...
The aim of this pilot is to explore possible deployment scenarios for a trusted personal storage service for NRENsacademia. The pilot will be built upon a federated software platform (“the cloud broker facility”i.e. the Cloud Broker Platform) that offers the ability to easily connect different storage back-end (both private and public cloud storage back-end are supported) and store users data in a secure and privacy preserving way (thanks to the separation of storage data and metadata as well as the built-in encryption functionality) in the cloud.
...
Main technical characteristics of the pilot
The pilot will installing be prototyping and operating the “cloud broker” which will be based on Cloud Broker Platform, the open software developed by UNINETT Sigma in 2010 as part of the NEON project.This proposed , at TERENA and some selected NRENs, Universities, and other institutes.This prototype software has been built with the basic idea of separating the storage data (i.e. encrypted content) from the metadata (i.e. encryption keys, filenames, size, date, etc). By keeping the metadata store “on premises” data confidentiality is guaranteed under the assumption that the premises are inside a “trusted domain” – e.g. TERENA.
...
The technical part of the pilot will consist of installing all the components depicted in the picture above: namely a centralised centralized cloud broker for the TERENA’s community (the green box depicted in the picture above), the web portal to access the system (front-end) and the storage back-end. The pilot will be carried out in two phases:
- Phase i - Local installation of the platform at the TERENA office. During this phase the cloud broker (the elements in the green box above) will be installed and connected to a limited storage backend back-end offered by TERENA. A simple web portal and the necessary support for the federated access will also be developed. For this phase TERENA will sub-contract the software developer, Maarten Koopmans who will provide the necessary support for the installation. The platform will be evaluated and tested by a limited number of NRENs’ experts coordinated by TERENA.
- Phase ii - Upon successful test of Phase i, NRENs will be invited to participate in the pilot (NRENs that have already expressed their interest in participating are HEAnet, NIIF, BELNET, PSNC, and CARNet/Srce) either adding their own cloud storage back-end and/or developing new front-end applications to the cloud broker. An additional public storage back-end will also be added. During this phase it is envisage that NRENs will offer a limited number of end-users to provide feedback on the usability of the system. Although most of the user requirements will not implemented during the pilot phase, they will help shape and understand the type of service users would be looking for.
...