18 CONNECT ISSUE 20 2015

SERVICES

EEDDUUGGAAIINN GGAAIINNSSTTRRAACCTTIIOONN IINNGGRREEEECCEECCRROOSSSSIINNGG OOCCEEAANNSS TTOO CCOONNNNEECCTTThe appropriately named ~okeanos service is an ambitious Infrastructureas a Service (IaaS) rolled out by GRNET, Greece’s NREN in 2011. Okeanosis the Greek word for ocean – a symbol of abundance. Oceans are a forcethat transforms our world by storing and delivering energy, oxygen and life to our planet – an unfailing well of resources.

AANN IINNTTUUIITTIIVVEE,, SSIIMMPPLLEEAANNDD EEFFFFEECCTTIIVVEEAAPPPPRROOAACCHH TTOO AACCHHIIEEVVEEEEUURROOPPEEAANN--WWIIDDEE AAAAIIIINNFFRRAASSTTRRUUCCTTUURREEThe eduGAIN interfederation serviceenables Identity Federations to uniteacademic and research institutions andparticipate in a global network viaREFEDs (Research & EducationFederations). This allows users toseamlessly connect and collaborate withcolleagues across the globe via WebSingle Sign On (Web SSO) and ensurestrustworthy and secure identity,authentication and authorization, locallyand in collaboration with partnersaround the world. With simplifiedadministration, institutions only have tobe responsible for their own users’accounts. Content providers andmember institutions can reach a largeracademic audience with more services,and users enjoy a diverse serviceportfolio.

eduGAIN is leading the way for moreintuitive, simpler access and increasedservice adoption throughout the GÉANTnetwork.

Every day over 40 federationsacross the globe participate in, or are inthe process of joining eduGAIN, withapproximately 1,500 identity providersand 1000 service providers. eduGAIN ishelping them to leverage the power ofonline services that are crucial toresearch and education.

When the developers of ~okeanosexpanded their reach to offer theservices to the global R&E community,having eduGAIN in place and workinghelped them gain visibility for the servicethroughout the world. According toPanos Louridas, project manager forGRNET’s cloud initiatives, this “softpower” approach has paid off. “Weknow a great deal of people have used~okeanos-global, and so through thatthey have become more familiar with ourservices. Today, we have users all overthe world adopting ~okeanos. Webelieve that this growth comes fromspreading knowledge by word-of-mouth, so the investment in theeduGAIN infrastructure has paid off.”

Based on this success, GRNET isconsidering integrating more “GRNET-grown” services via eduGAIN. “For quitea while, we have been operating aproduction quality e-polling and surveysystem called Zeus. The next step is tomake it available throughout GÉANT sothat people can carry out fullyanonymised, verifiable surveys and polls,rather than relying on Doodle orproprietary systems.”

~okeanos delivers production-qualityIaaS to the Greek Academic andResearch Community so that students,professors, and researchers can diveinto the 'ocean' for free and get the fullpower of virtual infrastructures incomputing, networking and storage –easily and cost effectively. The service isrun from their own data centres, overtheir own dark fibre network.

What this means is that users can“build” their own computer, alwaysconnected to the Internet, withoutworrying about hardware failures,spaghetti cables, connectivity hiccupsand software troubles. Users canmanage, destroy, connect and doalmost anything they like to the virtualmachines and network all from insidetheir favourite web browser. They canalso store your files online, share themand access them anytime, fromanywhere in the world.

Is the spirit of making computingand access as easy as possible, GRNEToffers federated login using Shibboleth.This has enabled GRNET to offer~okeanos-global (hhttttppss::////ookkeeaannooss--gglloobbaall..ggrrnneett..ggrr), an ~okeanosinstallation available through eduGAIN.Greek ~okeanos users have alwaysbeen able to use the same credentialsthey use to login to university orresearch centre accounts; eduGAINusers can also get a taste of ~okeanosby using their home credentials to loginto ~okeanos-global.