Helix Nebula The Science Cloud Title: MS16 Technical workshop (co-located with EGI Technical Forum 2013) Editor: EGI.eu (Carmela Asero, Sergio Andreozzi) Milestone: MS16 Submission Date: 21.10.2013 Distribution: PU Nature: Milestone Revision history: 17/10/2013 V1 Full draft for internal review, Carmela Asero (EGI.eu) 21/10/2013 V2 Revised full draft for external review, Sergio Andreozzi (EGI.eu) 30/10/2013 V3 Management team feedback incorporated, Sergio Andreozzi (EGI.eu) 1
Contents 1 Introduction... 3 2 Workshop Structure and Topics... 3 2.1 Interoperability Roadmap and Security Policies... 4 2.2 Business models for publicly funded e-infrastructures in Helix Nebula... 4 2.3 Deploying Helix Nebula flagship applications in a hybrid scenario... 5 2.4 Connecting Helix Nebula to the Research & Education Network... 6 2.5 FitSM: lightweight standards for service management in federated cloud... 7 3 Conclusion... 9 Appendix A: Abstracts and Biographies... 10 Appendix B: Feedback survey... 13 2
1 Introduction The EC-funded support action within the Helix Nebula initiative has been working on coordinating effort to build a European cloud based scientific e Infrastructure composed of resources and services from commercial and publicly funded providers. The various aspects of interoperability and integrations have been developed and discussed along the course of the project with three main checkpoints in the form of open interoperability workshops. The first workshop 1 was co-located with the EGI Technical Forum in Prague (Sep 2012); the second workshop 2 was co-located with the second Helix Nebula General Assembly in Frascati (Jan 2013); the third workshop 3 was co-located with the EGI Technical Forum in Madrid (Sep 2013). This document reports on the third workshop that attracted 45 participants and provided an opportunity to review the interoperability recommendations listed in D6.1 published in May 2013 and to discuss the related implementation of actions (http://go.egi.eu/hnd61). As the Helix Nebula partners are planning to move into a production environment during 2014, implementation of interoperability recommendations and actions is crucial to achieve the objective of a hybrid cloud meeting the requirements of scientific communities. 2 Workshop Structure and Topics The event was structured in two sessions of 90 minutes each with discussions focused on a selected number of topics covered by the Helix Nebula initiative, including interoperability recommendations and roadmap, business model, technical deployment, collaboration with research & education networks, and service management. The main objective of this workshop was to inform the EGI Community about the integration and interoperability work between Helix Nebula and publicly funded e- Infrastructures and to offer the opportunity for feedback on the recommendations to be included in the roadmap 1 http://go.egi.eu/hnws1 2 http://go.egi.eu/hnws2 3 http://go.egi.eu/hnws3 3
2.1 Interoperability Roadmap and Security Policies Concerning interoperability, the main objective of the Helix Nebula initiative is to ensure that research communities can access cloud services using uniform interfaces across private or publicly owned service providers. The work carried out in the first year of the initiative and reported in D6.1 identified 3 possible integration scenarios and proposed 17 high-level recommendations classified using the 5 interoperability levels of the European Interoperability Framework 4. Further analysis resulted in the identification of 30 implementation actions with 3 levels of difficulty (low, medium, high) led by 6 owners to be considered by the Helix Nebula initiative with a timescale expanding beyond the end of the EC funded project. The presentation on the Interoperability Roadmap explained progress achieved on the various actions, and included ideas for possible collaboration in the security area, which were generated during a dedicated call between the EGI Security Policy Group Chair and a member of work package 5 within the Helix Nebula EC project. The presentation focused mainly on aspects preparing for decisions to be made at the third Helix Nebula General Assembly scheduled on 23-25 September. A final roadmap for integration of services among publicly funded e-infrastructures and commercial cloud providers will be delivered at the end of the EC co-funded Helix Nebula project. 2.2 Business models for publicly funded e-infrastructures in Helix Nebula The Helix Nebula WP7 is developing business models aiming at creating a sustainable ecosystem. By leveraging ecosystems, companies can deliver complex solutions while maintaining corporate focus. This approach allows exploiting each partner s strengths in a complementary way and to create a win-win situation for all parties involved. WP7 illustrated a series of possible business models for Helix Nebula, in line with current business orientation and academic literature built on detailed information provided by the Helix Nebula initiative members. A formulation of business models was presented to support the identification of the best roles and principles that could enable both commercial and publicly funded e- 4 http://ec.europa.eu/isa/documents/isa_annex_ii_eif_en.pdf 4
