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Thursday, January 28, 2010

NLR at White House Office of Science and Tech Policy

NLR Vice Chair (and Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Director of Networking) Wendy Huntoon and NLR Legal Counsel Randy Lowe represented NLR at a meeting with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) today in Washington. The hour meeting was intended to get the OSTP up to speed on the capabilities of the R&E networks to provide the broader range of public service envisioned in the Obama broadband initiative.

NLR at Westnet: The case for R&E networks

At the recent conference sponsored by the Westnet Gigapop, NLR President and CEO Glenn Ricart argued that NLR is a strategic, national asset and an essential innovation platform for research and education.

NLR, as a community-owned network with paid-for fiber and equipment, is able to pass on technology cost savings to its users. With no Acceptable Usage Policy as imposed by commercial carriers, NLR offers unrestricted usage and can also be used to support economic development activities. NLR's technical expertise and project support is tailored to the needs of the research and education community, and its financials are solid with no debt. As a result of these many factors, NLR is uniquely able to provide high bandwidth at a reasonable cost, thus ensuring that advanced research, education and public service are able to control their own destiny.

To see Glenn's preso, visit: http://www.nlr.net/presentations.php.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010

NLR's Glenn Ricart in InfoWorld

In case you missed it, NLR and NLR President and CEO Glenn Ricart made InfoWorld's 'Top Underreported Tech Trends of 2009' story, on the topic of dark fiber getting hard, and expensive, to find. Now prices are soaring and could affect the connectivity choices open to enterprises.

The shortage is not uniform, Glenn is quoted in the article. Enterprises in the largest markets can still find the capacity they need, but in second- and third-tier cities, there is a crunch. His advice: "If I were a CIO in a lower-tier market, I would think about locking in connectivity."

http://www.infoworld.com/t/tech-industry-analysis/top-underreported-tech-stories-2009-455?page=0,8