CEN offering Managed Firewall Services - ConnecticutHosted VoIP phone & Unified Communications solution for municipalities and schools. Several local CT towns/Schools and CEN members

8/16/2016 CEN August Newsletter Update

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Quarterly CEN newsletter full of all the latest happenings

CEN offering Managed Firewall Services

CEN is in the process of completing an upgrade of the managed firewall services

for the Connecticut Technical High School System, comprised of 19 technical high

schools across the state.

Hosted or Managed Firewall as a

Service (FaaS) is a new service

offering that CEN will be making

available to members starting in Fall

2016. We intend to use next

generation firewalls for this service.

The CEN hosted or fully managed

firewall as a service which can work in conjunction with our hosted web filtering

service or with your inhouse web filtering. If you are interested in learning more

about this service, let us know ([email protected]) and we can discuss further

details for your specific connection.

CEN is now directly peered with Akamai, Hurricane Electric, the MassIX Route

Servers and Cloudflare via MassIX Internet Exchange. These peerings help

increase performance and resiliency as well as reduce networking expense.

VMware Convenience Contract

Cost Savings Opportunities to all CEN Members with The Quilt



New convenience contract for VMware is now available to all CEN Members

What is this collaboration with VMware?

CEN is a member of The Quilt, a nonprofit national coalition of 36 of ourcountry's most advanced regional research and education networks. Participantsin The Quilt provide advanced network services and applications to thousands ofeducational institutions, including over 250 universities.

Through its partnership with Carahsoft and VMware, The Quilt has successfullyleveraged its collective buying power to ensure steep discounts on all VMwarelicenses and services.

Pricing

The Quilt has established advantageous discounts for all VMware products andservices. In addition to software license discounts, VMware has extendeddiscounts on items such as Support (SnS*), Renewals, Managed Services,Training and Professional Services.

How do I qualify for these savings?

If your institution is a member of CEN (you have a connection with us), then youqualify for Quilt pricing.

How do I receive a budgetary quote?

In order to receive pricing, please contact your preferred Reseller of choice, orCarahsoft, for The Quilt / VMware Consortium Pricing. If you do not have apreferred Reseller, Carahsoft can assist to help you partner with one of VMware'sTop Solution Providers. Click here for the Carahsoft microsite.

Who is Carahsoft?

Carahsoft is the leading public sector distributor for VMware products andservices. They combine traditional distribution services with dedicated VMware product specialists.

Cost Savings with Net+ Services



Benefits of Internet2 Membership

Internet2's NET+ program works with commercial cloud solution providers toutilize offerings designed to meet shared Research and Education needs. Eachservice undergoes rigorous, peerdriven security, accessibility and performancereviews. Standard business and legal agreements are leveraged for eachsolution, along with optimal terms for swift deployment. Up until now, the Net+program has only been available directly to Internet2 members. Recently, thishas been extended to a NonMember program that CEN is able to extend outto its members (YOU) to access these services and savings. CEN, by working with Internet2 and cloud service providers, have identifiedofferings that maximize deployment efficiencies and minimize the business andlegal challenges, financial costs, and technology risks of migrating from oncampus to cloudbased solutions. After deployment, providers partner with thecommunity to develop technology roadmaps and enhancements to meet evolvinguser and enterprise needs. This allows CEN to pass along savings to ourmembers on services they value. Leveraging the collective technical and functional expertise of Internet2 members,combined with the collaborative scale of the R&E community, ensures thatInternet2 NET+ services are highvalue, collegially vetted, readytouse cloudsolutions, simple to access and administer, and tailored to the unique needs ofR&E. At present, these savings are currently available to higher education institutions(in 2016) and opening to the wider CEN membership in 2017. While not all Net+services are available to participants of the NonMember Program, the list isgrowing! Net+ services that can be leveraged include: Amazon Web Services,Microsoft, and eduroam. More information on additional eligible services. Forspecific questions, please contact: [email protected].

New Connections

Municipalities

Town of ColebrookTown of GrotonTown of Guilford Fire DepartmentTown of Harwinton Fire Department Town of Orange Fire Department and Police DepartmentTown of Preston



Town of SalisburyTown of SomersTown of Windham

Capital Region Development Authority (Pratt & Whitney Stadium at

Rentschler Field)

Leaf Point (Valley Shore)

Southern CT University Supercomputer

Upcoming Events

CEN is a Silver Sponsor at the CT EdCamp to be held at Ethel Walker School inSimsbury on Friday, August 12. More information here.

Learn more about Internet2's Net+ Program on Thursday August 25th with theirManaging Campus Cloud Risk Webinar. More information and to register clickhere.

Join DSCI and give back to a local community. On Thursday August 25th, DSCIwill be at the Coventry Town Hall demonstrating UCx, their IndustryleadingHosted VoIP phone & Unified Communications solution for municipalities andschools. Several local CT towns/Schools and CEN members already enjoy thebenefits that UCx offers and this is a great opportunity to learn more. For eachregistered attendee, DSCI will donate $50 to the Clergy Fuel Fund. TheClergy Fuel Fund assists Coventry Ct residents in need of emergency heatingassistance. It may be hot now, but many less fortunate than us are alreadypreparing for a cold winter. Please help us help them and reserve your spot byregistering here.

Not a Google Educator Trainer yet or looking to brush up on your skills? Considerattending the Google for Education Summit at Manchester High School inManchester on October 12. For more information and to register click here.

CEN is in the process of planning monthly professional development sessions,starting again in Fall 2016. Do you have a topic you'd like addressed? Do youhave some interesting best practice to share around use of technology in yourschool? Let us know at [email protected].

CEN in the News

First Selectman for the Town of Wilton, Lynne Vanderslice, advocates theimportance of connecting to CEN (Wilton Bulletin, July 7).

CEN has been working with the Town of Putnam to develop a plan to bring a fiber connection to their Tech Park (The Bulletin 225, July 2).

CEN and Members from Wesleyan University, Russell Library, and Middletown Public Schools, discussed expansion of wireless connection with eduroam (Wesleyan University, June 30).

The CT State Library and CEN are working together to connect morelibraries to the network (CT State Library, June 1).



Connecticut Education Network | 860.622.4560 | [email protected] | www.cen.ct.gov

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CEN offering Managed Firewall Services - ConnecticutHosted VoIP phone & Unified Communications solution for municipalities and schools. Several local CT towns/Schools and CEN members