In 2021, the Géant Association, representing 40 NRENs (National Research and Education Networks) with 20,000 European Higher Education institutions, negotiated a pan-European framework agreement for Cloud services, called OCRE 2020, for a period of 4 years. The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), through its unit FCCN, was responsible for streamlining the processes required for contracting between the Confirmed Entities and the suppliers. It's time to take a look at what has been achieved and see what the future objectives of this project are.
The results of OCRE 2020
The OCRE 2020 Framework Agreement established the main contractual terms, such as price, quantity, obligations and service order procedures, with the most important IaaS+ Cloud Service providers.
Over the years, it has become a flagship service for many NRENs, increasing its importance. It is currently used by more than 900 institutions in 26 countries, and in 2023 it reached a collective value of 90 million euros, which corresponds to a 30% increase compared to 2022.
Until September 30, 2023, OCRE 2020 in Portugal had 16 institutions that have already contracted 1.3 million euros, in Cloud, from three suppliers.
The current state and objectives of OCRE 2024
The new OCRE 2024 Framework Agreement is expected to start in December 2024 and run for a period of 5 years. The aim will be to tender IaaS+ cloud services (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS), resulting in framework agreements to be used by institutions in the participating countries.
In this new agreement, a greater influx of suppliers is expected, due to the growing consumption of Cloud services in OCRE 2020. The range of services and platforms is also expected to increase, as there could be up to three suppliers per Platform/Solution and per country. In this context, Géant expects to receive between 2,000 and 3,000 proposals in the supplier selection phase.
The FCT, in collaboration with the Sec-General, will take part in the team evaluating and scoring the proposals between the end of January and July 2024. This phase, which is now beginning, was preceded by an invitation to eligible institutions to express their interest in participating. In this process, the eligible profile was extended to institutions that contribute in some way to the education of society.
In Portugal, expressions of interest in OCRE 2024 were 93% higher than in OCRE 2020, with a notable increase in the number of Research and Development Units and with two accessions in the area of Culture.
The List of Adhering Institutions is still open, but will close during the month of January 2024, on a deadline to be announced by the Géant Association. The current list of organizations that have already joined OCRE 2024 can be consulted at https://www.fccn.pt/computacao/cloud-ocre/.
