Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
By Nick Lewis, Internet2 Program Manager, Security and Identity
During the last year, your peers at five campuses have been heavily engaged with Internet2, Splunk, and subsequently Carahsoft to further mature the Internet2 NET+ Splunk offering. Their hard work has proven to be worthwhile and resulted in an update to the Splunk offering. As this is a recent development, we are coordinating our efforts on reaching out to campuses to let them know of this program update.
We would like to thank Splunk, Carahsoft, and the service validation campuses for their significant effort on behalf of the community in working through the service validation and new agreements. Those campuses are: Baylor University, California Institute of Technology, Indiana University, University of Nebraska Lincoln, and University of Washington.
In discussing updates to the Splunk offering, Splunk requested that we structure it similar to the structure used with their other public-sector business, including the use of distributors (Carahsoft) and, at times, resellers. This change required multiple legal agreements, including agreements between Internet2 and Splunk, Internet2 and Carahsoft, and Splunk and Carahsoft. In addition, the contracting process for campuses has changed, as detailed below, and will require a campus to enter into two separate documents: a Splunk Software License Agreement (SLA) between the campus and Splunk and a Reseller Service Order between the campus and either Carahsoft or a reseller. The added complexity to the structure was expected with the involvement of additional parties (distributors and resellers).
While there may be some additional complexity to the structure, it has some marked benefits. Aligning the updated Internet2 Splunk offering with Splunk’s other public-sector business brought additional Splunk applications into the Internet2 Splunk offering at discounted prices, including the Enterprise Security App. Yet, Splunk Cloud was specifically excluded from the updated Splunk offering as it has significantly different Terms of Service (ToS) than the on-prem software. In addition, adding Carahsoft, along with an approved reseller of your choice, makes it possible for campuses to request responses to RFPs. Carahsoft intends to respond directly to campuses that require a RFP.
As referenced above, there are two documents for the campus to review and sign in order to purchase the Internet2 Splunk offering. The first document is the Splunk SLA between the campus and Splunk, formerly the Splunk EULA. Internet2 legal and a number of campuses worked with Splunk to develop the campus facing terms in the SLA. Together, we raised all of the terms requested by the service validation campuses, which resulted in a number of beneficial changes to the terms. For example, Splunk agreed to remove the license restrictions around exceeding the licensed capacity for more than 5 days a month in that any such prolonged excess capacity will no longer violate the license agreement and will not require the campus to purchase additional capacity. Splunk intends to use the updated SLA for all of their business with the education sector. For existing campuses that want to add capacity under their existing NET+ Splunk agreement, they will need to assign the license agreement from their agreement to Splunk.
The second campus document is the Reseller Service Order between the campus and Carahsoft or the approved reseller of your choice. Campuses will find that this is very similar to the previous order form. The Reseller Service Order will include the remaining campus facing terms, such as the financial terms (price, length of term, etc) and terms regarding campus involvement in the Internet2 Splunk program. It also includes a term that gives Internet2 the right to list the campus as part of the Internet2 Splunk program.
More information on the updated Internet2 Splunk program will be posted on the Splunk service page.
Any questions about the Internet2 Splunk program can be direct to Nick Lewis at netplus@internet2.edu or directly via nlewis@internet2.edu.
If you would like to add more capacity to an existing agreement, extend an existing agreement, or purchase a new license, please contact Carahsoft’s Splunk team at SplunkInternet2@carahsoft.com. Internet2 will continue to service existing agreements until they expire.
We have updated the Internet2 Splunk Advisory Board and are engaging them in the next steps for the program.
We do appreciate your patience and support in our efforts to provide the best Internet2 Splunk offering for the higher education community!
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