http:// 2013-04-12T01:04:00Z 2013-04-12T01:04:00Z aarnet-beams-pioneering-multi-channel-uni-tv-to-regional-victoria

Melbourne, Australia - 12 April 2013 – Today, the Hon Gordon Rich-Phillips, Minister for Technology, launched a new project in Shepparton that aims to deliver dental education to regional Victoria using high speed broadband and internet protocol television (IPTV). The Uni TV project is underpinned by Australia’s Academic and Research Network (AARNet). AARNet is providing the connectivity for the distribution of High Definition and 3D content from the Melbourne Dental School to students involved in a trial based at the University of Melbourne’s Shepparton campus. A dentist in Brunswick is also part of the trial, accessing Uni TV in his home for professional development via an NBN connection. Chris Hancock, CEO of AARNet said, “This project demonstrates the value of IPTV technologies and high speed networks in delivering quality educational resources to students and practitioners living outside major metropolitan centres.” During the launch event participants in Shepparton watched a live 3D broadcast of a dental procedure taking place at the Melbourne Dental School. Live broadcasts, educational videos on demand and other resources are accessible on the Uni TV multi-channel IPTV system. Ken Clarke, Senior Research Fellow, The Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES) at the University of Melbourne and project lead, said that the Uni TV trial relies on the network performance and Multicast capabilities of AARNet to support IPTV, coupled with the university’s networks. “The IPTV delivery model has the potential to transform health and dental education in regional communities. It gives students access to high quality instruction by leaders in the field without having to travel to Melbourne,” he said, adding that in the future a range of organisations could utilise these technologies for training and other purposes. Uni TV is a partnership between AARNet, the Melbourne Dental School and the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society at the University of Melbourne, Ericsson Australia and Panasonic Australia, supported by the Victorian Government’s Broadband-Enabled Innovation Program (BEIP). - ENDS - About AARNet AARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the not for profit company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). The shareholders are 38 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the education and research sector, including universities, research organisations, vocational training providers, schools and cultural institutions. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network for teaching, learning and research. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au Media Contacts: Kara Jecks Max Australia P. 02 9469 5746 E. Kara.Jecks@maxaustralia.com.au Jane Gifford AARNet Pty Ltd P. 02 9779 6960 E. Jane.Gifford@aarnet.edu.au

2013-03-26T06:24:00Z aarnet-connects-students-to-virtual-newsroom

Melbourne, Australia – 26 March 2013 - AARNet (Australia’s Academic and Research Network), in collaboration with the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) will today host ‘Splash Live: Making the News’, the launch event for ABC Splash, a ground-breaking education website offering students access to exciting interactive digital resources aligned with the Australian curriculum. “This is a great example of how high capacity broadband services, interactive technologies and clever program design continue to open up new learning experiences for young Australians,” said AARNet CEO Chris Hancock. Today’s event is the culmination of a six week ABC Splash pilot education project called Making the News. Primary school students in four states have been involved in the process of researching, writing and filming their own local news stories based on the theme of sustainability. The students have participated in several real time interactive events, connecting with each other and ABC experts via AARNet’s National Video Conferencing Service and the National Broadband Network (NBN). “This communication technology has enabled the ABC to seamlessly connect with 100 primary school students across Australia in a four-way video conference to create and share local news stories in real time with each other and with ABC presenters in a way never done before,” said ABC Innovation’s Digital Education Producer Sara Cousins. Today the students will broadcast their news stories via high definition video conferencing to a live studio audience at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) at Federation Square in Melbourne. They will also interact with ABC presenters and producers from ABC Open, ABC News, triple j’s Hack, and ABC1’s Behind the News who have been mentoring them throughout the project. Cousins said the project is part of a whole range of initiatives at the ABC aimed at using the latest technology to reach audiences in new ways. “AARNet remains committed to supporting projects like this. As Australia’s research and education network our role is to provide services that support experimentation with interactive technologies and advance the way education is delivered and accessed,” said Hancock. AARNet is the provider of the high speed broadband connection for ACMI and also the preferred service provider of NBN infrastructure at PLC Armidale (New South Wales). The other participating schools connecting via AARNet’s National Video Conferencing Service and the NBN are Willunga Primary School (South Australia) and Circular Head Christian School (Tasmania); North Fitzroy Primary School (Victoria) will be in the live studio audience. Hancock said that PLC Armidale is one of a number of schools now benefiting from access to AARNet’s network and services over a NBN connection. AARNet is a service provider for the NBN which means AARNet is able to extend its research and education services portfolio to schools and other qualifying organisations utilising the NBN’s fibre optic infrastructure. - ENDS - About AARNet AARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the not for profit company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). The shareholders are 38 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the education and research sector, including universities, research organisations, vocational training providers, schools and cultural institutions. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network for teaching, learning and research. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au About ABC Splash ABC Splash is managed by ABC Innovation, the division responsible for the ABC website abc.net.au and core mobile offerings including the ABC iPhone, iPad and Android apps. ABC Innovation also creates digital media content and services for online, mobile and emerging platforms. ABC Splash is one of the largest digital projects undertaken by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and will deliver world-class interactive educational resources for primary and secondary school students, their teachers and parents. All ABC Splash material aligns with the Australian Curriculum and was developed by the ABC in conjunction with Education Services Australia, supported by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). For further information or to arrange an interview with an AARNet spokesperson, please contact: Kara Jecks Max Australia P. 0433 033 135 E. Kara.Jecks@maxaustralia.com.au Jane Gifford AARNet Pty Ltd P. 02 9779 6960 E. Jane.Gifford@aarnet.edu.au

