CNRI is committed to using the frontier of Internet technology as its working environment, as its development environment, and as a laboratory for "time travel" into Internet technology's future. One example of CNRI's commitment to maintaining an advanced information infrastructure is the deployment of technology to facilitate collaboration for work both internally and with external organizations. Current research initiatives involving frequent coordination and interaction with industry, government, and academia require that intra- and inter-site collaboration technology become a natural, well-integrated, and transparent aspect of daily work.

As part of its long-term, ongoing commitment to computing environment excellence, CNRI's processing platform is 21st century-ready. Substantial network bandwidth and the performance and functionality of desktop systems and servers enables CNRI developers to participate in advanced experiments and test-bed activities with industrial, academic and federal partners, and to resource share and collaborate with colleagues around the world. An experimental paradigm has emerged from this information infrastructure, placing CNRI clearly at the frontier of the field.