Comparing the SURF pilot node with the EOSC EU Node

With the launch of the EOSC EU Node the EOSC Tripartite Governance started the build-up of the EOSC Federation. To start the build-up, phase the EOSC Tripartite Governance launched a survey in the summer of 2024 to assess the interest of organisations to become a pilot Node and contribute to constructing the EOSC Federation. This was the starting point for SURF to start planning for establishing a National Node. SURF applied to the survey to become a pilot node. After a selection procedure, SURF was selected as one of the first wave pilot Nodes to participate in the build-up phase of the EOSC Federation. Next to the EOSC EU Node and SURF, twelve other candidates have been selected in the first wave of nodes. The EOSC EU Node is depicted as the first node of the EOSC Federation and is seen as the exemplar node for other nodes. While building up a National Node goes beyond the technical developments to develop and operate a node platform, this report is focusing on a technical comparison between the EOSC EU Node and the SURF pilot node as planned in the build-up phase. It makes a comparison of SURF Research Cloud with the EOSC EU Node as a candidate platform for building the SURF pilot node. It identifies candidate services (initially focusing on SURF services) as Node Core Capabilities to be federated with the EOSC Federating Capabilities and candidate services comparable with the services procured by the European Commission and offered through the EOSC EU Node. While it can be concluded that some of the node capabilities based on SURF Research Cloud (e.g. user dashboard, interactive notebook, VM, container, credit system, integration with an EFSS service) are comparable to the EOSC EU Node capabilities, it can also be concluded that some of the SURF internal services and processes need to be aligned with the EOSC EU Node services and w Federating Capabilities. It presents recommendations for Node organizational and technical developments and recommendations to be addressed by the EOSC Federation.