Infrastructures to operate together sustainably. The presentation analysed those scenarios and business models suitable in the short term and those to be considered in the long-term. On integration with publicly funded e-infrastructures, the different suppliers expressed interest in possible roles, according to the different business model scenarios accompanied by an evaluation framework outlined to facilitate decision-making processes by partners on models to be adopted. 2.3 Deploying Helix Nebula flagship applications on a hybrid model The EGI Federated Cloud is a federation of institutional private Clouds, offering Cloud Infrastructure as a Service to scientists in Europe and worldwide. The federation is based on open standards (e.g., OCCI, CDMI, OVF) supported by heterogeneous systems, so that there is no mandate on the cloud technology; the only condition is to expose the chosen interfaces and services. After a preparatory work carried out during this past summer, in September 2013 the ESA flagship application previously tested with commercial suppliers in Helix Nebula, was successfully deployed on the EGI Federated Cloud. This effort required the development of an OCCI connector to enable the Helix Nebula SlipStream-based Blue Box broker to interact with the EGI Federated Cloud service providers. EGI-InSPIRE personnel developed a proofof-concept version, while a full functional version is scheduled for the end of the year. The EnStratius-based Blue Box was not included in this test, as it does not support OCCI on the southbound supplier interface, while there was no available effort to invest on a closed source solution. 5 The ESA flagship application deployment on the EGI Federated Cloud demonstrated the possibility to provide processing services to ESA scientists using the EGI Federated Cloud resources. ESA Research and Service Support performed the tasks related to configuration and execution of the tests, SixSq provided the open source SlipStream software while EGI.eu provided the OCCI connector and coordination among the participating service providers. Service providers involved were: CESNET, using OpenNebula, for performance tests and multi-sites tests GRNET using synnefo, for multi-site tests 5 Following the 3 rd Helix Nebula General Assembly, Dell declared interest in developing an OCCI-compliant connector 5
CESGA on OpenNebula who hosted the SlipStream server Results of the deployment of the ESA Proof of Concept on the EGI Federated Cloud were very encouraging. In particular: The ESA flagship application was deployed on the EGI Federated Cloud providers using the same technology (SlipStream), interface and VMs used within the commercial providers thus demonstrating interoperability between academic and commercial clouds (note: the hybrid scenario where publicly-funded and commercial providers are used at the same time from the customer will be tested by CERN) The deployment was agnostic in terms of the cloud technology used; SlipStream worked with the same connector and configuration on OpenNebula and Synnefo sites Test on various aspects such as site availability and performances had results showing that measured performance indicators are in line with commercial providers The Globus-based computing cluster deployment was run in one-click Next steps include the deployment of the Helix Nebula CERN flagship application in a hybrid model where resources from both commercial providers and publicly funded e- Infrastructure are involved simultaneously. CERN expressed interest in deploying its flagship application on the hybrid model by the end of November 2013. 2.4 Connecting Helix Nebula to the Research & Education Network Collaboration agreements with DANTE were achieved since the 1 st Helix Nebula Interoperability Workshop in September 2012. Since then, DANTE has joined the Helix Nebula initiative and worked together with suppliers and partnering scientific institutions to provide connectivity via GÉANT, among demand side partners sites and the commercial providers. All R&E demand sites are already connected to GÉANT either directly or via NRENs (see Figure 1). 6
