19
May
2022

NET+ Service Evaluations for Kion and Miro Now Underway

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Fifteen+ Internet2 members to evaluate services for inclusion in the NET+ portfolio

I2 Cloud NET+ logo

The Internet2 NET+ team is excited to announce the kickoff of two new NET+ service evaluations in May 2022! Kion, a full-suite cloud enablement application, and Miro, offering whiteboard collaboration tools, have been selected for evaluation in a community-led process.  

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is one of the institutions sponsoring Miro’s service evaluation. “One of the great bonuses of being a member of Internet2 is the ability to take new technology and place it in the cauldron of review,” said Matthew D’Emilio, director, university contracts, at CMU. “My hope, as a sponsor of NET+ Miro, is that we can help advance the technology and overcome obstacles to allow broad adoption to create better effectiveness and efficiency in the collaboration tools portfolio.” 

How did we get here? A year ago, in conjunction with the launch of several NET+ services, we reviewed what it takes to initiate a service evaluation, and the community responded with suggestions for candidate services. Our team conducted meetings with service providers across the spectrum of cloud infrastructure, security, collaboration, teaching and learning, and other SaaS services. 

We subsequently heard from the community through two surveys:

The former led to an overwhelming request for more information about Kion and this community webinar in January 2022. The latter brought Miro to the surface as a “cloud favorite” to particularly address accessibility and pricing challenges. With over 15 member institutions excited to evaluate Miro and Kion, the NET+ team is grateful for these volunteers that move us forward in creating new programs to benefit the research and education community.

As we have experienced with our current portfolio of successful NET+ programs, it also takes a highly motivated service provider to realize the win-win opportunities of the rigorous NET+ service evaluation process. Both of these candidate organizations are already very active with Internet2 member institutions and in the Internet2 Cloud Scorecard, which is facilitating quick engagement to establish the areas of focus for the respective service evaluation groups.  

It’s not too late to join either of these service evaluation teams. Just reach out to netplus@internet2.edu to express interest and receive more information about the service evaluation process. Or, let us know if you are interested in learning more about NET+ Kion or NET+ Miro once the services are available. 

We also welcome your suggestions for cloud service providers to participate in the Internet2 Cloud Scorecard. While we continue to work with our members to identify candidate NET+ services, the Cloud Scorecard provides the community with a broader range of cloud services to assess.