Theme: IT infrastructure for education and research
SURF provides members with an internationally competitive IT infrastructure for education and research. Rapid IT developments mean that the cooperative constantly has to consider which parts of the SURF infrastructure it will develop itself and which parts will be outsourced to the market under the members' conditions.
Thanks to international collaboration with organisations such as GÉANT, PRACE, EGI and EOSC, SURF's services are in line with international infrastructures for education and research.
Ambitions for IT infrastructure for education and research
SURF's members have a secure and state-of-the-art IT infrastructure for education and research and develop a shared sourcing strategy that includes arrangements on standards and longer-term architecture principles. The conditions for the infrastructure's use are adapted to the needs of the sectors or institutions. The infrastructure allows researchers, lecturers, students and staff to work anytime, anywhere and on any device. SURF is evolving into a management organisation for IT facilities that makes sure that the services of IT suppliers are delivered in an integrated manner under the members' conditions.
Activities for 2021-2022
In order to realise these ambitions, we will continue to provide existing services and continue a number of projects already underway. In addition, we also need to change course and start up new projects.
Main changes in direction
- Development of the members' joint long-term vision for a secure and state-of-the-art IT infrastructure for education and research with architecture and sourcing principles and arrangements on standards.
- Development of SURF towards a management organisation for IT facilities that determines the sourcing strategy and roadmap for the portfolio together with the members.
- Strengthening of SURF's purchasing power by working more closely with members to develop greater control over large market players.
- Optimisation of the lawful procurement from the range offered by the market players, making more room for sector-specific purchasing processes where necessary and further exploring how we can offer more flexibility to members in terms of when they choose to invest.
- Central organisation of knowledge about the laws and regulations, purchasing, privacy and security.
We will implement the changes in direction for 2021-2022 in the following new projects: