Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to present NYSERNet’s 2010 annual report. To articulate for a broad audience the work of the NYSERNet Board, staff and community, and the possibilities that advanced networks and network applications enable, in 2010, our twenty-fifth anniversary year, we produced our first annual report ever — a mixture of history and accomplishments in 2009 — and revamped our web site.

This second report continues that discussion with the same overarching goal, but with an additional caveat. Global problems like energy, climate change, and health care are larger than any one institution, discipline, or sector. Solutions require the cooperation of governments, industry, and academe, and rely on ever more advanced technologies and networks. The contribution that NYSERNet and our member institutions can make in addressing these broad challenges certainly underlies much of the guidance that the NYSERNet Board offers us.

Some of this report concerns itself with core competencies like advanced networks, optical infrastructure in City and statewide, our global peering and colocation facility in , and technical training. But we also discuss work in a wider community, where NYSERNet is just one of many participants.The High Performance Computing Consortium, for example, is an effort by academic institutions, industry, and New York State to make advanced computing resources more widely available. Another is our efforts with New York’s K12 schools, Regional Information Centers and BOCES to incorporate live international interactions between classrooms here and abroad into the curriculum.

Perhaps the best effect a report like this can have is to catalyze a suggestion in someone’s mind of some new task that we (NYSERNet or the broader community) should take on. As G.K. Chesterton noted,“We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.”

Regards,

Timothy L. Lance, President and Chair, NYSERNet, Inc. 2010 Board of Directors Jeanne Casares Francis C. Lees Chief Information Officer Chief Information Officer Rochester Institute of Technology American Museum of Natural History

Brian Cohen David E. Lewis Associate Vice Chancellor and CIO Vice Provost and CIO City University of New York University of Rochester

Elias Eldayrie Marilyn McMillan Associate Vice President and CIO Vice President for IT and Chief IT Officer for NYU NY Campus University at Buffalo New York University

Candace Fleming Mark Reed Vice President and CIO Associate Vice President for IT Columbia University Binghamton University

Thomas Furlani Richard Reeder Interim Associate Vice President for IT Director of IT and CIO University at Buffalo Stony Brook University

Armand Gazes Gary O. Roberts Director, IT Operations and Network Security Director, IT The Rockefeller University Alfred University

Christine Haile Christopher M. Sedore Chief Information Officer Vice President for IT/CIO University at Albany Syracuse University

Voldemar Innus David Sturm Vice President and CIO Vice President and CIO Buffalo State College The New York Public Library

Robert W. Juckiewicz William Thirsk Vice President for IT Vice President for IT and CIO Hofstra University Marist College

John E. Kolb R. David Vernon Vice President for IT and CIO Director of Network and Communication Services Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Cornell University

Vace Kundakci Robert Wood Assistant Vice President for IT and CIO Director of Government Relations City College of New York Clarkson University

Timothy L. Lance President NYSERNet

3 NYSERNet continually seeks new ways to add meaning and value to membership.

2010 Members & Project Participants ARTstor Northeastern Regional Information Center Bard College Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Baruch College Rochester Institute of Technology Binghamton University SINET Buffalo State College Skidmore College CANARIE Stony Brook University Canisius College Syracuse University City University of New York TWAREN Clarkson University The American Museum of Natural History Colgate University The Central New York Regional Information Center Columbia University The Frick Collection Cornell University MAGPI Daemen College The New School DANTE The New York Public Library Eastern Suffolk BOCES The Rockefeller University Erie #1 BOCES The State University of New York at Geneseo Erie Community College The State University of New York at Potsdam Fordham University University at Albany Hofstra University University at Buffalo IBM Watson Research Center University of Rochester Upstate Medical University Ithaca College USLHCNet/CERN Le Moyne College Weill Medical College of Cornell University Marist College Weill Medical College of Cornell University in Qatar Massachusetts Institute of Technology Yeshiva University Mohawk Regional Information Center Monroe #1 BOCES Mount Sinai School of Medicine National LambdaRail New York-Presbyterian Hospital New York University Niagara University NORDUnet

