annual report 2016-2017 -...

2016-2017ANNUAL REPORT

RE-ENVISIONED

Leveraging economies of scale for the Higher Education institutions of New Jersey since 2000, NJEdge has supported and served its members through an aspiring mission to provide essential optical fiber network services and above network products of value. From the beginning, the NJEdge network was based on the assumption that high-performance broadband connectivity represents a critical utility in support of the core missions of the New Jersey Higher Education community. In 2017, NJEdge launched its third node and point-of-presence (POP) in south New Jersey, thus making full path and node redundancy in our statewide optical fiber network ring topology a reality.

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NJEdge is dedicated to creating a better world by providing statewide advanced networking, access to optimal technology solutions and services, insight and expertise in information technologies. With a vision to be the most advanced, responsive and collaborative networking and technology services provider for the state of New Jersey and beyond, NJEdge has made exceptional progress this year in realigning and refocusing its resources in response to the current and future needs of its members. NJEdge’s history of value continues as new initiatives, guided by our strategic plan, connect us to the future in re-envisioned ways.

Cloud Scale Networking: NJEdge’s Resilient Edge EcosystemNJEdge’s member institutions today face multiple challenges in constructing a technology ecosystem that optimally supports their business needs and objectives. Challenges include the convergence of compute, storage and networking, the explosive growth of capacity requirements, massive amounts of data, certain changes in the networking industry driven by web-scale companies and evolving a technology ecosystem through hybrid cloud architecture. One basic tenet consistently employed by NJEdge follows that effective network services and infrastructure investment should proceed in an integrated approach with involvement from all members. NJEdge’s resilient edge ecosystems allows for easy coordination among information technology services, people, process, tools and technologies, end-to-end workflows and secure integration of systems.

Highly available network infrastructure with a resilient edge ensures tighter integration of compute, storage and security components. Our thought leadership involves ecosystem thinking and strategy in developing technology solutions that meet the needs of a wide range of member institutions possessing unique value propositions. NJEdge’s application of ecosystem thinking applies to multiple verticals in support of various life cycle based workflows. Ecosystem-based collaborations with and between NJEdge members will bring future value to the end-to-end design and delivery of optimal technology solutions. Core network services include Layer 1 transport services

among our POPs, switched Layer 2 services, routed Layer 3 services and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) services.

NJEdge also recognizes and supports within its ecosystem model the broader requirements for a portfolio of trust and identity, cloud-hosted services, research and science workflows, enterprise applications and data storage. Our concept of an integrated ecosystem infrastructure is community-centric by design and serves effectively in our consortium business model. NJEdge is nationally recognized for its secure peering relationships with major cloud providers including Akamai, Amazon Web Services, Facebook, Google, Microsoft Azure, Netflix and Yahoo. Our secure-connect wide area network features upstream distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation, while still maintaining access to large quantities of peering and other production traffic types.

Today, the dynamic nature of secure networking is constantly accelerating. New technologies enable programmable networking and follow an innovation path not yet fully realized. NJEdge is at the forefront of cloud-scale innovation where networking is approached from the data center outward. NJEdge understands that infrastructure investment should deliver integrated, trusted, portable data and cloud services platforms that interoperate with community trust services, community cloud environments, public cloud and science data transport, as well as enabling end-to-end innovation through a platform that extends across the ecosystem.

Our digital world is moving quickly in response to the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT-influenced future of the academic campus is not unlike that of a smart city, a regional hospital, a K-12 school district or public library. Future ecosystem modeling will rely on a resilient edge network where the boundaries between local area networking and wide area networking begin to blur. NJEdge is perfectly positioned to meet this reliance need through solutions for network edge device management, cloud services integration, secure mobile and cloud-scale computing and combined research and education platforms and services.

3 | 2016 – 2017 ANNUAL REPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Letter from the President and CEO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Letter from the Chairman, Board of Trustees . . . . . . . . 8

Board of Trustees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Making NJEdge a Community . . . . . . .10

NJEdge by the Numbers . . . . . . . . . . .12

The Edge in Networking . . . . . . . . . .14New Network Service Offerings . . . . .17

Cybersecurity: Our Network’s Prime Concern . . . . . .17

New Regional Peering Relationships .18

Membership Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Collective Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20Letter from the Senior Vice President and COO . . . . .22

Letter from the Associate Vice President for Administration and CFO . . . . . . . . . . .23

Collaboration in Motion . . . . . . . . . .24Communities of Practice . . . . . . . . . . .25

Professional Events and 2016–2017 NJEdge Annual Conference . . . . . . . . .28

Campus Visits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Engaging with the Technology Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

NJEdge Serves as a Co-Sponsor for Member Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Support For Teaching and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32Meet illumira® . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Big Science, Big Data . . . . . . . . . . . . .34NJ Big Data Alliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Science and Data DMZs Servicing the Big Science and Big Data Agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Supporting Our NJEdge Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38Striving for Operational Excellence . .39

Exhibitor Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

New NJEdge Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43


TO OUR MEMBERS . . . A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT AND CEO

Fiscal year 2017 marked the start of an exciting new chapter for NJEdge, demonstrating effective execution of a planning process to position NEdge for the future. Over the past year, NJEdge has continued its history of successes through a process of self-assessment and re-envisioning how a research and education network brings optimal value to its constituents. This process resulted in a three-year Strategic Plan that outlines how we will operationalize our journey to move NJEdge as a re-envisioned organization to one that effects change and improvement to bring about optimal value and ultimately emerges as a thriving statewide resource and national model of excellence. Our member institutions, stakeholders and subscribing patrons all play an important role in how we get there.

In concert with our re-envisioning is a focus on digital ecosystem thinking, a new design in support of the mission and vision of our constituents. NJEdge’s defined digital ecosystem will illustrate and guide how we connect our various stakeholders through our mission and vision, activities and planning process to a vetted inventory of products and services that interoperate seamlessly in support of member needs. Our consortium approach is at the heart of everything we do, recognizing that when our members succeed – we succeed.

Increasingly, our members are turning to NJEdge to help solve complex networking and technology issues, drive business transformations, improve services and connect in new ways. As one reads our 2016-2017 Annual Report, one will note the many accomplishments for the year. The engaged and effective thought leaders that comprise the NJEdge organization have worked tirelessly to move forward the numerous initiatives that will bring persistent value and optimal solutions to our member institutions. Recognizing that the world does not stand still and the technology landscape is constantly competitive and evolving, NJEdge leadership will continue our story of success by sponsoring and enabling New Jersey’s e-infrastructure agenda and community.

Along with our members, our Board of Trustees has invested much time and effort in our success. Assisting with our planning process, meeting regularly to discuss smart growth initiatives and facilitating the general well-being of NJEdge has been impactful and much appreciated. Our esteemed Board of Trustee members bring to bear an abundance of experience and insight in guiding our future. As we engage

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our new three-year Strategic Plan, their continued participation will be paramount to our success.

The years ahead promise a continued commitment to excellence and innovation as we deliver the NJEdge value proposition. Our members will benefit greatly from maximum efficiency in the centralization of wide area network management as well as with our high concentration of networking expertise to support New Jersey research and education. NJEdge will expand access to users in countries and regions around the world, as well as resources and equipment that would otherwise be out of reach. As we level the playing field and reduce the digital divide among research and education institutions, NJEdge will advance the availability of value-add and above net products and services to support science, teaching, learning and student success.

Our time is now and we are investing in our member community in new ways. We believe in building strategic partnerships to quicken our pace in meeting the evolving requirements of our members. Our priorities for investing in our member community will continue to include delivering innovation across the network, launching new security offerings, seeking collaborations, advancing data and cloud services and providing efficient and affordable technology solutions.

Many thanks for your continued support of NJEdge!

Samuel S. Conn, Ph.D. President and CEO


TO OUR MEMBERS . . . A LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Looking back at the past year, NJEdge has positively embraced new leadership and direction to bring fresh perspective and persistent value to our membership. As a consortium, NJEdge continues to promote and support the research and educational missions of New Jersey institutions of higher education and beyond. From its inception in 2000, NJEdge has been a trusted partner and shared technology resource among member institutions. Now entering its eighteenth year of operation, NJEdge has effectively navigated the challenges associated with the constant and swift changes in today’s digital world.

