GlobalNOC at Indiana University supports research and education (R&E) networks with world-class, carrier-grade operations, including monitoring, engineering, and software development.
Supporting Our Partners in R&E
GlobalNOC is dedicated to its role as a collaborative partner, providing flexible, customized services and solutions. This approach to network operations proved especially critical in 2020, when the need for organizations to be responsive and adaptable in support of the public interest had perhaps never been greater.
Also unprecedented was the R&E community’s dependence upon its networks. As institutions worldwide abruptly closed down due to the pandemic, GlobalNOC adapted and responded to deliver connectivity that allowed for research, teaching, learning, and working to continue remotely for our R&E network partners and the communities they serve.
As all of R&E went remote, so too did GlobalNOC—while also keeping our networks up and running with the bandwidth needed to support an astounding amount of remote activity.
Description of the video:
[00:00] [VIDEO: A network is represented by 15 small black dots connected to a central red dot in a matrix netted over a map of the United States.]
[00:01] NARRATOR: managing a network for research education and the public interest isn't easy
[00:06] [VIDEO: A line illustration of laboratory beaker filled with black dots appears to be boiling over as grey dots spill over its sides until only 16 dots in two vertical lines remain inside. The remaining dots flow from the top of the beaker to form a series of changing rectangular patterns.]
[00:07] NARRATOR: the work is important the needs are always changing and there's no room for error
[00:16] [VIDEO: All but one dot falls off the screen, and that dot slides from the lower right to the middle left of the screen and changes colors to red. Three addition red dots appear to be dealt from the first red dot across the middle of the screen. The four dots merge and are stretched into a disc and back to a single dot]
[00:17] NARRATOR: from responding to trouble tickets and assisting users to fixing problems and planning upgrades you might feel stretched thin
[00:27] [VIDEO: An exclamation point and question mark appear above the dot before it returns to the 16 -dot network matrix netted over a map of the United States with smaller dots moving through it.]
[00:25] NARRATOR: and that's before you've even had a chance to think about things like new network technologies or software tools
[00:33] [VIDEO: As the network grid shrinks into the red dot in the center of the screen, a pulsating ring beats around the dot before six black squares come on to the left side of the screen. The squares turn into black dots as they circle and rotate around the red dot. Then the squares shrink into the red dot before four black arcs appear and move around the dot. The arcs change colors to red and shrink into the center dot.]
[00:33] NARRATOR: You need help. You talk to some commercial providers, but they don't seem to get it. Scientists, researchers and educators need things to be seamless. You need personalized attention and customized services
[00:50] [VIDEO: with the red dot in the center, eight black dots with dollar signs spreads vertically across the screen and begin to fall.]
[00:50] NARRATOR: and you're on a budget. That's where we come in.
[00:54] [VIDEO: the red dot is transformed into the GlobalNOC logo and becomes part of a global map of dots]
[00:55] NARRATOR: We're GlobalNOC at Indiana University. Our job is to help local regional and national R E networks run smoothly.
[01:04] [VIDEO: The map of dots goes away leaving only the red dot with dollar signs on each side]
[01:05] NARRATOR: We are not a commercial service provider.
[01:10] [VIDEO: The dollar signs are bounced away and the red dot once again become part of a network of dots growing and moving.]
[01:10] NARRATOR: We only serve research and education and the public sector. We work as an extension of your team as committed to your organization's success as you are.
[01:19] [VIDEO: The network of dots goes away, leaving the red dot surrounded by four black dots blinking and rotating around the red dot. The network of 16 dots with the red dot in the center fades in and out over the map of the US.]
[01:20] NARRATOR: With GlobalNOC, you get the benefit of being part of a collaborative community. We know the challenges you face and we're ready to help.
[01:29] [VIDEO: A single black dot slides off to the left where a black line appears and moves across the screen connecting dots as it goes, slowly forming a network of dots that will eventually fade into the 16-dot matrix over the map of the US]
[01:30] NARRATOR: The GlobalNOC has been supporting and building national international and regional R E networks for over 20 years. Our work supports colleges and universities, k-12 schools, government institutions and non-profit agencies from across the US and beyond. Our mission is simple: great networks, great support and great outcomes for scientists, researchers and educators to advance discovery and serve the greater good.
[02:00] [VIDEO: The 16-dot matrix shrinks into the center red dot which becomes part of a four-quarter budget bar graph. The dot bounces on top of each bar, pushing them out of the picture.]
[02:00] NARRATOR: We don't answer to shareholders so we can offer flexible customized solutions to meet your needs and budget.
[02:06] [VIDEO: The red dot returns to the center of the picture where it stretches toward is four pulsating black squares that turn into calmer dots as they move around the circle.]
[02:07] NARRATOR: There's no slick sales team at the GlobalNOC. We're a team of engineers and developers who speak your language, understand your challenges and genuinely enjoy the work we do.
[02:20] [VIDEO: The black dots shrink into the red dot that is once again in the center of the 16-dot matrix over the US map.]
[02:21] NARRATOR: Maybe you need network management software customized for you or someone to answer calls and watch your network for problems.
