Connect Working Group Minutes RIPE 83

Thursday, 25 November 14:30 - 15:30 (UTC+1)

WG co-chairs: Florence Lavroff, Remco van Mook, Will van Gulik
Scribe: Martin Pels
Status: Final

1. Opening

Remco van Mook

The presentation is available at:
https://ripe83.ripe.net/wp-content/uploads/presentations/41-Connect-WG-RIPE-83-main.pdf

Remco van Mook opened the session.

2. Housekeeping

Remco went through the Meetecho guidelines and presented the agenda. The minutes from RIPE 82 were approved. Remco introduced his co-chairs Florence and Will.

3. Gaia-X Update

Pierre Gronlier, Gaia-X

The presentation is available at:
https://ripe83.ripe.net/wp-content/uploads/presentations/72-211118-Gaia-X-summit-2.pdf

Pierre explained the goals, model and reference architecture of Gaia-X. He also presented the first two services that are under development: a service that lets the association issue certificates of membership and a compliance service to validate the self-description of the first lighthouse projects.

Remco asked what the plans are for the underlying infrastructure, especially connectivity. Pierre replied that there is a plan, but that they first had to define a trust model to make services interoperable. The connection to an IXP is seen as a service and will be part of the service catalog. Composition of services will happen through the network.

Will van Gulik asked why Palantir and Huawei are accepted as sponsors. Pierre replied that the goal is not to make a European cloud but to promote European values and digital sovereignty. The user needs to be educated to make their own decisions. He also mentioned that the top 30 contributers of Gaia-X on Github are all Europeans.

Florence reminded everyone to rate the presentations

4. IXPDB update

Leo Vegoda, Euro-IX

The presentation is available at:
https://ripe83.ripe.net/wp-content/uploads/presentations/61-IXPDB-Update-at-RIPE-83.pdf

Leo introduced the IXPDB, which collects public information shared by IXPs. He explained that they are working on a new publication platform to handle the large growth they have experienced, which is expected to be launched next year. He also walked the audience through the roadmap for new features and asked the community to send him feedback and feature wishes.

There were no questions.

5. Euro-IX update

Bijal Sanghani, Euro-IX

The presentation is available at:
https://ripe83.ripe.net/wp-content/uploads/presentations/46-euroix-connect-ripe83-news-final.pdf

Bijal listed the Euro-IX members and patrons and introduced their newest patron FlexOptix. She then presented IXP updates from DO-IX, DE-CIX, InterLAN, LU-CIX, CATNIX, LINX and INEX. Finally, she invited IXPs using IXP manager to export their data to IXPDB. She said to contact her or Leo about this topic for questions or consult the documentation.

Will commented that the documentation was very good.

There were no questions.

6. Peering Toolbox

Yolandi Robinson, NAPAfrica

The presentation is available at:
https://ripe83.ripe.net/wp-content/uploads/presentations/55-Peering-Toolbox-RIPE83.pdf

Yolandi explained that businesses need to do more connectivity management themselves instead of outsourcing this to a transit provider and that they need help navigating the complex landscape of IXPs and peering. She introduced Peering Toolbox as a one-stop shop to provide guidance and invited the community to send links to materials to add to this toolbox. She explained that the next steps would be to create a learning structure (beginner to advanced). Finally, she mentioned that they hired Philip Smith as Product Manager and that a focus group would be held on 8 December.

Nurani Nimpuno (LINX) thanked Yolandi and called out to networks to provide input.

Ruediger Volk, representing himself, asked if this information was accessible online. Bijal shared https://peeringtoolbox.euro-ix.net/en/ in the chat.

7. Closure

Will invited everyone to submit content for the upcoming SwiNOG meeting, which would be an in-person event. Remco mentioned he would be presenting at the next RSNOG virtual event and invited everyone to attend.

Florence and Remco asked to submit topics for the next working group session to the list.

Remco closed the meeting.