For Kansas, the network of the future is one step closer to reality.

The Kansas Research and Education Network (KanREN), a non-profit, member-based consortium of research, education, and community anchor institutions has announced plans to provide 100Gbps services for members by mid-2016.

“100Gbps connectivity for our research universities is a fantastic step forward,” said Cort Buffington, executive director of KanREN. “Ensuring our institutions have the connectivity they need to enable research is an economic boon for the entire state. Meeting our members’ connectivity needs with an efficient, pragmatic and cost-effective approach is our utmost priority, and I’m pleased that we’re moving forward with the 100Gbps project.”

One hundred times faster than Google Fiber, KanREN’s 100G benchmark is more than just a connection.

This technological achievement reflects vision, leadership, and initiative from Kansas’s leading institutions in an effort to expand research and education opportunities throughout the state. Working collaboratively through KanREN’s member-based consortium offers opportunities to scale and accelerate access at rates otherwise prohibitive – all without state or federal funds.

“KanREN’s move to 100Gbps opens new collaboration opportunities for our members,” said Brad Fleming, KanREN’s assistant director for technology. “Capacity of this kind enables resource sharing such as high-speed remote data backup with a peer organization. That kind of resource trading helps improve data security while lowering costs. Regardless of the technology trend; SDN, NFV, etc; everything requires bandwidth and KanREN’s new 100Gbps network settles those needs for the foreseeable future.”

Several KanREN anchor institutions have committed to deploy the service as it becomes available including the University of Kansas, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas State University, and Wichita State University.

“This is a remarkable collaboration to keep the state of Kansas at the forefront of research,” said Ken Stafford, vice provost for information technology services at Kansas State University. “With this network, we are not only meeting the increasing demands of today, but accommodating and planning for the needs and innovations of tomorrow.”

The Great Plains Network and Kansas State University together with The Quilt, several Quilt members, XSEDE, Clemson, and more, have been funded to pull together a set of recommendations to NSF on how to improve access to Computational Infrastructure.  As a key piece of this project, we would like to hear from you through a Call for Papers.

Background
Funding agencies like the National Science Foundation (NSF) have made significant investments in the national computational infrastructure to help campus-level researchers answer challenging scientific questions.   A diverse set of organizations has emerged to support access to this infrastructure.  Nonetheless, gaps remain.

The Process
We have been funded by the National Science Foundation to develop a set of community-supported recommendations for filling the gaps and for more effectively coordinating education and training on the use of advanced cyberinfrastructure from campus to state to regional to national levels.

We intend to use the following process:

1. Solicit white papers from interested parties and organizations.
2. Select among the papers and send conference invitations to the selected group of authors.
3. Hold the meeting in October in Kansas City, MO.
4. Develop a final report and a set of recommendations to funding agencies and the community at large.

Who Should Submit a White Paper?
We would like to encourage the broadest audience possible to consider submitting white papers to the Conference Organizing Committee.

In particular, we would like to hear from

• State and regional networking and research facilitation organizations
• Other organizations that are interested in data and/or computation
• Minority serving institutions
• Researchers
• Campus research support staff
• Organizations interested in workforce development in support of access to computational infrastructure

Questions to Address
We would like to hear about (a) strategies for engaging researchers to use shared computational infrastructure (e.g., XSEDE, OSG), including shared campus infrastructure, (b) needs that are not currently being met, and (c) successful local and regional models that could be replicated or applied on a broader scale.

1. We would also like white papers to address a subset of the following strategic questions:
2. What should be the role of regional organizations in providing broader support to computational researchers?
3. How can these organizations expand researcher engagement to underrepresented communities?
4. How can these organizations sustain timely and relevant education and outreach efforts to computational researchers over the long term?
5. How can efforts across these organizations be effectively coordinated?
6. What is an effective collaboration environment and structure?
7. How can these organizations promote and coordinate sharing of hardware, software and expertise across campus, state, and regional boundaries?

Due Date: September 10, 2015

Paper Format
Each paper should be 1.5 to 2 pages in length and single-spaced.  Please include the author name and affiliation.  These papers will be published at the conference website.

Paper Submission
Papers may be uploaded at https://kstatedce.wufoo.com/forms/improving-access-to-computational-infrastructure/

If you have questions, please contact The Quilt or Greg Monaco at GPN (greg(at)greatplains.net).

The Quilt has a successful history of leveraging the collective purchasing power of its membership and authorized member institutions to purchase advanced networking technology and services at a lower cost. In August of 2015, The Quilt will issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to select a distribution partner to provide VMware solutions and AirWatch by VMware solutions to our Quilt community using a consortium-based purchasing mechanism.

VMware is a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility. The goal of this RFP effort is to identify a distribution partner, which, through its status as a distribution partner for VMware, will provide world class customer support and is willing and able to partner in the delivery of VMware solutions for the publicly-missioned institutions that are supported by our community of research and education networks throughout the United States. The intent of this RFP is to identify and contract with a VMware Distribution Partner which recognizes the wealth of opportunities that exist through constructive partnerships with The Quilt and the research and education networking community.

For more information see: https://www.thequilt.net/programs/vmware-convenience-pricing-program-2/.