2012-11-30T01:57:00Z aarnet-ignites-international-space-time-concerto

Research Network partners with University of Newcastle for World-First Competition Sydney, AUSTRALIA, 30th November, 2012: AARNet, Australia’s Academic and Research Network, will today underpin a world-first for Technology and the Arts, providing the connectivity for a musical competition that will see orchestras from Australia, Asia and Europe synchronise in near-real-time. The University of Newcastle’s International Space/Time Concerto is a competition that celebrates not only the historical form of the concerto but also showcases contemporary interpretations of musical styles. The competition comprises of two concerts, the first of which is tonight, the second being streamed live on December 2, 2012. Both encompass the latest in digital collaboration technology. Tonight’s concert is named Around the World in 80 milliseconds, close to the time it would take for the speed of light to get from one side of the planet to the other. “In so many ways this is a ground-breaking competition. It turns the traditional concerto competition format on its head and develops a novel solution to latency with the use of multiple conductors,” said Chair of Music at the University of Newcastle’s Conservatorium of Music Professor Richard Vella. The Finals will broadcast live to the world from 7.30pm AEST this evening, and include three finalists from the Networked Music Performance Category whose music will be played by specially selected musicians in an internet-linked ensemble spanning five countries (Australia, China, Austria, Singapore and New Zealand). Vella said today’s finalists Cat Hope, Greg Schiemer and Jan Yun Chow will compete in a manner never managed before. All sites involved are connecting to AARNet’s National Video Conferencing Service via high definition video codecs, in parallel with very low latency audio processing software running over the AARNet network and other research and education networks worldwide, utilising predominantly IPv6 technologies. “This project is pioneering from all sides,” said AARNet CEO Chris Hancock. “We remain committed to the advancement of network enabled art forms. Research networks have been designed to help all communities take advantage of high capacity networking. This event capitalises on the network AARNet has created. It will allow these talented musicians to push the boundaries of what is possible, because the latency, as small as it is, has had to be learned by the composers and worked into the very fabric of their music. The finalists performing today will demonstrate their creativity to compose music that embraces the limitations and freedoms that come with performing together while being '80 milliseconds apart'. We might be looking at the next musical genre.” AARNet’s involvement has been critical in the IPv6 design and implementation as well as its provision of a network that could handle the dynamics required to fashion a platform for this style of creative pursuit. Project Director Tracy Redhead said: “With the performers playing simultaneously around the globe, the sound will reach and overlap sounds from all other sites with differing delays. Composing a work that is complementary in each location is an exciting challenge for musicians. In some works audiences in each location will be able to appreciate the compositions in their own unique way. In other words the audience won’t notice any delay due to the way the Space Time telematic team has approached the latency problem." About AARNet AARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit company limited by shares. The shareholders are 37 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au About The Newcastle Conservatorium of Music The University of Newcastle’s Conservatorium of Music is housed within the School of Drama, Fine Art and Music (soon to be called the School of Creative Arts). Our staff have national and international reputations in performance, creative work, scholarly research and teaching. We are living and breathing creative artists, researchers and/or performers - and sometimes a combination of the three. Operating at three locations (Callaghan, Newcastle City and Ourimbah), the School prides itself in providing high-level support to its students from undergraduate level through to postgraduate level. The school offers degrees in Fine Art, Music and an Arts degree focussing on a Creative Arts major. As well as providing high quality instrumental training, the music degree offers students to develop skills in creativity, collaboration and technological mediation. For more information please contact:Kara Jecks Max Australia +61 2 9469 5740 kara.jecks@maxaustralia.com.au

2012-11-07T01:56:00Z aarnet-brings-amazon-to-universities

AARNet brings Amazon to Universities Research network makes cloud uniquely possible for Australian Academic Institutions Sydney, AUSTRALIA, 7th November, 2012: AARNet, Australia’s Academic and Research Network, has today announced it is peering with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Seattle, USA, in a move that will benefit AARNet members and customers in Australia’s Research and Education community. Connectivity is across the AARNet/Southern Cross Cable Networks’ SXTransPORT link to the USA, providing AARNet members and customers with high-speed (10 gigabits per second) uncongested access to AWS’s suite of on-demand cloud computing, data storage and other infrastructure services. “We’re always looking for opportunities that maximise the network’s capabilities and peering with Amazon delivers multiple benefits,” said AARNet’s Chief Operating Officer, Don Robertson. “For data intensive projects and global collaborations, Amazon provides Australian researchers and educators with a choice of high-performance, scalable and cost-effective computing and storage options as and when needed,” Robertson said. This new peering agreement also offers AARNet members and customers the added cost advantage of international unmetered charging for all data transfers to and from Amazon’s US-WEST-2 (Oregon) Region. “AARNET peering with Amazon Web Services lights a path to leverage the most scalable compute and storage platform on the planet by disrupting the bandwidth barrier,” explained Macquarie University’s Chief Information Officer Marc Bailey. “Macquarie University is one of the leaders in the Australasian higher education sector in embracing cloud computing. This will empower our people to break new ground and cloudsource everyday research, teaching and learning activities. AARNET makes cloud uniquely possible in our context,” Bailey said. About AARNet AARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit company limited by shares. The shareholders are 37 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au. For more information please contact:Kara Jecks Max Australia +61 2 9469 5740 kara.jecks@maxaustralia.com.au

2012-10-16T04:59:00Z aarnet-launches-wireless-authentication-across-health-sector

AARNet launches wireless authentication across health sector High speed and secure wireless network eduroam now available in hospitals for university staff and students in Queensland Brisbane, AUSTRALIA – 16 October 2012 – AARNet, Australia’s Academic and Research Network, has today announced the expansion of access to the eduroam service to major Queensland hospitals. This new service allows remote access from multiple health facilities to the University of Queensland’s online resources, and is the result of a five-year-collaboration between AARNet, Queensland Health and Queensland Universities, under the Queensland Regional Network Organisation (QRNO). The eduroam service provides secure international roaming for Australian university students and staff visiting participating universities and institutions across the country around the world. University of Queensland staff and students will be able to use their current user name and passwords to gain access to the eduroam service in health facilities. The service will allow users to gain access to online resources including research papers, lecture notes and online libraries. The service will be accessible from desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphone devices. “The introduction of this new service in Queensland’s major hospitals will open the door for new opportunities to enhance teaching, learning and research in the health sector,” said Chris Hancock, CEO AARNet. “This initiative is the first of its kind in Australia for the Health sector and was developed with the backing of the Queensland Government and the Higher Education sector,” said Hancock. “The project is a great example of collaboration in the research arena that’s so essential for effective innovation and research. This is an important new service for the health sector that we can now be used as a model for health precincts across the rest of the country. ” The eduroam service is today functioning at the PAH, QEII, Robina, Mackay, Townsville Hospitals and the Skills Development Centre at Herston. There are also plans for future rollouts at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Royal Children’s Hospital, The Prince Charles Hospital, Gold Coast University Hospital and the QLD Children’s Hospital. The service will be run on the AARNet3 Network, which connects research and education facilities around the nation to each other and to their international peers across multiple 10 gigabit per second links. AARNet has already begun working with NSW Health and health institutions in Victoria to deploy a similar service and AARNet’s centralised RADIUS server is aimed at providing a national solution in the future. - ENDS - About AARNet AARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit company limited by shares. The shareholders are 38 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au. For further information please contact: James Curtis Max Australia +61 2 9469 5740 james.curtis@maxaustralia.com.au

