Page 21 - 2020 OIT Progress Report

100G NETWORK UPGRADE AND CAMPUS WIRING UPGRADES
Faster is better, and gaining access to resources quickly continues to drive network demand. The
SMU network currently operates at 10Gbit/s, but
the equipment running the network has aged and limits the ability to grow with campus and industry demands. In the fall of 2019, working with an external partner, OIT developed a roadmap for the network that included an initial upgrade of the campus core. In the initial phase, OIT transitioned all SMU buildings to a new infrastructure that supports connectivity options of 10, 25, 40 and even 100Gbit/s (gigabits per second). This initial phase has greatly increased bandwidth to key resources residing inside of the University Data Center.
CLOUD SERVICES:
AWS AND RHEDCLOUD
OIT recognizes that getting access to on-demand services like servers should be as simple as
possible. SMU has joined the RHEDCloud consortium which is a group of universities and Fortune500 companies that are implementing cloud services within university campuses. SMU is working with RHEDCloud and will begin implementing Amazon Web Services in the fall of 2020. The primary outcome will be to expedite the delivery of virtual servers
with Amazon Web Services while leveraging existing academic and administrative safeguards.
Through continued implementation of our long- term infrastructure objectives in cooperation with our external and campus partners, OIT is committed to providing the computing power and network throughput to enable faculty and students to remain on the leading edge of emerging areas of research.
FORD STADIUM CELLULAR
As the football season begins, thousands of fans rush to SMU to support the Mustangs. During these large events, the cellular carrier’s infrastructure is easily overwhelmed by the number of people in the stadium. To help mitigate this issue, OIT has partnered with AT&T to install a dedicated cellular infrastructure inside of Ford Stadium by 2021. The initial phase will include AT&T coverage only with future phases including other vendors.
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