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Internet2 and National LambdaRail To Merge
An anonymous reader writes "Ars Technica has the story on the rapproachment of the two main US providers of high-speed networks to academic and research institutions: Internet2 and National LambdaRail have agreed to merge. And they're moving quickly, after tussling over the details of such an agreement for more than a year. The two groups have decided to put final merger documents before their respective boards by April 20, with merger completion to take place by June 29."
Well, I am. Of course, that probably doesn't matter to you. However, there are a lot of things of value on these networks, but if you aren't on a node, then the additional bandwidth isn't going to matter to you.
Having a ton of bandwidth is great when you have to transfer GB of data between research institutions. For example, the research group I am working in now, Xen Worlds, uses Xen to provide virtual networks to students so they can have their own virtual machines to configure/use/break since root access in a physical lab is a security nightmare. At the end of the semester, we will provide all of the VM images and assignment documentation so they can be used by other universities. Since each assignment is going to require several GB of disk images and other material, I think the bandwidth will come in handy.
It's also nice when I need to download different Linux or BSD distros. I can usually find a mirror at another university and I don't have to wait hours for the download to complete. If I am using my laptop, the bottleneck is usually the wireless connection. This means I can download and test multiple distros in one day, which keeps my work moving forward.
Reading code is like reading the dictionary - you have to read half of it before you can go back and understand it.
SunSITE/iBiblio has been connected to the National Lambda Rail since moving to the MCNC data centre;
In addition to giving warp speed access to research sites, the National Rail also allows traffic for the regular Internet to be routed via providers in Atlanta at much local cost than could be obtained directly from North Carolina, making it possible for iBiblio to increase the amount of bandwidth to commercial sites to 1/2Gbps.
When NLR and Abeline combine there networks far more campuses will be able to get to iBiblio without having to bother the real world.
Simon