Enterprises are investing major IT dollars into communications and networks in 2013, making it perhaps the most aggressive network-related spending that I have seen in recent years. It's all boiling down to one thing: Companies -- whether they are large, medium, or small -- are recognizing that the ability of the network to handle their daily communications and transportation of big-data has the power to differentiate them competitively.
This is where Internet2 comes in -- a not-for-profit government and research consortium that was originally formed by US educational institutions in 1996, but that now teams with for-profit technology purveyors such as Cisco, Ciena, Juniper Networks, IBM, HP, and others in new technology development partnership.
Between January 13 and 18, an Internet2 community of more than 450 US and international technology companies met in Hawaii to discuss next-generation Internet technologies that would further big-data transport and collaboration in science and higher education. The meeting (and the agenda) are significant for enterprise IT leaders who are now aggressively plugging network enhancements into their project schedules at the same time that they are more fully incorporating network expansion outside of enterprise walls into their IT roadmaps. The reasons are two-fold:
While some enterprises have deep pockets, most are steering away from internal “research and build it” approaches to networks -- and they depend on organizations like Internet2 and its industry collaborators to perfect and commercialize next-gen Internet networks.
These same enterprises rely on brand-name communications providers to commercialize nextgen solutions through standardization and integration that enterprises then adopt.
Accordingly, it's important for enterprise technology roadmap planners to know where Internet2 is headed in its research and development.
The January Internet2 conference made several key statements:
Videoconferencing. New work is proceeding to use National Research and Educational Networks (NRENs) as national exchanges for unified communications to improve the quality and build use cases for videoconferencing as an active collaboration tool between organizations around the world. If the initiative is further commercialized to where private enterprises can subscribe, this could make video conferencing a bigger player in corporate communications than it is today.
Man-machine communications. In one Internet2 2012 project, an operator 1,800 kilometers away from a robot could interact with the robot’s controller and successfully move the robot. Interaction was achieved along with real-time, high-quality video over a 40G (gigabits per second) connection. Commercialized, this capability could further enhance telesurgery, and other Internet of things (IoT) technologies that require the interaction of man and machine at great distances.
Software, not hardware. This will transform next-gen networks into open, multi-vendor, programmable environments, but the technologies expected to effect the transitions (such as Openflow) are still in stages that are premature for commercialization. The technologies will make network management easier.
Big-data research is likely to focus on better integrating large network bandwidth by navigating through security, and directly interacting with big-data applications to provide the network and app performance that will be needed in the future.
The future also portends a 100G network with initial work consisting of a 100G wavelength net
between Chicago and Indianapolis that links into Internet2’s 100G network. Expansion of this network could one day enable rapid sharing of big data, much of it generated by IoT appliances.
The takeaway for enterprises is that while these network technology projects are not widely deployed today, they provide future insights that IT roadmap planners should be cognizant of in order to wisely prepare their IT projects and investments over the next three years.
— Mary E. Shacklett is president of Transworld Data
All too often I feel like technology is constantly being limited by the amount of bandwidth that we have available. It seems like large infrastructure companies such as Verizon are trying their best to become innovators in networking technology to not be labeled as simply the "pipes" we use.
This is a good idea for them, and this consortium. Most companies should not be building out network infrastructure technology much like we only let certain companies build our roads.
In one Internet2 2012 project, an operator 1,800 kilometers away from a robot could interact with the robot's controller and successfully move the robot.
@Mary, thanks for the post. This project remind me of NASA controlling the Path finder from base station. If Internet2 can provide such features then I am sure it will lead to lot of automation because using internet2 people can control things from long distance.
13 years after I left graduate school at Bowling Green State University which had just completed laying the infrastucture for Internet 2, It is interesting to read that work is being done to realize the true potential of Internet 2 and I am suprised that Internet 2 hasn't caught up enought that it is easy for one to get an experience of what it is.
More grease to the elbows of those pursing it though.
When you said Internet security lags, what exactlydo you havein mind? Are you implying that there has not been meaningful advancement in the critical area of internet security?
"I am suprised that Internet 2 hasn't caught up enought that it is easy for one to get an experience of what it is."
So what were you expectations of Internet2 when you left graduate school? By stating that Internet2 has not caught up enough, are you infering that we have not realized enough commercial benefits from Internet2?
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
Social media has been with us for a decade -- but employer policies and the law are anything but firm about the most appropriate usage of this powerful tool.
The average yearly tuition cost for brick-and-mortar colleges and universities in the US today is more than $20,000, an expense that has increased 1,120 percent since 1978. By comparison, students of all ages can often earn an online education for one fourth of this annual cost -- and more businesses are starting to acknowledge online degrees.
A recent release of the popular TweetDeck app for Twitter power-users gives new life to software that had previously taken a wrong turn. Here's a quick walk-through of the new TweetDeck, to show you why it should be at the top of your Twitter toolkit.
Many enterprises view high-speed broadband connections as ubiquitous. Yet in about 20 percent of the country, businesses and their employees do not have access to even DSL connections. This shortcoming diminishes enterprises' ability to support their employees.
Facebook's Graph Search may face some profound challenges and risks, first, because Facebook users haven't been thinking of their posts as product reviews; and second, because Facebook will now have to contend with the social-network equivalent of SEO "gaming" of results.
A survey by JD Powers found that customer interest in product features is lessening as phones evolve. Rather than features, price is driving purchases, and that change could have a dramatic impact on how IT departments secure these devices.
When Reiter gets incensed over incompetent Verizon FiOS order-taking and support, he broadcasts it via Twitter. Did it do any good? How should your company offer Twitter support? Watch this for all the answers.
Evidence shows that you can tweet too much. Sites and services like Twitter and Facebook are a good place to reach your audience, but think quality over quantity.
More companies are trolling social networks to find and vet potential job candidates. Beware the pitfalls of blurring the line between personal and professional lives.
How do you recognize an Internet bubble when you see one? Saunders explains how all bubbles have four symptoms in common – and takes a swipe at Google and Twitter into the bargain.
The sky is falling! And in other news, Saunders explains why he’s predicting a second Internet bubble – this one based around the current craze for social media.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
Email This
