GEANT interoperation approach and developments, the GEANT-CSP integration use case

GÉANT is investing on delivering the end-to-end network transport services required to access cloud/computing/storage/HPC resources across Europe. As such, it offers a specialized pan-European network connectivity substrate to the research commonity.  At the same time, GÉANT is focusing on the operational and service delivery integration of e-Infrastructures and is developing its systems and process capabilities required to implement it.
The developments in GÉANT are based on industry best-practices and standards, adapted to the Research and Education Networks (RENs) environment, as needed. Network e-infrastructures are expected to interoperate at the data plane end-to-end. Cloud/data center/computing/storage e-Infrastructures/service providers are expected to interconnect via the same data plane. 
GÉANT will present in the session its approach to operational integration, service fulfilment, orchestration and service automation between GÉANT/NREN/campus and data centre/cloud service providers (CSPs). This is expected to enable one-stop-shop interfaces for end users to provision combined services from multiple providers (e.g. local campus, NREN and GÉANT, cloud service providers) through a single interface and a single order. 
In order to achieve the goal of orchestrated service delivery, certain elements of each provider’s systems are expected to expose a set of capabilities both at the operations and business layers. For each user-perceived service, business layer modules and processes together with orchestration capabilities across SPs are required to interact for delivering a seamless, user-oriented service delivery experience and enable service composition from different service catalogues.  Ultimately, interoperable business layer service catalogues delivered by GÉANT and other RENs/e-Infrastructures will enable the required one-stop-shop for the user community.
Examples of process integration across providers include:

• Service Composition - utilizing service catalogue information as exposed by different service providers.
• Order Management - exposing status of each order process. An end to end service will comprise elements from different providers (such as campus connectivity, GEANT L2VPN connectivity, CSP connectivity, CSP host provisioning).
• Provisioning (across campus, GEANT/NREN, CSP infrastructures)
• Service Assurance – incident alerting and management
• Service Availability & SLA metrics
• Accounting Information – for potential billing purposes.

GÉANT and the NRENs have significant experience in multi-party operations and service delivery. They interconnect a majority of e-Infrastructures and service providers. Together with campus/last-mile environments, they provide a robust network connectivity substrate and a versatile ecosystem suitable to foster the e-Infrastructure integration.

Presenter: Afrodite Sevasti