The benefits of NJEdge membership have never been greater. Whether problems are related to network connectivity, information management, digital infrastructure, video assets, or secure computing paradigms, NJEdge remains the preferred technology solutions provider for New Jersey higher education and an expanded array of vertical markets. With a high performance, purpose-built optical fiber network spanning the state, a high concentration of skilled and talented network and information technology professionals supply a wide range of affordable, on-demand services.

NJEdge’s mission to create a better world by providing statewide advanced networking, access to optimal technology solutions and services and insight and expertise in information technologies is lived out every day. I invite everyone to explore the many ways in which NJEdge can bring value as the re-envisioned and re-structured organization moves forward as thought leader and your trusted partner.

On behalf of the NJEdge Board of Trustees, I appreciate your continued support for our consortium and look forward to providing into the future new and improved services for the common good.

Steven M. Rose, Ed.D. President, Passaic County Community College Chairman, NJEdge Board of Trustees

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BOARD OF TRUSTEESRESEARCH SECTOR

Dr . Joel Bloom President New Jersey Institute of Technology

Dr . Mira Lalovic-Hand Senior Vice President and CIO Rowan University

Michele Norin Senior Vice President of Information Technology and CIO Rutgers University

David Ullman Associate Provost for Information Services and CIO New Jersey Institute of Technology

STATE COLLEGE SECTOR

Candace Fleming Vice President and CIO Montclair State University

Dr . Susan Henderson President New Jersey City University

Joseph Marinello Director of Information Technology Kean University

Bill Seaton Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Thomas Edison State University

Dr . Kathleen Waldron President William Paterson University

INDEPENDENT SECTOR

Dr . Edward Christensen Vice President for Information Technology Monmouth University

Dr . Joseph Marbach President Georgian Court University

Dr . Gerard O’Sullivan Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Saint Peter’s University

Neal Sturm Vice President and CIO Fairleigh Dickinson University

COMMUNITY COLLEGE SECTOR

Dr . Anthony Iacono President County College of Morris

Dr . Maris Lown Vice President Academic Affairs Union County College

Dr . Maureen Murphy President Brookdale Community College

Dr . Steven Rose President Passaic County Community College Chair, NJEdge Board of Trustees

FOR-PROFIT SECTOR AND OUTSIDE HIGHER EDUCATION

Leonard De Botton Vice President and CIO Berkeley College

Joshua Koen Chief Innovation Officer New Jersey Department of Education

Joe Toth, J .D . Director of Library Services Chair, VALE Executive Committee Richard Stockton University


Like peer research and education network (REN) organizations throughout the nation, NJEdge provides opportunities for members to engage in multiple ways and in a manner that best aligns

with their strategic priorities. Some elect to physically connect to our high performance optical fiber network backbone so they can enjoy the advantages of information flows that are insulated from the risks and congestion encountered with commercial Internet service providers. They also use our DDoS mitigation services and purpose-built, peering enriched and non-blocking network design. Others participate in service offerings with illumira® to benefit from a comprehensive digital media platform in a simple, accessible and secure cloud hosted solution. Finally, other members engage in the broad array of consortium-based purchasing opportunities to enjoy the vetting services and pricing advantages NJEdge is able to bring to customers through its economies of scale and its authority under New Jersey Statute to serve as the educational services corporation procuring products and services on behalf of educational and government entities. Involvement with NJEdge allows members to derive value from participation in the many conferences, events, activities and training opportunities that provide for continuous professional development. Listed here are all of the members and customers who, in the aggregate, comprise the NJEdge community and inform our strategy as we strive to bring persistent value and competitive advantage to your enterprises.

MAKING NJEdge A COMMUNITY

Subscribing MemberAtlantic Cape Community

CollegeDrew UniversityEssex County CollegeFelician UniversityPrinceton University

Rowan College at Gloucester County

Salem Community CollegeSeton Hall UniversityVirtual Academic Library

Environment of NJ

M E M B E R S

NJEdge membership comes in various opportunities: Subscribing Member, Network Connected Member, illumira® and Consortium Purchasing Member .

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Network Connected MemberBergen Community CollegeBerkeley CollegeBloomfield CollegeBrookdale Community CollegeCaldwell UniversityCamden County CollegeThe College of New JerseyCumberland County CollegeFairleigh Dickinson UniversityGeorgian Court UniversityHudson County Community

CollegeInstitute for Advanced StudyKean UniversityLinden Board of EducationMadison Public LibraryMercer County Community

CollegeMiddlesex County CollegeMonmouth UniversityMontclair Board of EducationMontclair State UniversityCounty College of MorrisNew Jersey City UniversityNew Jersey Institute of

TechnologyNew York Presbyterian Hospital

Newark Public SchoolsOcean County CollegePassaic County Community

CollegePassaic County Technical InstitutePaterson Public Schools The Pingry SchoolPrinceton Theological SeminaryRamapo College of New JerseyRaritan Valley Community CollegeRider UniversityRowan College at Burlington

CountyRowan UniversityRutgers UniversityCollege of Saint ElizabethSaint Peter’s UniversityStevens Institute of TechnologyStockton UniversitySussex County Community

CollegeThomas Edison State UniversityUnion County CollegeWarren County Community

CollegeWilliam Paterson UniversityUniversity Hospital

Consortium Purchasing MemberBusiness Dell NJ Housing & Mortgage Finance AgencySWN CommunicationsHealthcareUniversity HospitalHigher EducationAtlantic Cape Community CollegeBerkeley CollegeBrookdale Community CollegeThe College of New JerseyGeorgian Court UniversityHudson County Community CollegeInstitute for Advanced StudyMercer County Community CollegeMontclair State UniversityNew Jersey Institute of TechnologyOcean County CollegePassaic County Community CollegePrinceton University Raritan Valley Community CollegeRider University Rutgers University Stockton UniversitySussex County Community CollegeWilliam Paterson UniversityK-12Bloomfield Board of EducationBound Brook Board of EducationBridgewater-Raritan Regional

School DistrictRowan College at Burlington CountyEast Windsor Regional Board of EducationHazlet Township Public SchoolsHillsborough Board of EducationMiddlesex Board of EducationMillville Board of EducationMorris Hills Regional DistrictMoorestown Public SchoolsMount Olive Board of EducationNJ School Boards AssociationNorth Warren Board of EducationRidgewood Board of EducationSayreville Board of EducationSouth Plainfield Board of EducationWatchung Hills Regional High School

illumira®

Bergen Community College Brookdale Community College Caldwell UniversityCarnegie Institution for ScienceChesapeake College The College of New Jersey College of Staten Island Cumberland County CollegeFairleigh Dickinson University George Mason University Georgian Court University James Madison University Hudson County Community

College

MERIT Montclair State University Princeton UniversityRamapo College of New Jersey Rider UniversityRowan University Rutgers University Stockton UniversityStevens Institute of TechnologySusquehanna University (KINBER) Union County CollegeWilliam Paterson UniversityYork College


200,000,000,000

150,000,000,000

80,000,000,000

42,949,672,960

40,000,000,000

40,000,000,000

30,000,000,000

20,000,000,000

10,000,000,000

10,000,000,000

8,500,000,000

4,500,000,000

2,500,000,000

13,008,102

651,047

612,556

540,889

406,057

83,337

70,315

68,504

3,642

1,128

692

273

141

88

75

70

64

50

49

47

28

27

25

23

22

21

16

9

7

4

3

2

1

Total circuit capacity (bits)

External circuit capacity (bits)

Capacity including IP transit & peering (bits)

Total bandwidth subscribed by the NJEdge members (bits)

Peak Internet traffic including peering (bits)

Network backbone capacity (bits)

Google traffic capacity (bits)

Netflix traffic capacity (bits)

Facebook traffic capacity (bits)

Total Internet2 capacity (bits)

Netflix peak traffic volume (bits)

Peak network usage by NJEdge’s single largest member (bits)

Total Facebook peak traffic volume (bits)

Total FY2017 gross revenue ($) from sale of NJEdge products & services

Total IPv4 prefixes NJEdge announces to the Internet

Object/content views using illumira®

Higher Education Students supported by NJEdge

Total IPv6 prefixes announced to the Internet

College/University faculty & staff supported by NJEdge

Digital objects stored in the illumira® library

K-12 students served by the NJEdge connection

Video Conference/Collaboration Sessions using VIDYO

Attendees at NJEdge sponsored events

Captions & transcripts created using illumira®

Customer care tickets resolved

Total carrier circuits

Fiber route miles under IRU lease

Percent traffic returned via peering usage

Total Peering connections

Database products available through VALE

College & university libraries obtaining databases through VALE

Video conference room systems deployed

Organizations connected to NJEdge

NJEdge Industry Partners

Terabytes of storage required to store digital content masters

Dual connected members

Community events offered

Members using LISP

10Gb member connections

Racks/cabinets

Dark fiber connected members

Access circuit providers under contract

K-12 districts connecting to NJEdge

Network data centers on the NJEdge backbone

Colleague research & education networks interconnecting with NJEdge

Research & education networks in New Jersey passionate about your success - NJEdge!

