The Special Interest Group on Management of Service Portfolios (SIG-MSP) had their spring meeting on 24-25 March in Paris, kindly hosted by RENATER. With a great turnout of 28 on-site and 22 online participants, NREN strategy development was the main theme for this meeting. Other topics such as drivers and processes for strategy building, digital sovereignty and security/SOC set-up were also covered.
The meeting began with a warm welcome from RENATER Director Boris Dintrans. He continued with an update on RENATER’s new 2025-2030 strategy as well their impressive “digital sovereignty” services such as Evento, Rendez-Vous and PARTAGE which are designed to provide viable alternatives to services like Doodle, Zoom, and M365, thereby reducing reliance on external providers.
The meeting continued with an overview from SIG-MSP’s newest Steering Committee member, Esther Seidl Nussbacher (Switch) on Switch’s cloud services, their vision, challenges and next steps. The group then had an open discussion on the consequences of digital sovereignty for NRENs and their service portfolio offering.
After some delicious croissants during the coffee break, several presentations were givenon security/SOC set-up. Mark Tysom (Jisc) showcased the SOC rationale for UK education and research, Robert Hackett (HEAnet) gave an overview of the HEAnet SOC and their key challenges, and Geert Hoevenaars (Switch) presented on Switch’s SOC and challenges of adding SOC to a service portfolio. An open discussion then took place on consequences of NIS2 and other security drivers for an NREN service portfolio and Michel Wets (SURF) gave an update on OCRE2024.
The first day ended with a delicious dinner arranged by RENATER in the beautiful city of Paris.
The second day began with some deep dives into NREN strategy development. SURF, HEAnet, RedIRIS and CSC/Funet showcased their future strategies, positioning and focus areas of their service portfolios.
Then came the most awaited part of the meeting – the NREN strategy lightning talks. All participating NRENs presented their NREN’s strategy in 5 minutes, allowing participants to get a broader idea of what each NREN is working on and any shared drivers. From European NRENs like Belnet to international ones like REUNA and RENU, the talks were highly appreciated and will serve as a reference point for GÉANT’s future strategy.
It was great to see participants come together to share and align on their future strategies, as well as discuss how this will shape the future of NREN service portfolios. A big thank you to all those who joined both in-person and online, and a special thanks to our colleagues at RENATER who made all of this possible.
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