2012-07-03T23:43:00Z aarnet-beams-students-into-virtual-workforce

AARNet beams students into virtual workforce Holmesglen TAFE becomes AARNet pioneer in rollout of the National VET E-Learning Strategy Sydney, Australia – 4 July 2012 - Twenty students at Holmesglen have become the beneficiaries of the first connections between TAFE students and industry practitioners over the NBN with a successful video conferencing pilot program. Working with AARNet to implement a 100Mbps NBN connection to support high quality video conferencing with professional graphic designers, these students are now able to step inside their chosen fields to get real time feedback and a glimpse into what their professional lives will look like when they complete their studies. Holmesglen TAFE’s Learning Innovation and Development Project Officer Cristy Tessier said the likelihood of these students being able to move quickly and seamlessly into the workforce as a result of this innovation has greatly improved. “In a competitive employment market, it’s important to give students every opportunity to show how they can quickly add value to employers,” said Tessier. “We embarked on this project as a more efficient way of connecting our students with industry practitioners in their chosen fields of study; initially for those students enrolled in the Advanced Diploma of Graphic Design.” AARNet, the operator of Australia’s National Research and Education Network, lent Holmesglen TAFE the equipment and provided its services to help implement the solution. “Fundamentally this project has been about enhancing the student experience and making sure education stays relevant in this digital age. The NBN gave us the ability to quickly setup a relatively high bandwidth connection for a few sessions then disconnect it again when no longer required. You cannot do this sort of activity with copper based ADSL broadband links,” explained AARNet Business Development Manager Jamie Sunderland. Tessier says that today students bring with them inherent modes of learning which differ from the traditional approach and unless institutions stay on top of technology they will become redundant. “So far we have run three successful sessions and the responses from students have been fantastic because it enables them to get feedback from industry practitioners in a safe environment. The first session we ran through the AARNet office, but the subsequent two have linked to Holmesglen TAFE from an NBN-connected studio in Brunswick,” said Tessier. Holmesglen TAFE previously invited leading industry specialists to speak with students, and occasionally groups conducted a workplace visit, but with high definition video conferencing the ability to connect students with real life scenarios and professional graphic designers has seen marked improvements in student results. “We have never used video conferencing previously because it wasn’t at a stage of development that enabled the dynamic nature of Design to be truly shared, but now via AARNet and the NBN, the experience is both collaborative and rich,” said Tessier. Holmesglen is one of the largest providers of vocational and higher education in Victoria, delivering internationally and nationally across four campuses: Chadstone, City, Moorabbin and Waverley. Holmesglen delivers over 600 courses to nearly 50,000 students. The National VET E-learning Strategy is aimed at enabling the Australian training sector to take advantage of the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) to make major advances in the achievement of government training objectives. Its goals are to: Develop and utilise e-learning strategies to maximise the benefits of the national investment in broadbandSupport workforce development in industry through innovative training solutionsExpand participation and access for individuals through targeted e-learning approaches About Holmesglen Renowned as a centre of excellence for the design and delivery of education and training services, Holmesglen is one of the largest providers of higher and vocational education in Victoria, with over 50,000 students across four campuses at Chadstone, City, Moorabbin and Waverley. Offering over 600 programs across eleven study areas, including degrees, graduate certificates advanced diplomas, diplomas, certificates, pre-apprenticeships, apprenticeships, Adult VCE, short courses and the Vocational College, offering an alternative to VCE. About AARNet AARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit company limited by shares. The shareholders are 37 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au For more information please contact:James Curtis Max Australia +61 2 9469 5740 james.curtis@maxaustralia.com.au

2012-06-06T01:19:00Z aarnet-throws-support-behind-world-ipv6-launch-day

AARNet throws support behind World IPv6 Launch Day Sydney, AUSTRALIA – 6 June 2012 – AARNet, Australia’s Academic and Research Network will today herald in the most significant upgrade of the internet since its inception by participating in the international Megaconference v6. With the World Wide Web reaching the end of existing IPv4 addresses, the transition to a scaled out architecture based on IPv6 has officially begun. As one of Australia’s strategic beta roll out partners AARNet has been instrumental in leading the transition towards IPv6 since 2004. Now Australian organisations, connected to the AARNet network will have automatic access to video conferencing service through AARNet’s IPv6 enabled Cisco MCU conference bridges. The Megaconference v6 event falls on World IPv6 Launch Day. It will cater for the extended video conferencing community, giving them a platform to discuss the launch of the upgrade and the benefits it will offer network providers. “After testing IPv6 conferencing services on the AARNet network, we are happy to support dual access via IPv4 to IPv6 enabled infrastructure,” said Chris Hancock, CEO AARNet. “We are continuing to see the potential that videoconferencing can offer the Australian academic community and we have been committed to providing access to customers and video manufacturers to support IPv6 enabled video services that can connect into the AARNet Network and to extend access beyond our borders to Asia where IPv6 is the only option for network connectivity due to the scarcity of IPv4 addresses available today to meet the demands of new and growing Asian based internet communities.” AARNet will be connecting two of its Multipoint Control Units (MCU) into the Megaconference v6 to allow local Asia Pacific participants to connect to the IPv6 Megaconference locally in the region. The conference will see other organisations including Internet 2, OARNet, North Dakota State University, University of Helsinki and others join forces to participate in what they hope to be the largest IPv6 video conference to date. Participants will be able to participate in presentations from researches, educators, network engineers and vendors, all showcasing the conversion to IPv6. Dialling into the Megaconference v6: Date: 6th June Time: 10pm June 6 to 10am June 7 (AEST) You may dial into one of the 2 AARNet MCU's during the Megaconference v6, which will be cascaded into the worldwide Megaconference v6 accessible on a first come first served basis using the following details: HD Participants (Max 10 Participants) IPv6: 2001:388:1:5001::8d IPv4: 202.158.196.141 Meeting ID: 61262112690# Meeting Name: Megaconference v6 SD Participants (Max 20 Participants) IPv6: 2001:388:1:4001::14 IPv4: 202.158.196.20 Meeting ID: 61262112607# Meeting Name: Megaconference v6 - ENDS - For further information the First IPv6 Megaconference, please visit: www.megaconference.org About AARNet AARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit company limited by shares. The shareholders are 37 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au. For more information please contact:James Curtis Max Australia +61 2 9469 5740 james.curtis@maxaustralia.com.au

2012-05-24T00:13:00Z aarnet-joins-global-network-nrenum-net-to-provide-seamless-communications-over-three-continents

