CIS RFP Summary Review Team’s Quilt CIS RFP Summary Webinar Presentation – July 16, 2010

The Quilt, Inc., Commodity Internet Services (CIS) RFP 2010 Summary:

Our review team, which consisted of 13 volunteers in the first round, and 10 in the semi-finalist round, was very thorough in each stage of the process with lots of deliberations about each provider under consideration.

Through countless emails, phone calls, and meetings we produced 7 different contracting mechanisms with 5 CIS providers.

The Authorized Quilt Providers (AQPs) from the 2010 RFP are:

1. Cogent
2. Internet2 (offering Level3 connectivity)
3. Level3
4. NLR (offering TeliaSonera connectivity)
5. Qwest
6. TeliaSonera
7. TW Telecom

Project Goal

The goal of the CIS project is to aggregate the buying power of the Quilt members and authorized buyers to get the best value and lowest pricing commodity internet services. The central feature of this effort is to have the price per unit drop for the individual Quilt participant as a result of the cumulative capacity purchased by all.

The Quilt also seeks provider partners who not only are able to provide the best value, but also are at the forefront of technology and willing to work closely with Quilt members to develop and expand that technology beyond a standard provider-customer relationship.

CIS Charter

Our goal is to identify those providers who, through their IP transit Internet service offerings, are willing and able to be partners in the delivery and development of our research and education networks throughout the United States.

We will look to our commodity Internet services providers for pricing discounts appropriate to our levels of bandwidth consumption. We will expect technical competence. We will expect reasonable administrative capabilities. We will expect these providers to recognize the wealth of opportunities that exist through constructive partnerships with The Quilt community.

Today, there are seven providers who enjoy the distinction of being Authorized Quilt Providers; however, The Quilt has no set quota for providers. Providers have been, and will continue to be, chosen strictly on qualifications and merit.

AQP Committed Bandwidth and Pricing

(2009 Survey Results conducted in February of 2010)

The Quilt participants today purchase an aggregate of over 139 Gbps of commodity Internet Service. We project that this number will rise by the end of 2010. The estimated annual savings of Quilt members who purchased commodity services under the CIS program in 2009 was over $13M.

Committee Members:

• Jeff Custard, FRGP – Chair and Quilt liaison to Qwest
• Barry Bryson, UEN – Quilt liaison to Cogent
• David Crowe, NERO – Quilt liaison to Internet2 and Level3
• David Farmer, Northern Lights – Quilt liaison to Time Warner
• Cas D’Angelo, GATECH – Liaison to NLR and TeliaSonera

Advanced Regional Networking

Through the National Telecommunication and Information Administration’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), a significant number of our Quilt members and research and education networking colleagues received grants for BTOP projects. These projects will increase broadband capacity to community anchor institutions currently connected to these research and education networks and build infrastructure that will facilitate the connection of new community anchor institutions to these networks. The level of Quilt member participation in these projects varies. Some of these organizations are directly involved in the BTOP projects as awardees, others as sub-recipients, and still others are indirectly involved through partnerships with the project participants.

In support of our members and colleagues involved in these projects, we have put together a collection of links to their associated BTOP project pages so those who are interested can track the progress of these projects.

Below are the links to BTOP projects of Quilt member organizations and other R&E institutions