SURA: IT Initiatives:
Infrastructure Development & Deployment

NSF Middleware Initiative (NMI) | SURA Crossroads Initiative | SURA Optical Networking Cookbook | SURA Cybersecurity Working Group | Regional Network Aggregations

SURA Crossroads Initiative
Advanced network connectivity and services are increasingly important tools for enabling collaborative scientific research and education. The SURA Crossroads Initiative is focused on providing all SURA members, both rural and metropolitan, with access to the most advanced networking capabilities to help ensure that the southeast can compete effectively in the evolving national and global e-Science environment.

While acquiring individual advanced network services for SURA members in large metropolitan areas may be economically possible, extending this connectivity to secondary and tertiary metro areas and rural areas continues to be very costly. Through this region-wide collaborative project, SURA is leveraging its member's collective requirements and buying power to dramatically reduce the cost of advanced network connectivity within the entire SURA region.

Satisfying the research and education communities' need for advanced network services requires gaining access to the fiber optic cables and opto-electronic components that are the basic building blocks of modern telecommunications systems. By forming creative mutually beneficial cooperative agreements with key commercial and government partners SURA is working hard to make these assets available to our members and the entire southeastern US research and education community.

More information on the SURA Crossroads Initiative is available in:
- SURA Crossroads Brochure
- A Preliminary Architectural Overview for a New SURA Regional Infrastructure.