Dear EPDP Team,

I am sending the below message on behalf of SVP and CFO Xavier Calvez.

Thank you,

Eleeza

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Dear EPDP team members,

I am writing to provide you with an update on ICANN org’s efforts to provide a cost estimate for the SSAD. We welcome the opportunity to support the work of the EPDP team by offering cost estimates for the proposed model. We entirely agree this work can provide helpful insights to the team and bring further clarity on the model proposed in the final report. We therefore hope that the information we provide proves useful for the EPDP.

We are nearly complete with the work, but need a couple more weeks to finalize the estimations and provide a description of the assumptions that we made based on the proposed model, the methodology that we applied, and the resulting costs estimates. To that end, I would like to share with you what this analysis will include:

• A high-level quantification of costs for:
  • the set-up and development costs of the relevant systems, 
  • the costs for ongoing operations on an annual basis.
• A structure of the systems that would support the SSAD model. 
  • This includes a breakdown of development/startup costs for the accreditation authority, identity providers, and central gateway, and how the org would provide or outsource each of these. 
  • It would also cover the costs required to operate the systems, such as customer support and quality control, including audits. 
• A set of assumptions that underlie the cost estimate. 
  • These include the assumptions the team provided to us, as well as some other assumptions we had to make regarding how to operationalize some of the policy recommendations, such as regarding identity verification. 
  • Similarly, we will list the areas of difficulty we encountered, including items that were difficult to evaluate and why. We believe those items are opportunities for potential further design of the model which the EPDP team may want to consider. For example, verifying signed assertions cannot be estimated, as costs may vary by jurisdiction and by the type of assertion.
  • In some areas we list alternative approaches for some of the services, such as the use of Certificate Authorities. 

We are looking forward to discussing this work with the EPDP team and would like to request the opportunity to present the above analysis once it will have been provided to you, and answer questions during one of your meetings. We hope this presentation will be helpful and result in a fruitful discussion.

Thank you, 

Xavier Calvez

Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer