Our cyber-infrastructure enables us to connect people and institutions in an environment suitable for knowledge production. One of the great highlights have been the actions focused on biodiversity, showing the concern of Brazil in a global effort in favor of the subject. Another concern is safety, which we always put first place. With more than 20 years of experience in Information Security, we support our clients in detection, solution and prevention of incidents transit throughout the academic network and its users.

Thus, part of a series that highlights the benefits pointed out by our clients, checks out applied TIC, Research and Security projects we offer throughout 2019.

National biodiversity data and content infrastructure

To promote integration and open access to a wide range of data on Brazilian species. This has been RNP's support to Information System on the Brazilian Diversity (SiBBr), national infrastructure that subsidizes research and scientific production and supports decision-makers in the implementation of public policies associated with the environment preservation and the sustainable use of natural resources.

SiBBr provides more than 15 million event records regarding the Brazilian species, including biological collections, threatened species and nutritional tables. On the platform, it is also possible to find tools and services that enable structuring, publication and validation of biodiversity data. By means of SiBBr, Brazil is a part of the biggest global effort to learn about the planet biodiversity and provide the available information on the Global Biodiversity Information Platform (GLIF) free of charge. 

In 2019, we released SiBBr Atlas, in which we delivered a new customized platform for biodiversity data (Platform ALA – Atlas of Living Australia) already in the cloud environment administered by RNP, which is now the core of SiBBr. Other big milestones for the project were accomplished this year, including signature of an agreement with UN to improve the Brazilian capacity to preserve and use its biodiversity by means of information management and use; the participation in the BIO Latin America Conference 2019, which gathered policy-makers, entrepreneurs, academics and investors from all over the world to discuss trends and challenges in the biotechnology area, in addition to holding a technical meeting of biodiversity professionals as a part of the agenda of the Trilateral Agreement signed between Brazil, Ecuador and Germany, which provide share of knowledge and lessons learned in the implementation of the ALA Platform in Brazil.

According to Biome General Coordinator of MCTIC Luiz Canto, “RNP has played a fundamental role by enabling maintenance and operationalization of SiBBr, mainly regarding data entry in the system, new modules and necessary corrections”.

Environmental information in the cloud

To increase the competitiveness pf the country in the global bioeconomy scenario, we support yet another project focused on biodiversity. Last year, we supported the migration of the system speciesLink to the RNP´s cloud infrastructure. The purpose of speciesLink is to integrate the primary information on biodiversity available in museums, herbaria and microbiological collections, making it available free and open on the Internet.

“The migration from the speciesLink network to a cloud environment enables the system to be hosted in a more stable and highly available environment.. This type of action will contribute for Brazil to make a qualitative and competitive jump in adding value to natural resources and environmental services, and obtaining innovative products and processes, contributing to the sustainable development of the country”, the Solutions manager at RNP, responsible for this project, Christian Miziara pointed out.

Impacts of the climate changes in Brazil

Climate change is one of the trending topics. And, throughout 2019, RNP, Inpe and MCTIC are developing a system for analysis of information on the impacts of the climate change, ImpactaClima. The purpose is to provide the decision-makers with information related to the impacts of the climate changes to serve as a basis for the formulation of public policies for the environmental, economic and social areas, and for planning of productive activities.

In June, Inpe and RNP organized Indicator Consolidation  workshop Sismoi-Semiárido, in Campina Grande (PB). The meeting addressed the topic 'Indicators for Water, Food and Energetic Safety and Impacts of Climate Changes on the Semiarid Region'. “The platform can help us understand the risks better and thus, plan adaptation actions immediately, in order to reduce the exposure and the vulnerability associated with the climate changes in the Northeastern Semi-Arid region at first, and then, in Amazon, Pampas, in short, in the whole country”, the S&T analyst of MCTIC Rodrigo Braga stated. The platform is expected to be released at the beginning of 2020.

Good Information Security Practices

To improve the processes and the technological infrastructure focused on information security. This was the goal of the Brazilian Industrial Research and Innovation Company (Embrapii) when entering into a partnership with RNP. The project plans implementation of good Information Security practices that serve as a basis for establishment of an Information Security Management System (ISMS) for Embrapii.

In 2019, we developed a consistent Information Security Policy and its complementary rules for the company, which will guide the implementation of its ISMS. We also delivered three Recommendation Reports focused on information security. One of them was about Firewall Solution, in order to improve the level of external and internal protection of its assets. Another one highlighted Physical Security Improvements in the Data Processing Center (DPC), in which a diagnosis and studies were carried out to improve the physical security controls of the institution's data center. In addition, there was the report on Improvement in the Network Topology, in which we suggested to implement segmentation between the networks and the redundancy between the equipment units. Furthermore, we support Embrapii in the elaboration of a Reference Term to acquire an Internal Management System aligned to its Information Security Policy. These are fundamental actions to preserve the integrity, the confidentiality and the availability of data from research and innovation projects supported by Embrapii.

“We are a young and small organization that works in partnership with other institutions for innovation projects. We needed a more robust and more secure IT infrastructure. We handle a lot of sensitive data. Therefore, we called RNP, for being a partner institution and for its competence in the information security area. We set seven targets and have already received six. This was possible only with Christian Miziara´s collaboration and the understanding.. He understood our needs and our business and, thus, RNP achieved our objective exactly and with a delivery at a technical capacity level above the expected”, Luiz Horta Barbosa, from the Operation Board of company, praised .

Innovative solutions for radio and TV 

The partnership between RNP and EBC, which started in 2008, had the challenge to develop innovative solutions for digital files transfer between EBC units and institutional partners in different states. The solution was to create the Digital Content Exchange System for Public TVs and Radio stations (ITVRP), which uses RNP's backbone for data traffic. The system plays a fundamental role at EBC, enabling management of digital assets, exchange of audio and video files among the different units, in addition to receiving and distributing radio and TV content among external partners.

To improve the system performance, throughout 2019, we developed a new ITVRP version, which incorporated the most modern in data communication technologies, distributed systems, information security and graphical interfaces. The system is now faster, more robust and more stable, improving its usability and reducing its operational support and maintenance costs. In addition, it will be possible to expand these features. The ITVRP system benefits other RNP clients; in this case, we use the name Digital Content Exchange (DCE), such as the University Tele-medicine Network (Rute). Rute uses the system to store and share digital content, such as videos, audios and texts, easy to access and distribute.

Also in 2019, four EBC units - Rio, Brasília, São Paulo and São Luís - were connected to RNP's communication and collaboration network, to provide the system use in a high-capacity infrastructure.