OSHEAN = Cutting Edge Cyber-Infrastructure for the Ocean State

Posted on June 8th, 2010
By George Loftus

George Loftus, President & CEO of the Ocean State Higher Education Economic Development and Administrative Network (OSHEAN) also serves as the President of a regional optical network (RON) called NEREN, Chairs the Architecture & Operations Council of Internet2 and is on the Board of Internet2. George will be presenting at the June Providence Geeks Dinner - Wednesday, June 9th 5:30-8:30pm at AS220. RSVP and details here.

Entering our 11th year, OSHEAN, is a consortium of over 30 non-profit and government entities that delivers IT solutions to its members. We focus on "technical solutions that are better delivered by working together." OSHEAN members include every institution of higher education in RI (and four in SE Mass), all the hospital groups, several state agencies, and RINET -- which includes all of the K-12 and libraries in RI.

Through the leadership of OSHEAN and its members, Rhode Island has built a regional and national reputation as a leader among the education and health care IT communities. Our tiny state is a major player in the world of Research & Education networking and infrastructure - a little known world that is shaping the broadband infrastructure for Rhode Island, New England and the nation.

Here are some highlights of what OSHEAN is undertaking:

OSHEAN operates a 500 mile optical network throughout New England - a vital part of the future of our Knowledge Economy.
In addition, OSHEAN is in the running for $33M in federal stimulus funds to expand a dedicated fiber backbone to reach all five counties in Rhode Island and neighboring Bristol County, MA. This backbone would enable us to serve the educational, health care, and public safety facilities throughout RI.
OSHEAN is deeply involved with national backbone advances with Internet2 and regional broadband capacity advances with NEREN.
OSHEAN is also supporting the efforts of the Ocean State Collaborative for Advance Resources (OSCAR) and is playing a key role in developing a vision for a green data center here in RI.
In co-operation with the Ocean State Libraries, OSHEAN have been awarded a $1.2M federal and Champlin Foundations grant to expand the number of computers and computer training in 70 public libraries in RI
OSHEAN is deploying the Cumulus (R) Cloud Computing Service -- a private-cloud IaaS solution (Infrastructure as a Service) that provides our members with virtualized resources located at our Safe Harbor facility in Springfield, MA.

I hope to see you at the Providence Geek Dinner on June 9th, where I will go deeper on each of these topics and more. RSVP and details here.

4 comments

Comments

blueroses

Submitted on June 10th, 2010 - 11:33am link

Our tiny state is a major player - you have to love that! It's actually amazing when you think of all the things we have going for us :-)

The presentation was a little bit advanced for me but I loved hearing about the collaboration between the students and the heart surgeon. What a fantastic way to engage with teenagers - it made me feel good about the future!

Also, I would like to know more about the vision for the "green data center" in RI. Perhaps I'm naive but I'm really hoping that this oil spill is a huge wakeup call. Well, better late than never!

muse_en_lystrala

Submitted on June 11th, 2010 - 9:33am link

Agreed! We're little but we kick butt. :)

I was talking to George about the collaborative arts school I want to start in another seven or eight years, and that I'll probably be knocking on his door when it happens - OSHEAN is really doing some great things.

I like the idea of the green data center as well - I'm a tremendous fan of renewable energy (I was just thinking about this yesterday) and I hope in the years to come there will be a big conversion to greener ways, in both businesses and residences. I want to own a green house someday, and I would love to make the school green too, so it's much more self-supporting.