Fast, cost-effective connection to the Internet for learners wherever they are

As the rise in blended learning continues, organisations at all levels are increasingly relying upon resources held online rather than on-premise. This has its problems as well as its advantages.

With students now expecting to be able to work online from different locations or outside normal hours, cloud-based applications make it easier to deliver blended learning and provide a consistent learner experience across devices. However, connecting users - wherever they are - with the cloud-based workloads to which they need access can be complex and expensive.

The Janet Network provides this secure, fast, reliable connectivity to UK universities, colleges and research institutions as part of Jisc membership.

But what if your organisation doesn’t have a Janet connection? If you’re a school, multi-academy trust or local authority with a small IT team? If you urgently need a connection but it’s not happening fast enough? Or if you’re simply having to cut costs wherever you can?

SD-WAN may be the answer

Our vision is to extend the reach of Janet beyond the private, physical lines to which it has traditionally been limited so that we can offer more flexible options in terms of costs, consumption and speed of delivery.

As part of that vision, we are currently working on making centrally-managed SD-WAN functionality available over the powerful, reliable Janet Network – with or without a physical connection.

SD-WAN (software-defined wide area network) technology offers a reliable, scalable, cost-effective way to connect learners to the Janet Network.

For organisations without a fixed connection to Janet, a managed SD-WAN service will enable them to use any internet connection, including broadband, fibre, Wi-Fi and satellite.

This will give learners access to a wealth of cloud-based applications that can scale rapidly, be accessed from anywhere, and seamlessly integrate with one another to deliver the best learner experience.

Powerful, reliable connectivity

More and more institutions are opting for cloud-hosted software-as-a-service (SaaS) versions of learning management systems, productivity tools such as Microsoft 365, and collaboration solutions like Teams or Zoom.

SD-WAN improves the performance of these applications by simplifying network operations.

It also makes it easier to get visibility into the network in order to manage it and make changes from a single location, saving time and effort for IT teams.

Fast connectivity

The provisioning of an MPLS connection can take months - if MPLS is available at all. In comparison, SD-WAN can be deployed in minutes.

New buildings, offices or campuses can be provisioned and brought online quickly and easily, sometimes without the involvement of an on-site network engineer.

In fact, we’ve already demonstrated the value of the SD-WAN service by deploying it at a sixth-form school that was affected by the RAAC crisis. Within 10 days, we were able to provide them with connectivity and web filtering, where delivering an Openreach circuit could have potentially taken months.

Cost-effective connectivity

To effectively deliver blended learning, institutions must constantly improve and upgrade their network infrastructures. At a time when rising costs are the primary concern across the sector, this inevitably incurs capital expenditure and ongoing maintenance costs.

SD-WAN can reduce costs by, for example, prioritising traffic and using lower-cost links for applications that are less important or less performance-sensitive.

And, ultimately, a managed service saves time and resources. Organisations will be able to reduce the operational expenses of network administration by entrusting it to Jisc.

Find out more

• Visit our managed SD-WAN service page
• Read our Aston Manor Academy member story to find out how they got students back in the classroom and learning by using our innovative SD-WAN concept.