Benefits of JANET

[CAWJames]

Morning all,

 

Can anyone explain what JANET actually is? It is a normal rebadged leased line, or is it something else, or is it just a service on top of normal infrastucture?

 

Is it actually worth being part of? The website is suitably vague on technical details. Or is it first rule of JANET club?

 

I only ask as the boss mentioned it in passing that he wanted to join, and I am pre-empting the inevitable "find-out for me" question.

 

Thanks

 

James

[Dos_Box]

Who currently provides your internet. a private line or RBC (if there are any left!)?

If RBC then chances are you may already be on JANET.

[Steve21]

From my understanding it's mainly benefits for large unis etc, as it's things like effectively being able to connect from uni to uni without leaving the janet network (Think of a bigger SWGFL). So also helps if you have lots of smaller campuses etc to link them together.

 

You can also get things like the "free wifi that roams between all school sites" etc etc setup, but think that's just an extra really nowadays.

 

Steve

[CAWJames]

Currently we have 4 campuses across the UK, with a mixture of commercial BT and Virgin leased lines

[localzuk]

JANET is an academic network - it is a national network connecting educational institutions. For the average school, the only real advantage is you are connected to the NEN - National Education Network, and there are some resources available through this. Learning Resources - NEN

 

I've not actually found a school that uses it though, so realistically, there's no advantage really. JANET is mostly aimed at connecting universities onto a single network. Schools never used to be able to join it as individuals (though this has apparently changed for academies?).

[CAWJames]

We are a college, rather than a school, and the criteria docs show we should be eligible, just not sure what it's all about, thanks for the tips so far.

[LeMarchand]

Now that we've had some sensible answers, can I ask if I'm the only one who keeps seeing stuff about JANET coming up and thinking of

 

 

?

[CAWJames]

I'd only end up with Bad Janet, butt-munch

[Dos_Box]

JANET Also had the advantage back in the day of having a really fast backbone, but now many commercial lines have caught up with the kind of speeds JANET used to offer.

[unixman_again]

We're a college and we are on JANET. I don't know the reasons we went with them (before anyones time) but it is very reliable, very fast and we've been upgraded a couple of times in the last 5 years

[SchoolsBroadband]

Janet / Jisc had direct funding from the government which meant that they could supply universities with very fast connectivity for prices lower than what was generally available on the commercial market.

 

This though is now due to change as they are having their funding pulled so they have to commercialise the Janet network. I expect prices to go up at some point so JISC can recoup the funding they were receiving.

 

Dave

 

 

We're a college and we are on JANET. I don't know the reasons we went with them (before anyones time) but it is very reliable, very fast and we've been upgraded a couple of times in the last 5 years

[CAWJames]

Thanks for the headsup on that one, just read the reports, 15-20k for a single site , going up a high as 100k for multisite, complicated setups. That's going to hurt the institutions on it who will need to start paying in 2019.

 

Think we will stay on our leased lines, much cheaper!(although that's not my priority, but may be the boss's...)

[mjk]

for colleges it's great because you get an .ac.uk email address that makes you look like an academic.

[CAWJames]

we have an ac.uk and are a college though?

[3s-gtech]

We're a school on JANET, as most are round here, though that will start to change soon. No real advantages now, as other decent options are available from ISPs. When working to its fullest, we do get very good synchronous speeds though.

[clodhopper]

We're with Janet & I wouldn't want it any other way after seeing all the work they do in the background to keep the network safe & secure.

 

If you're a college I'd suggest you get in touch with JISC and get the rep for the area to come in and talk to you. It could be that you're missing out on lots of other services as it's not JUST an internet connection.

[JiscLuke]

Jisc is a "not for profit non-commercial organisation". In answer to your question, Janet is a private netwok which means all of the sensitive data you send about the young people you safe guard never leaves our network or transits the wild west that is the internet. Safe Harbouring is incredibly important and Janet takes the pain out of demonstrating this to the powers that be, its is also completely uncontended (you don't have to share bandwidth with anyone else) there is no other provider in the UK that can do that.

 

There are different ways to acheive what you are looking for. You could have a janet connection and run a netpath between the various campus, delivering all your networking needs via MPLS wide area network and lose the leased lines altogether.

Edited May 29, 2018 by elsiegee40

[EXA_Mark]

..... its is also completely uncontended (you don't have to share bandwidth with anyone else) there is no other provider in the UK that can do that.

 

@JiscLuke, That's not exactly an accurate statement. Our service, DarkLight on a point to point, or point to multi-point, does just that, starting at 10Gbps up to 100Gbps uncontended. It is Dark Fibre (lit by us) between each point, not touching any third party network or sharing bandwidth. I could point you to multiple Colleges and Universities that already have it in.

[SchoolsBroadband]

agree with @exa_mark here. We too have some universities and local authorities that lease dark fibre and waves from us giving a layer 1 rather than a layer 2 based service.

 

Dave