The EGI Marketplace will be launched in production in the next few weeks.

This tool will be the platform where EGI-related services, delivered by EGI providers and partners, can be promoted, discovered, shared, ordered and accessed. It will include EGI services as well as discipline and community-specific tools and services enabled by EGI and/or provided by third parties.

The EGI Marketplace is designed as an electronic market: it’s a platform where services can be advertised and where customers can easily order and access them. In addition, the Marketplace will enhance visibility for resource and service providers, raising awareness of what they can provide as well as helping to promote cross-disciplinary research.

The Marketplace will also act as the main web interface to access the Applications on Demand service (AoDS). Orders for the AoDS could be submitted only from the Marketplace and will be managed via an automatic workflow guaranteeing a quick and smooth access to the applications.

The EGI Marketplace was developed using the PrestaShop technology, a free, open source e-commerce solution largely adopted in the commercial world with a wide community behind it.

Marketplace workflow

• Authentication: Managed through the EGI Check-in service, which allows customers to use the credentials of their home organization. Customers are required to register during their first login into the Marketplace to create a customer profile in the database. Part of the data is retrieved by the EGI Check-in service and additional data is gathered through a form.
• Discover and order services: The customer browses the Marketplace, finds what is needed and selects the services s/he needs to order.
• Check-Out: The service orders are submitted with information complemented with the customer profile. The order then follows the appropriate service order management, according to the EGI Integrated Management System (IMS) processes and procedures.

The first testing phase after the Marketplace becomes operational will include only services provided by EGI. After this is completed, the Marketplace will be opened to the whole EGI collaboration and partners, in particular for publishing thematic community services (i.e. services provided by third partied that rely on EGI services).

The EGI Marketplace will be further enhanced in the EOSC-hub project and will become a key component of the future European Open Science Cloud facilitating the discovery, the order and the access of a large set of services provided by several stakeholders. To reach this aim, several activities are already planned in four main areas:

• Technical development of interfaces to retrieve and publish service data to/from other tools (e.g. the eInfraCentral service registry);
• Publishing of thematic community services;
• Service order management automation;
• Pay-for-use: launch of first commercial offers.