CC*IIE Region: Accelerating the Adoption of Campus Cyberinfrastructure Technologies in Pennsylvania

Keystone Initiative For Network Based Education And Research, Lititz PA

Investigators

Abstract

The Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER), a statewide nonprofit organization, is implementing a program of coordinated leadership and mentoring activities that improve the ability of Pennsylvania colleges and universities to understand and utilize their network infrastructure to support cyberinfrastructure-based scientific applications and research on their campuses. These leadership activities focus on the understanding, deployment, integration and support of campus cyberinfrastructure technologies, such as perfSONAR, campus science DMZ, end-to-end performance monitoring and campus cybersecurity. This program establishes a collaborative cyberinfrastructure community in Pennsylvania through the use of facilitated workshops, campus visits, regional monitoring, follow-up visits and technical assistance including deploying perfSONAR equipment. The program's expanded deployment of perfSONAR platforms within the state provides a rich set of performance measurement and diagnostic tools to campus IT staff and researchers. The knowledge gained through this program enables campuses within Pennsylvania to support a broad set of cyberinfrastructure-based applications, including those that rely on the seamless integration of computing, storage and network resources, including the ability to support large data transfers. The program provides benefits over the longer term as additional Pennsylvania colleges and universities deploy science DMZs and expand their campus infrastructure capabilities, utilizing the program's online knowledge base for solving and identifying common cyberinfrastructure problems.