SURA RII Monthly Update for May 2001
This is the first of what will be monthly updates on the status of the
SURA Regional Infrastructure Initiative to the SURA IT Committee and the
general SURA community. These updates will be distributed using various
SURA email lists. These updates will also be achieved on the SURA web
site. To assist with email management, all updates will carry the
subject line: SURA RII Update, mo/day/year.
· SURA is in the process of revising its password protected RII working
web site. The RII Communications Group has suggested and the RII
Working Group has decided to open access to the RII password protected
web site to the full SURA CIO community and members of all RII working
groups. A new section within that same space will be created for
collection of the work of the Architecture Working Group. All AWG
members will be given access to the SURA RII members’ only site. Access
information (userID and password) will be made available to the
community once the web site has been updated.
· SURA’s consulting contract with Geo/Matrix included routine reporting
on the status of their involvement in the RII. The Phase 1 report was
made available to SURA CIOs at the time of its release through a secured
Web space; it will remain available for ongoing reference on the RII
Working Group web. We have now received the Phase 2 mid-phase progress
report from Geo/Matrix. That report is attached to this message and
will also be posted on the revised RII working group web space.
· Geo/Matrix and SURA have identified two companies (Aerie Networks and
ClearStream Communications) that have expressed strong interest in
working with SURA on the RII and that are in the early stages of their
business development. Although these companies do not currently have
operating networks, they are both in the process of finalizing their
deployment plans and network routes. To ensure that SURA does not miss
a unique opportunity to partner with these two companies early in their
development, it is agreed that SURA needs to begin discussions with
Aerie and ClearStream at the earliest possible time. We are currently
in the process of setting up initial meetings with these companies.
· To facilitate these potential partner meetings the RII Working Group
has approved a process for engaging potential partners. This “Partner
Engagement Process” is now available on the SURA RII working group
website and is also attached to this report. This process highlights the
importance of a consistent and inclusive approach to dealing with
potential partners. A reporting process is included to keep the SURA
community informed of these meetings.
· SURA is working with the Southern Governors’ Association to gain
support from key state governors for the RII initiative. More on this
as the relationship develops.
· The SURA RII is near the end of Phase 2 (potential partner
identification phase) and we have received a draft of the Phase 2 report
from our consultant. The Geo/Matrix Oversight Team (a small group of
SURA members) will be reviewing this draft Phase 2 report and offering
comments that will be included in the final Phase 2 report which is due
on June 7. This report will categorize and prioritize potential
partners that will be engaged by SURA over the next several weeks and
will be posted to the RII Working Group website as soon as it is
finalized.
· It’s time to consider finding a better name for the SURA RII. The
CrossRoads concept has been jointly developed by SURA and the SoX
gigapop and it has been suggested that we could capture the crossroads
concept for the whole region and not create confusion with SoX.
SURACrossRoads.org and .net are currently both open domain names.
Please provide your feedback on this suggestion and other possible
suggestions for names to the SURA RII mail list (sura-rii@sura.org) or
directly to Gary Crane at gcrane@sura.org.
--gary
Gary Crane
Director, IT Initiatives
SURA (Southeaster Universities Research Association)
www.sura.org
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