‐data businessapplications, by providing easier access to data and to leading‐edge HPCplatforms,bybroadentheuserbase(e.g.,throughCloudComputingandSoftwareasaService(SaaS)),andbyrespondingtonewandchallengingtechnologies.”

Soaswellassharingexpertise,theservicesofferedbytheCentresofExcellenceandthePRACE Tier‐0 and Tier‐1 centresshould be integrated to form part of the overall e‐infrastructureecosystem.ThiswillrequirethePRACEHPCcentrestoparticipateinthefederatedidentitymanagementschemeanddatasharingservicesifthePRACEcentresaretobefullyintegratedasserviceproviderswithinthismodel.

EGI The experience gathered by EGI in managing a federated grid infrastructure will bedirectly relevant to the CentresofExcellence model. The CentresofExcellencewill beintegratedwiththeEGIfederatedcloud24.IntegratingtheCentresofExcellencewiththeEGI distributed computing infrastructure provides a clear direction for how EGI cancontributeitsexperienceandmakethefullportfolioofservicesaccessibletoitsexistinguser‐base. The pilot service is intended to be technology agnostic allowing the e‐infrastructurecommonstoprofitfromthelong‐standingexperienceEGIhasgainedwithgridcomputingcombinedwiththeinnovationpotentialcreatedbytheuptakeofcloudcomputinginresearchandbusinesssectors.It is expected that data services currently under development by various projects,notablyEUDAT,willprovidecandidatesforfutureservicesandpotentiallyadditionale‐infrastructureCentresofExcellence.Agoalwillbe to introduceservices thatcanprofitfrom the co‐location of data and compute services to support multi‐disciplinaryresearch. Metadata and indexing facilities across the set of services in all the e‐infrastructureCentresofExcellenceareseenasbeingparticularlyrelevant.Itisessentialthat new services are fully integratedwith existing services to preserve the data andcomputecontinuumoftheplatformandsupportthee‐infrastructurecommons.

Engagement of funding agencies Theimplementationplanandassociatedfundingmodelhavebeendesignedsothatthee‐infrastructureCentresofExcellencecanbesustainedbytheiroperatingorganisationsaccording to a continuum of financial models ranging from sponsored resources forpeer‐reviewed scientific cases to communities who would pay for the services they

23 http://www.etp4hpc.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/ETP4HPC_book_singlePage.pdf 24 https://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/Fedcloud-tf:UserCommunities




receive.Additionalresourceswillberequiredinorderfortheseservicestobeexpandedand to serve awider range of users. The European Commission and national fundingagencieswillbeinvitedtobecomestakeholdersandcontributetotheexpansionofthee‐infrastructureCentreofExcellencemodel. The guidingprinciple is that funding fromsuch stakeholders will be focused on innovation of services and uptake by new usercommunities and business actors while the operational costs will be borne by theoperating organisations and the users themselves. Below is a non–exhaustive list ofareas where funding agencies may contribute to the expansion of the Centre ofExcellencemodel:

Developmentofnewservicestobedeployedonthee‐infrastructure.Significanteffort will be required to co‐develop scalable services that can operate in adistributedenvironmentandserveawiderangeofusers.

Financial incentive scheme to increase adoption of services (both public and

private)byusersincluding‘long‐tailofscience’researchgroupsandSMEs.

Engagingtheuseoftheservicesbynewresearchcommunities(e.g.curationofdata‐sets,connectionofidentityfederations,deploymentofcommunityspecificservices,trainingfornewusers,etc.)

Develop training and educational activities building on the e‐infrastructureservicestomaximisetheirimpact.Thiscanalsoincludeexpansionofservicestosupport for volunteer computing so that researchers can build citizen‐cybersciencecommunitiesandfurtherengagethegeneralpublicinscience.

Organisation of user forum events aswell as outreach and dissemination to a

rangeofaudiencesandproductionofmaterialforpolicyrelatedactivities.

International collaboration (beyond Europe) through interoperation withequivalentstructuresinotherregionsoftheworld.

