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• Bechtle wins contracts in nine countries
• Framework agreement until 2024
• Provision of Infrastructure as a Service and cloud services

Bechtle has won nine lots for the European tender of the Open Clouds for Research Environments (OCRE) project. The framework agreement runs until 2024 and was put out to tender by GÉANT, the pan-European network for the research and education community. It eases access to commercial cloud services for researchers and research institutions in 40 European countries and has been offered since January via the national research and education networks (NRENs). As a framework agreement partner, Bechtle offers highly scalable Infrastructure as a Service by IONOS cloud and Microsoft Azure as well as related cloud services.

The framework agreements signed by Bechtle provide universities and research facilities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the Benelux countries, Spain, Great Britain and Ireland with access to modern and secure cloud services. Bechtle provides multi-cloud solutions in the form of IONOS cloud and Microsoft Azure that enable institutes and universities to migrate their IT environments into the cloud. “The OCRE project marks a new milestone in digital transformation in the research landscape. Institutions can now draw on necessary cloud resources without too much time and expense and at competitive conditions. We are delighted to make our contribution to modernising European research as an IT partner, and winning this tender confirms that we are perfectly aligned with this target group’s needs”, says Gerhard Marz, Executive Vice President of the Public Sector, Bechtle AG.

OCRE catalogue strengthens European research

“I’m fascinated by the possibilities the framework agreement offers to the institutes, national research and education networks (NREN) and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). The cloud services can be accessed quickly and easily by research and educational communities throughout Europe, which is a huge step forward for IT managers, as it allows them to make their IT environment agile and flexible”, says David Heyns, OCRE Project Director at GÉANT.

In many countries, eligible institutions can choose from several cloud services and providers, and find out which suits them best after an open competition. “We firmly believe that our multi-cloud approach with IONOS cloud and Microsoft Azure is an ideal and complementary offer. By contributing our know-how and these two established platforms, we want to help simplify the OCRE framework agreement and strengthen collaboration between research institutions”, says Manuel Liesenfeld, Head of Sales Development Public Sector Europe, Bechtle AG. Several certifications are testament to Bechtle’s broad and deep knowledge on the project partners’ technologies and solutions.