With Cybera’s network transporting more data than ever before, staff have taken steps to boost the overall capacity of CyberaNet, while improving the affordability of our bulk buying group.
Reducing the cost of the Internet Buying Group
This past summer, Cybera reduced the rates for the Internet Buying Group for the ninth time, from $3.75 per Mbps to $2.75 per Mbps. This followed a particularly active year for the group, which saw nine more member organizations join (bringing the total membership to 60). The internet bulk buying service was developed in 2012 to address the need for equitable internet rates for all Alberta public sector institutions — no matter their size or location. So far, it has saved administrators millions of dollars in network fees.
Building redundancies
CyberaNet is expected transport over 45,000 TB of data in the 2017/18 fiscal year, an increase of over 30% from the previous year. To prepare for this increase, staff spent the last several months building internet gateway redundancies, for both Calgary and Edmonton, for members who connect to SuperNet. This will allow them to automatically reroute their internet traffic in the event of an outage or an issue reaching their primary gateway.
Cybera has also set up a redundant 10 Gbps connection to the SuperNet Point of Presence in Edmonton, further increasing capacity and redundancy. This will be utilized by all members north of Red Deer, whose primary SuperNet connections to Cybera have recently been migrated to Edmonton.
Growing our capacity
Finally, new network hardware has been installed in one of Cybera’s Calgary-based core routers, growing its capacity. The hardware, funded by CANARIE and Cybera, will improve the overall network capacity and speed at which all Cybera members connect to the Research and Education Network, and pave the way for future expansion needs.
Such network advancements are becoming particularly necessary as institutions continue to connect more devices to the internet, and as staff and students experiment with more data-intensive apps and software.
To find out more about these or any other CyberaNet projects, please contact our Networking Team at noc@cybera.ca.