Around 150 participants from the ICT industry of several educational and research institutions around the country were gathered on August 27 for the third edition of the Cloud Computing SIG promoted by RNP. The participants will have the opportunity to share perspectives and experiences on the offering of cloud services in the academic environment.

“The role of RNP is to offer such spaces, which stimulate the exchange of knowledge amongst IT managers. At the end of the day, we want to offer our best services to the academic sector. And today, more than talking, we want to hear what you have to say on the subject,” declared the RNP associate director of Services Luiz Coelho. During the event, the RNP executive director of Services José Luiz Ribeiro Filho, stressed the importance of listening to the IT managers to deliver improved solutions. “Talking to you means to have an increasingly improved understanding of how the institutions work, how you operate, and how we can help you. I see this meeting as an opportunity for RNP. After all, we all want to spend less and better and, with technology that is possible,” he concluded.

The first order of the day was to present how three different institutions migrated their email services to the cloud environment. Jefferson Canesqui, from the University of Campinas (Unicamp); Denis Campos, from the National Center for Research on Energy and Materials (CNPEM); and Paulo dos Santos, from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Unirio) shared experiences, challenges, and primary benefits identified in their institutions. Amongst benefits, they highlighted the improvement in service quality, reduction in the time used for management, maintenance, and support, unlimited disc space, the release of infrastructure for business service, and increased satisfaction of the end customer.

What was different about this edition was the model used for sharing ideas, participants were invited to leave the conference facility and enter a Cloud Café, a space aimed at sharing.  There, nine tables were arranged, each with an RNP moderator and a cloud computing service provider representative – Microsoft (Azure / Office 365), Embratel, Amazon (AWS), Oracle Cloud, Google (GSuite), Vivo, and Vert. The themes that led the conversations were “Migration of electronic mail to the cloud” and “Migration of applications and storage to clouds.” Every 25 minutes, participants were encouraged to change tables and talk about these subjects with different people through new perspectives.

At the end of the dynamic, each moderator was responsible for sharing with the group the main topics discussed on their table. Some of the challenges mapped include: how to develop a business model to implement cloud services in public education and research institutions; lack of understanding of the decrees related to the use of cloud-based e-mail services; connectivity problems; lack of technical knowledge by the IT teams; resource decentralization within institutions in the hands of teachers and researchers; and operating with minimal impact to the users.

The moderators also mapped the participants' expectations regarding the role of RNP in this scenario and, amongst proposals, were: legal support to institutions regarding cloud services offering and storage; a pre-assessment of the solutions to be offered; an agreement amongst ministries regarding the use of cloud services and facilitating the onboarding process. The Networks School (ESR) was also mentioned as a possible channel to disseminate that knowledge. As its next measures, RNP will organize all the material collected during the event, identify critical topics, and plan development measures with customer engagement and company participation.

This was the first time RNP proposed this kind of approach and dynamic for the event, and the participants were pleased with it. One of them was the Head of IT of the Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences (Mast) Alberto Wester. “The event was very interactive. We were all engaged, each talking about their own needs. And, in the end, I realized that those needs were very similar. Many things still need to be solved, like the aspects regarding regulation, costs, and which cloud migration guideline we’ll follow from now on. I am sure, based on other services I have been following since RNP was created, that this will be another success. And to listen to IT managers who are present in everyday activities and are familiar with the needs of each place, that was essential,” concluded Wester.

Another participant who reviewed the experience of participating in the third edition of the Cloud Computing SIG was the technical coordinator of PoP-CE Marcos Frota. “One aspect that I’d like to highlight was the presence of several commercial providers. The PoP-EC managed to strengthen the relationship with two of them, in order to create a partnership for both PoP and Redecomep. Everything indicates that this was a preview of what is to come regarding RNP new services that will be announced on Wednesday during the RNP Forum,’ he commented.

Check out the entire coverage of the event at https://sig-nuvem.rnp.br/.