2024 INTERNET2

Technology exchange
Track descriptionS

December 9-13  Boston, Mass.

Select Your Track

The Call for Proposals for Sessions is CLOSED. The Program Committee has begun reviews and a draft program will be posted by late June.

Missed the deadline? It’s not too late – the Call for Tutorials and Workshops will remain open until June 7.  The Call for Working Meetings (BoFs, SIGs, Working Groups, and others) will be open from May 20 to September 13. 

Submissions for Tutorials/Workshops and Working Meetings should also be in the areas of:

 

Advanced Networking

 

We are interested in hearing your stories about multiple advanced networking topics, including implementing software-enabled infrastructure, automation and orchestration, connecting to the cloud, using shared telemetry, operations, security, creating a NetDevOps team, using AI, supporting quantum computing at institutions, and more.

Tell your story about these and other timely topics at TechEX24.

Knowledge Sharing: Accepted proposals should include links to resources used or developed as part of your story. These may include GitHub repositories, code snippets, or other materials the community might use to jump-start their journey.

In addition to the usual mix of presentations, panel discussions, and lightning talks, the 2024 program will include plenty of time for hallway conversations.

In an effort to support conversations among various technical audiences – many of whom are working on different facets of a shared challenge – we strongly encourage topics that bring multiple audiences together (e.g., RPKI, use of telemetry).

Other topic areas to consider include (but are not limited to):
 

  • Moving to a software-enabled infrastructure with the use of automation, orchestration, and telemetry
     
  • Plans to leverage broadband grants in your region, infrastructure upgrades, implementation of eduroam, and collaboration with minority-serving institutions
     
  • Use of infrastructure and services to support cloud, research, teaching, and learning
     
  • Improving Routing Integrity via the use of authenticated IRRs and the creation of RPKI-ROAs, as well as using routing intentions data available via the router reports to ensure data makes use of the advanced network infrastructure
     
  • Using AI to streamline internal processes and assist with coding projects and other projects
     
  • Global collaborations to enable science, technology, and learning
     
  • Implementing identity management to support role-based authentication in software-enabled infrastructure
     
  • Sharing plans for your forthcoming network experiments at SC24

Cloud Technology

Hyper-scale computing, or “cloud technology,” represents near-limitless, scalable, disposable computing power on demand with ubiquitous access.

Its uses range from backups to bursting, from stateless, event-driven enterprise applications to compute-intensive research workloads, from Big Data to AI/ML, and, naturally, Generative AI.

It has been widely used in government, the private sector, and higher education for years, yet it remains poorly understood and sorely underutilized. Questions persist about cost, appropriate use cases, security, platform choice, networking, and when/how much it is wise to rely on it. If there were easy answers, we’d all have them. What we do have is a wide community taking a serious, professional go at using the cloud and the unique tooling it provides, seeking to develop best practices together as we go.

Submissions for Tutorials/Workshops and Working Meetings should also be in the areas of: Advanced Networking Cloud Technology Identity & Access Management Information Security Advanced Networking We are interested in hearing your stories about multiple advanced networking topics, including implementing software-enabled infrastructure, automation and orchestration, connecting to the cloud, using shared telemetry, operations, security, creating a NetDevOps team, using AI, supporting quantum computing at institutions, and more. Tell your story about these and other timely topics at TechEX24. Knowledge Sharing: Accepted proposals should include links to resources used or developed as part of your story. These may include GitHub repositories, code snippets, or other materials the community might use to jump-start their journey. In addition to the usual mix of presentations, panel discussions, and lightning talks, the 2024 program will include plenty of time for hallway conversations. In an effort to support conversations among various technical audiences – many of whom are working on different facets of a shared challenge – we strongly encourage topics that bring multiple audiences together (e.g., RPKI, use of telemetry). Other topic areas to consider include (but are not limited to): Moving to a software-enabled infrastructure with the use of automation, orchestration, and telemetry Plans to leverage broadband grants in your region, infrastructure upgrades, implementation of eduroam, and collaboration with minority-serving institutions Use of infrastructure and services to support cloud, research, teaching, and learning Improving Routing Integrity via the use of authenticated IRRs and the creation of RPKI-ROAs, as well as using routing intentions data available via the router reports to ensure data makes use of the advanced network infrastructure Using AI to streamline internal processes and assist with coding projects and other projects Global collaborations to enable science, technology, and learning Implementing identity management to support role-based authentication in software-enabled infrastructure Sharing plans for your forthcoming network experiments at SC24

 

This track invites the community to share its hard work, its painful lessons, and its game-changing successes on the path to making cloud technology an essential part of any institution’s IT toolkit. 