Expansion of the network of the Centres of Excellence across the Europeanmemberstatestoaddressnationalandthematicneeds.

Manyresearchorganisationsthatoperateresearch infrastructuresdonothavethe mandate to provide e‐infrastructure services to their users for themanagementandprocessingoftheirexperimentaldata.Thisrepresentsagapinthe scientific lifecycle and a missed opportunity to highlight the results andimpact of public funded research. These research organisations will requireassistancetobridgethisgapbysupportingtheiruserssotheycanmakeuseofe‐infrastructuresservicestomanageandprocesstheirexperimentaldata.

TherecentlycompletedeInfraNetproject25broughttogethernationalfundingagencies26fromacrossEurope to explore the economics of e‐Infrastructuresand alignEuropean

25 http://e-infranet.eu/ 26 http://e-infranet.eu/partners/




policies with the needs of the member states. In its final report27the projectrecommended:

“The use of standards‐based private cloud infrastructuresmay also provide theneeded flexibility in case of jobs that exceed available resources through cloudbursting (the use of external public clouds for the exceeding capacity) or bypooling individual institutional private clouds into a federated cloud that canprovide the necessary resources in a federated way, following the extremelysuccessfulapproachalreadyinuseforGRIDs.”

ThemodelforanetworkofCentresofExcellencedescribedinthisdocumentcanserveasa blueprint to be expanded across Europe. The establishment ofCentresofExcellencecouldbesupportedbynationalfundingagenciestoaddresslocalorthematicneedsandprovideafocusforinnovationine‐Infrastructures.SuchnationalorthematicCentresofExcellenceshouldbeintegratedwithexistingEuropeane‐Infrastructures(seeRelationship to existing European e‐Infrastructures) andwill be in a position to hostdata,informationandservicesthatforpolicyreasonsneedtoremainwithinanationalcontext.As theseCentresofExcellencecomeonline theymustbe federatedtogether toprovideaEuropeandimensiontothee‐infrastructurecommons.

27 Cloud Computing Economics: An evidence-based approach for Research Applications http://e-infranet.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Cloud-Computing-Economics-An-evidence-based-approach-for-Research-Applications1.pdf




A Prototype Centre of Excellence AprototypeCentreofExcellenceisplannedinordertoactas“pathfinder”fortheoverallmodel and pilot service. It is proposed to use the resources installed by CERN at theWigner Research Centre for Physics in Budapest, Hungary29to develop a prototypeCentreofExcellence for the pilot service. TheWigner centrewas contracted by CERNfollowinga competitive call to tender towhichapproximately20sitesaroundEuroperesponded.WignerisoperatedasanextensiontotheCERNDataCentre(hostedontheCERNsiteinSwitzerland)andconsequentlyCERNcanassurethebusinesscontinuityforthecriticalsystemsincaseofmajorproblems.TheWignerdatacentreisconnectedtoCERN viamultiple 100Gbsnetwork links. CERN is integratedwithmany of theworldleadersininternationalnetworking,includinghostingaGEANTPointofPresence(PoP)aswellasbeingamajorcenterforcommercialnetworkingforbothtelecomssuppliersas well as Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Additional network options provided bypublicandprivatebodiesarewelcomeaccordingtotheneedsexpressedbytheusers,ranging from commodity IP services to dedicated circuits directly to Wigner or viaCERN.The following initial portfolio of serviceswill be provided by the prototypeCentreofExcellence:

Avirtualmulti‐tenantcomputeenvironmenttoprovisionandmanagenetworksofvirtualmachineson‐demand.

A‘dropbox’styleserviceforsecurefilesharingovertheinternet. A point‐to‐point reliable, automated file transfer service for bulk data

transfers30. An openAIRE compliant open access repository 31 for publications and

supportingdataallowinguserstocreateandcontroltheirowndigitallibraries.Persistent digital object identifiers will be assigned to all publically availableuploads so as to make them citable and permit the creation of a digital datacontinuumspanning fromexperimentaldata through topublications includinglinkstocommercialpublishers.

