This article was first published on AARNet's website on 19 February 2019, and has been republished here with AARNet's permission.
The University of Queensland (UQ) is the first university in Australia to go live with a dual 100 gigabit per second (Gbps) connection to AARNet, Australia’s national not-for-profit high-speed network for research and education. This is a tenfold increase in data transfer capacity and speed for UQ and is set to revolutionise how researchers use big data in their quest to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges.
AARNet CEO Chis Hancock says UQ is the first in a wave of Australia’s top universities and research institutions upgrading to AARNet’s new high performing 100Gbps production service.
“The uptake of the new service by UQ and across the sector is being driven by the demand from researchers for moving increasingly bigger datasets in order to achieve faster research outcomes. Big data needs a big network and 100Gpbs will now give Australian researchers the bandwidth they need to collaborate with each other and with the world’s premier research institutes at scale,” says Hancock.
Rob Moffatt, UQ’s CIO, says the new 100Gbps connection to AARNet will improve the University’s ability to conduct collaborative global research.
“UQ is a research institution with a global reputation and this means that many research teams collaborate on a global basis. A lot of data is shifted between parties through the data collection and analysis life cycle and the ability to do that in a swift and reliable manner is the principal outcome of the upgrade for us,” said Moffatt.
Areas of data-intensive research at UQ set to benefit from the University’s new 100Gbps connection include genomics, imaging, modelling, microscopy and computing. For instance, faster data transfer will enhance the Queensland Brain Institute’s groundbreaking research into Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and neurodegenerative disorders such as dementia; the Global Change Institute’s work to address the impacts of climate change and population growth; and a myriad of other research projects focusing on health, energy, sustainability, water and food security.
“UQ is extremely pleased to be the first university in Australia to migrate to AARNet’s 100Gbps service. Petabytes of data are being generated by research activities at UQ, and many of these activities are multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional, so reducing our transmission times for moving data between our national and global research partners is of significant benefit,” said Moffatt.
“Our mission is to continuously develop the AARNet network and services to remove barriers to discovery and innovation for Australian researchers and providing AARNet-connected universities and research institutes with 100Gbps connectivity now is a great example of that,” said Hancock.
About AARNet
Australia’s Academic and Research Network (AARNet) provides high capacity national and international telecommunications infrastructure and collaboration services for the nation’s research and education sector, including universities, health and other research organisations, schools, vocational training providers and cultural institutions. AARNet serves over one million end users who access the network for teaching, learning and research. For more information, visit www.aarnet.edu.au.
Media Contact:: Jane Gifford, media@aarnet.edu.au.
