Tag Archives: RONs

The Quilt again shines collaborative light on future of R&E Networking

The Quilt, a consortium of regional Research and Education (R&E) Networks throughout the United States, hosted its annual Fall Member Meeting virtually on Sept. 29 and Sept. 30. More than 100 registered attendees and stakeholders gathered online for two days to collectively advance networking for research and education throughout the United States.

The program included several plenary and breakout sessions particularly relevant to the R&E networking community.

R&E partnerships with state leaders to facilitate internet access solutions for unserved and underserved communities topped the list of hot topics and “aha moments” from this year’s meeting.

The meeting opened with a “Fireside Chat” with CENIC’s Louis Fox outlining California’s new statewide middle-mile broadband initiative. The Fireside Chat led into a panel discussion moderated by Louis and included panelists from the Ohio, Oregon, and Nevada R&E networks as well as included the R&E state broadband leader partners from the State of Ohio’s broadband office called BroadbandOhio as well as a state representative from Oregon who is a champion of affordable broadband access in the state. The panel discussion focused on the important role of R&E networks in state broadband strategies.

Another presentation by Sun Corridor Network (SCN) and the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) focused on the collaborative efforts between the two organizations with the goal of delivering affordable broadband access to the unserved and underserved in the stae. Derek Masseth with Sun Corridor noted that it has been a great partnership, and SCN very much appreciates ADOT’s willingness to partner!

Additional comments shared in the virtual chat during the presentation included …This year attendees also took deep dives into areas such as disaster recovery, network facilities management, mapping, and cybersecurity. MCNC Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer Chris Beal talked on the emergence of new R&E cybersecurity solutions to help protect community anchor institutions as well as the North Carolina organization’s new managed services cybersecurity practice called Vital Cyber.“No one is safe from hackers today. There have been far too many headlines recently involving phishing or ransomware attacks affecting big companies and industries. But what you don’t hear much about is how cyber criminals hit our schools, our hospitals, our libraries, and other community anchor institutions,” explained Beal. “These important pillars in our local towns need more protections from today’s growing cyber threats. That why Vital Cyber was created to develop and activate a full suite of managed security services to protect North Carolina’s critical cyber infrastructure; marrying a proven and tested combination of tools, services, and consulting without any extra hardware or staff.”

Additional sessions focused on budget planning, cloud, business continuity, fiber IRU renewals and inter-exchange points, observations from the most-recent NSF CC* PI Workshop, and much more.

The two-day event closed out with a fascinating presentation from Eli Dart, Lauren Rotman, and Jason Zurawski on ESnet’s High Energy Physics requirements and R&E network preparedness for next Large Hadron Collider (LHC) run.

“Identifying new opportunities for Quilt members to leverage one another’s resources and expertise is the hallmark of Quilt events,” said Jen Leasure, President and CEO of The Quilt. “Although we all would like to get together in person, the level of conversation even virtually is of such a great benefit to all of our members as well as our collective mission.”

The Quilt is the national coalition of non-profit U.S. regional research and education networks representing 40 networks across the country. Members of The Quilt provide advanced network services and applications to over 900 universities and tens of thousands of other educational and community anchor institutions. Together, we promote consistent, reliable, inter-operable and efficient advanced networking services that extend to the broadest possible community and represent common interests in the development and delivery of advanced cyberinfrastructure that enables innovation through our education and research mission.

The next member meeting for The Quilt is scheduled for early February 2021.

 

The Quilt returns to La Jolla in February

We kick off our 20th anniversary this year by heading back to California for our annual 2020 Winter Member Meeting on Feb. 5-7 in La Jolla.


The Quilt begins this year’s 20th anniversary in February by heading back to one of our favorite places for our annual Winter Member Meeting in La Jolla. We are looking forward to this year’s in-person gathering of our national Quilt community and stakeholders to collectively advance networking and cyberinfrastructure for research and education. We also are excited that Internet2 is collocating its Regional Principals Meeting with us this year

We have many exciting conversations and topics planned for the upcoming event with plenty of time to network with your colleagues from across the country throughout the course of the program. You can read a few of the highlighted areas below as well as view the full 2020 Agenda here.

Highlights & Opportunities

This year’s event kicks off with the NOAA N-Wave and RON Partner Breakfast followed by in-person meetings for our Quilt working groups as well as annual CEO Round Table and quarterly meeting of The Quilt Board of Directors. We’ll wrap up the day with a networking reception hosted by Ciena.

Our first full day together will include plenary talks and panel discussions covering a variety of topics including the Tribal Digital Village Network R&E Partnership, updates on National Science Foundation’s CISE and Campus Cyberinfrastructure Program investments, examining a case study in REN and community college partnerships in Arizona, and how to successfully build a security services portfolio for R&E Networking Communities. In the afternoon, our program focuses in on smaller group discussions on topics of importance to our members such as EPOC deep dive outcomes and researcher engagement, network automation and telemetry, telecom policy discussions, and helpful discussions on fiber facilities, bridging the rural digital divide, connecting community anchor institutions, and more.

On our final day, a confluence of our Quilt Working Groups will discuss network security solutions and services, eSports programs, regional network roles in community preparedness, and MANRS compliance.

Sponsors

Please join us in thanking our industry supporters for helping make this year’s event possible: AWS, Carahsoft, Ciena, Juniper Networks, Pier Group, and Red Hat.

Questions?

If you need further information about this year’s meeting, please contact Jennifer Griffin.

Social Media

Be sure to follow us @TweettheQuilt and participate on social media using #QuiltinSoCal.

R&E networks ready for Winter Member Meeting in La Jolla

The Quilt will be returning to the La Jolla Shores Hotel and La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club in California on Feb. 6-8 for its 2018 Winter Member Meeting.

Overview

The Quilt will be holding its annual Winter Member Meeting at our traditional venue in La Jolla. We are looking forward to this in-person gathering of our national Quilt community and stakeholders to learn and share with one another in order to collectively advance networking for research and education.

We have many exciting conversations and topics planned for you this year. We also have provided time between sessions for working lunch meetings and other networking opportunities. View Agenda.

Highlights & Opportunities

This year’s event kicks off with in-person meetings of our Quilt working groups as well as our Quilt Board of Directors. We’ll wrap up the day with a networking event.

On Day 2, we start the day with various breakfast opportunities including our general breakfast gathering, our Quilt newcomers breakfast, the Carahsoft-sponsored breakfast for the Quilt VMware Program, and our Global NOC Users Group breakfast. The meeting’s general session begins at 8:30 a.m. with a highlight of the meeting which is our plenary panel on “Networks — Human and Telecommunications — in the CENIC Context: Perspectives from CENIC Charter Associates.” Other highlights include an Overview of Middle and Last Mile Wireless Access Solutions – Feasibility and Policy Considerations; Quilt Member Lightning Talks; National Broadband Policy Update; REN Network Security Briefs; Briefings from our R&E Networking Colleagues to the North (BCnet and Cybera); E-Rate and Other National Policies and Programs Discussion; and our Advanced Networking Sampler. At 5:30 p.m., our Quilt meeting reception begins on the Garden Patio at the Shores Hotel.

Our dynamic program wraps up on Thursday with the NOAA N-Wave and RON Partner Breakfast followed by a round table discussion on friction-free networking for scientific research, a confluence of Quilt forums and a meeting of the InCommon Steward Program participants.

Questions?

We look forward to this week together every year in La Jolla. If you need further information about this year’s Winter Member Meeting, please contact Jennifer Griffin.

Social Media

Follow all conversations on social media using #QuiltinSoCal.