Alarm over global climate change and associated loss of biodiversity has resulted in international demand for quick, reliable access to high quality data on the spatio-temporal occurrence of species and their relation to environment. Responses to this demand have led to the development of four NSF-funded distributed database vertebrate networks (FishNet2, MaNIS, HerpNET, ORNIS), which currently include 171 collections from 12 countries and 52 additional collections (20 countries) committed to participation. Collectively, these networks have successfully demonstrated community data sharing and cooperative data management. Participation in each of these networks has far exceeded expectations, resulting in growing problems of scalability, performance, sustainability, and ability to incorporate new members. The proposed creation of VertNet will address these problems by using a cloud-based computing strategy to create a fast, cost-effective, and scalable data platform. This new platform will have capabilities and applications for data discovery, data quality improvement, and visualization that go beyond those of the current networks. Specifically, VertNet will (1) have new user interfaces with expanded search capabilities (keyword and full text, synonyms for search terms, phylogenetic browsing), (2) incorporate new kinds of data (paleontological), (3) provide improved, open methods for accessing data (via application programming interfaces that connect web browsers, mobile devices, and integrated applications), (4) enable customized change notifications, and (5) create novel annotation and user feedback services. This strategic combination of open access to data, new capabilities, and integration with other applications will transform the use of vertebrate biodiversity data for cross-disciplinary research and for conservation.  http://vertnet.org