Collaborations Unleashed

transcript

Harold TeunissenSeptember 2012 - #gartnerpcc

Lessons-learned

Collaborations Unleashed - #gartnerpcc - 2012 - London, UK

How it starts...

About SURFnet

• Our mission is to improve higher education and research by promoting, developing, and operating a trusted, connecting ICT infrastructure that facilitates optimum use of the possibilities offered by ICT

• SURFnet is the National Research and Education Network in the Netherlands, non-profit.

• Focus areas- a network infrastructure: a hybrid fixed-wireless network as the basis

for all collaboration, providing efficient, unlimited data transport- a collaboration infrastructure: a pioneering collaboration environment

that seamlessly connects systems, services, tools, and people

Cyberinfra in the Netherlands

• All ICT activities for Higher Education and Research in the Netherlands are under the SURF umbrella

Shared Professional and Educational Services

Scientific Computing & Storage

Commercial ICT Products & Services

National Research & Education Network

Changing behaviors

Motive

Source: LinkedIn & Sir Ken Robison

Vision

Network C

Network BNetwork A

Vision

Virtual Collaboration B

Virtual Collaboration A

Collaboration eco-system

Bridging gaps

VirtualCollaboration

DNA Sequencer

Research Data StorageCollaboration Portal

Bandwidth on demand

09 12 14

From mix and match of tools...

...to a collaboration environment

Source: Alex Eylar

Once upon a time

• In 2004 we started with our home grown and monolithical document sharing environment SURFgroepen with over 100,000 users

• In 2009 it was time for a major overhaul — make or buy?• Requirements

- How to provide federated access and authorization?- How to include groups?- How to support collaboration between people from different

institutions and universities?- Which collaboration tools are needed?- How to bring everything together in a browser?

Selection of collaboration services

An impression

Circle of pain

Relationship

AuthorizationAccess Control

Users and teams

University or institution

Resources & services

Account overload

Source: K. Menessier

Errhhh...

Source: K. Menessier

So give it away

One account to rule them all

Source: RcMacStudent

In practice

redirect to home institution

haroldteunissen

●●●●●●●●●●●●

back to service

Hup and spoke

Source: F. Garcia

SURFconext

• Provides the glue and lubrication middleware to make campus, cloud based services and resources usable for collaboration for both inter campus and virtual collaboration scenarios

• SURFconext provides a centrally managed Identity and Group Infrastructure

• Offer the platform software for large, virtual collaboration-type collaboration to run-you-own

• SURFconext allows you to create your own collaboration environment that organizes your (online) services but keep in control of your users

Collaborations Unleashed - #gartnerpcc - 2012 - London, UK 23

Core components

• Federated Identity Management — SAML• Group Management — Internet2‘s Grouper• Social Network 'Portal' technology — OpenSocial• Collaboration Services and Resources

- Document Sharing- Video Collaboration- Learning Systems- Data Storage- Data Mining- Workspaces- Workflows- Et cetera

9000CALORIES

100% SATISFACTION

Virtual Organization

What our universities are saying

Lessons learned (1)

• We were (and are) convinced that SURFconext is the way to build collaboration environments on and thus we announced the termination of SURFgroepen for end of 2012

• ICT managers of the universities believed that SURFconext will be the replacement of SURFgroepen and solve all their ICT problems for document sharing

• Students, educators, researchers already using cloud services and swipe their credit cards when needed

• There is no way to build collaboration environments if you don’t have contracts with cloud service providers

• Cloud service providers want everything for themselves

So let’s get organized

Security & Privacy

Start acting

InfrastructureDevelopment of OpenConext and exploitation

of SURFconext federated identity and groups management middleware

AdoptionPilots to support the adoption of new services

provided through SURFconext

Vendor Management

Online/cloud/collaboration services supply chain

InfrastructureFocus on technology

AdoptionPilots to support the adoption of new

services provided through SURFconext

ServicesOnline/cloud/collaboration services

supply chain

It is about getting the product...

Source: Alaine Delorme

...to market

Source: Reuters

• Creating a one-stop-shop of online services• With the same conditions for whole community• Both serving the short and long tail in service demand

- Collaboration services (e.g. Google Apps, Office365)- Audio & video (conferencing) services (e.g. Cisco WebEx) - Infrastructure as a Service (e.g. Amazon AWS, greenqloud) - Niche services for specific research and education domains

Vendor Management

One stop shop

Looking for...

€3.50/seat

€0Box

Google for EduGoogle Apps for Education is a free suite of hosted email and collaboration...

Collaboration Servicesmore...

Collaboration tools adopted by over 100000 companies globally...

6 itemsHarold Teunissen

Administrator

€0.12/VM

greenqloudOur public compute cloud automates many of the tedious and difficult..

Infrastructure Servicesmore...

€0.15/GB

Amazon AWSAmazon offers a cloud computing solution on a pay per use basis....

Marketplace

With Office 365, you can get your work done securely and communicate real-time from almost anywhere. Combining Office

with Office 365 unlocks the full potential of Office 365 as the best solution for

productivity, collaboration, communication, and worry-free IT.

Service Station

Market

Licenses

Provisioning

Policies

Searchlooking for...

Service Dashboard

Service station

2012-08-25 15:49:35 GMT+2

Office365 Google EDU Box SAP SW more...

Since Start This WeekThis Month

GoGrid Amazon EC2 Azure greenqloud

23,412 KWh

13,2Kg

324.7Kg

Energy usedThe total watt hours used

CO2 emittedTotal CO2 emission since start

CO2 savedThe total CO2 saved since start

This WeekThis MonthSince Start

overall health overall health overall health

Collaboration Infrastructure SURFconext

Service Station

€Budget

1-JAN-12

Actuals

25-AUG-12

€Saved

25-AUG-12

KgCO2 Saved

25-AUG-12

Harold Teunissen

Administrator

Service Station

Market

Licenses

Provisioning

Policies

Take them by the hand

Smooth adoption

• Ensuring proper adoption of collaboration eco-system by higher educational institutions, research institutions and virtual organizations

• We have also found that running pilots with early adopters amongst our institutions is important for fine-tuning and improving ideas and middleware solutions

• Providing a good showcase for other possibly interested institutions and service providers

Lessons learned (2)

• We started with technology and we ended with a mind shift towards cloud distribution for higher education

• It is an illusion to think that you can create the blueprint collaboration environments, so start small and get the users involved

• You need enough critical mass to influence cloud service providers to start listening and adapting to your needs, so get organized

• Focus on big fish or niche?• Universities and research groups are both consumers and

providers of services

• Stop talking, just start doing it• Create freedom and build upon trust• Management of expectations• Involve all stakeholders• Synergize technology, business and organization

• And for all, patience...

Key takeaways

harold.teunissen@surfnet.nl haroldteunissen