Workplan

The project workplan is organized in 5 workpackages:

• WP1 – Management: includes all technical and financial management activities.
• WP2 – Implementation and Management of Network Infrastructure: includes all network design, implementation, testing and maintenance activities, both for the backbone and access network, as well as the support to the creation of Neutral Access Points (NAP) among telcos and service providers.
• WP3 - Implementation and Management of Distributed Computing and Storage: includes all activities aimed at the creation of a cloud platform satisfying the Research and Education community’s requirements in terms of reliability, security and privacy, both by harmonizing existing resources and by implementing new ones.
• WP4 – Access infrastructure and services for schools: the workpackage includes the activities dedicated to the design, implementation ad maintenance of a widespread, scalable high-capacity, symmetrical access network dedicated to schools, thus supporting the Ministry of Education’s “Digital School” programme (“Piano Scuola Digitale”).
• WP5 – National and International Promotion, Communication and Liaison: this workpackage includes all project promotion, communication, stakeholder relations and support activities as well as the positioning of GARR-X Progress in the national and international scenario, thanks to the creation and exploitation of a network of relations and collaborations with organizations, initiatives and institutions relevant to the project’s objectives.

The “ Training in Progress” project completes the project’s offer with a complete training programme on e-Infrastructures and ICT, including postgraduate master degrees, blended learning courses for decision makers and researchers, and self-paced e-learning modules for the ICT experts’ professional development.

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Timeline

The project started on 1 July 2013 and activities will be completed by 30 March 2015: by this deadline, the whole infrastructure shall be rolled out, tested and released. At the end of the project the implemented infrastructure will become an integrating part of the GARR-X National Research and Education Network, thus ensuring the sustainability of the infrastructure and its services and enabling users to create longer term projects and collaborations.

Public tenders are being carried out in order to acquire the optical fibers and equipment needed to deploy the network and cloud infrastructure. The roll-out of the GARR-X Progress infrastructure will start in the first half of 2014.