During the NET+ service evaluation phase, a group of universities led by a Sponsor institution and Internet2 assess the service for inclusion in the Internet2 NET+ catalog, apply a consistent process, and determine how to make it available at scale to the entire higher education community.

The service evaluation process typically takes three months.


NET+ Service Evaluation Workgroups

During the service evaluation, several workgroups are formed and they typically work in parallel as outlined below: 


Main 

Purpose: This group consists of representatives who have responsibility for the project and who are decision makers. 

Timeline: duration of the project (typically 3 months)

Typical time commitment: 30-45 min. weekly calls

Workgroup participants may include:

Service ProviderInternet2Service evaluation Schools
  • Project/Program Manager
  • Director
  • VP/SVP
  • Program Manager
  • Director
  • AVP
  • CIO

For the legal part of the evaluation, typically in the second part of the project, the following will be included in the weekly calls, and/or additional dedicated time may be scheduled:

  • Legal counsel (can be 20 hours of dedicated time or MORE if difficult legal negotiations)
  • Purchasing representatives (as needed)

Topics covered by the main workgroup include:

    • Overall project responsibility
    • Define pricing and value proposition
    • Legal model
      • Customized agreement using NET+ community contract templates
      • Business Agreement between Internet2 and Service Provider is negotiated during the Service evaluation phase and reviewed and approved by university counsel and procurement officers
    • Business model
      • Customized approach to pricing that leverages community assets and captures aggregation to reduce costs to the Service Provider and provide savings and additional value to universities
      • Licensing model
      • Support
    • Review Service Provider’s standard materials and determine the extent they need to be customized for the research and education community

Deliverables

  • NET+ Service Agreement for the Internet2 community
  • implementation related documentation as needed 


Functional assessment may be combined with above.

Purpose: This group consists of representatives who have expertise in the service proposed and who will lead the functional assessment

Timeline: duration of the project (typically 3 months)

Typical time commitment: 30-45 min. weekly calls and adequate time to develop functional assessment tests, perform the assessment, document exceptions, etc.

Workgroup participants may include:

Service ProviderInternet2Service evaluation Schools
  • Project/Program Manager
  • Functional Expert/Product Manager
  • Program Manager
  • IT Managers
  • Directors 
  • Functional representatives (sometimes) 

Topics covered by the functional assessment workgroup include:

    • 3rd party integrations
    • Review current features and functionality
    • Discuss existing Service Provider product roadmap (under NDA) 
    • Determine ways in which service needs to be tuned for research and education community
    • Prioritize feature requests among the participating universities in the Service evaluation group and discuss prioritization with Service Provider’s product team

Deliverables

  • customized roadmap for higher education from the Service Provider; feature, functionality, and bug report prioritization from the universities


Identity

Purpose: This group consists of representatives who have expertise in the identity area and who are tasked with doing the assessment of Service Provider’s integration with InCommon. 

Timeline: 5-6 weeks

Typical time commitment: 30-45 min. weekly calls and adequate time to work with the service and assess the identity implementation.

Workgroup participants may include:

Service ProviderInternet2Service evaluation Schools
  • Project/Program Manager
  • Identity Expert
  • Program Manager
  • Identity Expert

Topics covered by the identity workgroup include:

    • Review Service Provider’s identity strategy and determine InCommon integration
    • NET+ Identity Guidance for Services

Deliverables

  • potential request of enhancements to SPs identity implementation to comply with InCommon


Security

Purpose: This group consists of representatives who have expertise in the security area and who are tasked with doing the security assessment.  The tool used for the security assessment is the Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT)

Timeline: 5-6 weeks

Typical time commitment: 30-45 min. weekly calls and adequate time to work with the service and do a security assessment.

Workgroup participants may include:

Service ProviderInternet2Service evaluation Schools
  • Project/Program Manager
  • Security Officer
  • Program Manager
  • Security Officer

Topics covered by the Security workgroup include:

    • Security assessment tool used: HECVAT
    • Accessibility review (note: this may be folded in the Main’s group area, and/or a separate workgroup may be formed)
    • Data handling: FERPA, HIPAA, privacy, data handling

Process and Deliverables

    • Service Provider (SP) completes the HECVAT for review by universities
    • CISOs review the HECVAT and engage in a dialog with SP to ensure security compliance

Deliverables

  • potential requests of enhancements to SPs security implementation to meet the needs of the higher education community


Accessibility 

If the main group decides to pursue an accessibility assessment, then we may create a separate workroup to do an accessibility assessment.  Alternatively, the service evaluation schools may decide to do their own accessibility assessment and report the results back to the Main group.

Timeline: 5-6 weeks

Typical time commitment: 30-45 min. weekly calls and adequate time to work with the service and do an accessibility assessment.

Workgroup participants may include:

Service ProviderInternet2Service evaluation Schools
  • Project/Program Manager
  • Accessibility Expert
  • Program Manager
  • Accessibility Expert

Deliverables

  • potential requests of enhancements to SPs accessibility implementation to meet the needs of the higher education community


Network Integration

Internet2 works with the SP to ensure traffic runs on the I2 network.  If the service runs in Amazon, it’s entirely possible that no work is required, as AWS is already connected to I2.  If the service runs in a data center owned by the SP, some of the work below will apply.

  • Network: Integrate service with the Internet2 R&E network and optimize for enhanced delivery
    • Test the network connection to create benchmarks
  • Process and Deliverables
    • Service Provider and participating universities assign technical team members on networking 
    • Develop and review testing plans
    • Produce reference documents for service subscribers