Mac Uni about to finish network upgrade

Macquarie University is about to finish a three-year, $8.5 million overhaul of its network infrastructure, according to the university's chief information officer Marc Bailey.

Bailey wrote on his blog today that the final stage of the transition to the new OneNet Wired network infrastructure will be to disconnect two fibre-optic cables from the old network beneath the university on 25 June.

"After disconnecting, the last remaining traces of the legacy network will cease to exist, completing the switch to reliable, fast, communal computer and telephone communication for every one of 14,451 wired outlets on campus," Bailey said on his blog.

The project was handled by 25 employees and promises to provide speeds ten times faster for university students accessing the network and up to 800 times faster in the datacentre.

Bailey said that the parts of the upgrade which had already been completed had resulted in a 75 per cent reduction in operational incidents this year and said that there shouldn't be any problem once the changeover has been completed.

"Switching off the legacy network has been diligently planned for over six months and should not impact anybody or any known system," he said. "Naturally though, a project of this magnitude cannot rule out errors of omission or granularity, no matter how carefully managed." He advised students and staff to get in contact if there were any issues.

Bailey became the university's first CIO in October last year.

Front page image credit: Empty classroom by Max Klingensmith, CC BY-ND 2.0