Internet2 and some of the nation’s most prominent high-tech firms announced today partnerships that would expedite the delivery of cloud services to college campuses nationwide, and address research, big data and innovation challenges. Internet2, the world’s most advanced networking consortium led by the U.S. research and education community, is pleased to be joined by Aastra; Adobe; Box; CENIC; Dell; Desire2Learn; Duo Security; DuraSpace; Evogh; HP; Level 3 Communications; Merit Network, Inc.; Microsoft; Savvis, a CenturyLink Company; SHI International; and The Solution Design Group in this initiative.

“These major cloud service partnerships are customized to meet the needs of the Internet2 community and these offerings range in stages from incubator, proof-of-concept, early adopter and general availability,” said Dave Lambert, Internet2 CEO and president. “No other organization in the United States is able to offer this level of collaboration between higher education and the technology industry to launch these strategic cloud services to effectively and efficiently advance research, innovation and the education mission of our nation’s leading universities.”

“We are working with our industry partners to explore new ways to utilize this new capacity to build a cloud environment that is suited to our needs,” said Shelton Waggener, Associate Vice Chancellor and CIO University of California Berkeley, who is the in-coming Internet2 Senior Vice President to oversee NET+ Services. “Our NET+ partners recognize that our organizations can help them develop new business models, services, and technical innovations that will address our needs for big data, research, education and administration.

“By working together, we can leverage cloud and other services to use these tools in innovative ways to transform our campuses,” added Waggener. “To our industry partners who provide services around our network resources, I want to call out to you – consider the possibilities of what our combined efforts can bring to the future.”

Internet2 NET+ offerings provide “above the network” services to Internet2 member organizations, including higher education, government, and industry. The new services are tailored to the needs of the Internet2 community, cost and administratively effective, and leverage Internet2ʼs 100G network and InCommon identity management services.

For more details about these new Internet2 NET+ Services, visit http://www.internet2.edu/netplus or email netplus@internet2.edu to participate in the service offerings.

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. For more information, visit www.internet2.edu.