If there was ever a time to unleash the power of innovation, it is now. 2020 is a year none of us could have imagined and has brought out the problem solvers in all of us. Today, we at Cisco are proud to join together with many of the world’s leading researchers to support Internet2, a collective of the leading research universities across the country who are working together to solve the world’s toughest problems. Cisco’s Internet for the Future routers and software will deliver key services for the Internet2 nationwide research and education network.
The research facilitated by Internet2 members looks to provide answers to big questions: the origin of the universe, the cure for cancer, the forces to quell climate change and more. That research has an effect across society – on commerce, science, sports, education, news and medicine. So we’re proud to support research communities by providing a technological backbone that will help them connect, share data, collaborate and accelerate their important work.
Facilitating the possible
Internet2 operates a national research and education network that delivers advanced customized services for researchers across the United States. These services are accessed and secured by the community-developed trust and identity framework that make it possible for researchers to collaborate across institutions. Many of the Internet2 network’s intercity links will provide between 800 gigabits per second and 2.4 terabits per second of bandwidth capacity, empowering big data researchers across disciplines. These range from High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider data flows to pandemic research among academic medical centers and global genomics databases, all with abundant bandwidth and significantly increased capacity.
Together, we will deliver capabilities and software solutions across the U.S. research and education infrastructure that enable scientific collaboration at a global scale. Customers will benefit from Internet2’s Next Generation 400G capable network, “powered” by Cisco’s next generation routing platform (Cisco 8000) and ASIC (Silicon One), as well as our joint effort to modernize cloud connect services that enable additional computational scale and research acceleration.
This Next Generation Infrastructure positions Internet2 to deliver a more secure and advanced network with the following benefits:
- Cisco’s Internet for the Future routers and software will deliver key services for the Internet2 nationwide research and education network, making it easier for our communities to connect, share data, collaborate and accelerate all they are doing.
- The upgraded Internet2 network will feature software interfaces and orchestration capabilities that enable an edge-to-edge research and education ecosystem, ultimately providing a seamless user experience for both researchers and campus administrators.
- While delivering 4 to 12 times more capacity across the national footprint, the new Cisco solution is expected to require 668 metric tons less power and cooling; the equivalent of taking 2.28 million cars off the road.
These combined efforts will leverage telemetry, automation, programmability, and orchestration and set the standard for other scientific, research and education networks to adopt the same architecture and solutions.
Our commitment
Cisco’s purpose is to power an inclusive future for all. We do that through the technology we build, our scale and extended ecosystem, our commitment to corporate social responsibility and social justice, and the support we bring to our communities. We know we have some big challenges and solving them will require the public sector, private sector and academia working together.
To all of our customers, we know it is the mission that matters. Cisco is committed to delivering solutions that help researchers, universities, education networks, and government agencies achieve their missions with a simple, strategic and secure backbone.
Now more than ever, we believe that technology can be used for good to build a more inclusive future for us all. Internet2 members are some of the brightest minds in the world, working to solve the biggest problems on the planet and we’re honored to help them connect and work together to help build that more inclusive world we envision.
Additional resources
- Internet2’s Announcement selecting Cisco to deliver advanced networking technology to support research and academic collaboration.
- Cisco’s Duo Security has worked with Internet2 for years. Learn more about the NET+ Duo program which enables accredited U.S.-based institutions to deploy Duo’s multi-factor authentication broadly, efficiently and cost-effectively.
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