BY THENUMBERS

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200,000,000,000

150,000,000,000

80,000,000,000

42,949,672,960

40,000,000,000

40,000,000,000

30,000,000,000

20,000,000,000

10,000,000,000

10,000,000,000

8,500,000,000

4,500,000,000

2,500,000,000

13,008,102

651,047

612,556

540,889

406,057

83,337

70,315

68,504

3,642

1,128

692

273

141

88

75

70

64

50

49

47

28

27

25

23

22

21

16

9

7

4

3

2

1

“We value NJEdge as one of our trusted business partners because, collectively, we set an example for other Network Operators to follow a process that will continue to add mutual value to our future expansion within the NJ region while simultaneously leveraging our facility to optimize their service model.”

— Douglas Corbett VP of Sales and Customer Relations

New Jersey Fiber Exchange


NETWORKINGTHE EDGE IN

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Recognizing that in the 21st century, research and education networks function as the circulatory system for state, regional, national and international learning and innovation, NJEdge made significant progress this year toward accelerating scientific discovery with the design and initial deployment of its third optical node. Serving statewide needs related to digital classrooms and online learning, as well large-scale research collaborations, the need for high-performance, highly available and high-bandwidth internetworking is increasing. Requirements to access everything, at any time and from any place are pervasive across industry verticals and represent common expectations in today’s global digital world. In response, NJEdge continues to invest in future proofing its network and associated capabilities.

NJEdge members currently enjoy a purpose-built, high performance statewide optical fiber network and a robust inventory of associated network services. NJEdge, via a total quality management approach, has consistently raised the bar with regard to best practices in wide area network design, deployment and administration. As the NJEdge network has grown and thrived over the past two decades and member expectations for capacity and high availability have increased, this year’s initiatives served to remediate any network component not fully conformed to a Tier-3 data center standard. In concert with overall wide area network performance the past year, NJEdge worked to ensure continued and increasing levels of security, availability, reliability and scalability. This was accomplished in concert with provisioning highly customized solutions for our connected members that were often unachievable through the commercial network and network services providers.

To instantiate full redundancy, increase routing options, create new services and build network resiliency, NJEdge collected data to make an informed decision regarding the build-out of a third optical fiber network POP. Critical factors in a location decision included geographic location, access to international endpoints on the European continent via subsea cables and to South America, available facilities and services, security, total cost of ownership and scalability. As a result, a third optical fiber network POP site is under construction in the new New Jersey Fiber Exchange (NJFX) facility located in Wall, New Jersey. This location will enable NJEdge to better serve the networking needs of now underserved populations in the New Jersey downstate region.

In May 2017, contracts were executed for space at the NJFX facility along with contracts for provisioning of circuits to support the third optical node on the NJEdge network. The cage space accommodates four cabinets with two of the four cabinets available for expansion and/or offerings as co-located facility space, network junctions, or possible managed hosted services. Moreover, cost savings from consolidation of certain configurations currently located in Philadelphia will be realized once the facility is active. This major step in the next evolution of the NJEdge high-performance optical fiber network establishes a national model of excellence in the State of New Jersey and delivers the future promise of full path


and node redundancy to current members. The anticipated timeline for build-out and launch into active service of the new facility is Fall 2017.

With network security as a prime consideration in today’s dangerous digital world, the fourth generation of the NJEdge optical fiber network also featured a new design that segregated our connected members from our Internet transit providers. Laying the foundation for upstream detection and mitigation of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack vectors, this configuration detects traffic incoming to member local area networks that contains suspicious or mal-intended attributes, namely DDoS. Additionally, a major increase in network bandwidth now provides our connected members with 150Gb of Internet and peering capacity.

During fiscal year 2017, we again advanced our network design working in concert with the New Jersey Fiber Exchange (NJFX), a new emerging Tier-3 colocation provider in southern New Jersey. This major leap forward provided NJEdge with the opportunity to further enhance network quality and resiliency through advanced design and configurations for connectivity and services infrastructure. These enhancements position the current NJEdge network topology for growth and optimal performance, all while achieving true network node and path redundancy. The addition of this new NJEdge network facility leverages all prior investment in networking infrastructure and reinforces our intention to future proof our network. As a result, the NJEdge network now resides completely in Tier-3 rated facilities across the state of New Jersey.

Of equal importance to the future of the NJEdge network is the ability to provide on-demand bandwidth increases as required. NJEdge’s in-place optical fiber network sustains our ability to provision 100Gb circuits to meet the demand for growth in backbone services. Additionally, the geographic redundancy of the optical nodes and advanced routing configurations place the NJEdge network into a new category of survivability. Options exist for dual homed member connections permit load balancing and disaster avoidance and recovery using NJEdge’s established Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP).

In support of the future of scientific research and big data, NJEdge’s fifth generation network design not only meets member demand for highly available,

survivable optical transport but in the future will allow for further provisioning of software defined networking (SDN) capabilities beyond that which our LISP provisioned customers already enjoy. Some examples of planned future capabilities for the NJEdge network include a network partitioning strategy that calls for creation of on-demand science demilitarized zones (DMZs) and other science and research configurations as well as a purely experimental segment intended to test new design options and capabilities without impacting research and production.

The current evolution of the fifth generation NJEdge optical fiber network employs a full ring network topology and represents the next incremental step toward delivering a fully meshed network. Features introduced in this design, currently in construction, include redundant routing devices at each of the three optical nodes. As a result, the network will be further hardened and protected against unplanned outages due to single equipment failure. An optical ring fiber network topology with full path and node redundancy and offering 100Gb backbone connection speeds is now in view on the New Jersey horizon.

Concept design for a future state sixth generation of our network ensures that NJEdge stays on the forefront of leading edge technologies to provide optimal networking and technology solutions to our members. Sixth generation network architecture envisions a fully meshed network that deploys automatic re-routing of member traffic around any and all carrier network and hardware outages. In practical terms, the NJEdge purpose built optical fiber network has never been more in-sync with the current and future requirements of our member institutions.

PHILADELPHIA

NEWARK165 Halsey Street

NJFX401 North Broad StreetWALL

2016-2017

OPTICAL FIBER NETWORK DESIGN

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Turning Up Services Across New Jersey: New Network Service Offerings Cloud scale computing architectures are now blurring the lines between wide area networks (WANs) and local area networks (LANs). This situation has created an opportunity for NJEdge to use existing capacity to provide new managed service offerings that extend to the edge of the enterprise LAN. By offering managed services for LAN edge routers and firewalls, NJEdge brings increased value to members in the form of operational cost reduction, an additional layer of security and potential divestiture of capital expenses.

NJEdge’s Value-Added NetworkNJEdge led the way among the national Research and Education Network community with its implementation of the cloud scrubbing component of our comprehensive DDoS support service. Building upon the successful deployment of the internal detection capability, the addition of a new security engineer and cloud mitigation from our upstream provider, we were able to respond to members’ requirements for DDoS mitigation.

Leveraging once again our ability to forge mutually beneficial relationships with industry partners, NJEdge completed a migration of Domain Name Server (DNS) services for the membership from our transit providers to Dyn managed DNS platform, the industry leading solution for authoritative DNS. NJEdge members are now empowered with direct access to manage their own zones and receive the value of Dyn’s industry leading performance and concierge support.

To increase NJEdge’s ability to support members and respond to 24x7 service requests and issues, NJEdge partnered this past year with Highpoint Solutions. This partnership delivers monitoring, remediation and support services using hybrid best of breed tool sets along with industry best practices and provides NJEdge’s network staff with the ability to perform potentially disruptive maintenance activity during times of least impact for our members.

PHILADELPHIA

NEWARK165 Halsey Street

NJFX401 North Broad StreetWALL

NETWORK SERVICEO F F E R I N G S

NEW

CYBERSECURITY: Our Network’s Prime Concern As a technology solutions provider delivering connectivity, network services and applications to our members, NJEdge is ever vigilant in its commitment to support our members’ efforts to mitigate all manner of cyber risk. The digital boundaries of our member organizations are ever increasing and have become less clearly defined. With each new device and service that is introduced into the environment, there is a corresponding increase in the level of effort required to manage risk. As a thought leader and trusted partner to our members and corporate entities, NJEdge has, over the course of the past year, developed a security strategy that seeks to demystify and systematize the cybersecurity challenge for our members by treating information security first and foremost as an integrated information management problem.

Relying on tried and true frameworks for organizing information security data such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework, Center of Internet Security (CIS) - Critical Security Controls (CSC) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Security Management, NJEdge made significant progress toward creating a foundational monitoring service for internal and external assessment of vulnerabilities to inform members’ cybersecurity strategies. Invaluable interactions with our security centered Community of Practice along with our established corporate relationships has positioned our members to better handle cybersecurity issues and challenges that confront them.


NEW REGIONAL PEERING RELATIONSHIPSThe shared-services ethos and the associated themes of integration, cooperation, collaboration and co-investment have been at the core of research and education network strategies from the outset. More recently, with particular impetus from federal funding agencies for sponsored research, the regionalization of technology and research capacity has emerged as a requirement. In response, NJEdge has actively pursued peering relationships with state research and education networks that share geographical and network topological adjacencies.

In March, NJEdge announced the completion of a peering connection with NYSERNet, a Syracuse-based non-profit network and technology company that connects New York’s colleges, universities, K-12 schools, museums, libraries and research centers to each other and the broader digital world. This new peering connection expands the existing partnership between NYSERNet and NJEdge to offer each other’s members access to educational opportunities, webinars and special events.

In May, NJEdge announced a peering connection between the NJEdge network and the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER), a non-profit membership organization devoted to fostering collaboration through technology in Pennsylvania. This new advanced peering connection between the two state networks allows for greater capacity, speed and enhanced research capabilities between PennREN connected institutions across Pennsylvania and NJEdge connected institutions in New Jersey.

Our Passion to ServeEnhancements to NJEdge networked services, infrastructure, products, services and professional development offerings are continuously informed by and delivered in response to our own surveillance and research as well as consortium members’ expressed needs and planning agendas. In January, NJEdge announced a connected member partnership with the New York Presbyterian Hospital (NYP), a world-class academic medical center affiliated with two renowned medical schools, Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. NYP required a solution to connect with Internet2 for research purposes but was unable to find a cost-effective method that met their technological requirements. NJEdge worked with NYP to leverage our existing relationship with the Mid Atlantic GigaPOP to develop a solution. Leveraging NJEdge’s consortium purchasing power, a comprehensive solution was designed and implemented that met all of NYP’s budgetary and technical requirements.

Rosenet, a shared services consortium formed by the Madison Borough, the Madison Public Library and the Board of Education, has enjoyed a long standing relationship and network connection with NJEdge. To optimize Rosenet’s existing service and position them to take advantage of future digital learning opportunities, expanded library services and transition to cloud services implementations throughout the Borough, members of the Rosenet collaborative engaged with NJEdge to design and provision needed service and capabilities enhancements.

In the past year, NJEdge and Ocean County College worked together to increase the institution’s network capacity in response to growing demand from both administrative and academic areas. A new 2016 agreement doubles their circuit capacity, intercampus bandwidth and NJEdge connectivity. Because of NJEdge’s consortium purchasing power, these upgrades resulted in additional capacity and lower monthly connectivity cost for the institution.

MEMBERSHIP UPDATE

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Working to improve the value-add to our members through innovative solutions to complex networking problems, this past year NJEdge demonstrated its strength as a solutions provider to Newark’s University Hospital, a vital medical resource to the community. After many months of design and construction consulting services, NJEdge received the authorization to proceed with new dark fiber solutions for University Hospital’s co-location facility in early May. As a result, NJEdge is now providing better long-term value through an improved technological solution to the hospital that will assure high availability and minimize the risk of vital healthcare services being lost.

In trusted partnership, Raritan Valley Community College renewed its long-term commitment to NJEdge. Based on a requirement for additional bandwidth, NJEdge negotiated early renewals for last mile circuits then upgraded the capacity of the circuits – all at reduced cost to the College. As a result, Raritan Valley Community College now enjoys upgraded bandwidth, improved design for failover, all at a reduced monthly expense.

On a similar note, Mercer County Community College increased its bandwidth subscription through NJEdge this year from a major connection upgrade, thus increasing capacity from their Trenton remote campus to the main campus as well as an overall increase in their NJEdge bandwidth subscription. This five-year commitment to NJEdge further supports NJEdge’s role in advancing technology to its connected members.

Monmouth University completed a migration and upgrade of their redundant NJEdge connection which allowed NJEdge to move the connection from our Newark POP to our Philadelphia POP

directly. This new design saves the member money and provides a significant improvement in the redundancy design. NJEdge also leveraged the consortium’s purchasing power to bundle a new WAN circuit to Monmouth’s remote campus location improving connectivity to this location as well. With the cost savings created by this new agreement, Monmouth was able to increase their Internet bandwidth service level.

Rowan College at Burlington County (RCBC) completed a migration to a new Ethernet Private Line network for all of their WAN services and their two NJEdge connections. This redesign achieved geographic diversity by moving one of their NJEdge connections from Philadelphia to Newark. This new design took many months of design and negotiation with the last mile circuit vendor to meet the rapidly changing needs of the college. As part of the new design, RCBC was also able to increase their Internet subscription. This new commitment allowed for significant new bandwidth and capabilities while reducing the overall cost for services to RCBC.

The Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) completed a network upgrade that increased bandwidth capacity while simplifying business operations for the Institute. The new upgrade increased the bandwidth of both access circuits. By leveraging the discounting NJEdge receives as a result of our higher spend with the carrier, the savings allowed IAS to increase their bandwidth subscription to NJEdge. NJEdge took ownership of the contract for one of the circuits that had been direct billed to IAS. NJEdge now manages the vendor relationship and billing, providing IAS with better customer service and accurate invoicing.


COLLECTIVEIMPACT

20

As part of its cooperative purchasing initiative, NJEdge considered new opportunities to provide value through consortium procurement by working more closely with institutions to align requirements with procurement of enterprise solutions. Additionally, NJEdge routinely searches for opportunities to bring new service offerings into procurement to provide staff augmentation, project management, organizational change management, specialized on-demand skills, or other cost avoidance opportunities related to complex or high-cost initiatives to enhance the collective impact of our consortium.

Arguably the most expansive and beneficial consortium purchasing initiative launched on behalf of the NJEdge community, the VMware Program has consistently delivered deep discounting for a large portfolio of VMware products accompanied by training, professional development and outstanding customer support. Members have enjoyed product cost reductions well below market norms. The 2017 fiscal year marked the second of a three-year extension of the pre-negotiated discount rate for license maintenance for VMware products under the terms of our last Enterprise Licensing Agreement (ELA). In the past year, NJEdge pursued a new ELA that will expand upon the array of products available under our consortium pricing model to include Vmware’s latest innovations and offerings as well as extension of discount on the renewals for products in place under the terms of earlier ELAs. Other valuable purchasing programs over the past year include emergency notification systems, Quality Matters, Microsoft licensing and various learning management systems.

FIOS Public Access and Education GrantDuring the period under review, NJEdge continues to provide benefit to the communities it serves as the recipient of a corporate grant through Verizon, Inc. to help municipalities throughout the state to create content in the public interest and to distribute it to citizens in the towns that are proximate to our member campuses using the FIOS Public Access Channel services.

As the recipient of the FIOS Public Access and Education Grant offered through Verizon Corporation, last year NJEdge worked in partnership with eight higher education institutions throughout New Jersey that have television production facilities on their campuses to acquire the content production equipment needed to develop local access programming and to maintain the fleet of equipment deployed to participating institutions throughout the useful lifecycle. NJEdge also coordinated the collaborative sharing of equipment among participating colleges and universities throughout the state as needed and arranged for the training of staff in the use of equipment and protocols for distribution of content over the Verizon managed access channels.

As the beneficiaries of these services municipal jurisdictions are able to bring content that is in the public interest such as local governmental and Board of Education meetings to their citizens as well as speeches, events and presentations occurring in local schools and libraries in the municipality.


TO OUR MEMBERS . . . A LETTER FROM THE SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND COO

With the fiscal year 2017, the NJEdge leadership team set about re-envisioning and restructuring the organization with an intentional plan to re-emerge as an exemplar and national model for how a Research and Education Network should serve our members and interact with industry partners in the years ahead. Working in concert with our members, our Board and our industry partners, we have made great strides forward.

As the great state of New Jersey is our home and some would consider driving to be our citizens’ favorite pastime, the image on our redesigned website landing page of a highway approaching the sunrise of a new day is a fitting metaphor for the journey upon which NJEdge has embarked. The organizing concepts of ecosystem, thought leadership and trusted partnership fuel the engine that is driving us forward as we again embrace our core commitment to deliver persistent value to you, our members, with the infrastructure and technology solutions that will help you thrive and grow amid the constant change that accompanies a world driven by information and disruptive technologies.

Fiscal year 2017 has been a productive and rewarding year working with the NJEdge team, our membership, our Board and our industry partners to fine-tune our engine. We have produced a member informed strategic planning document that will serve as guideposts along the way. In addition, we have made the programmatic changes, personnel adjustments and investments in marketing, communications and additional product offerings needed to accelerate our success down the road. I invite you to regard this report as a quick look in the rear view mirror, a moment of reflection on the many accomplishments registered over the past year. I encourage you to regard it too as an opportunity to re-imagine and re-engage more deeply with our consortium as we work together to achieve the enterprise transformations needed to thrive in these exciting times.

With thanks for your continued support over the last year and with appreciation for your continued engagement as we journey forward.

Edward V. Chapel, Ph.D. Senior Vice President and COO

22

TO OUR MEMBERS . . . A LETTER FROM THE ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADMINISTRATION AND CFO

I am pleased to share some important updates in the areas of finance and administration for fiscal year 2017, a transformational year for NJEdge. Now fully engaged in a strategic plan through 2020, NJEdge administrative processes and financial planning and reporting were developed in response to the need for efficiency, stronger financial management and transparency. Our new budget modeling process separates capital expense planning from operational expense planning, allowing for more precise revenue forecasting. In addition, this new process utilizes depreciation expense for capital recovery while managing liquidity and risk through a portfolio approach.

As a result, NJEdge now provides quarterly financial reports to our Board of Trustees and ensures that finances track with approved annual budgets. Moreover, three-

year budget modeling now allows NJEdge to better plan for capital investment and mitigate risk from unplanned events. On the strength of our new budget model, we executed a Board approved plan to recalibrate membership dues so that equitable participation in the mutual benefits of our consortium is recognized across the membership.

Of particular note in our strategic plan is our intention to further reduce risk by diversifying revenues through new lines of business. Figure 1 illustrates the decomposition of NJEdge current sources of revenue. As we rely on new technology solutions to launch in the coming months, new revenue streams will strengthen the overall posture of our revenue profile. By advancing revenues and controlling expenses, we will continue to sustainably manage the resources required to deliver service excellence through advancement of our network and portfolio of technology solutions.

As an organization positioned in a rapidly changing and capital intensive industry, our liquidity balances remain strong through careful capital planning and positive annual changes in our net assets. Figure 2 illustrates our net change in cash position for the past two years. Reinvestment in our technical infrastructure and our membership is continuous and governed by our need to maintain adequate operating reserves, fund infrastructure growth and provide members with cost avoidance opportunities.

We pride ourselves on a distinguished Board of Trustees, welcoming Dr. Edward Christensen, Joshua Koen and Dr. Anthony Iacono as new Board members this year. It should be no surprise that with outstanding governance, a strong executive management team, and a growing membership, NJEdge is very well positioned to become a national model of excellence in research and education network organizations. Thank you for your continued support.

Joseph D. Rearden, J.D. Associate Vice President for Administration and CFO

$0 $1,000,000

FY17

FY16

FY15

$2,000,000 $3,000,000 $4,000,000 $5,000,000

YEAR END NET ASSETS

Network 49%

VALE 28%

Cooperative Purchases 15%

Applications 3%

Community 3%

Other 2%


COLLABORATIONIN MOTION

24

COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

The Communities of Practice ConceptA key differentiator for consortia such as NJEdge is the role we play in gathering various digital stakeholders together to collaborate and contemplate the broader themes, challenges and opportunities affecting organizations that rely heavily upon information technology resources to achieve their missions. This goal transcends simply providing products and services to fulfill basic needs. Rather, it reflects an intentional commitment to promote research, scholarly capacity and insight across our membership and among peers that comprise what we have labeled NJEdge’s Communities of Practice. These communities, made up of NJEdge member and industry partners within specific subject matter domains, gather thought leaders that share an abiding concern for something they do and a commitment to learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. The NJEdge community flourishes by bringing together members around certain topics to exchange best practices, learn new skills and ask questions in an environment that fosters trust and improvement for all involved.

Academic Technology Group – Teaching & LearningThe Academic Technology Group (ATG) convenes around the multiple facets of pedagogy including best practices in instruction, delivery of online education, classroom technologies and the measurement and assurance strategies for student success. These objectives are accomplished by bringing together the collective expertise of faculty and administration to stimulate and sustain online and hybrid learning initiatives and through events such as the Faculty Best Practices Showcase that is held each spring, group meetings with speakers and demonstrations offered periodically throughout the year. In keeping with NJEdge’s academic mission, many among the ATG members played an active role in the planning of last year’s Annual NJEdge Conference and they were heavily represented among the track session presenters.

Data Resources Group – Networking & DataInasmuch as networking constitutes the core and foundational competency defining the NJEdge organization, the Data Resource Group (DRG) focuses on a wide variety of issues and topics of interest to Network Managers and holds regular meetings at participating member institutions to ensure the community remains engaged, informed and consultative regarding the evolution of our core asset. This community of practice was instrumental in crafting the DDoS monitoring and mitigation program and strategy that has brought NJEdge to a leadership position among the Nation’s Research and Education Networks in this area of service.


NJCIO ForumThe NJCIO Forum brings together CIOs from New Jersey’s higher education institutions and provides them with an appropriate Forum to discuss their top concerns, share best practice on tackling tactical and strategic issues confronting the wider community and identifying solutions to their problems in a timely, effective manner. The NJCIO Forum is often called upon to provide thought leadership and suggest agendas and priorities for others among the Communities of Practice. Meeting a minimum of three times per year, the Forum exercises a collaborative leadership model to respond to emerging national, regional and statewide challenges that impact the education community.

Security Resource GroupThe newest among the NJEdge communities of practice, the Security Resource Group (SRG) grew out of the Data Resources Group with the recognition that security in all of its facets touches every aspect of the higher education enterprise and extends well beyond the perimeter of the enterprise network. The group focuses on the full spectrum of security concerns and dedicates itself to understanding, supporting and uniting the people, processes, standards and technologies that are needed to mitigate threats to our organizations, their students and personnel. During the reporting period, this has been accomplished with webinars, quarterly meetings and a security summit event that happened concurrent with the NJEdge annual conference. The SRG’s domain expertise pertains to workflows and cybersecurity processes to prevent losses, efficiently utilize resources and strategies to maximize the ROI on security centered application and infrastructure investments. The group also promotes adoption of national standards to inform local policy and endorses developing metrics and common threat indicators to monitor risk.

User Services Group – Help Desk & Customer CareRecognizing the proliferation of technology services environments with the emergence of cloud and hybrid-cloud environments as well as the sheer growth in the number of applications, services and devices arriving on campuses with the BYOD movement, the User Services Group (USG) seeks to foster collaboration among NJEdge members by exploring current and emerging practices in user services and enrich their delivery of technology services. ITIL standards of practice are a key driver for this community which focuses heavily upon professional development opportunities and recommending best practices based upon shared successes and operational challenges in the administration of user services. The USG community seeks to deliver to its stakeholders insight and actionable strategies to utilize institution wide technology, deliver excellent customer service and continuously improve the caliber of technical expertise.

VALE – Virtual Academic Library EnvironmentThe Virtual Academic Library Environment (VALE) is a consortium of New Jersey college and university libraries and the New Jersey State Library that is dedicated to furthering excellence in learning and research through innovative and collaborative approaches to information resources and services. This community of practice focuses on issues around consortium purchasing and the role of new technology and innovations in our libraries. The hallmark of the VALE community is the consortium purchasing model utilized to realize cost savings in the acquisition of database resources to the colleges and universities throughout New Jersey. In addition, VALE convenes an annual conference for the community of library directors and personnel throughout the state.

26

“I found our partnership with NJEdge extremely helpful as there were many opportunities afforded to The College Of Staten Island (CSI) through this affiliation. CSI has had the privilege to attend several NJEdge-hosted professional development activities such as conferences and workshops where we gained valuable insights on the future of technology as well as knowledge and experience through conversations and discussions. Also, through our NJEdge collaboration, CSI was able to garner support with research opportunities leveraging the use of technology in creative ways.”

— Patricia Kahn, Ph.D. CIO and Assist. VP for

Information Technology Services and High Performance Computing Center

The College of Staten Island, CUNY


2016 Summer Luncheon at Ocean Park in JulyThe 2016 Member Appreciation Luncheon gathered members at the Ocean Place Resort in Long Branch to network and learn from Mark Frydenberg, Bentley University (Waltham, MA), whose talk titled “From Tech Savvy to Digitally Literate: Apps and Activities for Social Learning” shared some of the latest advances in educational technology. The NJEdge community also bid farewell to George Laskaris, upon his retirement as NJEdge’s first President and CEO.

2016 VALE/CIO Joint Meeting in OctoberIn recognition of the shared priorities of the library community and college/university technology leadership, this meeting, themed “Where the Collaboration Points Are,” focused on the role of higher education in the 21st century and how more than ever there is a strategic relationship between libraries and information technology. A specific initiative explored during this joint session was the use of open educational resources (OER) as well as the manner in which CIOs and higher education librarians might strategize, collaborate and work together on this emerging priority.

2016 Annual Conference at the Princeton Marriott in NovemberThe 13th annual NJEdge conference was held on November 16-18 and focused on the Junction of Technology and Teaching. This three-day event brought together NJEdge members allowing for networking and exchange of best practice. Dr. Diana G. Oblinger, President Emeritus of EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association of 2,400 colleges, universities and education organizations whose mission is to advance higher education through the use of information technology, delivered the keynote speech. The annual event also featured a “conference within a conference” that was the first Security Summit assembled by the newly launched Security Resources Group (SRG) Community of Practice. With a focus on how to maintain the highest standards of security while reducing costs, streamlining processes and driving efficiencies in the daily administration of networks and systems, the Summit was capped by a presentation from New Jersey’s recently appointed Chief Technology Officer David Weinstein who shared his thoughts on securing the broad array of complex agencies that comprise NJ State Government. There was also an engaging presentation on the interrelationship between the Internet of Things (IOT) and security priorities offered by Internet2’s Florence Hudson to a gathering of VIPs from among the NJEdge member organizations.

PROFESSIONAL EVENTSNJEdge ANNUAL CONFERENCE

A N D 2 0 1 6 – 2 0 1 7

28

2017 Faculty Showcase in MarchThis event, held on March 15 at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, focused on sharing faculty best practices in student success. The Faculty Showcase was geared to educators from K-12, higher education, institutional research and healthcare related teaching and structured in half hour presentations and posters on technology-mediated instruction.

Hosted Workshops 2017JULIA: Programming Language for HPC, Analytics and More held at NJIT on May 17, 2017.

This one-day workshop aimed at faculty, researchers and students in physical and biological sciences, data science, statistics, mathematics, analytics was structured to share background and capabilities on Julia. Julia (julialang.org) refers to a high level, high-performance dynamic programming language for technical computing with syntax that is familiar to users of other technical computing environments (e.g., Matlab). This software provides a sophisticated compiler, distributed parallel execution, numerical accuracy and an extensive mathematical function library. This offering is in line with NJEdge’s support of Big Data and Analytics more generally.

Looking ahead Planning is underway for the next NJEdge Annual Conference to be held on January 11-12, 2018 at the Hanover Marriott in Whippany, NJ. The theme for the 2018 Annual Conference is “Digital Leadership and Enterprise Transformation.”


Hearing the Voice of our CustomersAs a member informed organization, NJEdge values member input. Campus visits by NJEdge leadership over the past year provided opportunities to engage and hear directly from our members regarding how NJEdge can be of greatest value to their institutions. The 2017-2020 Strategic Plan reflects much of what we learned from these visits.

The campus visits accomplished this past year and those planned for the future are designed to ensure that the voice of our customers is heard. Local information gathered provides for better understanding of the challenges confronting our members. With this information, NJEdge is best able to design new services, identify greatest common factor needs and requirements and identify technology solutions in the broadest and most cost-effective manner. Key to the success of such listening tours is engagement with the

entire leadership team at each organization to ensure a multi-perspective approach to technology solutioning.

Over the past year, a regular schedule of campus visits was launched with onsite conversations held at Berkeley College, County College of Morris, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Kean University, Montclair State University, Princeton University, Rowan University, Rutgers University, Union County Community College and William Paterson University. Conversations included Chief Information Officers, Presidents, Provosts and Directors from both the academic and administrative ranks of the institutions. As this practice continues, wider coverage of institutions and stakeholders will ensure that all membership is actively heard and made aware of the full spectrum of technology solutions available through the NJEdge consortium.

CAMPUS VISITS

30

In accord with its mission to promote collaboration among technology invested organizations in New Jersey, NJEdge pursued new opportunities for community engagement in the past year involving the practice of working in concert with our member organizations to co-sponsor activities and events of interest to the broader community.

On March 31, 2017, NJEdge served as a co-sponsor of the Third Annual Cybersecurity and Big Data Analytics Symposium on the campus of William Paterson University. Working in collaboration with the University, NJEdge participated by facilitating panel discussions, recommending speakers, assisting with logistics, marketing and communications and other support to ensure a successful event. NJEdge also co-sponsored and provided videography services for the Autism Summit 2017: Meeting of the Minds and Honoring Diversity in Research on April 19-20 for The New Jersey Autism Center of Excellence, which operates from Montclair State University.

MEMBER EVENTS CO-SPONSOR FORS E R V E S A S A

E N G A G I N G W I T H T H E TECHNOLOGY COMMUNITYAs NJEdge continues to position itself as a technology thought leader and trusted partner to its members, participation in two key events highlighted efforts to engage NJEdge more fully in the New Jersey technology community. On May 23-24, NJEdge participated in the 2017 New Jersey Digital Government Summit with two presentations and an opening address to event participants. Presentations by NJEdge senior management covered the topics of “Cloud Ecosystems” and “Collaboration in New Jersey – it’s Alive.” This opportunity to meet, network and collaborate with state government technology vendors, leaders and consumers presented a unique opportunity for NJEdge to promote our brand, products and services to a state-wide government sector audience.

By invitation, NJEdge senior management attended the April 20 meeting of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in New Jersey (AICUNJ). This opportunity to meet with and share information with sector chief information officers provided a means of discovery and ongoing dialogue regarding how NJEdge can better serve the needs of New Jersey independent colleges and universities. As a means of maintaining engagement and as an additional channel in which to hear the voice-of-the-customer, NJEdge will continue to host and support future opportunities for interaction.

The QuiltNJEdge continued to maintain active participation and discussion of information technology matters on a national scale through The Quilt, a national coalition of advanced regional networks for research and education that represents 36 networks across the United States. By participating in The Quilt consortium, NJEdge receives benefits from collective experience, buying power, resource sharing and other common interest initiatives at a national level.

Internet2NJEdge also engaged with the national technology community through our affiliation with Internet2, an advanced technology community founded in 1996 by leading higher education institutions in the United States. During the past year, NJEdge has worked to create pathways for new Internet2 agendas within the state of New Jersey and lay a foundation for additional involvement in future technology initiatives.


SUPPORT FORTEACHING & LEARNING

32

TEACHING & LEARNING

Lighting the Way: NJVID Completes Its JourneyWith the emergence of streaming video over a decade ago, NJEdge realized that its members in education, healthcare, government and the non-profit sectors would soon find themselves faced with a digital tsunami. The first generation of the illumira® service, formerly known as NJVID, was developed from a $1 million federal grant in 2005 to solve commercial media licensing and streaming challenges for libraries. The service was developed in conjunction with library systems to enable traditional libraries to transition to a digital streaming platform while keeping the cataloging, metadata and integration with library systems intact. Now a comprehensive platform for institutions across the country, illumira® allows users to easily upload and manage digital content and securely share it with intended students, staff and faculty members.

While solving the digital content management problem for the library client, we realized NJEdge was a short walk away from solving another problem faced by faculty members in educational institutions – adding rich digital media to traditional course content. Building on the successful implementations and market share of the original NJVID brand, the rebranding of the product and retirement of the NJVID platform is now in motion. NJEdge is working through the technical and logistical complexity of retiring a brand well-known in New Jersey and to continue market growth of the product nationwide.

Meet illumira® Our cloud-based illumira® digital media management system has gained acceptance by major institutions, including Carnegie Institution for Science, Chesapeake College, College of Staton Island (CUNY), James Madison University and York College (CUNY). The sweet spot for future market penetration with the rebranded illumira® product often proves to be institutions that value the library media-management heritage of the product, as well the robust capabilities designed and developed to achieve digital asset management across the enterprise. The on-going process of rebranding and retirement of the former brand will continue for the remainder of 2017.

Meet

“illumira® is a powerful and

private video management

solution — built by education for

education, its unique feature set

is very compelling to educators,

libraries and other non-profits.”

— Joseph Sawasky President and CEO, Merit Network, Inc.

NJEdge is pursuing plans to bolster a community for users of the product. In the form of an “illumira® Users Group,” this new planned initiative will serve to bring together administrators, instructional designers, educational technologists, librarians, and faculty who use illumira® to meet their digital asset management requirements. This professional group will be facilitated by NJEdge and function to foster best practices, optimal utility and innovative thinking with respect to the application. Launch of the illumira® Users Group is scheduled for Fall 2017.


BIG SCIENCEBIG DATA

“NJEdge has helped advance the mission and goals of The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) by providing high quality Internet service and connectivity, with solid redundancy, at a competitive price. TCNJ can count on NJEdge to provide reliable service that, in turn, allows us to provide uninterrupted service to our faculty and students.”

— Sharon E. Blanton, Ph.D. Vice President and CIO

Information Technology The College of New Jersey

34

NJ BIG DATA ALLIANCEBig science, big data, analytics and visualization have emerged as fundamental drivers for the advancement of science and society over the course of the past decade and the corporate, governmental, healthcare and higher education verticals require the infrastructure and capabilities to leverage the massive data base collections associated with this movement as well as the networking and computing infrastructure required to conduct research using these assets. Big data and data analytics represent a critical component of how universities, government and industry will innovate and achieve competitive advantage in the new century.

During the period under review, NJEdge joined forces with the New Jersey Big Data Alliance (NJBDA), an organization identified by Governor Christie in 2014 as “New Jersey’s Cyber-infrastructure Consortium.” Established in 2013 by Rutgers University, the NJBDA includes eleven institutions of higher learning and the state’s Office of Information Technology and eleven higher education partners to catalyze collaboration among New Jersey academia, industry and government in building advanced computation capabilities and expertise. In accord with its commitment to collaboration and trusted partnership, NJEdge, through this collaboration furthers its commitment to enable New Jersey businesses and higher education institutions to leverage, analyze and protect data - increasing their competitiveness, improving their ability to secure federal funding and driving innovation.

The NJBDA brings together members from across the state with the overarching goals of identifying areas of synergy in advanced computation and developing joint programs and partnerships. The NJBDA serves to catalyze the collaboration among New Jersey government, academia and industry that will enable all parties to address the significant and immediate challenges posed by the proliferation of data sources and the resultant deluge of digital data in a strategic and coordinated manner. The organization will serve as the State’s research, education and outreach consortium in advanced computation and big data. As New Jersey’s Research and Education Network (REN), NJEdge already provides high performance connectivity to the higher education institutions who are NJBDA participants by way of a private, high performing and secure optical network over which all of these institutions directly peer with one another. This extant infrastructure serves as the requisite connective tissue contemplated in realizing the NJBDA mission. Our combined capabilities promise to accelerate New Jersey’s big science and big data analytics capabilities while facilitating stronger partnerships among higher education, the business community and government to further economic development across the state.


Big science and big data dominate the research landscape today and the key to catalyzing opportunities for data generation, file sharing, access to high performance computing (HPC) power, collaborations among researchers and training new generations of computationally literate students, are faster data acquisition through greater computing power, increased storage capacity and faster network connections. Research faculty in higher education institutions throughout the region as well as those in the government, healthcare and corporate verticals are confronted with a virtual maelstrom of data to explore and the need for ever increasing compute cycles and network bandwidth capabilities to conduct research across the enterprise, the state, the region and the world.

High performance computing (HPC) centers are proliferating among enterprises engaged in big

data and analytics endeavors. A commensurate proliferation of segmented, special purpose networking, storage and analysis infrastructures, generally referred to as science and data DMZs is occurring in parallel. Simultaneously, sponsored research solicitations are seeking projects that are regionalized, collaborative and coordinated across the nation and the world that draw upon this proliferation of data, compute and capacity.

NJEdge has responded with a network design and peering strategy that services the current level of demand and contemplates continued scaling and regionalization of the research agenda. With regard to the localized needs of our memberships, we are providing network infrastructure solutions that meet the scale and bandwidth requirements needed to service local science DMZs for faster transmission of data. These specially provisioned infrastructures allow researchers to quickly transfer large data files directly between science lab equipment and computers to the HPC cluster, provide direct access to HPC resources to run computational analysis and provide data transfers with colleagues at other institutions.

As a research and education network, NJEdge enables big science capability beyond the borders

S C I E N C E A N D D A T A D M Z s

BIG SCIENCE ANDBIG DATA AGENDA

S E R V I C I N G T H E

36

of individual enterprises. Our commitment to do so is evidenced by our partnership with the New Jersey Big Data Alliance (NJBDA) which brings together the diverse advanced cyberinfrastructure resources and talent housed at the state’s universities and colleges to identify areas of synergy, develop joint educational and research programs, provide advanced computation resources to industry, build an effective alliance that will increase the competitiveness of New Jersey’s institutions of higher education and industry, and drive economic development in the state. We have also established peering connections with our research and education network partners in New York (NYSERNet) and Pennsylvania (KINBER) to ensure our membership has the ability to compete for sponsored research opportunities that call for regional collaboration.

Among the first benefits of these added network capabilities is the Virtual Data Collaboratory – A Regional Cyberinfrastructure for Collaborative Data Intensive Science project (VDC) recently funded $4M by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The VDC project led by the Rutgers Discovery Informatics Institute at Rutgers University includes KINBER and NJEdge as regional partners funded

through the NSF’s Data Infrastructure Building Blocks (DIBBs) program. The project’s goal is to conceptualize, design and implement a Virtual Data Collaboratory to support collaborative, data-intensive science research by multi-disciplinary teams drawn from multiple institutions across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including the establishment of a Data DMZ between the two regions. The VDC will leverage existing data repositories including the Ocean Observatories Initiative and the Protein Data Bank, and existing investments in advanced cyberinfrastructure such as the NSF-funded Big Data Regional Hubs, XSEDE and OSG, among others.