4 e routinely engage our members to identify experienced data center manager – to bolster a core problems of mutual concern, a process guided, competency we began developing with the launch of the enhanced, and reinforced by our Board. We Colo@32 in 2004. The result is a highly flexible, highly Wcollaborate with members to develop solutions satisfying their connected facility – operated by a trusted, knowledgeable unique requirements. Member feedback guides and informs our staff that enables DR/BC applications beyond anything our Board decisions to create new services, to evolve existing ones, even to conceived at the project’s launch. drop services and service features no longer relevant. Tactically and philosophically, we gravitate toward solutions that amplify the The same principles that guided development of these services value of our core competencies and existing infrastructure, that influence current efforts. In 2010, in collaboration with Marist leverage the aggregate purchasing power of our membership, or College and the American Museum of Natural History, for which trust is an essential component. Any new offering must NYSERNet launched a project to assess the feasibility of offering also fill a gap left effectively unaddressed by the commercial mar- members a remote data backup service. The pilot seeks to ket.To illustrate, here are examples from our current service suite: determine if a VTL (Virtual Tape Library) can serve as an effective target for secondary and tertiary backups, obviating the need for NYSERNet’s Network Management Continuity Service (NMCS) offsite storage of physical tape and enabling faster restoration. leverages the knowledge and experience of NYSERNet’s network team, their familiarity with members’ network infra- In 2010, NYSERNet formed a working group expressly to structure, and the long-standing trust between NYSERNet and its identify opportunities for new NYSERNet services. The group members to offer participating members surrogate network met to review NYSERNet’s current offerings and to consider management capabilities. NMCS uniquely addresses the need findings from a survey NYSERNet conducted of our peer region- to have experienced, trusted personnel ready to undertake al networks. The group identified three areas for exploration key technical responsibilities at a moment’s notice should existing (aggregate software licensing, an equipment buying staff become incapacitated, a key component of a complete club, and security assessment) and one meriting immediate business continuity plan. implementation: an IPv6 Working Group.

NYSERNet CIS offers members substantial discounts on com- Finally, in 2010, NYSERNet made a sweeping change in our mem- mercial services based on the aggregate purchasing bership program, creating a tiered subscription structure that power of NYSERNet’s members. CIS leverages NYSERNet’s bundles complementary NYSERNet services based on the band- years of experience designing, implementing, and supporting CIS width of the member’s R&E network connection. In December, to ensure that members receive trusted, sound, unbiased NYSERNet’s Board authorized a Tier I subscription bundle, which advice as well as exceptional technical support. Members may includes 1 Gbps of R&E service with participation in NMCS and use Ethernet circuits provisioned on NYSERNet’s optical network one BCC cabinet.The fee authorized for the Tier I subscription is to reach low-cost providers in distant locations, gaining the same NYSERNet previously charged for a 250 Mb R&E added benefit from our investment in the network. connection alone.The Board’s goal for the new Tier is to encour- age participation in the BCC by reducing the cost of participation NYSERNet’s Business Continuity Center is, perhaps, the purest and by providing sufficient bandwidth to enable data mirroring. example of our approach to service development. NYSERNet’s NMCS participation, while appealing to many members, repre- Board of Directors conceived the BCC as a means of enhancing sented a significant new cost to the IT department. The Board members’ disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities. determined NMCS is too valuable not to be broadly employed. The BCC fills a void in the market: a colocation facility sufficiently remote from campus to serve as a backup, plus the network In 2011, we will continue the exploration that commenced capabilities necessary to deploy highly reliable, highly available with creation of our services working group, working with our business continuity solutions. A working group composed of members and vendors to identify new ways to leverage our member representatives designed the BCC. They selected the aggregate purchasing power, our existing technology investments, BCC’s location from a host of alternatives.We leveraged existing and our core competencies to develop services that uniquely staff to operate the facility, hiring just one new staff member – an satisfy the demanding requirements of our member institutions.

