Download the final report...
TCD Pilot Final Consultation - Unleashing the NREN clouds
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The bottom line of the consultation process is the preliminary TCD service architecture depicted below. You might also want to read the paper submitted to the SUCRE CloudSource Magazine for more background information.
Consultation participants
TCD pilot core team:
Demands
Current services
Use case for TCD
Role of NREN
Role of TERENA
| Organisation | Contact person | Date and time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| GRNET | |||
| PSNC | |||
| CESNET | |||
| NIIF | |||
| BELNET | |||
| FCCN | |||
Other TERENA NRENs interested:
Demands
Current services
Use case for TCD
Role of NREN
Role of TERENA
| Organisation | Contact person | Date and time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| SURFnet | Andres Steijaert (GN3+ SA7 leader) | ||
| SWITCH | |||
| RENATER | |||
| DFN | |||
Non-TERENA organisations:
Demands
Current services
Use case for TCD
- Role of Organisation
Role of NREN
Role of TERENA
| Organisation | Contact person | Date and time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Srce | |||
| CESCA | |||
| CERN | |||
| RNP | |||
| AARnet | Angus Griffin | ||
University of Porto | |||
| Università Roma TRE | |||
Community and commercials:
Current services
Integration with TCD
Role of NREN
Role of TERENA
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- TCD should remain light-weight and mobile (i.e. to be moved anywhere in the cloud stack). It might be rough around the edges but serves its functions.
- TCD-based Storage Middleware is able to maintain the necessary trust and privacy (by federated access management, strong data encryption, and local metadata store) for the interim period while commercial/community cloud storage stacks do not support these features by default. In other words, TCD paves the way towards a cloud environment where users feel comfortable to be in the future.
- TCD can be used as a trusted portal (or common interface) for NREN cloud storage offerings going beyond the national jurisdictions. It facilitates community (NREN) provided storage to be shared across TERENA members.
- With TCD (i.e. by aggregating user demands and brokering down public cloud storage offerings) TERENA can apply pressure on the market. More and more communities should sign up for using TCD as a de facto cloud storage interface. Very first lessons and market reactions can be studied/learned from a public procurement for framework agreement with commercial cloud storage providers run by TERENA.
- In memoriam RECIPE project proposal.
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- Box focuses on value-added services, simple data storage is less than 10% of the entire picture.
- Box provides the entire cloud stack as an integrated service platform.
- It is a platform for online collaboration, document sharing, group management, virtual teams, collaborative work, etc.
- There is a slight risk of vendor lock-in but the REST API is still there and open.
- Direct integration with TCD might not be implemented in a sensible way. The Box cloud stack is pretty much closed, from front-end application up to back-end storage.
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The strategic direction to be taken by TERENA is gradually shaping as follows:
- TCD should focus on its main asset; maintaining trust and privacy of the client domain by separating metadata and encryption keys (to be kept in a trusted place) from the storage data (to be exported to back-end storage) at the domains' boundary.
- TCD should not compete with the feature-rich front-end sync&share applications available on the market (such as PowerFolder or OwnCloud platforms) instead, broker them to various public and/or NREN-provided storage back-ends in a trusted way.
- TCD should be a lightweight, thin layer (preferably controlled and operated by NRENs) separating/interfacing end-user application domains and cloud service provider domains; considered to be a "storage middleware".
- TCD should ensure the interoperability with some selected private storage service platforms (throughout strategic partnership) at the front-end as well as aggregating demands and relaying storage data to public cloud storage offerings (procured by TERENA under framework agreements) at the back-end.
In line with the strategic direction outlined above, TERENA will further explore:
A) the service brokering scenarios made available by the TCD-Pithos+ and the TCD-Swift integrations; different NREN storage infrastructures and/or public cloud storage back-ends can be brokered down to user domains in a trusted, privacy-controlled way.
B) the service integration scenarios with feature-rich end-user storage applications; both community-developed and commercial solutions (such as OwnCloud and PowerFolder) will be investigated for potential integration with TCD functionality to preserve trust and privacy.
Consultation notes (restricted for the moment)
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