Four Regional R&E Networks Providers Open Bids for Operational Management Tools
March 14, 2012 – MCNC, the private, not-for-profit operator of the North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN), announced today that it is leading a Request for Proposals (RFP) process on behalf of three additional state/regional research and education networks for identifying appropriate vendor(s) whom can provide carrier-class operational management tools and services. The four participants who co-developed this RFP include: BCNET, MCNC, OneNet, and WiscNet.
The participating organizations are looking for vendor(s) who provide carrier-class operational management tools service offerings and will be willing to work closely with each participating organization to develop and expand operational management tools technology and capabilities beyond that of a standard vendor-customer relationship.
Solutions must include or be capable of integrating with operational management tools that provide capabilities in the following functional areas: configuration management; discovery and automation; active and passive monitoring; event management; custom workflow; performance management; inventory and asset control; incident, problem, request and change management; API integration; custom reporting and metrics; and support, training and other professional services, respectively.
Proposals will be accepted in electronic format only, and should be submitted to MCNC Chief Financial Officer Patricia Moody at pmoody@mcnc.org. Vendors assume all risk of email delivery. The firm deadline for submission is April 16, 2012 at 5 p.m. EDT.
Read More...Connecting Researchers to Resources – NOAA Partners with the Pacific Northwest Gigapop
Sand Point, Seattle, Washington – March 5, 2012 – The Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP), one of several regional data transfer centers around the country that efficiently moves large volumes of data between regional, national, and other networks, announced today their partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in supporting a major milestone for the ongoing growth and development of the NOAA N-Wave Research Network. This partnership significantly enhances the current capabilities of N-Wave and the ability to interconnect NOAA researchers to NOAA’s national research resources.
“We’ve created for the very first time, a network platform for NOAA researchers that underpins much of the high-performance computing, data storage, archival, and data retrieval that is necessary for scientific research,” said Jerry Janssen, who works in the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory and manages NOAA’s N-Wave Research Network.
PNWGP will provide the necessary collocation and connectivity requirements to establish N-Wave’s fifth network backbone Core site expanding N-Wave to NOAA research offices in Seattle, Washington. Furthermore, the new Seattle Core Site will be the gateway connection point for other NOAA sites in the Pacific region with the first being the NOAA Pacific Regional Center in Hawaii.
Janssen stated, “This expanded and renewed partnership between NOAA and PNWGP is crucial to the ongoing success of NOAA’s science and environmental stewardship mission on the West Coast of the US, and in the greater Pacific region.”
The N-Wave network is built on a 10-Gigabit per second dedicated wave backbone via the national research and education network Internet2. The network waves will be used to provide dedicated, high-speed, and high-capacity connection between climate and weather researchers and NOAA’s key-high performance computing sites across the nation.
About Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP)
The Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) is a nonprofit corporation serving research and education organizations throughout the Pacific Rim. They provide cost-effective, robust, reliable, high-bandwidth, and high-capacity networking to support the missions of these organizations and the needs of researchers, faculty, students, and staff. PNWGP designs, implements, and manages a multi-state high-bandwidth and high-capacity network specifically designed to meet unique requirements of research and education communities. For more information, visit http://www.pnw-gigapop.net/
About NOAA
NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources. For more information, visit http://www.noaa.gov/
Contacts:
PNWGP
Amy Philipson
(206)310-0097
Read More...New Quilt Executive Committee Members
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
The Quilt Board of Directors recently completed its annual election for The Quilt Executive Committee. The Quilt is pleased to announce three new members will join the Committee as of 2012 for two-year terms: Don Welch, president and CEO, Merit Network; Veronica Sarjeant, Chief Operating Officer, Florida LambdaRail; and Claude Garelik, System IT Security Officer, South Dakota Board of Regents and Chairman of the Board for Great Plains Network. The nine-member Executive Committee provides ongoing oversight of Quilt affairs as delegated by the full Board.
The Board also completed its officer elections for 2012. Garelik was elected to the office of Vice Chairman for 2012. In accordance with Quilt bylaws, the 2011 Vice Chairman, Wendy Huntoon, Director of Networking at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center who manages the Three Rivers Optical Exchange (3ROX), was elected to the Chair position for this year. Wendy replaces James Deaton, Chief Technology Officer of OneNet . Mike Phillips, Executive Director of LEARN, was re-elected to the office of Treasurer.
“As a member-powered organization, The Quilt is very fortunate to have not only a tremendous breadth of talent among our members but also a strong commitment to go above and beyond in contributing their leadership to the support of advanced regional networking for research and education,” said Jen Leasure, Quilt president and CEO. “I congratulate the new Executive Committee members and officers on their election and look forward to another highly productive year of working together.”
About The Quilt
The Quilt is the national coalition of advanced regional networks for research and education, representing 28 networks across the country. Participants in The Quilt provide advanced network services and applications to over 200 universities and thousands of other educational institutions.
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