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last change: May 12, 2021

2020 IaaS+ Framework Agreement

For several years now, there have been Europe-wide framework agreements for cloud services that are specifically tailored to the needs of the education, science and research sectors. ACOnet participants can use these framework agreements to call up various cloud services without tendering.

As a successor and extension to GÉANT's IaaS framework agreements, which expired at the end of 2020, a public cloud framework agreement portfolio is now available again for the Research & Education Network community. The new portfolio called "2020 IaaS+ Framework Agreement" started in early 2021.

The new portfolio includes significantly more suppliers than the previous one and also has a broader focus (hence "IaaS+"): It covers not only Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), but also Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). The term is again 4 years.


Suppliers in Austria

Until 30 November 2024, a total of 13 cloud platforms and complementary offerings are available to ACOnet participants without tendering. Existing contracts from the "GÉANT IaaS Cloud Services" framework can be moved to the new framework.

List of all suppliers in Austria


Formalities & Support

ACOnet again takes a (passive) "referrer" role in the 2020 IaaS+ Framework Agreement. This means: The specific supplier selection is the responsibility of ACOnet's participants, and all call-off and usage contracts are concluded directly between the suppliers and the participating organisations.

In addition, support is available from ACOmarket GmbH (before or during the selection of a provider and the conclusion of a contract). On behalf of ACOnet, this company will

  • draw up the corresponding "call-off" template contracts for Austria with all suppliers,
  • carry out legal verifications if necessary,
  • provide all interested ACOnet participants with the necessary general framework contract documents.

When selecting a supplier and also for large projects, certain particularities have to be taken into account for legally correct procurement. The corresponding tools and guidelines are also supported by ACOmarket.

In addition, ACOnet's participating organisations can commission further individual assistance from ACOmarket at their own expense.


Further Information & Contact

Current information on the offers available in Austria is published on this webpage as well as via the mailing list "cloud-discuss". As the name suggests, this mailing list is also intended to encourage active communication and discussion as well as the exchange of experiences within the ACOnet community.

If you have specific questions for the ACOnet team regarding the 2020 IaaS+ Framework Agreement, please send them to cloud(at)aco.net.

Background

The new framework agreement portfolio is based on a call for tenders from the OCRE (Open Clouds for Research Environments) project - a cooperation between GÉANT, CERN, RHEA and Trust-IT, which is positioned in the context of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

The tender was processed in 2019/2020 and resulted in 473 framework contracts across Europe.

The OCRE project also provides dedicated cloud offers for Earth Observation Services and various funding opportunities.