In early January of 2019, The Quilt will be issuing a new RFP for a VMware and Related Offerings Distribution Partner. The goal of this RFP effort is to identify a distribution partner that recognizes and appreciates the wealth of opportunities that exist through a constructive partnership with The Quilt and the research and education networking community.  A Quilt selected distribution partner will provide world-class customer support and partner in the delivery of VMware and related offerings for Quilt members and their member institutions throughout the country.

In preparation for the RFP, The Quilt is issuing an RFI to better understand VMware and it’s related offerings. To view this RFI, CLICK HERE

Merit Network Inc. is a non-profit, member-owned organization that runs a regional Research & Education (REN) network in the state of Michigan. Merit has twelve governing member institutions which are public universities. It serves as their internet service provider and provides them with IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. In October 2017, Merit assessed their IPv4 address usage and determined that several of the governing members could run out of IPv4 addresses in five years if they continued at their current growth rate. Merit presented these results to its governing board members and recommended a program that would help them begin or further IPv6 deployment on their campus networks. [Read the full article at Team ARIN – Blog]

The Quilt hosted the Fall 2018 Member Meeting at the University of Maryland, College Park, on Sept. 25-27. It was an informative and exciting three days with our Quilt community discussing advanced networking for research and education.

We also had the opportunity to once again collocate our fall meeting with the NSF’s Campus Cyberinfrastructure and Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure PI Workshop and ESnet providing a unique and dynamic forum to bring together some the country’s brightest networking minds together for dynamic programming and networking opportunities.

View the entire program agenda here.

Here are few highlights…

DOE Research Infrastructure: Past, Present, and Future

Dr. Ben Brown, Acting Director, Facilities Division and ESnet Program Manager, U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research talked about Quantum physics, strategic issues on high-performance computing and networking, and how the DOE is a steward of national research infrastructure. View his presentation here.

Building the Open Storage Network

Over the summer, the NSF awarded a $1.8 million grant for the initial development of a data storage network led by Alex Szalay of Johns Hopkins University. This network, a first of its kind, could be the world’s largest academic storage facility has the potential to transform the landscape for academic big data as well as create unimaginable opportunities for federal, local, industrial, private partnerships. View Presentation

Network Performance Measurement

A panel discussion on Network Performance and Measurement highlighted innovative efforts by R&E networks, non-profits, industry and government agencies for instrumenting community anchor institution edge sites. The panel was moderated by James Deaton from Great Plains Network and included Georgia Bullen from the Open Technology Institute Measurement Lab, John Hess at CENIC, James Miller from the FCC, Chip Popoviciu of Nephos6, and Joe Sawasky at Merit.

Moving the Rural Broadband Needle

Jean Rice is a Senior Broadband Program Specialist for the NTIA’s BroadbandUSA program. She focuses on the development of new broadband initiatives for local, state and tribal governments as well as planning and implementation efforts for Smart Cities and Communities projects. During our Fall Member Meeting, Rice discussed moving the rural broadband needle through Land-Grant University Cooperative Extension Offices, Global Cities Team Challenge Smart Agriculture, and Rural SuperCluster. When it comes to building smart regions, she noted that things exist already to enable collaboration across sectors and that by tapping those resources will provide a faster and critical starting point.

If you want additional insights into other discussions and ideas ignited by the event, search #QuiltinMD on social media channels.

Thanks again to all our speakers and participants for their insights, time, and knowledge. We’ll see you again in February 2019 for our Quilt Winter Member Meeting in La Jolla. Event information already is available.