NYSERNet Today - Organizational Overview

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NYSERNet is a private not-for-profit corporation created to foster science and education in New York State. Its mission is to advance network technologies and applications that enable collaboration and to promote technology transfer for research and education. An internet pioneer, NYSERNet has delivered next-generation Internet services to New York State's research and education community for more than twenty years. NYSERNet members include New York State's leading universities, colleges, museums, healthcare facilities, primary and secondary schools, and research institutions. NYSERNet's Board of Directors is composed of CIO's and other senior personnel drawn from and representing New York's leading research universities and institutions.

NYSERNet was founded in 1985 by a consortium of visionary public and private New York State institutions to provide high-speed network connectivity to advance research and educational initiatives in the Empire State. Their efforts led, in 1987, to the deployment of the nation's first statewide regional IP network, the first in a succession of high-performance networks built by NYSERNet, two of which resulted in commercial spin-offs.

In 1999, NYSERNet deployed NYSERNet 2000, a next-generation R&E network incorporating a backbone extending from Buffalo to New York City with gateways to multiple national research networks. NYSERNet 2000, in concert with the national Internet2 and Next Generation Internet initiatives, raised the capabilities of high-performance networking, enabling research and education institutions in New York State to engage in and use the most current network technology to accomplish their missions.

In 2003, NYSERNet began implementation of its New York City Metropolitan Fiber Project, which uses optical fiber to interconnect participating institutions in Manhattan and The Bronx with NYSERNet's communications hub at 32 Avenue of the Americas. This hub also serves as a convergence point for the exchange of data among multiple national and international research and education networks.

In 2004, NYSERNet acquired a pair of dark fibers from Buffalo to New York City. NYSERNet employs the fibers to provide its members with a 32-wave DWDM transport facility and a replacement for NYSERNet 2000, which utilizes the DWDM infrastructure and new routers connected via multiple Gigabit Ethernet lambdas to provide NYSERNet members with high-performance access to Internet2's national R&E network, as well as a host of other national and international R&E networks. The capacity and flexibility of this new infrastructure enables qualitatively new applications in research and education.

In 2007, NYSERNet opened its business continuity center, the culmination of a two-year effort to design and construct a state-of-the-art, commercial-grade data center. NYSERNet members use the facility to mirror critical information and communication resources and systems that are then available for service in the event of a service affecting disaster.

In addition to access to the education and research networks, NYSERNet offers its members commercial Internet services provided by two tier-one vendors and through The Quilt.