ESnet Named One of Top Government IT Innovators – Again

For the second time in four years, ESnet has been named one of the year’s top government IT innovators by InformationWeek Government magazine.

In late 2012, the magazine announced its top 15 innovators in government IT, with ESnet cited for its new 100 gigabit-per-second nationwide network funded as the Advanced Networking Initiative and launched into full production in November 2012.

“When we switched our users over to the 100G network, we announced that ESnet was – and is – the world’s fastest science network,” said ESnet Director Greg Bell. “This recognition by a magazine that keeps close tabs on new developments in government IT is a nice acknowledgment that our innovative approach is understood and appreciated in the broader IT community.”

According to the magazine, “Advanced research can't exist on high-performance computing alone. It needs big bandwidth, too. The Department of Energy's Advanced Networking Initiative (ANI), operated under the auspices of the Energy Sciences Network, or ESnet, will bring 100-Gbps networking to more than 40 national laboratories and research centers. ANI went into operation last fall as a prototype, connecting supercomputer centers in California, Illinois, and Tennessee, and extending to gateways that serve hundreds of research networks. The plan calls for ANI to become the next-generation national research network, ESnet5.”

In 2009, the magazine named ESnet one of the top 10 government IT innovators for the design of the ESnet4 network, an innovative architecture consisting of two separate, parallel networks. The first network, called the IP network, provided reliable global Internet connectivity. The second network, called the Science Data Network (SDN), provided on-demand, circuit-oriented services tailored for large-scale science needs.

In announcing the 2012 winners, InformationWeek Government noted that in government IT, “doing more with innovation is the big opportunity. Beyond just cost cutting, government tech teams are coming up with creative ways to offer new and improved services to their internal users and to the public.”

For the fourth year in a row, the editors sought out the top technology innovators at all levels of U.S. government—federal, state and local. Fifteen were chosen by the editors as InformationWeek's 2012 Government Innovators. Other agencies recognized in 2012 include the U.S. Marine Corps, the IRS, the Veterans Administration and the New York City Department of IT and Telecommunications.

»Read the InformationWeek Government article.