Warwick University signs £1.5m high-speed network deal

It’s in the CAN

The University of Warwick is paying £1.5m for Telindus to install a campus-wide 10 Gigabit Ethernet backbone based on Extreme Networks kit. The cutting edge networking equipment will be rolled out as part of the Midlands university's 18-month-old 'e-strategy', which is aimed at giving administrative staff, students and researchers fast network access for e-learning and other activities. Speeds of up to 100Mbps should be available to the edge of the campus area network, which will run voice, data and video applications. Mary Visser, assistant director of IT services at Warwick University, said: "This underpins everything we do. The technology will improve [network] resilience and help us manage any bandwidth intensive activity, such as multicasting." The university is a long-time customer for Belgium-based Telindus but, in line with EU public sector procurement rules, put the contract out to tender last May. It aims to have the technology in place for the start of the next academic year in September.