2015 Annual Report ANNUAL 2015 REPORT CONTENTS i Letter from the President 4 ii NYSERNet Names New President 6 iii NYSERNet Members Institutions 8 iv Membership Update 9 v Data Center 10 vi VMWare Quilt Project 11 vii Working Groups 12 viii Education Services 13 ix iGlass 14 x Network 16 xi Internet Services 17 xii Board Members 18 xiii Our Staff 19 xiv Human Face of Research 20 LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear Colleagues, I am pleased to present to you NYSERNet’s 2015 Annual Report. Through more than three decades, NYSERNet’s members have addressed the education and research community’s networking and other technology needs together, with trust in each other guiding us through every transition. This spring inaugurates more change, as City. The terrible attack of Sept. 11, 2001, we welcome a new president and I will step complicated achievement of that goal, made down from that position to focus on the it more essential, and taught a sobering research community’s work and needs. lesson concerning the importance of communication and the need to harden the By itself, working with NYSERNet’s infrastructure that supports it. We invested extraordinary Board and staff to support in a wounded New York City, deploying fiber and building what today has become a global exchange point at “ These two ventures formed pieces 32 Avenue of the Americas. In the process, we forged partnerships in a puzzle that, when assembled, that have proved deep and durable. benefited all of New York and beyond.” Despite inherent risks, and a perception that New York City the collective missions of our members institutions might principally benefit, for the past 18 years has been a privilege NYSERNet’s Board unanimously supported beyond my imagining. Early on during those efforts, and was similarly united in those years, however, we committed approving a statewide optical network that to controlling the network down to the would seemingly benefit upstate primarily. transport layer, focusing first on New York These two ventures formed pieces in a 4 puzzle that, when assembled, benefited all unmistakable signs of gravitational of New York and beyond. It also enabled us waves emanating from the merger of to create new resources like the business two black holes 1.3 billion years ago. continuity center in Syracuse, which worked flawlessly during Hurricane Sandy. “ I am honored to have been allowed The fabric of trust we form together builds resources that support the ideas of our to be part of this united effort.” members. Discussion with the state office supporting research (NYSTAR), IBM and a broad swath of the community about cross- I am honored to have been allowed boundary problems like climate, energy, and to be part of this united effort to health, evolved into the high-performance which we have all committed, and computing consortium. Our community I offer you my deepest thanks. is broadly engaged in genomics, climate and climate modeling, and in shortening the path from biomedical research to Regards, clinical practice. Many institutions in the NYSERNet community made seminal contributions to the LIGO project which, Dr. Timothy Lance on Sept. 14, detected the first strong, President, NYSERNet Inc. 5 NYSERNET NAMES NEW PRESIDENT Christopher M. Sedore named new president of NYSERNet NYSERNet has named former Syracuse University vice president Christopher M. Sedore as its next president and CEO. Sedore, who began his new role May 9, York state and beyond,” Sedore said. “I look has served as the Senior Vice President forward to working with our members, for Enrollment Management at Syracuse partners and supporters to advance University since May of 2014. He research and education across New York.” previously served as Syracuse’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Operations, NYSERNet conducted a national and for six years before that as the search that drew nearly 250 applicants university’s Vice President for Information from across the country and the Technology and Chief Information Officer. optical networking community. “NYSERNet was successful in finding a terrific person “I’m honored to join NYSERNet, a community to lead our organization,” that represents the leading edge of research said John E. Kolb P.E., Vice President for Information and education in New York state and beyond” Services and Technology and Chief Information Officer at Rensselaer Sedore has been a member of the Polytechnic Institute. As chair of the NYSERNet Board of Directors since NYSERNet.net Board, he led the NYSERNet November 2008, and he succeeds Dr. Presidential Recruitment Committee. Timothy Lance, who has served as “Chris brings the vision, understanding of NYSERNet’s president since 1998. higher education and research, analytical skills, and leadership