Future of MSP Management: Status Report and Insights on Service Portfolios

1. Status Report & FutureTF-MSPManagement of Service Portfolios Alberto PEREZ Walter van Dijk John DYER 3 June 2010

2. Community Participation • More than 80 members of the TF-MSP email distribution list • Most NRENs represented • Encourage more NREN management involvement • Activity in 2010 • Jan Account Management role in NRENs • Feb AARNET survey on value of services • Mar Agreements between NRENs & POP hosts • Apr Collating material for PSP • May Peering with Cloud Service Providers

3. The TF-MSP wiki • A repository of useful information and experiences which NRENs can draw upon: • Customer Relationship Management Systems • Demonstrating the Value of Services • Links to NRENS Strategy and Corporate • Links to NREN Service Level Agreements • Commoditization of Services and the NRENs

4. 2010 Activities to date • February 2010 • Meeting hosted by GARR • Focus on the planning, development & experiences of introducing CRM systems into NRENs • Presentations: SURFnet; HUNGARNET; HEANET; GARR; DANTE; BELNET; JANET • Data collected from 11 NRENs, now available from TF-MSP wiki • Re-chartered by TEC – New 2 year mandate • Chair, Walter van Dijk • Co-chairs, Alberto Perez, Koen Schelkens,

5. Joint TF-MSP/TF-CPR MeetingMonday 31 May, Vilnius • Focus: Commoditization of Services • To review and debate the opportunities and threat of cloud-services on the NRENs • Scene setting presentations: • Introduction to Cloud and Commoditization • UK NESC • Debates in Spain from RedIRIS • Experiences in Netherlands from SURFnet • A view from the NORDIC CTOs Forum • Group Discussions => Conclusions

6. Joint Discussions • Examined three statements taken from “The Case for NRENs” published Jan 2009 • Discuss their current validity in the light of development of cloud services • Make some observations & recommendations

7. Statement 1 • NRENs are still able to provide services that are generally better or more economic than those from commercial services providers • True by Definition for some services • Where it is not true, the community should consider adopting market solutions. These would benefit from NREN mediation - for instance in the federation of identities or better prices or specific support

8. Statement 2 • NRENs generally operate as a network for a closed group of users who have advanced requirements to support their research and education users • CUG is defined locally by each NREN • Should not focus solely on the “Type-A” users. Market is not big enough. Need to support the millions of Type-B & Type-C • Should focus on service capabilities (eg mobility) rather than one technical solution.

9. Statement 3 • The NRENs do not compete with commercial ISPs, but offer a different level of service in parallel with them • NRENs should concentrate on the “blue water”, not compete in the “red-water” • The NREN USPs are: • The advantages of the NREN club • The high level of trust accorded to NRENs • Ability to provide security and help in ensuring this in public clouds

10. Observations • The choice of use of the NREN network is an unconscious default choice for many users. • We should attempt to make the choice to use the NREN network a conscious choice • End users make their individual decisions and can inadvertently lock some groups into propriety cloud-solutions – NRENs should strive to ensure openness as they did with propriety networking 20 years ago. • Serving the niche market of advanced (Type-A) users might not be enough • Need to address all user types A,B,C • The situation is different in different countries

11. The NORDIC CTOs have a modelSharing & Exchanging of Service • Benefit to all NORDIC NRENs • Based on a clearing house model • Scalable • Such a model has already proved on a European scale, among others, by TERENA • Trusted Introducer – A system of accreditation of trust provided by 3rd party as a service managed by TERENA • TERENA Certificate Service – A service through which certificates can be obtained by NRENs fro a 3rd party supplier under a contract managed by TERENA • TF-MSP intends to bring at least 1 new example in the next 12 months

12. A Market Place for NRENs • NRENs mostly make their plans nationally • We could try and coordinate and profit for joint development/procurement/management • Possible “candidates”: • * HD videoconferencing (MCU + booking service etc.) • * AdobeConnect • * Mobility (e.g., iPass) • * Mailing list service • * Spam filtering • * Document sharing using cloud services (federated!)

13. Meeting Plans for 2010 • Two Future Meetings • Non-technical aspects of Managed Dark Fiber Location: MadridDates: 6/7 September 2010 • Clouds / New Business Models / Working TogetherLocation: TBCDates: 8/9 November 2010