The document summarizes a joint procurement project called Helix Nebula Science Cloud (HNSciCloud) funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 program. A group of research organizations will procure cloud computing services through a multi-phase competitive tender to create a common cloud platform for the European research community. The procurement aims to develop innovative cloud services integrated with the procurers' resources to support scientific workloads and datasets in the petabyte range.

2. 08/12/2016 2

3. Helix Nebula – The Science Cloud with Grant Agreement 687614 is a Pre-Commercial Procurement Action funded by H2020 Framework
Programme
Introduction
6 January 2018
Bob Jones
CERN
IT department
02/02/2018

4. HNSciCloud
To provide a common cloud platform for the European research
community
Collectively the buyers group need a means to increase the
analysis capability and capacity offered to their users to keep
pace with the growth in scientific data that needs to be analysed
08/12/2016 4

5. Helix Nebula Science Cloud Joint Pre-Commercial Procurement
Bob Jones, CERN 5
Procurers: CERN, CNRS, DESY, EMBL-EBI, ESRF,
IFAE, INFN, KIT, STFC, SURFSara
Experts: Trust-IT & EGI.eu
The group of procurers have committed
• Procurement funds
• Manpower for testing/evaluation
• Use-cases with applications & data
• In-house IT resources
Resulting services will be made available to end-
users from many research communities
Co-funded via H2020 Grant Agreement 687614
Total procurement budget >5.3M€

6. What is being procured
A hybrid cloud platform for the European research community
6
HNSciCloud
PCP
Source:CloudComputingforGovies,DLTSolutions,
DavidBlankenhorn,VanRistauandCaronBeesley
Combining services at the IaaS level to support science workflows
The R&D services to be developed are to be integrated with
Resources in data centres operated by the Buyers Group,
GEANT network and eduGAIN fed. identity mgmt

7. Challenges
Innovative IaaS level cloud services integrated with procurers in-
house resources and public e-infrastructure to support a range
of scientific workloads
Compute and Storage
support a range of virtual machine and container configurations including HPC
working with datasets in the petabyte range accessible transparently
Network Connectivity and Federated Identity Management
provide high-end network capacity via GEANT for the whole platform with
common identity and access management
Service Payment Models
explore a range of purchasing options to determine those most appropriate
for the scientific application workloads to be deployed
Bob Jones, CERN 7

8. 8
The Hybrid Cloud Model
Brings together
• research organisations,
• data providers,
• publicly funded e-
infrastructures,
• commercial cloud service
providers
In a hybrid cloud with
procurement and governance
approaches suitable for the
dynamic cloud market In-house

9. Use cases and adopter group
Bob Jones, CERN 9
Research Infrastructures are
facilities, resources or services
of a unique nature identified
by European research
communities to conduct top-
level research activities in all
fields
Other interested Research
Infrastructures and procuring
organisations will form an
adopter group

10. HNSciCloud project phases
Preparation
•Analysis of requirements,
current market offers and
relevant standards
•Build stakeholder group
•Develop tender material
Implementation and sharing
Jan’16 Dec’18
Each step is competitive - only contractors that successfully
complete the previous step can bid in the next
10
4 Designs
3 Prototypes
2 Pilots
Call-off
Feb’17
Call-off
Dec’17
Tender
Jul’16
Phases of the tender are defined by the Horizon 2020
Pre-Commercial Procurement financial instrument
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