AARNet joins global network NRENum.net to provide seamless communications over three continents Sydney, AUSTRALIA – 24 May 2012 – AARNet has today announced that is has joined NRENum.net, a consortium of national research and education networks that have agreed on common standards and interconnectivity to facilitate the delivery of international voice and video over IP services, in a move that will extend the reach and simplicity of online collaborations worldwide. All educational facilities that are currently connected to the AARNet 3 Network and AARNet’s Unified Communication eXchange will now be able to make seamless dialling for video calls via NRENum.net to connect across three continents with thirteen countries in Europe, two in South America and one in Asia (Australia) to be able to connect onto academic and research institutions that are participating in this service. “AARNet and NRENum.net is a strategic commitment,” said James Sankar, Director, Applications & Services, AARNet. “This new venture will make the end user experience easier to connect with other academic institutions globally which will reduce the need for concierge managed services or specialist video rooms that may require an on-site operator to deliver a quality collaboration experience“ Connecting AARNet to the NRENum.net service is seen as an important step forward for AARNet customers to be able to take advantage of AARNet’s international capacity and to use rich media collaboration services to deliver educational services or global research team work via AARNet acting as a trusted broker who can manage voice and video call routing on customer’s behalf. “Allowing AARNet customers to connect via AARNet’s eXchange will enable our customers to maintain their choice to connect from their phone, unified communications client, video or Telepresence room, except we have gone from national to global reach,” continues Sankar. AARNet’s continues to work closely with our partners; video conferencing manufacturers, global education and research networks and commercial carriers via The Open Visual Communications Consortium (OVCC), to deliver ubiquitous communications based services far and wide. - ENDS - About AARNet AARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit company limited by shares. The shareholders are 37 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au. About NRENum.net NRENum.net is a global ENUM (Electronic Number Mapping) service for academia coordinated by TERENA (Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association). It is recognised as a valid and complementary alternative to the Golden ENUM Tree (e164.arpa) and provides countries with the possibility to publish ENUM data. NRENum.net uses special DNS (Domain Name System) record types to translate a telephone number into a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) or IP (Internet Protocol) address that can be used in Internet communications. www.nrenum.net For more information please contact: AARNet Media Contact: James Curtis Max Australia +61 2 9469 5740 james.curtis@maxaustralia.com.au

2012-01-18T23:40:00Z customers-and-partners-accelerate-time-to-market-and-improve-efficiency-by-up-to-60-with-cloud-services-built-on-netapp

