Subudhi Consulting Group

IOL Verifies Government’s Purchase Requirements for IPv6 Products

February 02, 2010 08:03 AM Eastern Time

DURHAM, N.H.–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), the networking industry’s premier independent third-party proving ground for developing technologies, today announced the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA), a nonprofit, non-governmental, public service, membership society, has accredited the laboratory for technical competence in the field of Information Technology testing in accordance with the recognized International Standard ISO/IEC 17025:2005, General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories. The accreditation demonstrates technical competence for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) conformance and interoperability testing in accordance with the U.S. Government IPv6 (USGv6) Test Program and the operation of a quality management system.

In 2010, U.S. Government agencies will require IPv6 compliant products in IT acquisitions. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recognized A2LA to accredit testing laboratories under theUSGv6 Test Program, which requires that laboratories performing testing of IPv6 products for use in the United States government be accredited by an International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) signatory. The UNH-IOL’s IPv6 Consortium is open to all companies and organizations seeking compliance with the USGv6 Profile to ensure the capabilities of their products match federal acquisition requirements. Specifically, the ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation allows the UNH-IOL to offer testing of host and router products to verify compliance with the USGv6 Profile; this type of testing is not possible without the accreditation.

“For organizations planning to sell IPv6 products to the federal government, it is imperative that the laboratories they work with have met strict testing guidelines and can demonstrate technical competence,” said Peter Unger, president and CEO, A2LA. “The UNH-IOL’s accreditation from the A2LA provides a high-level of confidence to vendors that the IPv6 products they test at the UNH-IOL will meet the compliance standards set forth in the USGv6 Profile.”

“As industry and government move toward the reality of IPv6, our focus will remain on reducing time to market for our member companies,” said Erica Johnson, director, UNH-IOL.

In order to receive accreditation, the UNH-IOL was required to clearly document testing policies, procedures, and test plans. Accreditation also required a well implemented training process, a focus on customer relations, validated test tools, and methodical shipping, receiving, and device handling procedures. The accreditation assessed the UNH-IOL’s ability to meet the ISO/IEC 17025 standard, as well as the NIST Special Publication 500-273, “USGv6 Test Methods: General Description and Validation - Version 2.0,” which describes the test methods and traceability requirements necessary to operate an IPv6 testing laboratory for the USGv6 Profile requirements. ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation is subject to reaccreditation, including audits and proficiency testing, every two years.

The UNH-IOL has been testing IPv6 since 1996 and remains an industry leader. In July of 2009, the UNH-IOL collaborated with NIST on a test review event confirming the first test specifications for the USGv6 Test Program and contributed to NIST Special Publication 500-273. The UNH-IOL also collaborated with the North American IPv6 Task Force (NAv6TF), Department of Defense (DoD), equipment vendors and government agencies to host the Moonv6 test events, which spearheaded IPv6 testing worldwide. Highly involved in the IPv6 Ready Logo Program as the North American regional officer and a technical contributor, the UNH-IOL offers accredited testing for the IPv6 Ready Logo program in addition to accredited testing for the USGv6 Test Program.

Click here to view the press release on Business Wire.

We’re in the middle of a successful tradeshow season here at SCG with Comptel PLUS, SUPERCOMM 2009, Capacity Central America, Ethernet Expo Americas, the Texas IPv6 Conference, and the CTO Telecom Summit already under our belt and AHCIET’s XXVI Reunión Iberoamericana Tráfico Internacional, IEEE Globecom 2009, PTC’10 and the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) still to come.  I thought I’d take a moment and share with you a summary of SUPERCOMM 2009, which was held October 21-23 at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois.

Kazuhiro Gomi, COO of NTT America, discussed the challenges and opportunities surrounding the dramatic increase in worldwide demand for Internet access, during his stand-alone speaking engagement, which was secured for NTT America by SCG.

The SUPERCOMM press tour was a resounding success.  A total of eleven briefings were secured with leading IT and telecom publications including Telephony Magazine, InformationWeek, Lightwave, TMCnet, Converge! Network Digest and Streaming Media magazine, and the blogs, FierceTelecom and Broadband Daily; as well the analyst firm, Dell’ Oro Group, and the national daily, Los Angeles Times. We’ve already seen coverage in the SUPEROMM Daily News and on the Network Computing blog, and the video interviews have been posted on the TMCnet and Converge! Network Digest Web sites.  In addition, as a result of the SUPERCOMM press tour, a bylined article opportunity was secured for NTT America in the Journal of Telecommunications Management, and a speaking engagement was also secured at an upcoming TMCnet event.

Shannon, who traveled to Chicago to assist NTT America’s COO and staff all of the in-person briefings, said she enjoyed the opportunity to meet face-to-face with some of the industry’s leading journalists.  She also said that McCormick Place lived up to its status as the country’s largest conference center and she now understands why Segway’s exist (though she still doesn’t want to be seen on one).

After five years in business, Subudhi Consulting Group was recently certified as a Small, Women-and Minority-owned (SWaM) vendor, as recognized by the Department of Minority Business Enterprise (DMBE).  SCG is now a part of the SWaM Vendor Directory, a listing of all certified small, women- and minority-owned firms currently on file with the DMBE, along with a description of the products and services they provide.

We’re looking forward to the opportunity to work with the Commonwealth’s agencies and partner with complementary businesses to meet the PR needs of the Commonwealth.

Recently, SCG had the opportunity to work with the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) on a press release announcing the organization’s new president and CEO, John Curran.

SCG wrote and distributed the press release to our strategically targeted media lists.  As a result, ARIN was included in six feature stories in some of the top IT and telecommunications trade publications including CIO, Network World, CircleID and internetnews.com.

ARIN is the nonprofit corporation that manages the distribution of Internet number resources, including both IPv4 and IPv6 address space, to Canada, many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands, and the United States.  ARIN is one of five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) which assign IP addresses.

Back in October, SCG helped our client Spring Partners launch springpad, a free, web-based tool designed as a set of online notebooks to help real people organize, share and tackle life’s tasks and events. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, we helped launch the latest springpad, the Date Night Planner. SCG’s PR efforts paid off with some great coverage in geeksugar and AskMen.com!

The Date Night Planner helps you organize every detail of your special evening. You can make dinner reservations, read reviews, order movie tickets or even purchase flowers and other gifts. Here at SCG, we love the fact that the planner is loaded with great ideas and advice to make your evening a night to remember.

If you’re ever in the mood for a romantic evening but don’t feel like leaving the comfort of home, springpad can still help you out. The springpad Meal Planner collects recipes and automatically creates shopping lists, taking much of the hassle out of your planning. Check out the springpad site to see how the rest of the notebooks can help you simplify your life!

For the Winter 2009 issue, WORKMAGAZINE called upon Joya again, seeking her expertise with the Internet and social media. In a piece entitled “Minding over What Matters: Leverage Your Public Relations,” regional public relations practitioners offered advice on staying ahead of the game.

Joya is well-versed in the emerging trends of public relations. This is best demonstrated by SCG’s success with our first launch of Spring Partners’ online notebook, springpad, back in October. The campaign was the agency’s first full-fledged Web 2.0 PR campaign. We were able to generate some great results with over 40 blog reviews, including popular sites like Lifehacker and Web Worker Daily.