In similar fashion, we have established a peering connection with NYSERNet, our counterpart in New York State that provides Internet access to universities, colleges, museums, health care facilities, primary and secondary schools and research institutions. We each manage separate 100Gbps networks that serve more than 175 research and education institutions in New Jersey and New York. This peering relationship will give our researchers and educators new ways to foster collaboration, share information and pursue scientific discovery.

“Merit’s collaboration with NJEdge has proven to be one of the closest and most successful amongst our Research & Education Network peers. In particular, we’ve welcomed and enjoyed the ability to share services with NJEdge. Having a service partner who deeply understands our mission, motivations and the challenges of our community has been truly unique and invaluable. NJEdge has always been open, responsive and willing to find great solutions for our members’ requests. We look forward to many future years of working together to advance the success of our mutual memberships.”

— David Dennis Executive Director

of Product Management Merit Network, Inc.


COMMUNITYSUPPORTING OUR

“The ability for NJEdge to negotiate affordable Internet bandwidth, peering agreements and DDoS protection has allowed the Institute for Advanced Study to meet its accessibility and reliability goals for its scholars. Furthermore, when we work a problem, I don’t feel like a customer, I feel like I’m working with my colleagues to solve a problem together.”

— Brian Epstein Institute for Advanced

Studies at Princeton38

SUPPORTING OUREXCELLENCES T R I V I N G F O R O P E R A T I O N A L

2017 Board Retreat and New Strategic PlanOn March 20, 2017, NJEdge Management met with the NJEdge Board of Trustees for its annual Board Retreat to focus on strategic planning. The NJEdge 2017-2020 Strategic Plan, based on the balanced scorecard approach, was completed and will serve to guide initiatives and activities as well as general direction for the next three years. Moreover, linkage between the strategic plan and the annual budget will promote more accurate financial forecasting.

Our strategic planning process was informed by past performance and strategy, concept and thought sessions with multiple NJEdge members. Additionally, our members’ strategic plans were reviewed and crowd-sourced as a method of informing on important themes. Colleague information from peer research and education network organizations was also examined to better understand the national directions in research and education networks. Input from our Board of Trustees was incorporated to inform and guide development of this strategic plan, as well. The new NJEdge three-year strategic plan was launched July 1, 2017.

Excellence in Member ServicesNJEdge continued steady progress over the year on multiple initiatives related to improved business operations, strategic alliances, organizational realignment, membership services and revenue generation through business development activities. This spring, annual quotes were completed and supplied to members in a timely fashion so as to inform FY18 budgeting at each institution. Central management of accounts, contact information, opportunities and current status for members is now in a continuing state of improvement for VMware customers and for illumira® customers.

Implementation of Salesforce will continue into next fiscal year, with anticipated support for all lines of business and enhanced responsiveness to NJEdge members using a constituent relationship management (CRM) approach as noted in our strategic plan. A new 24x7 answering service with advanced phone routing technologies was employed to ensure that NJEdge members receive professional phone service, responsive action and swift resolution to inquiries or issues. In addition, a new toll-free number [1.855.832.EDGE] is now operational to serve the business development, marketing and communications and operational needs of the organization and its members.


Working in concert with a subcommittee of the NJEdge Board of Trustees’ Audit and Finance Committee, we undertook a thorough review of the NJEdge pricing structure. The process included benchmarking research and consultative examination of practices among our peer research and education network organizations. We developed a method for assessing charges that more accurately reflected the products and services being delivered and align properly with each billable item.

The costs of delivering network and related services to our membership changed significantly over time. Realizing this, we aim to increase visibility and establish a more equitable

assessment of costs. Membership dues for NJEdge have not been

adjusted in over a decade while the cost of doing business has grown at a year-over-year rate varying between three and five percent. Accordingly, the dues adjustment reflects the fact

that NJEdge has added significantly to the breadth of offerings

and benefits available to

Subscribing Members. Specifically, we have been very

active in the consortium

buying arena, as your State authorized

Enterprise Services Contractor, letting RFPs on behalf of the

membership to obtain products that are in high demand at the

most cost competitive pricing

available. Our VMWare program is the most poignant example. In addition, we have grown the number of communities of practice and activities planned to engage and support members.

Costs assessed for network services also reflect important changes. Specifically, we have extracted from network-related billing those charges that pertain to overall and general member benefits. Member subscription costs are now reflected in the aforementioned dues portion of invoices. In addition, we have developed a more transparent and equitable methodology for assessing network related charges. That is, we have opted for a practice that is common across the research and education network community for scaling the cost of network services as a linear correlation to each member’s usage and consumption of the network resources, backbone and infrastructure. As a result, the larger the circuit capacity of a member organization, the more that organization will be charged for their network connection and usage. Likewise, many members connect with multiple circuits, while others have only one. The number of circuits provisioned has direct costs related to the ongoing maintenance and operational support of the network.

With this approach, members’ fiscal year 2018 quote calls out these items specifically. It is very important to note that overall and in almost every case with this new methodology, a reduced cost for NJEdge network services was achieved. This outcome was, in fact, our primary intent in recalibrating the billing for our members. Please note too that the reduced costs for NJEdge network services reflected in the fiscal year 2018 billing are actually the second iteration of cost reduction for our Connected Members. The first reduction was provided as an adjustment to fourth quarter billing for fiscal year 2017. Finally, our recalibration methodology produces an additional cost reduction to be reflected in the fiscal year 2019 billing.

NJEdge continues its efforts to thrive and grow as it pursues its mission to deliver the highest caliber technology services and products to our membership. Please know too that we remain resolute in our efforts to continue forward with these strategies with the intent of always delivering the highest value proposition at the most competitive pricing.

OF NETWORKBILLING

RECALIBRATION


NERCOMP 2016NJEdge participated as an exhibitor at the NorthEast Regional Computing Program Conference (NERCOMP) held in Providence, Rhode Island. Sponsored by Educause, this community of library and higher education information technology professionals offered an opportunity to showcase our illumira® product and interact with numerous potential consumers of NJEdge’s products and services. Participating in this regional event further positions NJEdge as a leader in research and education networking, as well as a thought leader in innovation and educational technologies. Attendance by librarians at the NERCOMP Conference offered a unique opportunity to bring to market our digital asset management tool and receive direct feedback on the efficacy of our solution, validating the value our current users routinely communicate.

CampusInsight 2017Featuring our illumira® platform as a service offering to a broader community was achieved through illumira’s participation in the CampusInsight April 2017 Conference where over 300 interested librarians and educators gathered in Orlando, Florida to review and discuss innovative products and strategies for higher education. As one of a select group of exhibitors, we again represented the NJEdge brand to a national audience and captured additional levels of interest in our various value-add products and services.

ISTE 2017In an effort to broaden reach in the K-12 environment, the illumira® team exhibited at the International Society for Technology and Education (ISTE) Conference at San Antonio, Texas in June. The conference attracted K-12 educators from more than 30 countries searching for the latest educational technologies. While at the conference, our team interfaced with many potential clients and gathered a significant number of inquiries from which to spread illumira’s footprint on the K-12 education industry.

EXHIBITOR CONFERENCES

42

New NJEdge WebsiteIn early Spring, NJEdge

announced the

launch of the first

phase of its new

website, completely

redesigned

for improved

communications

and engagement.

As our primary

brand statement,

www.njedge.net

will be

constructed

over a

three-year period and

will include in future

phases a member portal

designed to support

membership transactional

capabilities. By design,

our new website will

involve functionality to

support new levels of

member engagement and

interactions via blogs and

mobile devices. Moreover,

our new website also will

serve as a syndicated

communications channel

for all NJEdge member

organizations.

WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN USON OUR JOURNEY AT

NJEdge.net

Gain your edge and set your pathway to success with our robust and comprehensive

array of technology solutions .


218 Central Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102 | 855-832-EDGE (3343) | www.njedge.net

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