In 1996, visionary leaders within California’s research and education institutions came together to form CENIC, a non-profit organization providing the world-class broadband network CalREN (the California Research and Education Network), essential for innovation, collaboration, and economic growth statewide. Now, in our 20th year of operation, CENIC continues to provide cost-effective, high-bandwidth networking capacity and connectivity to support research and education conducted by our members: the University of California System, the California State University System, California Community Colleges, Stanford, Caltech, the Naval Postgraduate School, USC, and California’s public K–12 schools and libraries, along with affiliated education, government, medical research, and cultural institutions throughout the state.
The pace of change continues to accelerate, and it’s critical that California’s research and education communities have the advanced networking they need to meet their most pressing needs and respond to opportunities we cannot yet imagine. CENIC remains committed to working with its members to tailor this high-capacity network to their needs. Over the last several years we have worked to secure and expand the network, to encourage and showcase innovative uses of it, and to strengthen our organization. In this report you will read about major upgrades within specific segments, enhancements to the network backbone, and a new initiative in cybersecurity. You will learn that new communities have been added to the network, including California public libraries, city governments, and hundreds of the hardest-to-reach K–12 schools. You will also learn about some of the hundreds of innovative uses of the network, from collaborative research on the Pacific Research Platform to the ways in which cultural institutions collaborate with K–12 schools and libraries.
Finally, the report highlights the ways in which we have worked to strengthen our organization in support of our members by creating a project management office, developing a connection tracker that displays the status of hundreds of annual upgrades, and operating a state of the art Network Operations Center.
As our work evolves, CENIC’s mission remains unchanged: To connect California to the world — advancing education and research statewide by providing the world-class network essential for innovation, collaboration, and economic growth. For all of us at CENIC, it’s an honor and inspiration to pursue this mission with our associates. We look forward to the next twenty years of common work.
