Regional Partnerships & Collaborations

UNM is the lead organization in the state of New Mexico regional networking efforts including strong leadership in the Western Regional Network (WRN), Internet 2 (I2), and other regional broadband initiatives. UNM has moved New Mexico aggressively to a leadership role in regional and national networking. Through affiliations with such organizations as: Westnet, the New Mexico Council for Higher Education Computing/Communication Services (CHECS), and New Mexico Technology in Education (NMTIE), UNM works to continually enhance high-bandwidth network accessibility to the region.

Westnet is an affinity group that grew out of the NSFnet regional network. Westnet holds bi-annual meetings that include technical presentations from members and vendors. Westnet provides powerful political and technical contacts with universities that share common concerns. The current Westnet participants include organizations from Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.

In January 2014, the Universities of Arizona and New Mexico convened IT leadership from higher education and industry to discuss Software Defined Networking (SDN), a technology which has the potential to revolutionize traditional network systems by providing greater flexibility and control. The Workshop gave IT professionals an opportunity to discuss technology trends and best practices, identify opportunities to collaborate, share related SND initiatives in higher education and industry, as well as network with like-minded colleagues from partner institutions. The SDN workshop was held in conjunction with Westnet meetings taking place the same week.

The New Mexico Council for Higher Education Computing/Communication Services (CHECS) is a non-profit organization whose members are professionals from the computing services divisions in every institute of higher education within New Mexico. Over 30 institutions, including UNM main campus and its branches, participate in CHECS.

New Mexico Technology in Education (NMTIE) is dedicated to furthering the use of technology, communications and information resources in New Mexico education to improve the instruction, research and administration within New Mexico educational institutions.