[ncc-services-wg] New on RIPE Labs: RIPE NCC and the Cloud - Let’s Start Again

Patrik Fältström wrote on 22/06/2021 21:23:
> I personally think deployment "in the cloud" implies an ability to
> deploy services in such a way (orchestration) that resources are
> dynamically allocated depending on for example load. This implies
> automatic scaling and dynamic allocation of storage, memory and CPU.

"the cloud" just means someone else's computer.  There are plenty of 
reasons to use this as a procurement model, e.g. outsourcing of specific 
types of headaches, ease of scale, connectivity, insta-cdn 
functionality, etc. But in the end it's rental of infrastructure and 
specific infrastructure-related competencies, and it's a legitimate 
business decision to deploy infrastructure in this way.

> but to be honest, this is what I always expect the Managing
> Director to do, and I do not think we members should do micro
> management.

Pretty much this.  We don't tell the RIPE NCC legal or finance or 
outreach or any other departments how to do their jobs.  The NCC is an 
executive and it needs the freedom to be able to make its own 
operational decisions. Just because something happens to be within our 
area of expertise as stakeholders, that doesn't mean that we should 
start back-seat driving because they made a decision to go one way that 
someone else might have made to go another.

With regard to the ripe database and the rpki repo, it doesn't look like
there are any specific legal issues that haven't been considered.  All 
of this information is publicly accessible anyway.  There may well be a 
different set of considerations for other types of data.

> Personally, I think the Managing Director and his staff is doing good
> stuff and see no reason what so ever to question what decisions they
> have made. That said, I am curious in some cases to know what
> decisions they have made as maybe I have the same or similar
> deliberations to do at Netnod and might want to know more. But I do
> not question them.
> 
> So, many things are intertwined and specifically mixed up are "us
> members being curious" and "us members actually wanting to provide
> input".
> 
> From a technical stand point, I think the most important thing for
> "cloud" is to choose interoperable solutions so that migration from
> one cloud to another is possible, or at least as easy as possible.
> Including on-prem-clouds.

yep all this, in spades ^^^

The important takeaways here are two: 1. ensuring service stability and 
2. ensuring that long term business continuity isn't compromised (e.g. 
vendor lock-in).  Once these requirements are fulfilled, it's great to 
get an inside view of what the NCC's plans are.

Nick