SURA Regional Infrastructure Initiative Southeastern Universities Research Association

SURA Regional Infrastructure Initiative Southeastern Universities Research Association Gary Crane Director, SURA IT Initiatives gcrane@sura. org www. sura. org • SURA is comprised of 53 colleges & universities from 15 states and the District of Columbia • Primarily leading research universities • SURA region makes up 35% of US population

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

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

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/info_tech/infrastructure. html

Timing Is Everything • The demand for access 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.

Regional Infrastructure Initiative Status • The SURA RII was conceptualized by the SURA CIO community and launched in April, 2000 • • RFP for consulting services released June 23, 2000 October 27 SURA executed a consulting contract with Geo/Matrix LLC for a 5 Phase RII planning effort Phase 1 completed December 30 Phase 1 resulted in creation of a set of initial maps to facilitate discussions with potential partners • •

SURA Regional Infrastructure Initiative Projected Timeline Dec Jan Feb March April May June July August Vender Identification and Development Phase 3 Final Report Economic Feasibility Phase 2 Engineering Feasibility General Network Plan Phase 1 Phase 4 Phase 5 January 5, 2001

Regional Infrastructure Initiative Status • Notice to proceed with Phase 2 issued December 30 • Completed Phase 2 survey to SURA members and gigapops regarding current network services and institutional demographics on February 25 • Geo/Matrix proceeding to explore potential partnerships with owners of fiber infrastructure • Initial response from potential partners is very positive with the promise of some early opportunities for vendor partnerships