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The SURA Regional Infrastructure Initiative

Gary Crane

Director, SURA IT Initiatives

gcrane@sura.org

www.sura.org

Southeastern Universities Research Association

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About SURA

• SURA is a 501(c)3 consortium of 50 research universities from 15 southeastern US states

• Founded in 1980 with a focus on developing Jefferson Lab, a DOE funded high energy physics facility

• Created one of the first NSF funded regional network services, SURANet

• Sold SURANet in 1995 to BBN

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SURA Mission

• Foster excellence in scientific research

• Strengthen the scientific and technical capabilities of the nation and the Southeast

• Provide outstanding training opportunities for the next generation of scientists and engineers

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IT as a Competitive Advantage

• Collaborative research is becoming more dependent on IT resources

• IT resources are a significant factor in attracting top faculty/staff/students

• IT resources help attract external funding and industrial partnerships

• Cutting edge IT resources are a basic requirement for some fields of research

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SURA IT Community

• SURA member institution CIOs participate on the SURA IT Committee

• SURA IT Committee has developed a set of IT strategic goals for SURA

• SURA has created a SURA IT Initiatives Fund to provide matching funds and seed money for new SURA IT initiatives

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SURA IT Strategic Goals

• Serve the SURA mission

• Sponsorship of collaborative initiatives

• Support for the development of “middleware” and applications that enable science

• Regional information technology infrastructure development

• Participate in and influence the national IT and networking agenda

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SURA IT Model

• Use SURA mission and IT strategy to guide investments in SURA IT initiatives

• Integrate existing SURA IT projects into larger, coordinated framework

• Leverage common services and requirements across multiple initiatives

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JeffersonLab

Regional Gigapops

SURA Members NON-SURA Members

ViDe/LSVNP

Leadership

Help Desk

DirectoryServices

Abilene/vBNS

Health SciencesTelemedicine

Coastal ZoneSciences

SURA IT Model

IP Telephony WG PKI Consortium

Legal501(c)3

UmbrellaMarketingLicensingContractsProj. Mgmt

Region CERTFunction

Monitoring-Reporting

Acct/BillingProvisioningEngineering

Regional Fiber BroadbandOff-campus

Access

Commodity ISP

DisasterRecovery

Dist.Storage

CacheingNNTPViDENetCert/AuthPKI

CollaborativeProjects

OrganizationalSupport

Support Services

Middleware

TransportServices

Aggregation

Research &Education

Community

……Regional Infrastructure

Initiative

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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,

seed money from SURA, SURA relationships with member institutions, institution Presidents and links to Southern Governors Association, Southern Technology Council and everything and everybody we can think of.

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Encouragement/Influences

• The SURA RII has been heavily influenced by the following activities– Net@Edu Bandwidth Pricing Forum

www.educause.edu/netatedu/groups/pricing/– TheQuilt

www.educause.edu/netatedu/groups/regionals/– CANARIE’s Fiber ownership projects and

evangelism

www.canarie.ca

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SURA Regional Infrastructure Initiative

The SURA Regional Infrastructure Initiative is moving forward using the following principals: 

– improve network connectivity options for non-metropolitan SURA member institutions;

– avoid limitations imposed by restrictive use policies;

– benefit the broadest community by aggregating connectivity at carrier hotels where possible;

– Replace existing market based pricing models with cost based models for network infrastructure.

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Regional Infrastructure InitiativeStatus

Planning Stage - Feasibility Study• RFP for consulting services released June 23, 2000• Evaluation and selection process began July 21• October 6 the RII selected Geo/Matrix to provide

consulting service to SURA; also submitted funding request to the SURA IT Steering Group

• On October 17 the SURA IT Steering Group approved the request for funds to engage Geo/Matrix

• October 27 SURA executed a consulting contract with Geo/Matrix for the completion planning in support of the RII

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Geo/Matrix

• Partnership between Geographic Network Affiliates International (www.geo-usa.com) and Matrix Design Group (www.matrixdg.com)

• Geo is a telecommunications real estate development company (carrier hotel developer) and founder of the Internet Educational Equal Access Foundation (IEEAF)

• Matrix is a telecommunications engineering and design firm

• Together SURA believes they offer a unique ability to address our needs

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Geo/Matrix SOW(Statement Of Work)

Work to proceed in 5 phases:

1. General network plan

2. Provider/partner identification and development

3. Engineering feasibility study

4. Economic feasibility study

5. Final report and recommendations

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Nov Dec Jan Feb March April May June July

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 4

Phase 5

SURA Regional Infrastructure Initiative Projected Timeline

October 26, 2000

“If we don't change direction soon, we'll

end up where we're going.”

Professor Irwin Corey