GÉANT2 - A hot topic!

A review of “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” panel discussion at TNC 2008

Tuesday 27 May 2008, Cambridge, UK: Temperatures were running high in the Strauss Room: not just a result of the sunny day outside. With over 130 people attending the GÉANT2 panel discussion, the floor was opened to the audience, following short presentations by the five panel members identifying key issues in the project.

The session was kicked off by Robin Arak (EU Projects Reviewer, director of an IT consultancy and of an engineering company, and ex-Chief Executive of JANET) presenting an overview of what he felt had gone well and not so well with the GN2 project, including the GÉANT2 network and services. He highlighted where lessons could be learned and taken forward to the project’s successor.

Despite the disappointing take-up of P2P services, Robin praised in particular the world-class GÉANT2 hybrid network, user support & consultancy and strategic studies. He commented on the mixed success of the JRA services development work, expressing concern that many NRENs had promised human resource and effort but that had not always been realised.

On the management side, he recognised that there was room for improvement, observing, as is often the case in managing by committee, that is has been difficult to make pragmatic decisions quickly (a particular point that was also made by members of the audience). When it came to marketing, despite some good promotion, the EARNEST study found that of the 4,000 senior researchers surveyed, only 5% knew about the GÉANT2 network. He stressed that users must be aware of the network’s existence if we are to encourage take-up of new and innovative services (audience members questioned whether users did need to know about the “commodity” services of GÉANT2). Robin made the point that marketing in the project is often done by the technical people, taking effort from the technical activities and that it would be better done by the professionals.

For more information: http://tnc2008.terena.org/schedule/presentations/show.php?pres_id=101

Then there were four lightening presentations, each introducing an issue for discussion:

Dai Davies (General Manager of DANTE) introduced the Marketing-led vs. Technology-led debate by comparing the Sinclair C5 to the Singapore Airlines Airbus service. The C5 concept car was developed primarily because of the technical challenge that the airline was concerned with of providing the comfort and experience that customers want. Dai purported that any GN2 successor project must become more marketing-led, and not led by technicians. For more information: http://tnc2008.terena.org/schedule/presentations/show.php?pres_id=102
Diego Lopez (responsible for middleware at RedIRIS) argued the case for middleware services as core infrastructure, in response to the challenges specific in providing services in a multi-country environment. He stressed that applications are key to a successful network and that a lot of collaboration is needed to ensure services can operate transparently between countries. For more information: http://tnc2008.terena.org/schedule/presentations/show.php?pres_id=104
Michael Nowlan (Independent Consultant, ex-Director of the Information Systems Services at Trinity College Dublin) wants to “network the networkers” and increase accessibility to non-technical users. The majority of GÉANT2 users are from “big science” e.g. astronomy, medicine and engineering, whose members are better able to cope with the complex technology and set-up procedures. Michael stressed the need to make the network and services available to those researchers and performers who are less technically-able. For more information: http://tnc2008.terena.org/schedule/presentations/show.php?pres_id=105
Cees de Laat (Associate Professor and Group Leader of the System and Network Engineering Science group, University of Amsterdam) looked at the research and innovation perspective, focussing on the P2P services in particular. He identified the good work being done between GÉANT2 and Internet2 with on-demand circuit provisioning, but questioned GÉANT2’s future if regional lambda exchanges were set up in all NRENs - provoking heated debate on whether the capability of such an un-regulated “network” was really any replacement for the stability of pan-European GÉANT2. He also queried whether the correct R&D partners had been identified and if risky innovation should be furthered if it was at the expense of reliable services. For more information: http://tnc2008.terena.org/schedule/presentations/show.php?pres_id=103

Then was an open forum with the audience reacting to the issues raised and addressing questions to the panel. You can watch the archived video at http://tnc2008.terena.org/media/archive.php?stream=32&quality=hi

For more information about the speakers and to view their presentation slides, visit http://tnc2008.terena.org/schedule/sessions/show.php?sess_id=32