Program highlights included top tech trends and leading-edge applications for R&E
Seattle, October 8 – With over 75 participants from research and education (R&E) networking organizations, The Quilt’s 2012 Fall Member Meeting was The Quilt’s most attended event to date. The meeting was held on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio September 11-13 in conjunction with the 25th anniversary celebration of Quilt member Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARnet). The Quilt is the national coalition of advanced regional R&E networks.
Sessions focused on transformational technologies for R&E networks, including 100G infrastructure and software-defined networking. Quilt members planning to deploy 100G networks addressed the drivers for their deployments and the goals each organization aims to achieve with the new infrastructure. Regional network implementations of software-defined networking were presented, along with an update on The Quilt’s recent OpenFlow Request for Proposal.
Don Welch, president and CEO of Quilt member Merit Network, discussed the new cyber range that Merit is creating and how it will serve as a live testbed for critical cyber security research and innovation.
A Quilt member panel talked about new value-added services they are rolling out, including managing identity and access management at the state level; the role of regional networks in support of mobile device management and wireless access for campuses; and a report on the increasing number of partnerships among regional networks for member services.
The program also featured guest speakers from NOAA and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). Paul Schultz of NOAA’s Earth System Resource Laboratory discussed NOAA’s N-Wave Network and its importance to NOAA’s weather forecasting models. The N-Wave infrastructure is the result of a longer-standing partnership with the R&E community. Keith Krueger, CoSN CEO, shared his perspective on the top emerging technologies and trends likely to have the greatest impact on K-12 education.
“As a leader of a research and education networking organization, The Quilt member meetings are the most valuable meetings I attend all year,” said Dan O’Hanlon, director, West Virgina Network for Educational Telecomputing or WVNET.
“In addition to having a program agenda that reflects our members’ priority areas of interest, another equally important objective of The Quilt’s biannual member meetings is ensuring lots of opportunities for informal networking and exchange of experiences,” said Jen Leasure, president and CEO, The Quilt. “Regional R&E networks often face common challenges, such as rapid technology change or pressures on traditional business models, and thus we can learn a great deal from each other.”
Immediately after the Member Meeting, The Quilt hosted an optional Communications and Outreach Workshop for its membership. Focus was on helping R&E networks build the skills and capacity to communicate about their organizations and their impact on their respective communities.
About The Quilt
The Quilt is the national coalition of advanced regional networks for research and education, representing 31 networks across the country. Participants in The Quilt provide advanced network services and applications to over 200 universities and thousands of other educational institutions. For more information, visit www.thequilt.net