Sydney, AUSTRALIA - 19 January, 2012 - Organisations worldwide are turning to cloud services to gain efficiencies and respond faster to today’s rapidly changing business demands. Service providers play a critical role in bringing cloud services to market and helping customers make strategic infrastructure decisions. Together, NetApp and its service provider partners have achieved proven success as trusted advisors to these customers. By collaborating with NetApp and its partners, customers are achieving accelerated business results with cloud solutions ranging from on-premise private cloud solutions to off-premise public cloud services.NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) today announced that customers are reducing costs, managing business growth, and improving customer service with cloud services built on NetApp technologies. These cloud services are delivered through a global ecosystem of service providers who benefit from the NetApp Partner Program for Service Providers, which was the first of its kind in the storage industry . Over the past six months, this global partner ecosystem has nearly doubled in size with the addition of more than 20 new partners; today it includes more than 50 service providers. In partnership with NetApp, these service providers deliver more than 90 innovative services that help customers accelerate and simplify their transition to private and public clouds.“NetApp’s success in establishing a strong partner ecosystem has enabled many of our enterprise and midsize business customers to achieve greater value, speed, and efficiency by leveraging cloud services offered by partners participating in the NetApp Partner Program for Service Providers,” said Julie Parrish, senior vice president, Global Partner Sales at NetApp. “NetApp is focused on collaborating with partners – not competing with them – to help them increase their revenue, grow their businesses, and help customers succeed in capitalising on the opportunities that adoption of public and private cloud solutions offer.”Customers Accelerate Business with Cloud Services from NetApp Service Provider PartnersWorld-class service providers are collaborating with NetApp as their partner of choice to build, deploy, and sell differentiated cloud service offerings that help customers improve business outcomes. BayGroup International Reduces Costs with Cloud Services from Quest BayGroup, a global negotiation and training company, reduced their IT spend up to 60% by storing all of their data and applications in a virtualised cloud environment. By using data protection as a -service from Quest, they’ve shifted 80% of their spending to operating expenses and now need fewer people to manage local services such as data storage, backup, recovery, and day-to-day maintenance. “Using Quest’s cloud service built on NetApp technologies, our savings have been tremendous,” said Frank Lucido, director of information technology at BayGroup International. “Quest’s services are so proactive that we’ve liberated a full-time employee to focus instead on our core business-critical needs. Without Quest’s cloud services, BayGroup would need two additional full-time employees.” BlackLine Systems Manages Business Growth with Cloud Services from RackspaceBlackLine Systems provides a software as a service (SaaS) solution, which automates and controls the financial close process for Fortune 1000 companies. Their biggest challenge was scaling to meet the demands of an installed base that was growing at more than 100%, so they outsourced their IT infrastructure, using a Rackspace cloud service to rapidly expand their business without investing in their own IT infrastructure. The Rackspace hybrid cloud solution provided the enhanced security capabilities to overcome concerns with moving sensitive data outside their corporate firewalls. “Rackspace and NetApp know that in the SaaS world, you’re only in business if your application is up and running,” said Mario Spanicciati, executive vice president of operations, BlackLine Systems. “We selected Rackspace as our cloud service provider for the company’s winning combination of premier hosting infrastructure and services coupled with an always-available and knowledgeable customer service organisation – along with the confidence of knowing it’s all backed by a solid NetApp storage foundation. By working with Rackspace and NetApp, BlackLine is able to provide clients with a reliable, secure, high-performance enterprise-class SaaS application. This solution enabled BlackLine to grow and focus on the areas that were important to us, taking our business further and faster than we could have done on our own.” Loughborough University Accelerates Research Discovery with Cloud Services from LogicalisLoughborough University upgraded its data centre to improve IT efficiency and support to its extensive community of academic researchers. The university turned to Logicalis to consolidate their existing data centre, creating a local private cloud integrated with the Logicalis hosted cloud for data protection. One of first hybrid cloud environments in the UK, this innovative solution enables the university to free up resources to focus more on its core educational mission and produce more research in less time. “With our hybrid cloud solution from Logicalis based on NetApp technologies, we reduced our data centre footprint by 80%,” said Phil Richards, IT director of Loughborough University. “Power, cooling, and administrative expenses have been equivalently reduced, and we have increased the speed with which we serve the university community. With our old data centre infrastructure, procuring IT support for new research projects took weeks. Our cloud now enables IT to act as a research accelerator. Faculty now receive IT infrastructure on demand, and this is making a major impact on time to discovery across the university.” Reinier de Graaf Groep Improves Patient Services with Cloud Services from Proact The Reinier de Graaf Groep in Delft is the oldest general hospital in the Netherlands. To improve the services that the hospital provides to patients and staff, the Reinier de Graaf Groep has undertaken a comprehensive digitisation of its patient files, laboratory reports, and X-rays. In order to realise optimal data availability, a low operating load, predictable costs, and flexible storage and server capacity on a pay-per-use basis, Reinier de Graaf Groep selected infrastructure as a service (IaaS) from Proact Managed Cloud Services, based on the NetApp FlexPod™ data centre solution. “By selecting Proact infrastructure as a service, the Reinier de Graaf Groep is assured of the continuous availability of its data, both internally and on external workstations,” said Marcel Slingerland, manager, ICT Reinier de Graaf Groep. “For the ICT department, this means that they don’t have to worry about the entire storage and server infrastructure and can focus on core tasks that directly benefit business processes.” Village Roadshow Reduces Cost with Cloud Services from InteractiveVillage Roadshow Limited, of Melbourne Australia, is a leading international entertainment company with core businesses in theme parks, cinema exhibition, film distribution, film production, and music. Village Roadshow was quickly outgrowing its data centre due to increasing requirements for storage to support its ticketing, Web sites, and distribution for film and DVD rental operations. With an infrastructure as-a-service solution from Interactive, Village Roadshow is managing its rapidly growing data volumes at a lower cost than an on-premise alternative. “Opting for Interactive’s managed cloud storage, based on NetApp technologies, is a great stepping stone to a full cloud computing solution and offers great cost savings to Village Roadshow in comparison to the capital investments to build or upgrade our own infrastructure,” said David Kindlen, CIO of Village Roadshow. “I look forward to further developing a relationship where I can buy computing power and storage on demand from an organisation I trust.” About the Program The NetApp Partner Program for Service Providers enables service provider partners to build differentiated, enterprise-class cloud service offerings and to operate profitably based on low-cost and predictable service levels. NetApp welcomes the following new service provider partners, who bring enhanced portfolios of services to our customers across multiple geographies: AAPT, Adapt, Artisan Infrastructure, BSNL-Sai Infosystems, ControlCircle, Datacom, dinCloud, Easy Street, Fujitsu Asia, Fujitsu Thailand, Heitech Managed Services, IT-LifeLine, K-Opti.com, KVH, NTT Europe, Phoenix NAP, Proact MCS, StratITsphere, Stratogen, Nihon Unisys, NSSOL, NS Solutions, Telus, Tokai Communication, Windstream, and Wipro. Additional Resources Learn more about the NetApp Partner Program for Service Providers: http://www.netapp.com/au/partners/become-a-partner/service-providers-new.html Read Gary Hocking’s blog to learn more about cloud industry trends: https://communities.netapp.com/community/netapp-blogs/public_clouds_rock Learn about best practices for selecting an enterprise-class service provider: http://www.netapp.com/us/solutions/infrastructure/cloud/ Learn more about NetApp cloud solutions: http://www.netapp.com/au/solutions/infrastructure/cloud/ View a list of enterprise-class services from NetApp Service Provider Partners based on NetApp storage: http://www.netapp.com/au/partners/become-a-partner/service-providers/servi ce-providers-apac.html Connect with NetApp experts and storage enthusiasts in the NetApp Community: http://communities.netapp.com/community/products_and_solutions/efficient_it Follow NetApp on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/NetAppANZ Join NetApp on Facebook: www.facebook.com/NetAppANZ View NetApp videos on YouTube: www.youtube.com/NetAppTV Connect with NetApp on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=111681 About NetAppNetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that deliver outstanding cost efficiency and accelerate business breakthroughs. Our commitment to living our core values and consistently being recognised as a great place to work around the world are fundamental to our long-term growth and success, as well as the success of our pathway partners and customers. Discover our passion for helping companies around the world go further, faster at http://www.netapp.com/au/Press Contact:Caroline La Rose Max Australia +61 2 9469 5743 Caroline.LaRose@maxaustralia.com.au NetApp, the NetApp logo, and Go further, faster, Data ONTAP, and MetroCluster are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such. The use of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership between NetApp and any other company. Addendum: Service Provider and Partner Quote Sheet NetApp works with many service providers, channel partners, and systems integrators to deliver integrated and innovative solutions that help customers accelerate their path to private and public clouds. Here’s what some of our newest service provider partners are saying about working with NetApp. Simon Fisk, sales and marketing director, Adapt “Our enterprise virtual data center offers custom cloud and managed services that scale perfectly with business requirements, meaning that our customers benefit from high performance with dual site synchronous data replication – without the traditionally associated management or financial burden. Our partnership with NetApp enables us to leverage NetApp MetroCluster™ technology to deliver continuous availability and in-built disaster recovery.” Carmen Carey, CEO, ControlCircle “Providing our customers with NetApp best-in-class solutions like our Enterprise Cloud and Disaster Recovery services sets us apart from other service providers. Winning Service Provider Partner of the Year for UK and Ireland was a true highlight for us and confirmation of the success of our partnership in bringing truly innovative IT solutions such as ControlCircle Enterprise Cloud Services. We look forward to building this out and providing vision as well as value to our customers, who rely on us to scale with certainty and give them a competitive edge when it comes to their business-critical infrastructure.” Ali Din, chief marketing officer, dinCloud “Working with a tier one platform like NetApp has enabled dinCloud to speed the time and simplify the migration of customer data. Customers feel assured when they hear that NetApp technologies are an integral part of the dinCloud solution and that the two companies have worked closely to establish the dinCloud architecture.” Philip Wong, head of ASEAN SAP Competence Centre, Fujitsu Asia “The partnership with NetApp has allowed Fujitsu to provide a comprehensive cloud service to our customers. This has translated to significant cost savings to our customers and higher operational efficiencies for our cloud managed services. Our continued partnership with NetApp will allow us to expand and bring more innovative lines of services to our customers.” Simon Durkin, director of sales, Interactive “Interactive has made it a priority to provide world-class cloud solutions by investing in the best local talent and utilising trusted partners, including NetApp. NetApp’s efficiency capabilities and integrated data protection enable us to offer leading SLAs at a price point that is compelling for large enterprise deployments. We are proud to be able to utilise this suite of products to build on the portfolio of services that we already provide to Village Roadshow and other enterprise customers.” Ken Rubin, senior vice president and general manager, Healthcare, Iron Mountain “The explosion of clinical, patient, and imaging data and shrinking budgets have boxed many healthcare organisations into a corner, straining their storage capacity and IT resources to the limit as they struggle to manage the tidal wave of information. Iron Mountain’s medical image archiving offerings remove that burden by delivering the best of all worlds: unlimited capacity on a pay-as-you-go basis with improved off-site disaster recovery that is more cost effective and less complicated than doing it yourself. Our partnership with NetApp integrates their industry-leading storage technology designed for archiving big data with enterprise cloud storage services from Iron Mountain. This combination will help customers manage the long-term retention of medical information. As a NetApp Service Provider Partner, Iron Mountain is working closely with NetApp on joint sales and marketing initiatives that demonstrate the strength and value of our solutions, enabling healthcare organisations to address their data archiving and disaster recovery challenges.” Chris Gabriel, solutions and marketing director, Logicalis UK “Through its partnership with NetApp, Logicalis is able to offer unique cloud storage solutions to its customers. For example, when Loughborough University needed to upgrade its data center, the key factor around storage was the multistore feature set and standardised platforms. Logicalis was able to consolidate the existing data center into two mini-pods, creating a local private cloud, and then integrate this on-site storage environment directly with the Logicalis hosted cloud. These innovative technologies and solutions delivered one of the first hybrid cloud environments in the UK. NetApp and Cisco have really come together and solidified what Logicalis sees as a robust architecture for enterprise-class private and hosted clouds. This hybrid model is now being replicated not only across the education market but also across the financial, retail, and manufacturing markets, because most customers are facing the same problems.” Georg Fasching, vice president, Products and Solutions, Luup “When we were looking for a partner to design, build, host, and manage the infrastructure that enables and delivers our managed service, ControlCircle was the natural choice. By deploying their disaster recovery as a service, we not only have a resilient disaster recovery solution across different sites in Europe but we have been able to leverage ControlCircle's cost efficiencies.” Len Padilla, senior director of technology, NTT Europe “NTT Europe is very focused on offering the best online business and managed hosting services in the market. NetApp has been with us on this journey for the last 10 years. With a market-leading technology proposition and sound execution in the service provider space, they enable us to drive business in key markets across EMEA. We need as much flexibility as we can get in order to accelerate go-to-market for new service offerings and to quickly react to customer demand. NetApp delivers all the time in a challenging, multicountry setup with tough requirements in terms of management, availability, and recovery.” Rob Christ, vice president, Managed Cloud Services, Proact "The Proact MCS cloud offering is unique in its kind. Not only has it been around for almost 10 years and has proven itself, it is also the only true data and storage-centric cloud offering in the European market. Because of the in-depth knowledge and experience in the storage and data management market, Proact has the ability to migrate their customers into the cloud at their own pace, including the transactional production environments, while the business continues.” Ian McClarty, president, Phoenix NAP “Phoenix NAP is proud to include NetApp technologies in our new public cloud offering, Secured Cloud. By leveraging the storage efficiencies of an industry leader like NetApp in our stack, we are able to provide end users with an optimal solution for their virtualisation needs. The improved data portability and high-performance storage that NetApp offers allow the rapid and reliable scaling of cloud services as demands change, which is a critical business driver for any cloud solution. We are happy to have NetApp as a partner for our cloud infrastructure.” Matt Gerber, CEO, IT-Lifeline “IT-Lifeline offers fully managed, cloud-based recovery as a service for physical and virtual environments specifically targeted to small and midsize organisations. As a managed service provider, we need technology that maximizes storage space to drive down costs while securely handling complex data storage environments. NetApp is a standout in the market. NetApp’s storage framework allows a truly secure multi-tenant environment, and thin provisioning allows us to reduce our storage cost and pass the savings to our customers. The flexible architecture supports the variety of applications, operating systems, and changing requirements demanded for disaster recovery. With NetApp, we eliminate the complexity of disaster recovery in the cloud and are able to provide our services at a lower cost.” Stephen Webster, president and CEO, StratITsphere “We use NetApp as a key component in our new Nimbus package of cloud services. NetApp’s staff really understands the cloud and how to work with a service provider. They gave us the flexibility, efficiency, and quality we needed for our enterprise-class storage platform. Nimbus uses the capabilities in NetApp Data ONTAP to allow us to create virtual data centers and offer cloud storage as a service for clients to make their data and applications available anywhere in the world. NetApp also provides part of the backbone for Nimbus Mobility, which offers secure cloud computing on any mobile device, and Nimbus Operations Services, which allows our engineers to manage and monitor a client’s virtual IT infrastructure.” Karl Robinson, sales director, StratoGen “VMware hosting services from StratoGen are engineered from the ground up to be extremely dynamic and resilient, allowing our clients to scale their resources instantly. We help organisations to drive down their costs, react quickly to changing business conditions, and provide simplified management of their resources. Our partnership with NetApp has been hugely important as it enables us to deliver a high-quality hosting platform that offers excellent performance with built-in failover capability.” Tony Krueck, vice president, Business Products and Services, TELUS “TELUS offers a range of hosted and cloud IT services to the Canadian business market. We are excited to leverage the latest NetApp storage technologies, which will add significant value to our IT solutions for organisations of all sizes. NetApp helps us provide a multi-tier, multi-tenant, and multi-function managed storage infrastructure that enables our team to deliver on virtually any customer storage requirement, using a single architecture. The flexibility of the NetApp architecture and reliability of NetApp software allow TELUS to minimise solution complexity and improve solution repeatability, enabling us to deliver more high-value services to our customers. These include advanced options such as integrated data protection for disaster recovery and backup, as well as storage efficiency features that help our customers save money. Our growing relationship as a NetApp Platinum Service Provider and reseller enables close collaboration with NetApp technical and account teams to drive quality and value to our mutual clients.”