Figure 1 Current topology of connectivity offered by Géant to Helix Nebula providers to deploy flagship use cases CloudSigma is currently connected to SWITCH at 10Gbps, T-Systems is connected directly to GÉANT in Vienna, Atos is connected to SURFnet at 1Gbps, and Interoute is planning interconnection with GEANT in London at 1Gbps. DANTE presented a proposal to allow traffic between suppliers to: 1. Deploy experiments in a federated cloud scenario 2. Allow storage over multiple suppliers and to allow storage and compute on different suppliers as requested by ESA. This has been authorised only for testing scenarios. Moving to production, the policy and related revenue model need to be discussed and agreed. 2.5 FitSM: lightweight standards for service management in federated cloud The FedSM project introduced FitSM, a lightweight standard family for aligning service management in federated IT service provision. Typical federation management issues pertain to establishing collaboration when members are not organized in a hierarchy, heterogeneity of federation members who may vary by country, sector and depending in the type of organization (academic, commercial, public sector). Lack of cohesive provider management and lack of IT Service Management knowledge in general in new providers are other critical aspects and, when implemented, IT service 7
management varies across federation and customers are usually passive and most often do not state nor require specific service levels. The presentation focused on advantages of a common and simple service management for the federation across commercial providers, who usually have mature IT service management practices, on pros and cons of other service management tools such as ITIL, where the structure is too complex for flexible federations. FitSM offers a simple, achievable baseline for (federated IT) Service Management: Commercial providers expressed interest in the adoption of FitSM for IT Service Management in Helix Nebula. 8
3 Conclusion This document reported on the organisation and points addressed at the third workshop concerning interoperability and integration of cloud services among commercial and publicly funded suppliers. When compared to the first edition of the event, the relevant progress made in identifying the important topics, developing the discussion and achieving consensus on the way forward is evident. The discussion held in the course of this workshop led to conclusions and the definition of next steps in a number of areas. Regarding the security area, it was agreed that by the end of the initiative, it should be achieved in agreement with the common security requirements. Security challenge is related only to the Blue Box, therefore in the current structure, it does not have an impact on EGI. Concerning the interoperability roadmap, actions were revised with the suppliers for an agreement on the level of difficulty. Considering that there is no effort directly funded to implement the interoperability recommendations, it was suggested to define a priority level and deadline and to focus on the most important and achievable actions through synergies with other on-going activities (priorities and deadline will be defined in November 2013). In the area of business models, both DANTE and EGI.eu offered their views on possible roles to cover during the production phase. The inputs have been incorporated in the Helix Nebula deliverable D7.2. In particular, DANTE clarified that the supplier-to-supplier connectivity among commercial providers can only be available for testing purposes and that the capability to use it in production needs approval from the GEANT partners with strong support from the demand side. It was noted also that the competition analysis should be revisited considering the launch of the Deutsche Börse Cloud Exchange. Concerning the evolution of the Blue Box, both EGI and DANTE expressed interest in joining the TechArch group so as to create synergies with activities performed within the publicly funded activities. 9
Appendix A: Abstracts and Biographies Interoperability Roadmap Integration and interoperation of Commercial Cloud resources with e-infrastructures is a crucial aspect for the success of the Helix Nebula initiative. Following the Helix Nebula report on Interoperability requirement published in spring 2013, recommendations and next steps on interoperability will be discussed to gather feedback and help shape the Interoperability Roadmap Sergio Andreozzi Sergio has been involved in grid computing since 2002, when he joined INFN to work on interoperability aspects. In June 2010, he joined EGI.eu as the Strategy and Policy Manager. Sergio holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Bologna and an MSc in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Pisa. Carmela Asero Carmela holds a degree in Economics an MA in Diplomatic Studies and an MSc in ebusiness. Before joining EGI, as Senior Strategy and Policy Officer, Carmela worked as Scientific Officer and Communication Officer within different EU Institutions where she was involved in innovation strategy and management of projects in the e-infrastructures area. Business models for publicly funded e-infrastructures in Helix Nebula The subject of this presentation is the business model innovation for Helix Nebula integrating public and commercial providers. It will show the results of the business model innovation workshops and corresponding surveys and interviews conducted by SAP with the supplier and demand side of Helix Nebula. 