GÉANT is delighted to announce that the OCRE 2024 Framework, the third iteration of GÉANT’s flagship cloud frameworks, officially starts today, 3 February 2025, and will be in place for a period of five years. Resulting from a pan-European procurement established under the GÉANT (GN5-1) Project and building on the successes of the previous frameworks, the OCRE 2024 Framework will enable tens of thousands of European Research and Education (R&E) institutions and public institutions across 39 countries to procure innovative cloud services in an easy, compliant, and cost-effective way.
The OCRE 2024 Framework delivers an impressive portfolio of 416 cloud service offerings across 17 cloud platforms for IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service), and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solutions, based on 416 agreements between GÉANT and 40 service providers.
All available cloud service offerings are now listed in a comprehensive catalogue on the GÉANT Clouds website and can be filtered by national availability, preferred platforms and service providers. The information about each offering will be regularly updated, with new resources being added as soon as they become available.
Starting from today, OCRE 2024 cloud service offerings can be procured – on a national basis – by institutions that have expressed their willingness to participate through their representative National Research and Education Network (NREN). As with the previous framework, these include an impressive range of R&E organisations across Europe, and for the first time, also public institutions connected to NRENs. The complete list of participating institutions, along with separate national lists, can be found at: https://clouds.geant.org/ocre2024entities
Lise Fuhr, GÉANT CEO: “The start of the OCRE 2024 Framework is an important milestone for GÉANT and for the European Research & Education community. By bridging the gap between R&E and industry, and providing institutions with simplified access to compliant and advanced cloud services, the Framework ultimately strengthens Europe’s digital ecosystem and unlocks new opportunities for innovation”
Acquiring cloud services via the OCRE 2024 Framework is quick, easy, and convenient: it can be done either through a direct award via cascade method, through a mini-competition, or through a desktop mini-competition. For further information, please check the Institutions’ Guide to Using the Framework or contact your local NREN representative.
Key benefits and features
Since 2016, GÉANT Cloud Frameworks (the 2016 IaaS Framework, the 2020 OCRE Framework also known as IaaS+, and now OCRE 2024) have fostered digital transformation across Europe, by providing R&E institutions with access to a wide portfolio of cloud services, while reducing costs and bureaucratic burdens. Through these frameworks, GÉANT aggregates the requirements and demand of the pan-European R&E community into unified public procurements, acting as a bridge between R&E organisations and commercial cloud service providers, eliminating the need for complex individual procurements, and ultimately minimising the barriers between demand and supply, delivering favourable conditions, significant discounts, and offerings tailored to the unique needs of R&E.
Among the many guarantees, features, and support mechanisms provided by procuring services via the OCRE 2024 Framework, it’s worth noting: free ingress, guaranteed exit support, identity management (including support to eduGAIN), peering connection with GÉANT and NRENs, root access, CRF invoicing, split billing, Bring Your Own Licence (BYOL), shared use and other support services.
Additionally, in response to community feedback, several improvements have been integrated into the OCRE 2024 Framework, such as:
- Enhanced Compliance: With a focus on sustainability, privacy, security, adherence to European laws and regulations and reporting.
- Improved Commercial Terms: Improved and minimum discounts, reduced egress costs, local billing and more extensive access to complimentary training and support resources.
Jakob Tendel, DFN, and co-leader of the GÉANT Clouds team: “By saving up-front procurement effort and allowing rapid uptake at the best conditions available, the OCRE 2024 Framework enables R&E institutions to easily acquire commercial cloud platforms that match their needs – whether for advanced computing, secure storage, data analysis, collaboration, AI-powered research, or digital learning. This allows institutions to focus on what truly matters – driving scientific breakthroughs, advancing education, and accelerating digital transformation.”
By the community, for the community
This groundbreaking initiative would not have been possible without the work, dedication, expertise, and commitment of GÉANT’s procurement team and of the European NREN community that supported the preparatory phase via the “Above-the-Net Services” Work Package of the GÉANT (GN5-1) Project.
Monique Pellinkhof, Senior Procurement Specialist at GÉANT: “The successful delivery of the OCRE 2024 Framework is a great demonstration of the incredible teamwork and collaboration across European NRENs. It showcases the value of uniting efforts towards a solution that benefits both our R&E community and the market, while driving digital transformation and innovation at a European scale.”
A look ahead
The OCRE 2024 Framework marks a step forward in the digital transformation of the European R&E sector, enhancing service compliance, and opening new opportunities for growth and innovation. With the recently launched GÉANT (GN5-2) Project stepping in to support, institutions can now continue to rely on a solid foundation for the years to come.
Visit the OCRE 2024 Catalogue to discover all the platforms and service providers available in your country: https://clouds.geant.org/ocre-2024-catalogue
Service Providers selected as part of OCRE 2024: A1, Academic Software, Advania, Antwerp Datacenter, Bechtle, CGI, CloudFerro, Crayon Danmark, Crayon Norway, Crayon Romania, Crayon Sweden, Devoteam, DSP, Endava, Inetum Belgium, MCX, Micromail, OVHcloud, Phoenix Software, Proact Denmark, Proact Netherlands, Proact Sweden, Proximus, Public Cloud Group, Quistor Enterprises, Robotron, Safespring, Seidor Solutions, Setcor, Softcat, SoftwareOne, Span, Sparkle, Telefonica, Tet, Trans-iX, Transfer Managed Services, T-Systems, Vancis, VSHN.
Platforms selected as part of OCRE 2024: AWS, Azure, Exoscale, Google Cloud, IBM, Ionos, CloudFerro, OVHcloud, Proact, Proximus, Safespring, Setcor, T-Systems, Tet Cloud, Vancis, Whitesky, Oracle Cloud.
This article was first published on 3 February by GÉANT.
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