2012-01-18T23:00:00Z aarnet-announces-membership-of-open-visual-communications-consortium-2

Sydney, AUSTRALIA – January 19, 2012 – AARNet today announced that it has become the first research and education network to join the Open Visual Communications Consortium™ (OVCC™). By participating in this forum AARNet will extend its leadership in the video collaboration and communications space, working with global partners to drive video interoperability across the communications environment. The OVCC™ is the first visual communications environment based on open standards, linking service provider networks globally. Members are working together to establish a multi-network, multi-vendor environment, delivering consistent, interoperable video experiences. This will provide greater flexibility for connecting research and education communities with industry and government sector between geographically dispersed user communities. At a local level, OVCC™ membership will allow AARNet to extend the scope of its telepresence and video conferencing services. By integrating with the OVCC™ services, AARNet can provide clients with access to an intelligent call routing infrastructure around the globe. Customers will be able to participate in conferences that are hosted on AARNet and connect with international partner networks – enabling video conferencing to work seamlessly across multiple carriers. “AARNet is proud to be the first research and education partner to join the OVCC™,” said Chris Hancock, Chief Executive Officer at AARNet. “The growth of telepresence has historically been stifled by interoperability and connectivity challenges. However, by working with our OVCC partners we hope to remove the barriers to ubiquity and open the door to hassle free faster video collaboration with partners and customers.” AARNet has been instrumental in leading the roll out of cloud based video conferencing, streaming and recording services in Australia through its National Video Conferencing Service. The organisation has strategically adopted multivendor platforms to enable endpoint-agnostic video services. Its operational proficiency makes AARNet well placed to advise on interoperability issues across national and international networks. OVCC™ membership will enable AARNet to extend the benefit of its expertise beyond the research and education community, providing specialist knowledge to wider consortium partners. “AARNet has a rich background in developing and operating multi-vendor video environments. We are excited to be participating in the OVCC™ where we can draw upon this expertise and share insights with OVCC™ partners to drive advances in interoperable visual communications product and service development around the globe,” said James Sankar, AARNet’s Applications and Services Director. About AARNetAARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit company limited by shares. The shareholders are 37 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au #### Contact AARNet: Almira Anthony Max Australia + 61 2 9954 3492 almira.anthony@maxaustralia.com.au

