Educause Southeast Regional Meeting June 29, 2001 Gary Crane SURA Director of IT Initiatives

1. SURA Regional Infrastructure Initiative Overview Southeastern Universities Research Association Educause Southeast Regional Meeting June 29, 2001 Gary Crane SURA Director of IT Initiatives gcrane@sura.org

2. About SURA • Founded in 1980 with a focus on developing Jefferson Lab, a DOE funded high energy physics facility • SURA is a 501(c)3 consortium of 53 research universities from 16 southeastern US states and DC • Created one of the first NSF funded regional network services, SURANet • Sold SURANet in 1995 to BBN • SURA region makes up 35% of US population

3. JLab - CEBAF Center Jefferson Lab: SURA’s Crown Jewel • $100M/yr (600-staff) DOE facility • User community of 1,600 • Primary mission: nuclear physics

4. SURA Coastal Ocean Observing Program Challenge -Coastal zone suffers from ecological and environmental concerns endangering health and safety of inhabitants and sustainability of marine economies and resources Resolution - Need more reliable, accurate, timely predictions -to guide effective coastal stewardship -to plan for extreme events, natural / induced -to facilitate safe / efficient maritime operations -to support coastal military security / training Open-access lab of distributed sensors linked to computer models - an integrated observation and prediction system

5. SURA Information Technology Program Regional Infrastructure Initiative (RII) Challenge - Demand for robust networking exceeds provisions Even if services available, cost prohibitive for many Services not available to all, must span digital divide Resolution - Access / control and possibly ownership of fiber will challenge, even disrupt, the existing pricing structure - Leverage collective market muscle of the SURA region - Partner with others - Southern Governors’ Association, Corporate Partners, etc. Video Development Initiative (ViDe) Challenge - Provide cost-effective video-to-the-desktop solutions User friendly system with guaranteed quality of service Resolution - Internet based - low-cost / high quality / ‘transparent’ Develop - ‘standards’ / ‘tools’ - e.g., directory services

6. SURA IT Model … Research & Education Coastal Zone Sciences Telemedicine Nano- Technology Jefferson Lab … Collaborative Projects High Performance File Transfer WG Video Working Group IP Telephony WG Organizational Support Leadership Proj. Mgmt Contracts Licensing Marketing 501(c)3 Umbrella Legal Support Services Help Desk Engineering Provisioning Acct/Billing Monitoring- Reporting Region CERT Function Middleware Directory Services PKI Cert/Auth ViDENet NNTP Cacheing Dist. Storage Disaster Recovery Transport Services Regional Fiber Broadband Off-campus Access Abilene/vBNS Commodity ISP Aggregation Regional Gigapops SURA Members NON-SURA Members Community

7. Timing Is Right for Major Change In Network Economics • The demand for access is outstripping ability to pay • Convergence of aggressive fiber deployment, DWDM, IP in the WAN changes existing economic models • Shrinking capital markets forcing sound revenue models and clearly defined markets. • State and local government awareness of the role networks play in education and economic development. • State and local government awareness of the value represented by their control of the physical ROW. • Resurgence of the SURA community’s desire to get involved in a region-wide IT initiative.

8. Emergence of Higher Ed Optical Networking • CANARIE Regional Optical Networking Projects and CANet4 • SURA Regional Infrastructure Initiative • CENIC Optical Networking Initiative • UCAID Network of the Future • TheQuilt • Educause Bandwidth Pricing Group • IEEAF

9. SURA Regional Infrastructure Initiative Basic goal is to gain control of the underlying network transport through: • Partnerships with new and existing fiber owners and equipment vendors • Creative relationships with carrier hotels • Leveraging SURA regional gigapop facilities, SURA seed money, SURA member institutions and Presidents and links to Southern Governors Association, Southern Technology Council and everything we can think of. • Additional information on SURA web site: http://www.sura.org and follow Information Technology links

10. Regional Infrastructure InitiativeStatus • Original working group formed at the April 13, 2000 meeting of the SURA IT Committee included 8 CIOs from SURA membership • October 27 SURA executed a consulting contract with Geo/Matrix LLC for a 5 Phase RII planning effort • Expanded RII Working Group now includes 17 CIOs and Senior Network Engineers from 16 SURA member schools • Architecture Working Group participants from 22 SURA member institutions plus a national external review group:  Michael Krugman – BU/NOX Rene Hatem – Canarie Tom Durkin – Geo/Matrix Dave Reese – CSU/CENIC Steve Corbato – UCAID

11. Regional Infrastructure InitiativeStatus • Phase 1 completed and Phase 2 started December 30 • Expanded working groups • Early March completed Phase 2 survey of 69 SURA region sites - 90% response rate • Late Feb/Early March – conducted 3 regional RII informational meetings with SURA members • Late March distributed potential partners package to approx. 130 potential commercial partners • April 26 Commercial Partners meeting at MCNC in Raleigh, NC • Attended by over 60 representatives from more than 37 different companies

12. Level(3) Communications Touch America, Inc. ClearStream Communications Global Crossing (Frontier) Aerie Networks AT&T Broadband … AT&T Southern Telecommunications Americas Fiber Network (AFN) Communications Old Dominion Telecom, Inc. MCI WorldCom Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia Florida Power & Light Velocita (PF.NET) Teleglobe, Inc. Progress Telecom Dominion Telecom Regional Infrastructure InitiativeStatus Phase 2 - identification of strongest potential partners is complete

13. RII Early Signs of Success • Very strong SURA community interest • Good attendance at regional meetings • Good participation in working groups • Early discussions and meetings with potential commercial partners are very positive • Strong interest in creative alternatives • Planning for possible implementation scenarios (AWG Architecture White Paper) • Need to begin defining funding, governance and management models

14. RII Early Signs of Success • Early interest and possible partnering opportunities: • joint regional and metro build projects • Strong interest in conversion of optical amp sites into add/drop sites (especially attractive in rural areas) • product/service development • use of campus facilities for national network node sites • major fiber construction firm willing to provide access to “as built” information

15. RII Gaining Momentum • SURA RII and the Southern Governors Association • Proposing a 3 year joint program with SGA fostering support for the RII • 4/25 Science Summit of the South • SURA’s participation in the Quilt • Cooperative spirit with CENIC • SURA emerging as possible trial deployment of some of the higher ed community’s creative ideas

17. Next Steps • In depth meetings with potential partners • Assess state of optical network technology • Complete architecture white paper • Develop governance guiding principles • Explore trial projects with selected partners • Due diligence process is important

18. URLs • SURA: www.sura.org • CANARIE: www.canarie.ca • TheQuilt: www.thequilt.net • IEEAF: www.ieeaf.org • Bandwidth Pricing Group: www.educause.edu/netatedu/groups/pricing • Gary Crane: gcrane@sura.org