For some time now, RNP has been expanding its international activities beyond its presence in events organized by foreign academic networks. Active participation in IT communities is opening up a new aspect of the organization as an exporter, both of software development technology and knowledge to its peers and partners outside the country.

“The international integration of RNP as an academic network has always been very important to bring new knowledge, interact with international groups and also take our knowledge abroad. This interaction has generated very interesting results, both in the evolution of solutions and services and in discussions at the international level on the evolution of network infrastructure, academic networks themselves, business model issues and opportunities. This is important for positioning the organization as a contributor, bringing its knowledge and also bringing it to the benefit of our institutions in the RNP System. It is a perennial work carried out by several areas and boards and that has been intensifying in recent years in the more managerial scope, of service management and R&D, but also in technical scopes, which has been opening up other possibilities and contributing to an international free software community, with code, knowledge, returning the benefits to the entire academic community in the world”, emphasizes RNP's Director of Services and Solutions.

Delivery of the new Filesender interface
From the approximation of the group of Filesender developers, in mid-2022, the organization began to actively collaborate for the evolution of the service. The idea was to give back to the community what RNP had already developed internally to improve the use of the product in Brazil. However, when realizing that the delivery was not so generalizable, the organization started to support the implementation of the new interface and architecture.

“We were very well received! We showed them that we have a very sophisticated software engineering capacity, something that they have a lot of difficulty with, because they have few developers and little ability to improve coding. We worked with them on the focus of version 3 of the service, which is having a new user interface. A entered the stage of the UX process and even answered surveys about the use of the tool. The first delivery must be to support them in the development of this new interface based on the UX work they have just completed. Our goal right now is to arrive at the next TNC, Geánt's event in June, with this new interface implemented, which will probably be all done by our team. It's going to be a big delivery by RNP, significantly changing Filesender's reality, something they wouldn't be able to do in time for the TNC. We are starting to make, in parallel with them, a design of a new architecture. It's been a learning experience for us to work with the community and we are proceeding with incremental initial modifications, a design of a newer architecture, updated for a Filesender of the future, with a treadmill, kubernets, a series of interesting options in relation to the current architecture, which is a little old, developed a long time ago”, says the manager of Architecture and Support for Clients, Sérgio Leal.

• Filesender is a service that enables, in a simple way, the sending of large files between network users, through a web interface, available free of charge to Organizations that use the RNP System.

Cloud Knowledge Reference
During participation in the Internet2 Technology Exchange event, in Denver, in December 2022, RNP professionals realized that they could contribute their experience in migrating software to the cloud with the North American academic network community. After interaction with those responsible, the organization was invited to make a presentation in February this year.

“I sent them an e-mail and, at first, they suggested that we make the presentation during their community meeting. Afterwards, they saw that it would be even more interesting if it was an exclusive meeting to show our work. It was a meeting that had almost 40 US universities, who were there just to see our presentation, to watch what we had to say. After a brief introduction about RNP, we divided it into three blocks: 1 - Describing our innovation model. 2 - What components do we use today. 3 - How would a use case be for a university using this technology. It was very interesting and they enjoyed seeing it. One thing we're discussing that they're very interested in is possibly turning what we've already built into free software. Everyone we talk to is very interested”, says Sérgio.

Open digital book
Working since 2021 on the Digital National Textbook Program (PNLD), RNP chose a series of open products offered by the French organization EDR Labs to be used in the solution that will make books available digitally. In order to promote an approach that generates benefits for both sides, the organizations are establishing a partnership.

From there, RNP will be able to offer the same products to other customers that are not in the PNLD. For example: if a university wants to create a digital library, the same base can be used, taking into account that the book can be sold or borrowed. A student can use it in one semester for a certain subject and then return it for another to use in the following period. All this with the university buying only one copy, which results in savings. 

Regarding the legal framework around the digital book, EDR Labs provides a DRM solution that protects intellectual property, ensuring a secure structure for authors.

From the formalization of the partnership, RNP will become the main case of EDR Labs due to the greatness of PNLD Digital. 

“During the process of building the Digital Book, we ran into an enormous difficulty. Only one supplier offered the DRM (Digital Rights Management) solution and for a value that would be unfeasible for the project. In this sense, international cooperation and the adoption of free software are a very interesting path that has enabled the delivery of value to the customer. As a result, in addition to making the digital book available for the FNDE, we have evolved the product and will be able to return it to the community. International integration has strengthened us and proven us to think differently", says the deputy director of Specialized Digital Services, Marcello de Jesus.

Presentations at TNC23
In parallel with international deliveries and partnerships, RNP continues to be present at international events held by academic networks around the world, seeking to contribute with the experience acquired in Brazil. At the TNC23, held by Geánt, it will not be different!

Of the organization's insertions in the program of the event that will take place in Albania, between the 5th and 9th of June, one will deal with the case of the information security awareness campaign carried out at the Ministry of Defense (MD). Security specialist Rodrigo Facio will talk about the initiative, which was based on gamification and generated important results for the Ministry's employees.

“As the results obtained in the project were satisfactory both for the Ministry of Defense and for RNP, evolving the service for the community, this motivated us to share these results with other academic networks, which through events like the TNC, directly reach their client institutions. It was a great achievement to have obtained approval and the opportunity to be able to be together with the European institutions and other regions that will be part of the meeting”, says Facio.

Another presentation will be given by the manager of Architecture and Support for Clients, Sérgio Leal, and will address the model used by RNP to manage to reduce migration costs to the cloud from the creation of an environment of competition between suppliers.

RNP Health Community Relations specialist Paulo Lopes will also participate in the event representing the University Telemedicine Network (RUTE) in the work session aimed at promoting Digital Health in Academic Networks, in which proposals for cooperation between Latin America and European Union will be presented, considering BELLA/BELLA II, and funding opportunities. At the end of the session, a consensus of recommendations for a cooperation program (BELLA-Health) will be sought.