2011-11-03T05:01:00Z aarnet-is-partnering-with-moreland-city-council-and-the-ibes-to-develop-technology-to-allow-elderly-people-to-exercise-at-home

AARNet is partnering with Moreland City Council and the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES) to develop technology to allow elderly people to exercise at home Sydney, Australia – 3 November 2011 – Today the Minster for Technology Gordon Rich-Phillips announced the ‘Ageing Well at Home with Broadband’ project as part of the Victorian Government’s Broadband-Enabled Innovation Program. The project is developing a broadband-enabled exercise program that will promote health and wellbeing among elderly people, enabling them to stay in their homes longer and promote social inclusion. Underpinning this project is a high-speed broadband capability provided by AARNet, Australia’s Academic and Research Network. AARNet will connect the 20 homes involved in the trial to the Australian Broadband Applications Laboratory at IBES over the AARNet3 network and the NBN. Chris Hancock, CEO of AARNet said, “This project demonstrates the value of high speed networks in delivering next generation broadband services to benefit the wider community. This launch marks an important step forwards in realising the potential of broadband services and we look forwards to working with IBES to implement further initiatives.” The technology will be developed for the Microsoft Kinect platform and will be initially trialed with 20 elderly residents in Brunswick – Victoria’s first NBN release site. An 18 month trial will assess the effectiveness of broadband-enabled interactive gaming technology to assist the elderly in maintaining independence in their home through improved social connectedness, and physical and mental wellbeing. The project collaborators are: Moreland City Council, the University of Melbourne’s Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES), National Ageing Research Institute (NARI), Infoxchange, Microsoft, Council on the Ageing (COTA), Merri Community Health Services, NBN Co, and AARNet. ### Further Information on AARNet: Almira Anthony Max Australia +61 2 9954 3492 almira.anthony@maxaustralia.com.au About AARNet AARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit company limited by shares. The shareholders are 37 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au

2011-01-27T04:11:00Z aarnet-supports-research-into-children-s-eating-disorders

AARNet Supports Research into Children’s Eating Disorders One-day National Videoconference Hosted by The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne Melbourne, AUSTRALIA – 27 January 2011 – AARNet, Australia's Academic and Research Network and The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne are joining forces to host a one-day national conference for the Australian medical community, exploring children’s eating disorders. The live event, which will be facilitated on AARNet’s videoconferencing network, will be conducted on Friday, 28th January 2011 from 9am to 5pm AEDT. Designed to explore severe eating disorders in infants and young children and discuss approaches to assessing and treating feeding difficulties, the conference aims to share the latest research, findings and insights with the broader medical community. With presentations from The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne and Mater Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, keynote speakers include Professor Marguerite Dunitz-Scheer and Professor Peter Scheer, from the University of Graz, Austria. Chris Hancock, CEO of AARNet, said, “Part of AARNet’s role as enabler to the Australian science and research communities is to drive leading-edge initiatives including the study of e-health, ensuring doctors and medical associates from around Australia have the ability to share knowledge and collaborate on important medical topics. Associate Professor Campbell Paul, Principal Consultant Infant Psychiatrist, The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, said, “Eating disorders in infants and young children are a serious concern for parents and medical professionals alike. Live videoconferencing has opened up a new era of collaboration for the medical community tackling these issues. It makes it simple for our team to link with interstate and overseas colleagues to explore the latest approaches to treatments and discuss issues around children’s eating disorders. The Education Resource Centre at The Royal Children's Hospital has developed networks for videoconferencing in the area of child health. With the support of videoconferencing technology, we are able to share our findings with a wide range of medical professionals, dieticians and paediatricians, ultimately providing our patients with superior healthcare.” Major hospitals attending the videoconferencing event include the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Adelaide, Princess Margaret Hospital for Children Perth and the Alice Springs Hospital. To register for the event, contact Dr Megan Chapman at The Royal Children’s Hospital on megan.chapman@rch.org.au - ENDS - About AARNet AARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit company limited by shares. The shareholders are 37 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au. For further information, please contact: Almira Anthony Max Australia+61 2 9954 3492almira.anthony@maxaustralia.com.au

2010-09-21T00:18:00Z aarnet-and-nasa-bring-the-classroom-to-life-with-an-interactive-guided-tour-of-the-universe

Hobart, AUSTRALIA – 21 September 2010 – AARNet, Australia's Academic and Research Network, is partnering with NASA to bring students 3D tours of the universe within the GeoDome – an inflatable, immersive 3D theatre. The first Tasmanian event will take place at The Hutchins School in Sandy Bay from September 22-24. The event will be held in collaboration with neighbouring schools, St Michael’s Collegiate and Fahan School. The NASA GeoDome experience allows students to explore the known universe, via NASA’s Digital Universe Atlas. Online gaming technologies will enable students to interact with space data and imagery from NASA and the global telescope network, creating an immersive learning experience. Students will have the opportunity to experience 1080-pixel high-definition video feeds through a fish-eye lens in real time.Technology and the curriculumAARNet is focused on bringing high speed broadband experiences to schools to revolutionalise the 21st century curriculum. The GeoDome is a great example of how high speed broadband, emerging technologies and visualisation tools can enable students to access data from science and research organisations in Australia and across the globe. Chris Hancock, CEO of AARNet, said, “The possibilities that high speed networks such as AARNet bring to the education sector are endless and we are excited about what lies ahead with this technology. AARNet believes in supporting Australian students in their quest for knowledge and we are continually seeking new and innovative technologies to bring the curriculum to life.”The GeoDome The GeoDome provides AARNet with a unique environment in which to showcase educational content from its global partners. It utilises software and technologies found in online gaming to engage users and provide an interactive, immersive, visual-spatial experience. It can be set-up in less than 30 minutes and provides a fully enclosed, immersive theatre environment, making it ideal for a classroom of students. It enables students to navigate through, interact with and collaborate on high-definition images, video and presentations. Nick Cross, Manager of Education Outreach for AARNet, said, “The GeoDome enables us to present complex concepts about the universe in an easy-to-understand, exciting visual context which benefits students of all ages and enriches the learning experience.”For more information on GeoDome: www.geodome.infohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z3u-9IMt-A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEZNJ0guSkI - ENDS - About AARNetAARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit company limited by shares. The shareholders are 37 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au. For further information, please contact:Almira Anthony Max Australia+61 2 9954 3492 almira.anthony@maxaustralia.com.au About the GeoDomeThe GeoDome immersive learning environment consists of an inflatable dome, digital projector, and interactive software. The network of GeoDome users includes NASA, NOAA, science centers, research universities, public schools, visualization labs, and more. The GeoDome was developed by leading immersive design firm The Elumenati (www.elumenati.com). For further information, please visit: www.geodome.info.

