Ryan Kocsondy
CEN Director

We are living through extraordinary times as the COVID-19 crisis impacts us in many ways daily. With many more changes in front of us, I’d like to share a  few words of recognition and appreciation for the tremendous efforts so far.

As Connecticut’s citizens have adapted to the new work and learn from home environment, we see exceptional measures of service, collaboration, and accomplishment across the state. CEN community members are working quickly to provide products and services to facilitate remote work, compliance, and equitable access.  State university facilities have been transformed into field hospitals. Quality technology and network access solutions are needed everywhere in making these transformations possible.

CEN has also been transformed to manage all aspects of its network operation and to continue moving forward on all initiatives. Our team has been mobilized to work from home with the ability to securely access all mission critical systems. We are pressing ahead on all projects and utilizing remote tools and resources as needed. Continue to expect from the team the same responsive, effective, personal service for all of your member needs.

I am very proud of our member focused efforts through these challenging times. Stories of people’s passion and commitment impress me daily. Please feel free to share with me your stories, needs, and concerns. I can be reached at rk@uconn.edu or (860) 622-4563.

Stay connected and stay well.

View Spring Newsletter

Ryan

CEN Member Conference Postponed
October 6-7, 2020, Hartford, CT

In consultation with CEN’s Engagement and Development Advisory Council (EDAC) and considering the circumstances related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, we’ve decided to postpone the 8th CEN Member Conference to October 6-7, 2020.

Based on the latest information from the Governor’s office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and local health departments related to the COVID-19 outbreak, including specific guidance for large events, community gatherings, and travel, we cannot risk holding the meeting and potentially putting the health of our community members, staff, and the surrounding public in danger. With no certainty on the expected duration of this health crisis, we feel it is best to postpone the event to protect all.

We will continue to promote the event, accept rolling registrations, and work with presenters and sponsors in preparation for the new October date. Hopefully by then, we can come together as a community to celebrate our 20 years of collective growth and success. Many thanks to our members and partners for all their efforts in building an expanded 2020 Member Conference program.

Please stay connected to the conference site for further updates. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and hope you will still be able to join us!

CEN is excited to announce the recent addition of iboss cloud CIPA compliant content filtering at no cost for K-12 and libraries and at volume pricing for other members.

The addition of iboss cloud to the portfolio will update the availability of options and provide a pathway for members to support 1:1 initiatives at scale, to support multiple operating systems in your environment, and to increase visibility and reporting without having to worry about inline appliances.

To plan your path to iboss cloud, email iboss at cen@iboss.com or call 877-742-6832. Just tell them youʼre a CEN member. Visit our From the Director webpage to view the full announcement, and check our Web Filtering page on our website in the next few days for updated content.

 

CEN has joined the fast growing DE-CIX Exchange. Founded in 1995, DE-CIXʼs is the worldʼs leading interconnection platform, managing more than 9 terabits per second peak traffic. DE-CIX New York is Open-IX certified and carrier and data center-neutral. It operates more access points than any other Internet exchange in North America.

This partnership will provide CEN Members with expanded capability by shortening the network hops for improved transport efficiency. For example, CEN’s peering with Apple via DE-CIX will enable much quicker and more efficient Apple IOS updates, as well as quicker access to the entire 17.X.X.X Apple IPv4 range.

CEN works with its members to make interconnections easy, robust, and expansive. Engaging with global partners like DE-CIX demonstrates and exemplifies CEN’s commitment to providing the highest quality services and resources to our members. For more information on DE-CIX and how it could provide enhanced services to your users, please contact CEN’s Member Relations team at 860-622-4560, option 5, or getconnected@cteducation.net.