The investment by HEAnet will give 1m students and professionals access to world-beating bandwidth standards
Agile Networks has been awarded a seven-year contract worth €5m by HEAnet to deliver an ultra-high bandwidth network to serve 1m students and staff across the Irish education and research sector.
The new network will have 100GB capacity and will be capable of carrying ultra-high bandwidth traffic.
The rollout will take place over an 18-month period to 200 locations nationwide, with five years of support.
‘Our on-going challenge is to ensure that we provide access to the same sort of internet connectivity for education and research as anywhere in Europe’
– JOHN BOLAND, HEANET
HEAnet’s e-Infrastructure services underpin education and research activity in Ireland, with approximately 1m people relying on the HEAnet network each day for their learning and research needs.
“Our on-going challenge is to ensure that we provide access to the same sort of internet connectivity for education and research as anywhere in Europe,” said John Boland, CEO of HEAnet.
“We achieve this through the provision of an ultra-high bandwidth, multiple-gigabit network, which is dedicated for use solely by our education and research clients.”
Collaboration and shared services
Network integrator Agile won the contract after a rigorous public procurement process.
Headquartered in Dublin, the company was founded in 2011 to build and support IT networks for the public and private sector.
The network will utilise technology from Juniper Networks and will run over HEAnet’s existing fibre network.
“This contract will deliver a nationally significant project and facilitate the rollout of shared ICT services and collaboration within and across the education and research sector,” explained Darragh Richardson, managing director of Agile Networks.
Trinity College image via Shutterstock