Some major topic areas of interest, and sample topics, for this track include:
 

  • Rowing in the same direction: aligning development, identity, networking, ops, and security’s essential roles in cloud success
  • DevOps, infrastructure as code, and building cloud-native applications, regardless of where things run
  • Architecting and running research workflows in the cloud
  • Cloud’s role in the GenAI stampede
  • Financial engineering in the cloud

Identity & Access Management

 

Higher education and research institutions, like yours, are facing unprecedented pressure to adapt to evolving technologies and regulatory changes in Identity and Access Management (IAM). How are you shaping the future of IAM at your institution? Ready to amplify your IAM game? Eager to tell your story about your lessons learned or innovative solutions for next-generation identity management? 
 
The TechEx IAM Track, also known as CAMP Week, is calling you! We’re seeking identity experts, enterprise IT architects, software engineers, project managers, app developers, and business analysts alike to deliver thought-provoking sessions that help move the R&E community forward. You’ll be at the heart of critical IAM discussions. Whether you're shaping the future or just stepping into the field, this is the platform to explore, share, and learn.
 
CAMP Week attracts higher education IAM professionals from around the world with deep knowledge of related architecture and operational principles. Submit a proposal yourself or collaborate with peers to deliver demonstrations, stories, case studies, innovations, best practices, or address other pressing topics. An accepted session typically propels fast-paced, in-depth discussions at Advance CAMP at the end of the week, too.

 

THEMES & TOPIC AREAS FOR THIS TRACK INCLUDE (but not limited to):
 

  • Future-Proofing IAM Strategies - How is your institution anticipating and preparing for change? Share your experiences, strategies, and lessons learned on topics such as decentralized identity management, multi-layered cybersecurity strategies like multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO), AI-powered identity governance, zero-trust architectures, emerging IAM standards, user-centric IAM, or other ways you’re adapting to the ever-changing landscape.
     
  • Integrating Next-Gen Federated Security Protocols & Solutions - Which cutting-edge federated-security protocols strengthen the R&E community against evolving threats? Share your thoughts and experiences around authentication methods, authorization frameworks, emerging security standards and protocols, and ways to proactively advise the R&E community on critical updates to IAM systems.
     
  • Access to Cloud Platforms & Hybrid Environments – Successes/Challenges – In the world of on-premises and cloud-based systems, offer your good/bad/ugly stories about your approach, barriers, lessons learned, and real world examples for what your organization is doing to manage digital identities, provision, deprovision and authenticate users, and enforce access control policies across a range of systems, applications, and platforms in cloud and hybrid IAM environments.
     
  • Growing Global Research and Education IAM Collaboration - Research and learning span national boundaries. The solutions we devise in R&E IAM reflect such a global view. We are better together when we learn from those with different perspectives. We invite participants from around the world to share your stories, challenges, and needs in advancing R&E collaborations: how are you using federated IAM to streamline/scale federated access across research, student learning, and other academic endeavors?  What sort of activities are happening to further trust and interoperability across the global R&E identity federation community? What challenges do you face, and how can the TechEx community/audience help?
     
  • Staying Ahead of the Curve – What are cutting-edge technologies that are shaping (or impacting) your infrastructure and driving the R&E community forward? From digital credentialing, digital wallets, AI and behavioral analytics, machine learning, IoT, authentication selection, self-sovereign identity – share examples of what you have adopted or your perspectives on how the R&E community should address the security and privacy challenges associated with these trends to ensure the continued integrity and trustworthiness of your systems.
     
  • Sustainability of IAM Talent: In what ways is your institution navigating the challenges of talent acquisition and retention in IAM? Offer insights and examples of how you might be addressing potential skill gaps, exploring micro-credentialing avenues, and adopting different hiring or sourcing approaches to ensure the longevity and expertise of IAM professionals within your institution.

 

Information Security

We are seeking proposals for Information Security sessions broadly related to the Research & Education community. In the past, “Lessons Learned” presentations about how organizations have improved their security posture have historically been very successful as have presentations on somewhat unusual topics.

The Information Security track has a strong history of network security sessions, but covers all security topics, including (but not limited to):

 

  • Common security issues in research and education environments
    • Measuring success with security metrics and benchmark
    • Threat hunting techniques and remediation strategies
    • Assessing the security posture of cloud services (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS)
    • Dealing with actual or looming ransomware threats
    • Governance, Risk and Compliance considerations: PII, ePHI, GDPR, etc.
    • Supply Chain Risk Management
       
  • Analyzing security incidents recently experienced by the community – particularly “lessons learned."
  • Implementing Zero Trust Architecture and perimeter-less security.
  • Promoting security leadership and strengthening the security posture of key global Internet infrastructure
    • Advocating for MANRS adoption and working to ensure routing integrity.
    • Experiences with threat modeling of infrastructure.
       
  • Addressing the research community’s unique network security needs:
    • Understanding and addressing the challenges of network security at 100Gbps and higher speeds.
    • Identifying and/or developing new and promising network security tools, particularly tools for collaboratively sharing data about security incidents at scale.
    • Balancing “enterprise-like” security on open networks.

 

  • Secure Software Development & DevSecOps Practices.
  • Leveraging Trust & Identity tools in the context of Research & Education infrastructure.
  • International security collaboration.