5 his past August marked the seventh dark fiber program, signing an agreement in anniversary of the start of construction of November to connect three of its buildings NYSERNet’s dark fiber net- and the Colo@32 via a private dark fiber ring. wTork and the network’s central telecommunication colocation facility at 32 Avenue of the Americas. More dramatic still was the September announce- Christened the Manhattan Project by NYSERNet’s ment by Lightower Fiber Networks of its planned members, the effort — initial construction long acquisition of Lexent Metro Connect (LMC). complete — proved both seminal and transformative, NYSERNet’s contractor for construction of the fiber resulting in an adaptable and customizable dark fiber plant and the Colo@32, LMC was also responsible plant for NYSERNet’s members, while simultaneously for ongoing operations and maintenance of the fiber producing a globally significant network peering point, plant, a necessary and critical function performed NYSERNet’s Colo@32. nearly flawlessly by LMC. More than this, LMC shared NYSERNet’s vision for the network and its promise, The American Museum of Natural History, City remaining steadfast when the success of the nascent University of New York, Columbia University, network was by no means assured. Our interactions Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York with Lightower Fiber Networks subsequent to the Presbyterian Hospital, and Weill Medical College announced acquisition suggest they will be an equally b formed the core of this collaborative effort. Fordham reliable and valuable partner, perhaps more valuable u University, New York University and The Rockefeller given their expansive network footprint, correspond- University joined soon after. Diverse paths and ring ingly larger network reach, and broader service suite. H closures, alternate connections for existing and future

locations, and options to reach and In 2011, we look forward to growing and strength- g would add value to the network in years subsequent. ening this new relationship, as we work with n

i Lightower to help NYSERNet’s members explore

r The Colo@32 likewise grew, evolved, and prospered. the many applications and benefits of dark fiber.

e Conceptualized as a means of promoting peering We will continue to work with LMC to wrap-up

e between member networks built on the dark fiber, construction of New School’s fiber project in March, but also among the worlds’ national and international bringing to thirty-seven the number of buildings on P

/ R&E networks, the facility is, today, home to the the fiber network. This year we will complete a long-

r northeast PoPs of Internet2, National LambdaRail planned project to upgrade the capacity and enhance

e and ESnet. International networks CANARIE, the reliability of the power plant at the heart of the GEANT, NORDUnet, SINET, and TWAREN are there Colo@32, ensuring that this critical resource remains b

i too, drawn by the need to peer with each other, but relevant for years to come.

F also by the ease of doing business with NYSERNet. Promise and programmatic objectives fully achieved, Finally, we must acknowledge the extraordinary

n the Colo@32 seems destined only to gain in prestige relationship NYSERNet has enjoyed with people

a and prominence, propelled by the concomitant global at every level of Rudin Management, owners of t

i demand for high performance network resources. 32 Avenue of the Americas. As the facility’s l importance to the R&E community has grown,

o This seventh year of operation witnessed changes Rudin Management has worked with us to enable

p nearly as dramatic as any of those since the pro- opportunities not originally imagined by any of us. gram’s launch. MAGPI (the Mid-Atlantic GigaPoP in They have joined us for visits by members of the o Philadelphia for Internet2) became the first regional New York State Assembly, our Governor’s senior r

t network to join the Colo@32. TWAREN (the Taiwan staff, and by cybersecurity personnel from state

e Advanced Research & Education Network) acquired and federal agencies. We could not operate the a second rack in the facility. The New School became peering facility with the speed and responsiveness

M the tenth NYSERNet member participating in the our members demand without Rudin’s commitment.

