Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, & Students Statewide (ACCESS)
Alabama Supercomputer Authority is the networking technology partner for ACCESS. ASA is working to upgrade the Internet connectivity to participating schools and school systems.

ASA is a member of the Cray Users Group (CUG). CUG's mission is to provide leadership and information exchange to enable the development and effective use of high performance computing assets, tools, and resources in achieving the business and research objectives of its members.

ASA is an Affiliate Member of Internet 2, a consortium of 202 universities working in partnership with industry and government to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies. The primary goals of Internet2 are to: (1) create a leading edge network capability for the national research community; (2) enable revolutionary Internet applications; (3) ensure the rapid transfer of new network services and applications to the broader Internet community.

This connectivity was made possible through sponsorship by the higher education institutions within Alabama and funding provided by the Alabama Supercomputer Authority. Alabama becomes the 27th state network to be sponsored under the Sponsored Education Group Participation (SEGP) program.

The SEGP program is intended to allow expanded access for state and regional education networks, through sponsorship by Internet2 university members. State and regional networks may include nonprofit and for-profit K-20 educational institutions, museums, libraries, art galleries, or hospitals that require routine collaboration on instructional, clinical and/or research projects, services and content with Internet2 members or with other sponsored participants.

For more information, go to www.internet2.edu/.

Visit the Alabama Virtual Library. ASA provides web hosting and web development services for the award-winning Alabama Virtual Library (AVL), one of the most outstanding programs to come from the state in decades. Representatives from five state agencies manage the AVL in order to bring an extensive collection of online resources to Alabama's schools, colleges, universities, and public libraries. As the technical partner, ASA has developed a remote access system that allows students, educators, and Alabama citizens to browse library catalogs, journals, magazines, and unique reference materials from the classroom, home, or office. AVL was recognized in 2000 by SOLINET as an Outstanding Library Program in the multi-type library cooperation category, an award that recognizes "library accomplishments that illustrate the benefits of library collaboration, serve as models of effectiveness, or advance the development of innovative programs."

The Gulf Central GigaPoP (GCG) is a virtual collaborative organization housed within the University of Alabama System, which was formed in 1998 by its founding members. The founding members of the GCG are the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa), the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Each of these universities has been awarded a High-Performance Connection (HPC) grant by the National Science Foundation. The GCG is a virtual collaborative organization in the sense that the founding members along with the partners share in the responsibilities and obligations of building a high performance network through contracts, memoranda of understandings, and consensus decision making. The current partners are ITC Deltacom , the Alabama Supercomputer Authority - Alabama Research and Education Network (AREN), and the University of Alabama System (UAS). The Network Operations Center (NOC) services are provided by the Alabama Supercomputer Authority (ASA).