The Pan-European Framework Agreement on cloud services - OCRE 2024 - entered into force on February 3 for a period of five years, allowing European public, research and education (R&E) institutions located in 39 countries to take advantage of innovative cloud services in an easy, compatible and economical way.
GÉANT, the body responsible for bringing together Europe's national research and education networks, has concluded successive Europe-wide Framework Agreements for commercial cloud services.
In Portugal, the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), through its digital services unit FCCN, is the national representative, having promoted the Framework Agreements to the national higher education and research communities.
Advantages of OCRE 2024
O OCRE 2024 is a Framework Agreement which, in compliance with European public procurement law, provides a portfolio of 416 cloud services on 17 platforms for IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solutions, based on contracts between GÉANT and 40 service providers. This entire offer is available in the OCRE 2024 catalog and can be consulted through national availability, preferred platforms or available suppliers. In the specific case of Portugal, 14 suppliers were selected, offering 9different cloud providers.
OCRE 2024's cloud services guarantee outbound contract support, identity management (including support for eduGAIN), peering with GÉANT and Academic and Research Networks, root access, split billing, Bring Your Own License (BYOL), shared use, among other features.
Some improvements, requested by the community, have also been integrated in relation to previous framework agreements , namely greater compliance with European laws, regulations and reports dedicated to sustainability, privacy and security. As well as improved commercial terms, with minimum discounts, lower exit costs, local billing and wider access to complementary training and support resources.
These resources can be acquired by institutions that have expressed an interest in participating.
A look to the future
The OCRE 2024 Framework Agreement marks a step forward in the digital transformation of the European R&E sector, improving the compliance of services and opening up new opportunities for growth and innovation. With the recently launched GÉANT project (GN5-2) providing support, institutions can now continue to rely on a solid foundation for the years to come.
All the information on the acquisition of OCRE 2024 cloud services and the entities participating in OCRE 2024 is available on the GÉANT Clouds website and on the OCRE 2024 page on the FCCN website.