6 7 Education Services In 1992, NYSERNet presented Network Access Timothy Lance, President of NYSERNet. NYSCIO for All: Learn, Teach, Collaborate, one of the first 2011, Leadership and Developing the Next conferences dedicated to promoting awareness Generation of CIOs, takes place July 13-15 on the of the value of the Internet as a tool for teaching campus of Marist College in Poughkeepsie. and learning. Two years later, in 1994, NYSERNet established NITEC, the NYSERNet Internet NYSERTech 2010, Computing Beyond the Cloud, Training and Education Center, widely credited as was held July 28 at SUNY Oswego’s Metro the first training center in the world dedicated Center in downtown Syracuse. The conference exclusively to providing training on use of the featured speakers and panelists discussing Internet as a tool for enhancing personal and advances in cloud computing and the impact professional productivity. In 2010, NYSERNet and opportunities for higher education and K12. continued its longstanding tradition of offering Syracuse University doctoral student, Jerry members unique opportunities for knowledge Robinson, kicked-off the conference with a transfer and professional growth through events presentation on trust in the cloud. Bill St. Arnaud such as these: followed with a presentation entitled, Cloud Computing and the University. Mary Dunker The New York State Conference of Higher Education (Virginia Tech) presented a case study in federat- CIOs (NYSCIO) drew fifty-six senior IT leaders ed authentication. Brad Wheeler (CIO, Indiana from forty academic institutions to University at University) and Shelton Waggener (CIO, Buffalo, July 14-16, to exchange ideas, share expe- University of , Berkeley) offered a pres- riences, discuss unique challenges, and listen to entation entitled, Above-Campus Services: Shaping presentations on timely topics by key technology the Promise of Cloud Computing for Higher leaders. NYSCIO 2010 featured a presentation on Education. NYSERTech 2010 concluded with a green computing by Christopher Sedore (CIO, discussion on application outsourcing led by Kelley Syracuse University), and panel discussions on Re- Duran (Daemen College) and Christopher thinking IT in Tough Financial Times and the Evolving Nelson (North Syracuse Central School District). Role of the CIO. Mark Luker, Telecommunication In lieu of offering a NYSERTech in 2011, Specialists with NTIA, spoke about the role NYSERNet has invited nationally recognized net- of higher education CIOs in creating our global work security professionals to participate in a networked environment and the challenges that Network Security Summit on May 18 that will lay ahead for them. At a reception hosted by include presentations on topics as diverse as: Buffalo State College at the Burchfield Penney Art Building a Network Security and Incident Center, participants heard presentations by Response Program, PCI Compliance in a Campus Buffalo State’s President, Aaron Podolefsky, and Environment, Network Security on the Cheap,

8 and an Introduction to REN-ISAC.

In 2009, NYSERNet re- emphasized its historical role as a community resource for hands-on technical training, delivering five technical workshops. In 2010, NYSERNet offered its NYSERNet is a members eleven workshops, private not-for-profit principally on BGP and IPv6. More corporation created than one hundred individuals repre- to foster science and senting forty member institutions education in New York attended these sessions, held variously State. Its mission is at NYSERNet’s training facility in Syracuse, to advance network at member locations, and at the American technology and related Museum of Natural History, which in 2010 agreed applications to satisfy to act as host for all of NYSERNet’s future NYC-area needs common to the workshops. Participants in these events were uniform in institutions comprising their praise for the content and the instructors, which New York State’s research and included staff from our member institutions. education community, providing a forum for exploration of the Since beginning this new emphasis on training, we have opportunities and challenges these discovered an enormous, growing demand from our innovations present. community for this work. As a result, in addition to con- tinuing BGP and IPv6 workshops (this likely to continue to expand as IPv4 address space is exhausted), NYSERNet is adding several new topics to its training suite in 2011, including: VRF w/ MPLS, DNS and BIND Primer, DNSSEC, Fiber Network Management and Troubleshooting, and Network Operations Center 101. NYSERNet is also exploring developing online versions of its workshops, starting with BGP.

