Membership

There are many benefits to a GPN membership. We are best known for our physical internet connection, but we provide so much more. We also support a vibrant and active collaborative community.

GPN provides a cost effective, high-capacity, shared network which connects universities and state networks throughout the Midwest and Great Plains.

GPN is a dedicated research advocate, championing the needs of its members and diligently amplifying and fortifying the advanced cyberinfrastructure of the region.

GPN Members

Many GPN members are internationally renowned for excellence in education and research via advanced cyberinfrastructure — GPN membership helps them to remain at the cutting edge of these advancements. As our members develop their cyberinfrastructure capacity — GPN provides a venue for them to learn from others and form strategic alliances.

GPN also partners with state networks, high performance computing centers and other organizations, like Internet2 and the Extreme Science and ACCESS, on behalf of our members.

Full Member

Arkansas State University

Black Hills State University

Dakota State University

Kansas State University

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Northern State University

Oklahoma State University

South Dakota Mines

South Dakota State University

St. Louis University

University of Arkansas

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

University of Kansas

University of Missouri

University of Missouri, Kansas City

University of Missouri, St. Louis

University of Nebraska System

University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

University of South Dakota

University of Tulsa

Wichita State University

Affiliate Member, University

Iowa State University

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

University of Wisconsin-Madison

WiscNet

Membership Benefits

What we do for our members?

GPN is a recognized national leader in advanced networking services. GPN manages and operates a High Performance Research and Education Network that

Offers more bandwidth for less cost
Takes advantage of economies of scale
Provides peering and caching services (Google, Netflix, Akamai) that reduce traffic on members’ commodity networks
Connects members to cloud services
Moves quickly on behalf of members to take advantage of new opportunities while minimizing risk
Collectively bargains for better pricing
GPN members have a shared history, common values and mutual trust.
GPN is recognized as a national model of collaboration
Provides valuable opportunities for individuals (even at the same university) to make connections.
Connects researchers on campuses to regional and national initiatives
Serves as a platform for building collaborations and communities of interest
Engages members on emerging topics and provides members with peer groups
Facilitates engagement of new technical staff and faculty with others across the region
Adds value to existing and planned collaborations
Provides researchers a forum maximizing impact of their research
Assists researchers to identify collaborators
Brings national experts to the region

Opportunities for Collaboration

GPN staff actively seek out and help members pool their skills and knowledge across disciplines in a host of technical and research areas. Often, these efforts start as less formal communities of interest and develop into projects of their own. Many of these efforts have attained national and international recognition. Others have lead to the development of more robust campus infrastructure. Recent collaborations include:

Network Infrastructure
Data Lifecycle Management
Shared Research Storage
File Sharing Service
Bioinformatics
Federated Identity Management
Grid Computing
Network Research

Rate & Fees

GPN has two general fee categories:

GPN Consortium Fees
GPN Network Fees

GPN Consortium Fees support the overall management and operations of the Consortium as well as research and cyberinfrastructure initiatives, working groups, workshops, maintaining an online presence and the GPN Annual Meeting.

GPN Network Fees support a variety of network-related services to participants of the GPN Network Program. These services include equipment upgrades and paying for Network Operations Center staff time to install and maintain regional network services.

How to Join

GPN is organized under the rules set forth in the GPN Consortium Agreement. There are two categories of GPN membership available: regular membership and affiliate membership.

For more information, please contact Mickey Slimp, Executive Director at
mick@greatplains.net