Wales connects to SuperJanet 5 network

Welsh education and public sector bodies on the lifelong learning network (LLN) for Wales have connected to the new UK-wide SuperJanet5 (SJ5) education network.

The academic network, SJ5, is being rolled out across the UK by the UK Education and Research Networking Association (Ukerna), and Wales is among the first to benefit from its improved bandwidth capacity and resilience.

Tim Marshall, Ukerna chief executive, says the Janet network is vital to stakeholders in UK research and education, and is at the heart of activities such as delivering e-learning and videoconferencing facilities to school children and supporting major research projects.

‘Wales is benefiting from a much more resilient network which opens up the door to all sorts of things. For example, it can help Welsh universities pitch for research as they can say "if you give us the contract, we have the connectivity",' said Marshall.
'Also with SJ5, it is possible to create separate networks and investigate why they are broken without bringing other students on the network down.’

SJ5 will also provide a stepping stone for the public sector broadband aggregation project in Wales.

‘SJ5 is delivering services to higher and further education communities and across local government,' said a Welsh Assembly spokesman.

'This is an example of how public services in Wales are willing and able to work together.’

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