| Two weeks ago I alerted all of you that one of
our two Internet service providers, Vitts Networks, had decided
to cease operations at the end of February. Last week, I received
a call from the president of Vitts and he said that the company
has secured funding to continue to serve current customers and
grow their business for at least the next 4 months. He expects
to finalize a deal for long term funding shortly.
This removes the immediate threat of the loss of Internet
service to the Institution. CIS has evaluated proposals from
nearly a dozen alternative Internet service providers and
we expect to select a new one by the end of this week. It
now appears that it is highly probable that service with equivalent
or greater bandwidth to that currently provided by Vitts can
be in place before Vitts runs out of its short term funding.
Should Vitts be able to stay in business with a credible long
term business plan, we will evaluate the best combination
of service for WHOI from the three providers then available
to us (Vitts, Genuity, and the new one). As part of the selection
criteria for the new provider, we are considering their ability
to supply the services we will need for connection to Internet
2 as well as the regular Internet.
As a contingency, we have held preliminary discussions with
a couple of external hosting services which could on short
notice temporarily house some of our servers to maintain a
good public Web presence and facilitate critical communications.
Fortunately it does not currently look like this will be necessary,
but should things change I will be in touch to determine how
we can make best use of this option.
Thanks,
Art
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