experience to help “I’m honored to join NYSERNet, a NYSERNet with its next set of challenges.” community that represents the leading edge of research and education in New 6 Over the last three decades, NYSERNet benefit from Chris’s leadership.” has connected researchers and educators. Dr. Lance will continue at NYSERNet in With 85 institutional members using the a newly created role of Chief Research advanced high speed research network, Officer. “I am delighted that Chris has taken on the president’s role,” said Lance, shared services, and special events as “and in many ways our interactions will be a collaboration platform, NYSERNET as in the past: trying to understand how members and the state of New York best to serve our member institutions.” have become leaders in the world of scientific discovery. “Dr. Tim Lance has led this effort admirably,” said Bill Thirsk, “I am delighted that Chris has taken Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Marist College and Chair of the on the president’s role,” said Lance, NYSERNet Board. “We are excited about NYSERNet’s next era and congratulate “and in many ways our interactions Chris on becoming our next president.” will be as in the past: trying to Sedore comes to NYSERNet after understand how best to serve more than 20 years at SU. our member institutions.” “For more than two decades, Chris has played key roles in moving Syracuse University forward,” said Interim SU Lance continued, “As a long-serving Vice Chancellor and Provost Liz Liddy. member of the NYSERNet board, Chris “From creating a campus-wide research knows well the NYSERNet community, and computing environment, to developing comes with a deep understanding of the groundbreaking online degree programs, challenges in both research and education to raising the academic profile of that our institutions face. The NYSERNet Syracuse’s entering classes, Chris has community welcomes him in this new role.” made the university a better place. NYSERNet has made an outstanding choice and its board and staff will 7 NYSERNET MEMBERS INSTITUTIONS Albert Einstein College of Medicine Alfred University The American Museum of Natural History Ithaca College ARTstor Le Moyne College Bank Street College of Education Long Island University Binghamton University Madison-Oneida BOCES Brooklyn Law School MAGPI Buffalo State College Manhattan College State University of New York: Marist College CANARIE College of Environmental Canisius College Massachusetts Institute Science and Forestry Capital Region BOCES/NERIC of Technology State University of New York: City University of New York Monroe #1 BOCES / Information Technology Clarkson University Monroe #1 RIC Exchange Center Colgate University Nazareth College State University of New York: College of New Rochelle The New School Upstate Medical University College of Saint Rose, The New York Genome Center State University of New York Columbia University New York Presbyterian Hospital at Alfred Cornell University New York State Department of State University of New York Corning Community College Health: Wadsworth Center at Geneseo Daemen College New York State State University of New York DANTE Education Department at Oneonta D’Youville College New York University State University of New York Eastern Suffolk BOCES/ESRIC NORDUnet at Oswego Erie #1 BOCES/WNYRIC Nyack College State University of New York Erie Community College Onondaga-Cortland-Madison at Potsdam Stony BOCES/CNYRIC Fordham University Brook Medicine Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Frick Collection, The Stony Brook University Rochester Institute of Technology Genesee Community College Syracuse University The Rockefeller University Hofstra University Teachers College, Saint Bonaventure University IBM Watson Research Center Columbia University Saint John’s University Icahn School of Medicine TWAREN Saint Joseph’s College at Mount Sinai University at Albany Saint Lawrence University Internet2 University at Buffalo SINET University of Rochester Skidmore College USLHCNet/CERN State University of New York: Vassar College Central Administration Weill Medical College of Cornell University Weill Medical College of Cornell University in Qatar Yeshiva University 8 MEMBERSHIP UPDATE Three new institutions joined NYSERNet in 2015, and more than a dozen existing members upgraded their connections to take advantage of network improvements. Vassar College, in Poughkeepsie, joined At Vassar, a liberal arts school with more the global research and education than 2,450 students and 290 faculty network community in order to speed members, researchers use the college’s collaboration with fellow researchers new 200-Mbps connection with NYSERNet across the country and around the world. to pursue high-performance computing At the same time, Clarkson