Along‐termarchivingservice32. Integrated Digital Conferencing 33 tools allowing users to manage their

conferences,workshopsandmeetings. Training services: Online training material34will be made available and re‐

enforced with advanced training via brief residential programmes and

29 http://press.web.cern.ch/press-releases/2013/06/cern-and-wigner-research-centre-physics-inaugurate-cern-data-centres 30 http://information-technology.web.cern.ch/services/file-transfer 31 http://www.zenodo.org/features 32 http://castor.web.cern.ch/ 33 http://indico-software.org/ 34 http://indico.cern.ch/categoryDisplay.py?categId=88




secondments,suchasCERN’sopenlabsummerstudentprogramme35,whichhasrecentlybeenexpandedwith the engagementofEIROforumorganisationsandmorecompanies.

These serviceswillbe implementedusing theOpenStack36opensource software suiteaccessible via the most popular interfaces (including EC2, S3 and potentially OCCI).OpenStackhasbeenselectedastheframeworkforthee‐infrastructureservicesofferedby the prototypeCentreofExcellence because it has emerged as a clear leader in thevibrant cloudmanagementmarket. CERNhas extensively tested the software andhasadopteditforthemanagementofitsproductionresourcesatitsdatacentreinGeneva.OpenStackisfullyopensourceanddistributedundertheApache2licensesupportedbya growing consortium of more than 180 private companies and public organisationswith a well‐defined and transparent governance structure representing a globalcommunityofmore than9,000peopleacross87countries.Morethan800developersare contributing to the software. All of these attributes means OpenStack does notrequire public funds to be maintained and offers one of the best environments forinnovation.RecentdevelopmentsleadCERNtoconcludethattheopensourcesoftwaretechnologywill shortly be available tomake this federation of a network ofCentresofExcellencetechnicallyfeasible.FederationisstatedasanobjectiveoftheOpenStackFoundation37:

“The vision of federation across deployed OpenStack clouds is critical to theOpenStack vision. At the core OpenStack is a framework for managing andprovisioning compute, network and storage. From that core many things arepossible. But,we hope andwill push for the OpenStack core to remain robust,consistentand stable.Yes,everydeploymentwillhave itsownconfigurationandtechnicalspecifications,butaslongasthecoreconceptsandnativeAPIsarerobustandconsistent,thepossibilitytodriverealinteroperabilitywillexistandthevaluefromthisisahugeadvantageoftheopencloudconcept”.

Long term sustainability, governance and collaborationwith industry are achievedbybuildingtheprototypeCentersofExcellenceontheexistingopensourcecommunityandmeansnationalandEuropeanfundingcanbefocusedoninnovation.TherationalisationofferedbytheprototypeCentreofExcellenceanditsintegrationintoahybridmodelwillprovideanumberofadvantages:

Provide a clear example of the scale and nature of the services thatwould berequiredfromcommercialsuppliers.

Offer“useraggregation”ofprocurementsincetheprototypeCentreofExcellencewill be in a position to negotiate with suppliers on behalf of all the partnerresearch organisations. Thiswill ensure that themost cost effectivemeans ofproviding a service will be available at any moment in time. This will also

35 http://openlab.web.cern.ch/news/cern-openlab-summer-student-programme-invites-2013-applications 36 http://www.openstack.org/ 37 http://www.rackspace.com/blog/an-open-letter-to-the-openstack-community/




simplify the contractual and administrative aspects ofprocuring services fromcommercialsuppliersforthecooperatingresearchorganisations.

Theprocurementanddeploymentcycleforthecentrewilltakeseveralmonthsandsotheintegrationwithcommercialcloudserviceproviderswillbeusedtoprovide additional capacity in the interim. This will bring added value to thecooperating research organisations and their users by making it simpler forthemtousecommercialcloudservicesin‘bursts’toaccessadditionalresourcestofulfilanyshort‐termrequirements.

The technical aspectsofmigratinguserworkloads to commercial serviceswillbesimplifiedandaccelerated.

The prototypeCentreofExcellencewillmake it possible to host data‐sets on acost‐neutral basis while offering open access so they can be exploited viacommercial services. This will remove the need for commercial suppliers tomake investments to host data‐sets without a clear estimation of how muchbusinesstheywillgenerate.