9 Teaching and Learning Across the Pond “Video Conferencing has opened up a whole new style of dialogue, sharing and collaboration within a classroom setting! Worldwide visits have offered so many more opportunities for diverse learning. It has truly defined ‘open classroom’ in a different and more flexible way than ever before.” — Tami Warren, 2nd Grade Teacher

10 elcome to 2nd grade in the the role R&E networks can play in achiev- expand it to include the sciences, arts and 21st Century. Children from ing these goals. Furthermore, increasing humanities, and social studies. NYSERNet Tami Warren’s class at Bell budgetary pressure has schools seeking and JANET are seeking additional WTop Elementary in East Greenbush, NY ways to deliver educational programming Teaching and Learning Across the Pond are participating in a NYSERNet-initiated more efficiently and effectively. The suc- partners in 2011, too. Already, Thailand program called Teaching and Learning cess of Teaching and Learning Across the (UniNet), France (GIP RENATER) and Across the Pond. Developed in partnership Pond suggests that R&E networks can be Germany (DFN-Verein) have asked to with our United Kingdom counterparts, part of the solution. join, as have several states, lead by the London Grid for Learning (LGfL) and Pennsylvania (MAGPI), Texas (LEARN), the Joint Academic Network (JANET), Teaching and Learning Across the Pond Kansas (KanREN) and California (CENIC). Teaching and Learning Across the Pond pro- partners students in classrooms from four motes shared learning among children of of New York’s BOCES Regional We are learning from these efforts all ages, stimulating a greater appreciation Information Centers (NERIC, CNYRIC, to create virtual classrooms. However, of the global economy in which they will Monroe and Suffolk) with counterparts in perhaps the biggest lessons to be someday play a role. By connecting class- the United Kingdom. Several times a learned will come from the students. es of similar-aged students through video- month, the primary school participants When Ms. Warren’s second graders conferencing, the program promotes connect to discuss topics as diverse as were born, NYSERNet was building its development of verbal and non-verbal their classroom assignments, books they global peering point at 32 Avenue of communication skills, while fostering like to read, and even non-academic the Americas. We were deploying our international understanding and a greater topics, such as the differences between statewide optical infrastructure when appreciation of cultural diversity. football in the US and the UK, and they were learning to walk. They view something new they have in common… the technology as a given, something There is a movement afoot in the United Halloween, just starting to catch on in that was always there, probably the States to develop pedagogy that inte- Britain. High school participants engage in same way most of us thought of grates technology to create and sustain discussions and debates about energy the telephone. For them the classroom educational communities, promotes solutions, the global economy, and political isn’t virtual but real. Our most valuable achievement of state and federal learning ideology. Enthusiastic about the program’s lessons may come just from watching standards, and develops 21st Century promise, participating teachers them – these natives to the technology, skills. Academic leaders understand and students are eager to something we are not.

11 High Performance Computing Consortium (HPC2)

ensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the UniversityR at Buffalo, Stony Brook University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and NYSERNet are founders of a consortium that is helping academic and corporate research efforts benefit from New York’s wealth of high performance computing resources. Called HPC2, the consortium’s goal is to increase New York State’s competitiveness and foster economic development by providing industry and academic institutions with high performance computing resources, including staff with expertise in modeling and simulation.

Conceptualized in 2007 at a meeting of NYSERNet’s Board of Directors at which the Board com- mitted to a broad outreach program with industry and the research and education community, HPC2 crystallized at a subsequent meeting at IBM Research. There, NYSERNet Board Member and RPI CIO, John Kolb, Stony Brook Provost, Bob McGrath, NYSERNet President, Tim Lance, and Dr. John E. Kelly, III, Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research, discussed how the state’s HPC resources might be applied to tackle challenges in areas as diverse as climate, energy, finance, and nanotechnology.

Their principle conclusion, reinforced in follow-on conversations with NYSERNet Board members, was that a lack of awareness about the availability and applicability of New York’s HPC resources was preventing broader utilization. To promote awareness and to identify other obstacles to adoption, in 2008, NYSERNet, RPI, and IBM sponsored two meetings on the topic. The first was held in January at the New York Academy of Sciences, the second in October at RPI. Both were well-attended, with broad representation from New York’s corporate and higher education communities. Ed Reinfurt, Executive Director of NYSTAR, was keynote speaker at both events.