7 potential business models with specific and overarching broker roles have been identified. These broker roles can create opportunities for public providers to enter the field of Helix Nebula by creating a win-win situation for all involved parties by lowering risks and costs for the supplier side. Julia Doll Julia holds a Master of Science majoring in Management Information Systems from the University of Mannheim and a Master of Business majoring in Marketing from the University of Queensland, Australia. Julia has been working at SAP since 2007 in several areas comprising: Product Management, Business Development and Business Model Innovation Research. Since 2012 she joined SAP Switzerland as Project Lead for Business Model Innovation. She has coached several projects regarding analysis, design and 10
evaluation of business models. Her current research focuses on business model elements and their correlation. Deploying Helix Nebula flagship applications in a hybrid scenario This presentation will provide a general overview of the Blue Box architecture and the main technical interoperability aspects that should be considered when evaluating Blue Box implementations. An update on the discussion about interoperability with e- Infrastructure and the EGI Federated Cloud Initiative will also be provided. The goal is to support the discussion on identifying requirements for technical interoperability Salvatore Pinto Salvatore graduated in Electronic Engineering at the University of Salerno, Italy. He started working on Grid operations in July 2009 for the European Space Agency in Rome. He first faced Cloud Technologies in September 2010, using them as a new way to support scientific algorithms development and data processing needs. He joined the EGI Operations Team as Cloud Technology specialist in July 2013. Connecting Helix Nebula to the Research & Education Network The talk will centre on the support provided by GEANT to the Helix Nebula initiative. It will examine the current status of the connections of the entities, how it may evolve during the remainder of the initiative. Thoughts on a long term business model will also be presented. The talk will introduce the work GEANT is performing in the area of SDN for cloud services and the collaboration with Helix nebula on the same topic. Roberto Sabatino Roberto is Business Solutions Consultant at DANTE, where his work focuses on working with international users and scientific collaborations. His work involves developing network solutions to meet the needs of the collaborations, in consultation with NRENs and the users. FitSM: lightweight standards for service management in federated cloud Federated clouds impose more complex management challenges than single-supplier cloud solutions. Existing IT Service Management (ITSM) approaches such as ISO/IEC 20000 and ITIL include useful approaches but can be heavyweight and difficult to implement across federated communities. FitSM is a lightweight standard for service management tailored to federated communities, aimed at addressing this need for federated clouds and other 11
federated e-infrastructures. It offers simple, achievable approaches to ITSM as well as a common basis for interaction between suppliers on service management topics. Owen Appleton Owen Appleton has worked in a range of roles, from PR to journalism and communications strategy, as well as working on entrepreneurial projects, at CERN and on numerous EC funded research initiatives. More recently Owen has been dealing with service management issues around large-scale federated infrastructures. He is ITIL certified and has played prominent roles in the gslm and FedSM projects as well as providing service management consultancy to infrastructure providers and working with IT management training organisations. 12
Appendix B: Feedback survey 13
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Q5 Tangible benefits of interoperability for demand side, standards used to achieve it, relation to the goals of the DAE Legal issues - with a specific list to go through not general discussions. Also a more roundtable session on ITSM issues (rather than just presentations) as need consensus in supply side on this. The impact of open science Legal aspects, clearly separating perceived issues and real ones to move forward with concrete actions. Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure (AAI) Data, possibly via EUDAT. 16
Q6 The workshop was well organized but more time for discussions is always good. Thanks! More discussion would have been good- but that requires more attendees than there were! I think next interoperability session should be at an HN plenary, but invite people specifically to contribute. 17