News for and about the Internet2 community

[Angela Stark <>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Arizona’s Sun Corridor Network Announces Two 100 Gigabit Connections to Internet2

TUCSON, Ariz., April 8, 2015—The Sun Corridor Network, Arizona’s high-speed research and education (R&E) network, is now providing 100 gigabit per second (100G) connections to Internet2, for academic researchers at Arizona State University (ASU), Northern Arizona University (NAU) and the University of Arizona (UA). The two Internet2 connections—one located in Phoenix and one in Tucson—benefit Arizona’s public universities by facilitating high-performance, data-intensive research and collaboration among peers at national institutions to enable discovery, knowledge and information sharing.

The Sun Corridor Network is a collaborative effort sponsored by the Arizona Board of Regents’ (ABOR) three state universities—ASU, NAU and UA. Arizona public schools, colleges and libraries, as well as state universities and museums, are eligible to subscribe to the Sun Corridor Network.

By utilizing the Sun Corridor Network, Arizona researchers are able to:

• Collect very large datasets from public streaming sources (environmental sensors, Twitter feeds, and Google searches) to build prediction models for health care and other industries for the INSITE Center for Business Intelligence and Analytics.  
  
  
• Collaborate with research partners via the International Consortium for Technology in Biomedicine.

•  Participate in larger collaborative models for conformant cloud solutions with the National Institutes of Health. 

• Conduct pilots with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Cloud Genomics.

• Engage in programs such as NCI’s Genomics Data Commons and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases / National Human Genome Research Institute Human Microbiome Cloud.

Sun Corridor also enables tri-university research collaborations funded by the Arizona Board of Regents Innovation Fund (RIF), including:

• Arizona Environmental Grid Infrastructure Service, which supports the transition to informatics-intensive environmental research across all three universities.

•  LiveData, an initiative to streamline administrative compliance and provide a common platform for researchers from Arizona’s public universities to share and store data.

“The Sun Corridor Network represents a tremendous opportunity for the advancement of the State of Arizona’s research and education objectives by using cutting-edge broadband technology to advance scientific breakthroughs,” said Gordon Wishon, chief information officer at ASU and current chair of the Sun Corridor Network Governing Board. He continued, “The high-speed network is also an instrument that Arizona’s K-12 schools and community colleges can use to collaborate with other schools, libraries and museums to expose students to real-world information and discoveries beyond the classroom.”   

The Internet2 Network is built by and for the R&E community, and is designed to offer uninhibited performance to support and propel advanced research forward. With its new Internet2 connections, the Sun Corridor Network upgrades from two 5-gigabit connections in Phoenix and Tucson to two 100G connections. This upgrade enables scalable, resilient and flexible access to a global exchange of advanced computing, storage and science instruments with low latency and the performance and reliability that come with a dedicated R&E network.

“ASU, NAU and UA are engaged in some of the most demanding research projects in the world—from big data genomics to environmental informatics,” said Rob Vietzke, vice president of network services at Internet2.  “The Sun Corridor Network’s upgrade to 2x100G will provide a 21^st century foundation for this important work, with the added benefit of better connectivity for local community anchor institutions and students in Arizona.”

About Sun Corridor Network
The Sun Corridor Network, Arizona’s research and educational network, provides high-speed, reliable connectivity and access to the national research and education community via Internet2, as well as commercial internet service. The network creates direct connections between subscribers, provides opportunities for collaboration and information sharing, and makes available national and international educational resources. Sun Corridor Network is a collaborative effort sponsored by the Arizona Board of Regents’ (ABOR) three state universities—Arizona State University (ASU), Northern Arizona University (NAU), and the University of Arizona (UA). Arizona public schools, colleges, and libraries as well as state universities and museums are eligible to subscribe to the Sun Corridor Network. Learn more at suncorridornet.org.

About Internet2
Internet2® is a member-owned advanced technology community founded by the nation's leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 provides a collaborative environment for U.S. research and education organizations to solve common technology challenges, and to develop innovative solutions in support of their educational, research, and community service missions. Internet2 also operates the nation’s largest and fastest, coast-to-coast research and education network, in which the Network Operations Center is powered by Indiana University. Internet2 serves more than 90,000 community anchor institutions, 260 U.S. universities, 65 government agencies, 40 regional and state education networks, 85 leading corporations working with our community and more than 65 national research and education networking partners representing more than 100 countries. Internet2 offices are located in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Denver, Colo.; Emeryville, Calif.; Washington, D.C; and West Hartford, Conn. For more information, visit www.internet2.edu or follow @Internet2 on Twitter.

Media contacts:
Angela Stark, Internet2, 202.803.8996 or 
Kelly South, Sun Corridor Network, 520.626.8178 or