Thearchivingservicewouldofferameansofensuringthatdata‐setshaveasafeback‐upcopy.

Funding Model for the Prototype Centre of Excellence To ensure the sustainability of the prototype CentreofExcellencea funding model isenvisaged where all the stakeholders participate. Sustainability is seen as a processratherthanafixedsolutionandhencethefundingmodelwillevolveovertime.TheservicesprovidedbytheprototypeCentreofExcellencewillnotbemadeavailableon a commercial basis. CERN rents space in theWigner data centre and commercialsupplierscandiscussdirectlywiththelocalauthoritiesiftheyareinterestedinlocatingtheir own services inWigner. This co‐locationmodel is already used in a number ofcentresaroundEuropeofferingservicestothepublicresearchsector.The proposed fundingmodel for the pilot service is that CERNwill enter into formalagreementswithpartnerresearchorganisationsthatwishtojointlydevelopandusetheservicesofferedbytheprototypeCentreofExcellence.CERNwilltakeresponsibilityforoperating the services at theWigner data centre and the cost during the first year ofoperation will be covered by CERN. Beyond this first year, each partner researchorganisation engages to fund the cost of the services their registered users consumeaccording to a pay‐per‐usage model where the detailed cost model will be jointly‐developedduring the firstyear.Thecostsofoperating theWignersiteat thecapacityforeseenforCERN’sownusagewillcontinuetobepaidbyCERNitself.CERNwillchargeto the partner research organisations the additional costswhich are incurredwhenincreasingthesite’scapacityforthepurposeoftheCentreofExcellence.Theseadditionalcosts will include processors, storage, network switches, cabling, energy, softwarelicensing costs and operational staff. CERN will operate the services on the samehardware configurations38andat the same levelofquality as thoseoffered to itshigh

38 Technical Description Servers and Storage for Physics Data Processing, Acquisition and Control, CERN, MS-3903/IT, http://cds.cern.ch/record/1472671/files/MS-3903_Technical_Description.pdf




energyphysicsusercommunity.Toolsformonitoringtheresourcesconsumedandthequality of services provided will be made available by CERN. The services will beintegrated inabottom‐upmanner, startingwithbasic IaaSservicesandallowingeachpartnerresearchorganisationto integrateandmanagetheirownhigher‐levelservicesandportals.Anynewproposed servicewillonlybe introduced if there is at leastoneidentifiedpartner research organisation that is prepared to contribute to the costs ofoperating the service. Support for the cloud services will be integrated into CERN’sstandard service portal 39 . Effort will be required from each partner researchorganisation to curate their data‐sets, connect their identity federations, deploy theircommunity specific services and portals aswell asmanage the interactionwith theirregisteredusersandsupportactivities.

39 https://cern.service-now.com/service-portal/




Timeline Thetimelinebelowshowsthemajormilestonesforeseenfromconceptionthroughtotheestablishmentofthepilotservice.Summer2013:

SharevisionandimplementationwithECandnationalfundingagenciesanddiscusswaysinwhichtheycouldcontribute

September2013:

Discussengagementofexistinge‐InfrastructuresduringtheEGITechnicalForuminMadrid(16‐20September)

DiscussimplementationplanwithcommercialsuppliersduringHelixNebulageneralassemblyatEMBLinHeidelberg(23‐25September)

October2013:

DiscussimplementationplanwithEUDATprojectduringtheirconferenceinRome(28‐30October)

November2013:

ImplementationplanfortheprototypeCentreofExcellencerefinedwithfurtherdetailsofeachserviceoffered,SLA,termsandconditionsofservice

December2013:

Firstmeetingofmanagementboard Firstmeetingoftheuserforum

January2014:

Initialportfolioofservices(seePortfolioofServices)madeavailablefortestingbyasmallnumberofresearchpartnerorganisation(s)viatheprototypeCentreofExcellence

June2014:

ManagementboardmeetstoapproveopeningofthepilotserviceJuly2014:

Startofpilotservice