2010-07-07T01:44:00Z as-good-as-an-atomic-clock

Sydney, AUSTRALIA – 7 July 2010 – Australian researchers have invented a new clock that will bring atomic accuracy to your desk. Skype, online games, air traffic control, smart energy grids – all rely on accurate timing across the internet. But our present computers aren’t accurate enough. They can synchronise with an atomic clock over the internet. But even tiny delays across the network introduce errors – your video conversation gets out of sync, you lose your online game, or the electricity grid wastes power.University of Melbourne engineer Julien Ridoux and his colleague Darryl Veitch have two solutions to the problem – install an atomic clock in your computer for $50,000, or use their new, free, software clock accurate to within a millionth of a second. Known as RADclock, their new software has been so successful it is now being tested across Australia with the cooperation of the National Measurement Institute (NMI), the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society and the Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet). The work has made Julien one of 16 winners of Fresh Science 2010.“The techniques used in the past couple of decades are now not accurate enough to ensure the necessary coordination,” Julien says, “and the obvious solution of installing an atomic clock in each computer was neither affordable nor practical.”The National Broadband Network promises a much faster internet leading to a new digital age. But, as the network accelerates, the time kept by computers has to become more and more accurate. Right now, says Julien, most of us have computers that do not have enough to do. Soon, these computers will all be inter-connected by the NBN at very high speed. “This army of computers can collaborate to create new services and applications but only if they know who is doing what and, particularly, when. With a super-fast network, tasks occur more frequently, and that requires computers to track the passing of time much more accurately.“We have designed the Robust Absolute and Difference clock (RADclock), a novel timing system, that is accurate, reliable and inexpensive. Under good conditions this achieves microsecond accuracy, which is as good as an atomic clock-enhanced computer. And it costs nothing to install.” Their software taps into the counting device already installed in each computer to keep track of how fast the quartz crystal timer is vibrating. But because individual counters are unreliable, the program samples and analyses time information from many computers across the internet, to construct a robust, precise and accurate picture of the passing of time. “It’s time-keeping using a brains trust, if you like – the computers talk to each other and adjust their clocks as a result,” Julien says. The RADclock has been under development for the past 4 years. It is now part of the Ark infrastructure of the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) in California to monitor the Internet (see http://www.caida.org/projects/ark/). An experimental network of RADclock reference clocks is being established in Australia with the cooperation of the NMI and AARNet. This is the first step towards a nationwide high-accuracy infrastructure that will allow any computer access to accurate time.Julien Ridoux is one of 16 early-career scientists presenting their research to the public for the first time thanks to Fresh Science, a national program sponsored by the Australian Government. His challenges have included presenting his discoveries in verse at a Melbourne pub.Media Contacts:For interviews, contact Julien Ridoux on 0401 731 178, jridoux@unimelb.edu.au For Fresh Science, contact Sarah Brooker on 0413 332 489 or Niall Byrne on 0417 131 977 or niall@scienceinpublic.com.auFor AARNet, contact Gabriel Wong on 02 9954 3492 or gabriel.wong@maxaustralia.com.au

2010-06-23T03:48:00Z aarnet-and-measurement-lab-bring-increased-transparency-to-australia-s-broadband-networks-2

Sydney, AUSTRALIA – 23 June 2010 – AARNet, Australia’s Academic and Research Network, is proud to announce the first deployment of Measurement Lab (M-Lab) servers in Australia, which will empower researchers and the public with tools to better understand the performance of broadband Internet connections. M-Lab is a pioneering technology platform that allows researchers to deploy network measurement tools around the world. By visiting measurementlab.net , Internet users can run these tools and test their Internet connection speeds, attempt to identify whether particular applications are being throttled, diagnose common problems affecting network connectivity, and measure their connections in other ways. All collected data is made publicly available for anyone to use and build on.The Australian M-Lab servers were jointly provided by AARNet and Google Inc. This marks M-Lab’s first server outpost in Asia-Pacific, and by hosting servers in the region, this will facilitate more accurate, robust measurement. The M-Lab project is led by a group of international researchers, with supporting resources provided by a number of companies and organisations around the world. In the last year, M-Lab has been used by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and Greece’s telecom authority to begin studying broadband services. Chris Hancock, CEO of AARNet said, “AARNet is pleased to be working with M-Lab, in partnership with Google, to improve the transparency of the Internet in this region by providing access to M-Lab diagnostic tools. This will be the first M-Lab server to be deployed in the Southern Hemisphere to serve users in the region. Users can now test their Internet speeds with a network diagnostic tool that is used by researchers and governments around the world for an independent verification on a networks’ connection speed.” “With the M-Lab servers, AARNet expands this valuable platform by allowing data to be collected on the servers to be available to researchers and academics that have an interest in testing and deploying network diagnostic applications to advance the transparency and performance of the Internet.”Phillip Grasso-Nguyen, Head of Network Engineering, Google Australia, said, “At Google, we’re big believers in the power of measurement. Transparency has always been crucial to the success of the Internet, and, by advancing network research and empowering users with more information, we hope that M-Lab will help sustain a healthy, innovative Internet.”AARNet invites Australian users to take a look at the tools available on M-Lab, and to begin learning more about their own broadband connections by running the tests. About AARNetAARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit company limited by shares. The shareholders are 37 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au.Media Contacts: Gabriel WongMax Australia for AARNet+61 2 9954 3492gabriel.wong@maxaustralia.com.auLauren FragapaneRed Agency for Google+61 2 9963 7721 google@redagency.com.au