05
March
2024
Internet2 Expands NET+ AWS Offering With New Agreement Tailored to Latest Community Requirements
By Amber Rasche - Senior Communications Specialist, Internet2
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Community-Led Effort Adds New Service Agreement in Collaboration With Four Points Technology, an AWS Public Sector Partner
Internet2 announced today the availability of a new NET+ Amazon Web Services (AWS) agreement offered in collaboration with Four Points Technology. In a time of rapid digital transformation, the need for scalable and secure cloud services tailored to the evolving needs of research and higher education is more pressing than ever.
Today, more than 75 R&E institutions subscribe to NET+ AWS. Now all U.S. higher education institutions and Internet2 affiliate and federal affiliate members have a new NET+ agreement option as they scale the use of AWS to accelerate science, support teaching and learning, and modernize major IT functions.
Join us for a webinar at 3 p.m. ET Thursday, March 21, to learn more about the new NET+ AWS agreement with Four Points Technology.
The new NET+ AWS agreement with Four Points Technology was selected via a competitive bid process involving community members from several public and private institutions. The agreement offers multiple benefits, including:
- Direct technical support from AWS
- Unlimited number of master payer accounts
- Customer control of master payer root credentials
- Easy access to NIH STRIDES with increased discounts
- Programmatic access to billing data for third-party integrations
- No-cost FinOps reviews and services
NET+ AWS Powered by Community
What continues to set the NET+ program apart is the rigorous, community-led evaluation process that services, service providers, and partners like Four Points Technology undergo. The process ensures that NET+ offerings meet the technical and business requirements of the community — not only optimizing services for security, accessibility, contract terms, and pricing but also engaging partners dedicated to their customers’ success.
The NET+ AWS Service Advisory Board initiated the effort in 2022 to establish a new service agreement that matched the research and education community’s latest skills, use cases, and needs for AWS. Supporting that effort, the Internet2 NET+ team conducted a community-wide survey to gather new requirements reflecting the current AWS technology and service models. Then Internet2 put out a request for proposals based on the survey response data.
“What makes the NET+ program unique is the fact that research and higher education institutions from across the country come together to build something, in this case an RFP and a new agreement, to meet collective needs,” said Sean O’Brien, associate vice president for NET+ Cloud Services at Internet2.
In total, 25 R&E institutions participated in the requirements-gathering process and evaluation of proposals for the new agreement. The process resulted in the selection of Four Points Technology.
“The Four Points cloud team appreciates the trust that Internet2 and its member community have placed in us with this new NET+ AWS agreement,” said Joel Lipkin, chief operating officer of Four Points Technology. “Four Points has built our cloud delivery model around providing customers with direct access to all cloud service provider resources and transparent visibility into all available usage reporting and monitoring tools. We believe that our approach — coupled with our operational support for billing, custom reporting, account administration, and cost optimization advisory services — provides an optimum environment for smooth and effective cloud adoption.”
Four Points Technology is also the designated AWS partner for the National Institutes of Health STRIDES Initiative, which aims to modernize and accelerate biomedical research by reducing barriers.
“Working with Internet2 NET+ reflects the logical next step building on our NIH STRIDES award, as Four Points commits to delivering a simple, streamlined method for accessing the AWS cloud tailored to the needs of the research and education community,” Lipkin added.
Four Points Technology is experienced in working with a number of institutions in the research and education community, including those introduced to Four Points through participation in the NIH STRIDES Initiative. The Four Points team is known for its focus on customer success, attunement to evolving needs, and support for community cloud initiatives like the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s AWS Research Day.
“Our Public Cloud and Research Cyberinfrastructure teams frequently help researchers learn about and use cloud computing,” said Steve Tanner, associate director for Cloud and Security Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Four Points collaborated with AWS, NIH, and UW-Madison to facilitate a one-day AWS Research Day, where we had sessions on machine learning, serverless and event-driven computation, and compute workloads, as well as data science workflows of UW-Madison scientists studying infectious disease and brain research. The workshop was very well received, and we plan on hosting future events to further develop UW-Madison’s cloud community.”
Learn More About the New NET+ AWS Agreement
Join us for a webinar at 3 p.m. ET Thursday, March 21, to learn more about the new NET+ AWS agreement with Four Points Technology. Register now.
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The new agreement through Four Points Technology is available in addition to the existing NET+ AWS agreement through TD SYNNEX Public Sector (formerly DLT Solutions). Both companies are AWS Public Sector Partners. If you have questions or are interested in receiving more information about the NET+ AWS agreement options, contact netplus@internet2.edu.