1. Marketplace & service catalog concepts, first design analysis
EGI Engage Project
Dean Flanders
Sept. 26, 2014

2. Vision from the European Commission:
In 2012 the European Commission emphasized: “…as most knowledge creation and transfer uses digital means, all barriers preventing seamless online access to digital research services for collaboration, computing and accessing scientific information and to e-infrastructures must be removed by promoting a digital ERA.”
Brussels, COM(2012) 392 final

3. What are we trying to do with the marketplace?
GOAL:
Enable people to share and discover ANY resource they need for science. These resources can be:
Local (e.g. core facilities, lab resources)
Other institutions (e.g. software tools, clusters)
Commercial (e.g. cloud services, software licensing)
OUTCOME:
Increased competitiveness of European researchers

4. Important aspects about “cloud”:
Cloud is just a business model enabled by technology
Enables efficient sharing of resources
Allows users to focus on their core business and value creation
Forces competition between providers
Levels the competitive playing field for large and small users

5. Cloud efficiencies:

6. We need a broader understanding of what a cloud service is…
…all of which need to be cloud enabled.

7. Science as a Service

8. Organizational structures have changed:
Org B
Org C
OrgD
OrgA
Org B
Org F
Org G
Org H
Org C
Org D
Org E
Old world: Hierarchical
New world: Federated

9. Audiences for the marketplace:
description
requirements
trust
users
Anyone (academic, commercial, private, etc.)
Support for multiple affiliations and discover resources.
groups
A group of people affiliated with one institution.
Track usage and billing information of resources used by their group.
organizations
Any legal entity (commercial, academic, NGO, association, etc.).
A legal entity that can control users and groups, and handle related billing information.
projects
A group of people affiliated with one or more organizations.
Useful for providing access to data.
communities
Like an organization but with people and groups affiliated with one or more organizations.
Useful for large collaborations across multiple institutions.
providers
Can be a lab, core facility, commercial, etc. Can be affiliated with one or more organizations/communities.
Publish into a service catalog, authentication services, billing, usage statistics,, etc.

10. Challenges they face:
Users: discovery of resources, easy access to resources
Groups: providing access to follow users in a group to resources, monitoring usage and billing of resources, approval processes
Organizations: catalog of local and external resources, facilitating billing, access management
Projects: giving access to results collected from different services
Communities: ability to organize resources shared across multiple institutions
Providers: tools allowing them to share resources internally and externally

11. What will the marketplace be?
marketplace = enablement platform
It will not be just a market place, but offer value added services such as authentication/security, mailing lists, statistics, etc. for users, groups, organizations, projects, communities, and providers.

12. A possible architecture:
user
group
organization
community
Favorites
Ratings
Etc.
Authentication (eduGAIN, social, enterprise, etc.)
Group management (organizational, local, etc.)
Attributes (billing information, ORCID, etc.)
Etc.
attribute providers
user profile
marketplace portal
directory / authentication
Search across all service types
Service Catalogs
Different catalogs (AppDB, GOCDB, Helix Nebula, IRIS, etc.)
Catalogs should deliver additional value to providers
Can have multiple of the same type of catalog
VM registry
software
instruments
cloud services
API
etc.
Plugin Modules
Different plugins for catalogs (e-GRANT, etc.)
Plugins should deliver additional value to service catalogs
Not mandatory to the catalogs.
Can have multiple of the same type of plugin
accounting / reporting
billing
persistent identifiers
proposals
etc.

13. Marketplace portal: Single portal to find all resources
Aggregation of service catalogs
User profile management
Ratings of services
Etc.

14. Directory:
Authentication: local, direct (e.g. organization), eduGAIN, social, etc.
Atrribute management/integration (billing information, address, ORCID, etc.)
Group management (local or organization integrated)
Support of concepts for users (multiple identities), groups (e.g. research), organizations (academic/commercial), communities, projects, and providers.
Self-service
Etc.

15. Service catalogs:
Types of items: software, cloud services, VMs, lab services, instruments, etc.
Self-service (i.e. a provider can register and use it immediately)
Provide search data into portal
Provide value added services to service providers to “cloud enable” them.
There can be redundant catalogs
Restrict visibility of resources

16. Plugins: Optional to providers Provide value added services
There can be redundant plugins

17. Challenges for the marketplace:
Conflict between open source and commercial services.
Commitment from organizations, providers and communities to the platform.
Duplication of entries

18. UK Digital Marketplace
Examples:
Net+ from Internet2
Science Exchange
UK Digital Marketplace

19. Questions for discussion:
What other functionalities are needed in the marketplace?
What functionalities are needed in the service catalogue?
How do they relate to each other?
What is the relationship with the pay-for-use activity and business model?