Terena cloud services study

part of the ASPIRE program

Terena conducts a study on cloud services. It is part of the ASPIRE program. The study focuses on how NREN's (Terena member organizations) can benefit from cloud services.The study aims to:

1. Give an overview of the status at NREN's; their current position on cloud services and their roadmap.
2. Describe the components involved in defining a cloud strategy and adopting cloud services.
3. Provide a number of scenario's for the role NREN's can play in making cloud services available to their members, with corresponding organizational models.
4. Define possible topics for further exploration and collaboration through Terena

To achieve these goals, the Terena cloud study consists of the following activities:

1. Survey
A questionnaire that will be distributed amongst all member organizations at CIO level. It will contain a number of questions regarding cloud services. 

• The relevance of cloud services.
• The opportunities cloud services offer.
• The threats, challenges and issues surrounding the cloud (financial, technical, legal, privacy, security and regulatory aspects)
• The most viable distribution models (private, community, public cloud).
• The most viable services types (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS).
• Commodity services vs innovation services.
• The end-user pull and consumerization of IT: bring your own device, choose your own (cloud) services.
• Vendor management (working with commercial service providers).
• The role of the NREN (cloud broker and/or cloud service provider, build or buy, produce or consume).
• The timeframe of moving to the cloud (the demand from Universities and end-users).
• The short-term plans regarding the cloud.
• The long-term plans regarding the cloud.

These topics need to be translated to more specific questions in an online survey.
The combined answers to the questions provide a snapshot of the current situation, with an outlook on the future: the 'cloud willingness' and 'cloud readiness' of the Terena members and their roadmaps.
Furthermore, it forms the basis for a clustering of NREN's in groups of compatible organizations: NREN's which are at the same stage and use comparable strategies. This can be used for future joint activities.

2. Scenario's
The cloud services study members will each write a report on how their NREN makes cloud services available (or plans to do so). 
As each 'user story' follows the same structure, the different 'routes towards the cloud' can be easily compared and can be used as examples for other NREN's.

3. Components for cloud strategy and adoption
The cloud services team gathers for a collaborative session to discuss the components an NREN should use in their cloud strategy and adoption plans. 

Timeframe
<This paragraph will provide more information about the timeframe for the cloud services study>