Beyond Authorization - Talk at UC4B on it's state of CAAI implementation and potential next steps

Mon Nov 25 2024

At the 1st UC4B event in Berlin, DataPLANT delivered a brief presentation on the state of our consortium’s user management system, which builds upon existing Community AAIs (CAAI) and reflects our ongoing collaboration with IAM4NFDI. This presentation sparked a lively discussion with members of other consortia during the subsequent break.

Over four years of operating DataPLANT, we have identified a pressing need for streamlined processes to enable effective cooperation among computing centers for various RDM services, both within and beyond the NFDI. To address this, the following aspects should be considered in future discussions and planning:

• Authorization: Efficient allocation of resources and setting resource limits.
• Resouce allocation workflow: Enabling users to compile a “shopping cart” of desired resources after successful authentication, which can then be approved by their home organization.
• Accounting and Forecasting: Providing real-time accounting information and resource usage forecasts.
• Usage Reports: Generating detailed reports on resource utilization over specific timeframes.
• Legal Framework: Developing a cooperative legal framework, inspired by models such as the DFN-Cloud.

A basic free service model combined with paid extras would be a practical approach. This would prevent excessive fragmentation, overheads and ensure smaller users can easily access essential resources provided by some basic funding. There is already significant experience in implementing many of these aspects among computing centers active in the NFDI, which can serve as a valuable foundation for future development.