At the first gathering, participants broke into groups to consider the obstacles to adoption. Interestingly, by very different paths, the groups reached the same conclusion: there is a critical need for “bridging” people, individuals with computing expertise and broader disciplinary backgrounds available to guide potential HPC users to actual application to their research problems.This led to a NYSTAR grant to support putting such people in place. The second meeting focused on applications,

12 highlighting HPC’s research-enabling potential, and engendering NYSERNet Staff additional interest. Sharon Akkoul Manager, Membership Development Subsequent to these meetings, consortium members focused on Program Manager, NYC Metro Fiber Services promoting accessibility – hiring and training “bridging personnel”, building a portal for those seeking access to HPC, helping new Robert Bloom Manager, Data Center users optimize applications – and building community. Though much of the research enabled is subject to disclosure rules, preliminary Lawrence Gallery results indicate the consortium’s efforts are succeeding. Adoption is Manager, Membership Development increasing and broadening, with research in areas such as high fre- Program Manager, K12 quency stock trading, modeling of complex fluid dynamics, balancing supply and demand in the electric grid, using modeling to explore Jeffrey Harrington material that could underlie the next generation of semiconductors, Senior Network Engineer and modeling human organs to enhance drug efficacy representing just Mary C. Hyla some of the ways researchers are using these powerful resources. Chief Financial Officer

HPC2 was and is a community effort, with the initial focus on enabling Robin L. Jones use of high performance computing. The NYSTAR grant to the four HR Administrator founding organizations enables use of these computing resources across Contracts Coordinator the state, in both the academic and commercial sectors. But this is just Stephen R. Kankus the beginning. What we learn here will help guide us as we take Chief Operating Officer on other complex, necessarily collaborative efforts, both in how to work as a community and in applying the expertise gained in Stephan M. Knapp HPC2 to the problems themselves. Manager, Network Operations

“I think this is just the start of what can be done like this together,” Timothy L. Lance President noted John Kolb, principal investigator on the NYSTAR grant.“Industry, government, and academe came together on this. The problems are Katrina Lawrence too important and too hard to proceed any other way.” Accounting Specialist Contracts Support "Over the past decade, leaders in New York government, our outstand- ing universities and local industrial enterprises have worked in close Steven E. Matkoski Supervisor, Internal Systems and Infrastructure collaboration to create new economic value and make the state Network Engineer a high-tech powerhouse. However, competition for resources and investment is greater than ever. We need to stay focused on our for- William C. Owens mula for success to address the opportunities and challenges ahead." Chief Technology Officer —Dr. John E. Kelly III, IBM SVP & Director of Research James A. Shaffer For more information on the meetings at NYAS and RPI, see: Colocation Supervisor Network Engineer http://www.nysernet.org/pub/nyas http://www.rpi.edu/highperformancecompconf. Elaine M. Verrastro Office Services and Board Assistant For more information on the HPC2 consortium, see: http://hpc2.org/ Adam Wojtalewski Systems Administrator

