COVID-19 Response

Link Oregon’s Response to COVID-19

Link Oregon takes very seriously the outbreak, spread, and impact of the COVID-19 virus and is dedicated to staying up-to-date and being of service during this challenging time. 

Our sincere concern goes out to those affected directly. We recognize the broadening impact of this crisis on individuals, families, communities, schools, healthcare facilities, community organizations, state offices, and other organizations and businesses both near and far and are standing ready to help deliver connectivity as needed to offset these issues.  

In response to this evolving situation, the Link Oregon team is taking the following steps: 

• We are tracking our member networks’ traffic to anticipate high-traffic loads, assess key infrastructure, and develop contingency plans allowing us to continue delivering network services to our members and the broader community. You can follow real-time traffic on member networks, plus access a new dashboard just for Oregon K-12 and education service district (ESD) traffic.
• We are staying in close contact with our member community, vendor partners, government officials, Tribes, and affiliates to ensure clear communication channels are available to foster uninterrupted connectivity as the COVID-19 situation in our state continues to evolve.
• We are enhancing the throughput and resiliency of our backbone by adding capacity into Corvallis as well as between Portland and Eugene.
• We have curtailed all professional travel, including in-state and local travel, except for limited physical site maintenance when absolutely necessary to expand capacity or respond to outages or emergencies.
• We have transitioned our professional staff to remote work status and are following our state’s mandated “stay-at-home order.”
• We have updated our processes, team practices, and collaboration tools to accommodate remote teamwork, improve distance communication internally and externally, and maintain productivity.
• We stand ready to assist members and affiliates as you re-architect elements of your organization’s IT environment and its connectivity as well as respond to changing business needs over the coming months.

We are closely following: 

• Guidelines set out by recognized local, national and global public health organizations and authorities (see the column on the right for links);
• Protocols established by our founding entities: OHSU, Oregon State University, Portland State University, University of Oregon, and the State of Oregon Enterprise Information Services (EIS);
• Guidance, through frequent consultation, of our peer national and regional networks, including Internet2, CENIC, The Quilt, the Pacific Northwest Gigapop, among others.

We will provide status updates and resource links to this site and via social media as they become available.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us for advice or assistance at help@linkoregon.org or call us at 541-346-6376.

Updated: 04-07-20