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- Vidyo provides the video conferencing technology and software.
- CERN provides hosting in their highly reliable cloud infrastructure.
- GÉANT manages end-user licenses, accounts, billing and provides second line support.
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We have received 14 NREN answers so far; 10 from the TF-WebRTC community participants and 4 from outside.
List of NRENs who answered:
Belnet, DFN, RENAM, MREN, GARR, LITNET, PSNC, NIIF, HEAnet, ARNES, NORDUnet, UNINETT, JISC, FCT/FCCN
Answers:
There is a clear trend of migrating from traditional H.323/SIP hardware based VC systems to Web-based RTC software solutions.
The "Other" category mostly represents the cases where the traditional and the new service types co-exist and/or interoperate.
Most of the NRENs are willing and able to host video conferencing services (any type) in their own infrastructure (85.7%).
This does not necessarily mean that any hosted solution would not be interesting for them, this is just the fact that they are technically capable.
Some NRENs would be happy to take video conferencing services from other partner NRENs (and presumably from GÉANT and/or other community members), others not.
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2 answers are definitely not and 4 answers are more likely. The detailed analysis below attempts to explain the main reasons behind the results.
Detailed analysis
1) Looking more into the details, it turns out that LITNET, HEAnet, JISC and NIIF already have Vidyo services. HEAnet and JISC are sharing the same Vscene/Vidyo service of JISC.
- What I learned off-line is that HEAnet would be interested in comparing the JISC Vscene/Vidyo offer with the Vidyo/CERN/GÉANT offer.
- Both NIIF and JISC would be interested in integrating their existing Vidyo services with a third-party service but only for offloading peek demands from their own service to the other. Kinda back-up/extension if you like.
2) There were only 3 NRENs being more positive about the Vidyo/CERN/GÉANT deal specifying their needs:
- RENAM: 15 institutions - 2,500 users
- LITNET: 20 institutions - 10,000 users
- HEAnet: 30 institutions - 10,000 users
These numbers clearly show that the current deal is not scalable without tendering procurement!
Counting with 10:1 ratio (CERN info) this demand represents 2250 Vidyo licenses per year, counting with 50:1 ratio (Internet2 info) this is 450 licenses per year.
Remember we can only buy about 500 licenses without procurement and SWITCH already blocks 50 and potentially an extra 50 soon.
3) I also got some informal feedback on pricing. Most of the people who I talked to told me that 1000 EUR/license/year is expensive!
A realistic price that some of them could imagine would be about 500-600 EUR/license/year in case of a hosted solution. This is understandable as most of them would only use it for back-up/extension purposes.
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