Ohio Ix

October 2024 Board Meeting

October 11, 2024 – Ohio IX Board Meeting

Attendees:  Doug Payauys, Brent Beatty, Nancy Tiemeier, Rob Shema, Josh Rowe, Petar Smilajkov, Dustin Wright, Luke Skidmore, Matt Moran, Tim Berelsman and Alex Campos

Roll call and Approval of Agenda – Completed

Secretary Report – Minutes Approved 

Next meeting – November 1st at 9:00 at Cologix

Associate Membership Application – N/A

Senior Membership Applications – Viasat looking for transport.  At Expedient so possible remote switch site.  Looking at options

Governance Report –

  • The Code of Conduct – We have been working to update.  Brent reviewed other IX’s.  Some issues were no process to resolve conflicts.  This will be a living document so it can change in the future if needed.  The same applies to the Board of Directors form.  We reviewed some of the technical items.  Suggested we look at MICE or Seattle IX (that have been around for a while) to see what they list in theirs. Please review the changes that Brent sent out and get back to him in a couple of weeks so we can vote in the next meeting.

Government Committee –

  • Amy from Broadband Ohio suggested that to get money for equipment through the BEAD money, it would be helpful to list the ISP’s that would benefit and the number of customers they all have in round numbers.  Can try and do a member survey and maybe it may be worth using a third party.  Also discussed pricing out IRU’s for fiber and bringing that to the table.

Content Sourcing –

  • Still no update on when Spectrum will connect
  • Data Yard – Possible remote switch location
  • Matt has been reaching out but not getting a lot of response
  • Breezeline may not be ready to connect – network not ready here
  • Haywire has shown some interest in connecting to the IX
  • Can look at the City of Columbus fiber network if we want to get more involved on the transport piece
  • With the new cabinet we can add more cache providers

Marketing Committee –

  • Press Release sent.  Need to check with the PR firm on how many we have left and deals for next year
  • Scheduling HH in NE Ohio as well as one in Columbus in the 4th Qtr. Suggested Polaris area for Columbus, possibly Marcella’s.  Will work with Dustin and Adam for NE Ohio location and date
  • A Press Release needs to be done around the new equipment from Arista

Technical Committee –

  • Newly provisioned members/ports:
    • PingIT – pending x-connect @ CLGX
    • FirstComm – 2nd 10g port activated [did we receive prorated payment]
    • LightSpeed (LSTI) – active as well [did we receive payment]

CTO Report –

  • New Hardware:
  • New Microsoft Cache Purchased (and other items: network, cables)
  • New Arista 100G Switch Purchased (for the new rack)
  • Donations:
    • Cologix: Nancy got us a new rack, and the x-connects
      • working on extra x-connects as well
    • Fiber Panel and two very nice PDUs from Mike Markwood
    • A bunch of 100G 2km optics from Dustin Wright
  • Arista to donate to us a new core (2 x 7358×4)!
    • $23,709.84 for current and new gear per year
      • plus (optional) $15,631.20 for Cloud Vision
    • The support for the new switches won’t be due until a year after they ship and the others are coming due on March 25 ($11,080.40) [new alone: $12,729.44]
  • Need new servers ($6k more spend)
  • Other Items:
  • Reached out to Breezeline, Expedient, City of Dublin, City of Hilliard
  • CacheFly sending a server in
  • Cato, FirstComm, and Smartira to get their dues in (still waiting, as per Treasurer report)
    • Cato – need to try to contact them and if no reply – shutdown port next Monday
  • Talking to South Central Power (looking into next year’s budget to connect to us)
  • Need list of all ISPs that Benefit from the IX, and their total # of customers
    • So that we can ask Broadband Ohio for some funds
  • A motion was made to approve Arista gear that they will donate and the additional support contract of approximately $12,000/year.  There was a second.  It was voted and passed.
  • A motion was made to purchase new servers costing up to $6,000. There was a second.  It was voted and passed.
  • The committee is requesting access to Xero read only so they can see who has paid.  This will be helpful when knowing when to allow new members to connect. 

New/Old Business –

  • 4th Quarter event.  Will have a little later meeting and then go to lunch after.  Need to determine where to go.
  • Kim Gerhart’s access to the bank account.  She is no longer on the board so need to move everything to Aaron and remove Kim from the account.  A motion was made to remove Kim Gerhart from the bank account.  A second motion was made and was voted and passed.
  • Dues – If making changes, need to provide a 90-day notice.  Discussed current costs and how to grow the IX.  There has not been an increase since 2018.  We now provide more benefits from the content that members can connect to and want to be able to continue to grow the IX.  With the new Arista gear, we can now do 25Gbps ports instead of just the 10.  We discussed making a $500 increase to the senior member dues for next year.
  • A motion was made to increase dues by $500 except for the Associate Member dues, which will stay the same.  There was a second.  It was voted and passed.  We will notify members of the price increase.

Meeting adjourned