Janet South - procurement update

You will recall that Janet is bringing the regional networks back ‘in house’ to be managed and maintained by Janet staff.  The LeNSE network was transferred to Janet in October 2012 with a view to re-procure the network in 2014.  Due to increasing demands in bandwidth, Janet took the decision to re-procure the network early.

A requirements gathering exercise was conducted late in 2012 and the procurement process was started in early 2013.  SSET have won the contract to supply the new network (to be known as Janet South) and we are very close to signing the various contracts with SSET.

The new network will be a dark fibre core with Janet managing the optical layer.  This is a change from LeNSE, which was a managed service.  The new network will initially have a core at 20Gb with a roadmap to 40Gb within 2 to 3 years.  Access circuits will be a mixture of BT and VirginMedia.  Some of the existing circuits to colleges will be re-used where appropriate, but in most cases new circuits will be provisioned.

Unless you have had a recent specific conversation with Janet, college bandwidths will remain as they are currently.  This does not preclude additional circuits at a later date.

There will be no charge to colleges for the installation of the new network, except for those identified to specific colleges as part of a wider college project.  The Janet managed router service will remain for those sites that are utilising the service.

Projected timeline-

It is anticipated that the new core infrastructure will be handed over to Janet in November 2013.  Janet will then start the migration of colleges to the new network early in 2014, to be completed by March 2014.  The migration process will be carried out in consultation with you to minimise any downtime.  Paperwork will be issued from Janet in the next few months and prompt action and return of documents where requested would be greatly appreciated.