[02:20] [VIDEO: The red dot enlarges and bounces to the bottom of the US map, lingers a moment as the map turns and then as the map fades and the other dots and their connecting lines scatter away, the dot is flipped to the upper third of the screen with its shadow appearing at the bottom. A pulsating ring emanates from the red dot.]
[02:29] NARRATOR: Maybe you're a growing network but daunted by the expense and effort of building your own engineering team; or maybe you want to improve your operations but could use some guidance to figure out what's possible.
[02:44] [VIDEO: Icons of a telephone and an envelope appear next to the red dot.]
[02:43] NARRATOR: Reach out to us by phone or email. Let's talk about how GlobalNOC can help your network.
[02:49] [VIDEO: The icons disappear, and the dot rotates once as it turns into the GlobalNOC logo.]
[02:51] NARRATOR: We'll keep the network coming so you can focus on your mission in delivering valuable services to your community
[02:59] [TEXT: “IU University Information Technologies copyright 2020 the Trustees of Indiana University”]
Our biggest takeaway from this process: technology is about people
Technology’s role is first and foremost to serve people—and its capacity to deliver on what people need is entirely reliant upon the competence, compassion, and collaboration of people on all sides of it.
In 2020, GlobalNOC also teamed up with R&E networks in the Midwest, including I-Light, Merit, and OARnet, as well as private sector partners, to provide internet access and support online learning, research, and state and local government initiatives to provide aid during the coronavirus pandemic. Find out more about this regional collaboration.
Further accomplishments
Beyond COVID-19 responses, the past year has been a busy one for GlobalNOC, as presented throughout this 2020 annual report.
Highlights include:
- We were proud to have Louisiana Optical Network Infrastructure (LONI) join the GlobalNOC community and for LONI to give us the opportunity to support their network.
- We made significant upgrades and enhancements to our network operations system and services.
- We got the GlobalNOC community together virtually over two days in April for the second GlobalNOC Days event. Attendees had the opportunity to present on initiatives at their networks, provide feedback, and receive training on a variety of R&E networking topics. Watch GlobalNOC Days session recordings here.
Looking ahead
COVID-19
In 2021, we will be exploring how GlobalNOC should operate in a post-pandemic environment, including how we might change how we work for the long term.
Complete the Internet2 NGI program
GlobalNOC will help Internet2 complete the Next Generation Infrastructure program, bringing the packet network online, transitioning all services to the new platform, and decommissioning all of the previous generation network.
Continued expansion of N-Wave
GlobalNOC will continue to help N-Wave expand in 2021, as it takes on an increasingly important role for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Portals
In 2020, GlobalNOC built out custom member portals for a number of clients and will continue to offer this service. GlobalNOC will also be adding new functionality to customer portals throughout 2021, including enabling two-way data exchange with supported networks’ members and providing per-member access to additional data sources such as ticketing and member contact data.
Modernized notifications
The GlobalNOC Process Re-Engineering team will continue ongoing efforts to improve GlobalNOC notifications. As well as enhancing the look and feel of our notifications, GlobalNOC is marching ahead on the path to enabling targeted, service-based notifications for supported networks’ services to their members. In 2020, we began a broad rollout of targeted notifications for Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) peers on the IP networks supported. In 2021 GlobalNOC will increase coverage of service-based, targeted notifications across all the types of services for which it provides notification to supported networks’ members.
Automation
GlobalNOC will use 2021 to continue our transformation of network engineering to be automation-first. We will also work toward our goal to share what we learn and what we develop with our community, to help the community as a whole make this same transformation.
Move from the GlobalNOC Renewal Program to continuous improvement
With the GlobalNOC Renewal Program's successful completion at the end of 2020, GlobalNOC will now be transitioning to sustainable continuous improvements to maintain the momentum created by the program, including new efforts around employee engagement, growth strategy, and evolving our organizational structure as we grow.
Expansion of service offerings
We are currently evaluating options for expanding our services in order to support a wider set of networks. During 2021, we will focus on expanding the available services for higher education institutions’ campus networks, increasing our capacity and ability to support federal contracts, and creating a strategy for making use of available grant opportunities.
Supporting SOX turn-up
Georgia Tech, working in collaboration Southern Light Rail and its research network Southern Crossroads (SOX) was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Campus Cyberinfrastructure (CC*) regional grant supporting improved connectivity to smaller and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), including Alabama Agriculture and Mechanical University (AAMU) and the University of South Alabama USA. GlobalNOC will be supporting the turn-up of these two new members for SOX and helping to report on the overall project to the NSF. OmniSOC is supporting SOX with security monitoring for these institutions through the NSF grant.
Providing new engineering services to OSHEAN
GlobalNOC’s Regional Networking team is helping the OSHEAN network with configuration verification and validation utilizing the GlobalNOC-developed automation tools. The OSHEAN network has contracted with GlobalNOC for full network engineering support. The GlobalNOC Regional Networking team continues to operate as a trusted part of the OSHEAN network team support structure and is deeply committed to helping OSHEAN grow.