From Contract to Creation: The Continued Evolution of NET+

By Sean O’Brien - Vice President of NET+ Services, Internet2

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Editor’s note: Sean O’Brien was named vice president of Internet2 NET+ Cloud Services in August 2026. Here he shares early thinking on two directions for NET+. First, he talks: turning community knowledge into lasting resources. Second, he proposes engaging new technology markets earlier. Sean welcomes your feedback.

For years, NET+ has helped research and education (R&E) institutions tackle technology challenges that no single institution can solve alone. Now, it wants to go further. In this piece, you will discover:

• Why the next step for NET+ is creation, in addition to convening.
• What creation already looks like, from the State of the Cloud report to adoption guides.
• Why NET+ is engaging technology markets before they take shape.
• Two questions that will help you weigh in on what NET+ should do next.

Technology does not stand still, and neither can the programs that help research and education (R&E) institutions adopt it.

The ground is shifting for institutions and providers alike. AI is a generational disruption across the technology stack. At the same time, cybersecurity risk continues to grow, and quantum computing is moving closer to practical use. Institutions face budget and staffing pressure, while providers face their own pressures on growth, pricing, and consolidation. NET+ works between institutions and providers, so as the market changes, our role needs to change with it.

So what should that change look like? Recent conversations with institutions and providers point to two steps that follow naturally from work already underway: turning more of what our communities learn into resources others can use, and engaging earlier and moving faster on the problems institutions will face next. Internet2’s strategic planning will inform where NET+ goes, and these ideas are not meant to get ahead of that work.

From Contract to Community to Creation

For years, we have described NET+ with a simple phrase: Come for the contract, stay for the community.

NET+ has never been only about the contract. Institutions use cloud data benchmarking to review their own cloud infrastructure consumption against peer institutions, the Cloud Scorecard to discover and compare services, and Internet2 Cloud Learning and Skills Sessions (CLASS) to build cloud skills, among many other resources.

Just as important are the people. Our communities of practice are among the program’s greatest strengths. Some form around NET+ services. Others form around technology areas such as cloud, AI, and advanced wireless, or around disciplines, such as procurement and third-party risk management. Together, they let institutions learn from peers, share expertise across campuses, and engage providers with a collective voice.

But sometimes what these communities learn stays with the people who were in the room. When a discussion among 20 experts becomes a guide, a benchmark, a reusable tool, or better contract language, it can help institutions across the community, and the next institution need not start from scratch. That is the shift from convening to creation.

Some examples are already underway. Through the Answers by Experts Chatbot, the Cloud Infrastructure Community Program (CICP) is exploring how community expertise can become a conversational AI resource. The CICP turned several years of survey data into a State of the Cloud report. And as institutions prepare to adopt Claude, the community produced a public Adoption Decision Guide for campus leaders and a more detailed guide that participating institutions continue to update.

Creation does not have to mean a document. It can also be code, data, a pricing model, or a change to a provider’s roadmap. The test is what exists or has changed because the community came together.

This work also requires balance. Internet2’s mission is to benefit the broader R&E community, while NET+ subscribers and participants contribute the time, expertise, and funding that make the work possible. In practice, that can mean public resources alongside more in-depth resources for participants.

Looking Around the Corner

The second shift is about timing and focus, or, more plainly, which services NET+ adds to the portfolio, and how quickly.

NET+ has traditionally responded to the needs institutions bring to us, and that remains central to our work. But we also want to identify shared problems earlier, before a market has taken shape. Once a market matures, our role is often limited to helping institutions buy what is already available.

Two recent services show what earlier engagement can produce. Institutions told us manual third-party risk reviews were not keeping up, so NET+ worked with the community to define requirements and ran a competitive procurement that led to the launch of NET+ UpGuard in April 2026. Rising fraud and new federal identity-assurance requirements for research access led NET+ and InCommon to take a similar approach to identity proofing, resulting in NET+ Persona this fall.

We are now taking the same approach earlier, with markets that are still forming. Two Invitations to Negotiate are underway. One covers AI gateway technologies, which help institutions manage access to multiple AI models and providers. The other covers multi-model generative AI platforms and chat aggregators, which can give institutional users access to several models without a separate contract and interface for each. Engaging this early gives the R&E community a say in requirements, business models, and contract terms while they are still being defined.

Moving early also means moving faster, without skipping the due diligence public institutions depend on. The majority of NET+ subscribers are public institutions, and five of the seven services most recently added to the portfolio came through a request for proposals or a request for information process. The Invitations to Negotiate are designed to maintain that rigor while keeping pace with a rapidly changing market, especially for emerging technology.

Emerging technology is where NET+ can make the biggest difference. These markets are not yet saturated, so the community has more leverage to not only shape what providers offer, but also the many solutions and solution areas that have not yet been vetted for R&E. Engaging with these markets also fits Internet2’s role as a research and technology organization. Better terms on established products will remain part of NET+, but they are not its sole focus.

All of this depends on participation. Providers need to hear directly from their customers, and new entrants need evidence that institutions will buy. NET+ can provide the structure for collective action, but the community creates the leverage.

What I Want to Know From You

These ideas are still developing, and your perspective will help shape them. Two questions in particular:

• What technologies do you see coming around the corner, and which areas of the market look ripe for disruption?
• What knowledge within our communities should become a guide, tool, or other resource that others can use?

More broadly, I want to hear where NET+ can help your institution. If you would like to share your thoughts or talk further, email me. I welcome the conversation.

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Cloud Compass is the quarterly column inside of our Catching Up on the Cloud newsletter. Four times a year, we look at where the cloud is taking higher education, and what your institution should be doing to navigate that change.

The newsletter includes updates, resources, and events for cloud practitioners and decision-makers at all levels. To subscribe — or to learn more about resources and program developments related to the Cloud or NET+ — email netplus@internet2.edu to connect with the NET+ team.