13 High Performance Networks During 2010, the New York research and research-intensive institutions are considering education community continued driving the upgrading from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps to prepare NYSERNet R&E network to higher levels of for the demands their scientists are expected utilization, while using the network in new ways. to place on the network. Our statewide optical network, already used by several NYSERNet We began the year knowing that a number members to reach our Business Continuity of large science projects long on the horizon, Center in Syracuse, added Gigabit Ethernet were now imminent, and that data-driven circuits to reach Syracuse, New York City and research has spread across many disciplines. Buffalo. Growth led to upgrades for some users The beginning of research at the Large Hadron and we now have three private 10 Gbps lambda Collider at CERN proved not only that it can connections carrying traffic for them. run as designed, but that it can provide the vast data flows we were warned to expect.The life In anticipation of this growing demand, sciences kept pace, though, and we see equal NYSERNet upgraded all of our external interest in downloading data from the National R&E connectivity during 2010. We increased Institutes of Health and similar repositories. our connection to the MAN LAN peering Additionally, gene sequencers, which produce point from 1 to 10 Gbps thereby increasing enormous amounts of data, have become far our ability to reach the Department of Energy’s less expensive and are proliferating. ESnet, National Lambda Rail, ’s CANARIE network and the Taiwanese research Staying ahead of this demand, NYSERNet’s network,TWAREN. Shortly afterwards we largest R&E network users are migrating from completed the upgrade process for our twin 250 Mbps connections to full 1 Gbps. connections to the Internet2 network, in New A number of other York City and Buffalo. Those connections were also increased to 10 Gbps, bringing our total external capacity to 20 Gbps.

14 Commercial Internet In 2011, we will continue our network upgrades, NYSERNet is committed to working with our members to secure building capacity between our busiest PoP the lowest possible prices for commercial Internet services (CIS) locations with new 10 Gbps connections and from an array of Tier 1 service providers (ISPs), known for their installing additional optical equipment so service and support. Promoting choice increases competition, that our members can keep adding circuits driving down the price of service, helping members satisfy ever- and lambda connections wherever they are increasing bandwidth demands from students and faculty. needed. Over time, we expect to revamp Furthermore, NYSERNet recommends that its members adopt a the network and replace aging components, multi-home solution employing multiple ISPs on diverse network while making improvements in redundancy paths in order to maintain constant network availability, essential where possible, always with the goal of given their reliance on the Internet for communication, teaching, having the network continue as the back- learning and business operations. Our emphasis on expanded bone of NYSERNet’s services and of the choice and competition makes acquiring connections from state’s research activities. multiple ISPs affordable, enabling members to implement network solutions that support institutional goals. These upgrades are elements along a strategic continuum. Deployment of NYSERNet’s statewide optical infra- Unlike most of our peers, NYSERNet does not offer CIS via its structure was possible because fiber backbone network. Instead, NYSERNet participates in a national was available and low cost, and because CIS buying club managed and coordinated by the Quilt, a consor- advances in technology made possible tium of twenty-eight regional network operators, like NYSERNet, deployment of a DWDM infrastructure. collaborating to promote delivery of low-cost, high-performance This year NYSERNet’s Board endorsed network services to the research and education community. the new membership tier, which includes the option to upgrade member research Through the Quilt, NYSERNet members can choose services connections to a full GigE at no additional from any of five Tier 1 ISPs, each offering dramatic discounts and cost, and network utilization is expected favorable terms. Most of these ISPs operate POPs in New York’s to climb as a consequence. Interestingly, largest cities. Members can use GigE circuits and optical wave- with few exceptions member institutions lengths (lambdas) on NYSERNet’s optical network to reach were not bumping against the 250 Mb lim- ISPs lacking a local presence. NYSERNet staff support members its. Rather, the increased demand is arriving throughout the CIS acquisition and implementation process, coor- just as the upgrades are being scheduled. dinating meetings with provider representatives, reviewing technical proposals, consulting on design issues, supervising the provisioning This has happened before. NYSERNet process, and, ultimately, monitoring the completed connection. upgraded its T1 network to T3 just as the web appeared and bandwidth demand leaped. Members value the pricing intelligence, transparency and support We will endeavor to continue to anticipate services encompassed in NYSERNet’s Quilt CIS offering. As of network requirements for the research and December 2010, twenty-seven NYSERNet member institutions education community, building capacity when were acquiring 22 Gigabits of CIS from Quilt providers, twice the affordable and practical, and being ready when amount they were acquiring just six months previous. We anticipate the need arises. similar growth in 2011, as more of our members become aware of the savings and value inherent in acquiring CIS via this program.

15