Contents

03 2015 Financial Highlights 04 A message from the Chair, Gerard Sutton 06 A message from the CEO, Chris Hancock 08 Case Study: Improving how complex diseases are treated 10 2015 - A year in review 12 Case Study: How the secrets of the universe are discovered 14 AARNet International Network 16 AARNet National Network 17 2015 Operational Highlights 18 Case Study: Removing barriers to innovation for scientists in regional areas 20 Our team 22 Case Study: Schools co-invest in infrastructure to meet future needs 24 Increasing our focus on cloud and professional services 26 Case Study: AARNet extends into Asia 28 Appendix A

1 2 2015 Financial Highlights

Cost of off-net traffic Inbound traffic to Members per GB from all sources 43.3% up by 2010 2015 Average annual growth $4.00 $1.20 in GB received from all 54.78 % Average sources for Members annual (2010–2015) reduction 21.4 %

Commonwealth Member subscriptions funding contributes as % of total income 1. 8 % 2010 2015 $ 3 8 .1 Average annual increase in aggregate Members’ million subscriptions, access and to network infrastructure traffic charges 73.8% 45.6% (2012-2015) (2010-2015) (incl access and traffic)

In 2015 aggregate International Traffic Members’ subscriptions, access and traffic charges reduced by $92.3 million 34% committed 1.1% to future operations of received traffic 3 A message from the has delivered outstanding chair value to shareholders - aarnet is recognised as vital, enabling infrastructure underpinning the nation’s innovation agenda

4 Dear Shareholders 2015 marks my 4th year as Chair of the AARNet Board, and I am pleased to report that it has been another very successful year for AARNet. A great year for AARNet is one that not only generates a solid business performance, but one that enables our customers to improve the performance of research and education in Australia and which in turn sustains our global competitiveness.

Sophisticated analysis tools and visualisation I sincerely believe that our people, and core software are being used to mine massive capabilities provide a unique opportunity to amounts of experimental data from the play a lead role in this new globally health, life and environmental sciences. In connected era. During the year we Australia, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) welcomed Dr Christine Burns and Mr Rob For almost 27 years AARNet has computing platforms will develop new Fitzpatrick to the Board, and I wish to offer been reporting on the development algorithms and codes to exploit hardware my sincere thanks to Professor Ian Young AO, of a world-class national research technology and technology transfer for the who retired from the Board in 2015. Finally, and education network and its excellence in world’s largest radio telescope project. I would like to thank the Commonwealth network operations. This is an update about AARNet will be at the very heart of enabling Government for its continued support. our widespread engagement and the value all of these changes. that we are delivering to our shareholders. We are confident that we are creating great It showcases the national and international The rapid development of emerging value for you and the other members of collaboration of our customers and how they economies around the globe is resulting in our community and I have no doubt that have capitalised on the opportunities that more individuals and organisations valuing 2016 will be an equally successful and the network has made available to them. education and relying on the outputs of exciting year. research to underpin their rapidly increasing Today AARNet is a model business, an economies and living standards. Network exemplar of academic/business partnership technology is making it increasingly easier to that has endured in the highly regulated reach, and serve the broader education world of telecommunications to become one communities both nationally and of the world’s leading National Research and internationally. Education Networks (NREN)s. We are increasing our investment in infrastructure Australia is located in the right place at the and services for Australia to remain right time in the Asian region in this the connected to our international NREN “Asian century”. The international network Gerard Sutton AO partners, who together operate some of the will rise in importance, as the need to Chair, AARNet Board world’s most advanced networks and who capitalise on collective research capabilities underpin the advancement of science and around the world becomes more pressing. innovation. This presents both opportunities and challenges, particularly in connecting to Asia, We are on the verge of an exciting new era and a key focus for 2016 will be upgrading for AARNet. We are experiencing a paradigm our network west to Singapore. shift in which scientific process and innovation are beginning in the virtual world As Chair of the Board at AARNet I would like of modelling and simulation before moving to thank my fellow Board Members, the to the real world of the laboratory. CEO Mr Hancock and the Management and Staff of AARNet for their professionalism and dedication.

5 a year of delivery to our customers

This past year has seen AARNet ramp up its focus right across its customer base, from our 38 Shareholder Universities and the CSIRO, to our A message from schools, TAFEs, health partners and our galleries, libraries, archives & the museums. In addition, AARNet stepped CEO up its interactions with both Federal and State Governments in order to ensure that the value and contribution of its services can be fully integrated into the planning and deployment of the Science, Education, Research and Innovation Agenda across the country.

6 AARNet has also developed a Science DMZ AARNet was actively engaged in the Global offering as part of a broader focus on “Data CEO’s Forum, including in the development Access” and “Data Movement” in the of a global network infrastructure, the eResearch environment aimed at accelerating delivery of global products & solutions the transfer of big datasets into and out of platforms and the launch of the global campus networks. AARNet has implemented “In the Field” website highlighting the The health and medical research Science DMZ deployments simulating the extraordinary array of global collaborations sectors were also a focus this past connections deployed at RDSI Nodes, which between national research & education year. Our Eduroam wireless service have already proved invaluable in networks serving teaching, learning is now in widespread use across the health demonstrating peak data transfer and research. sector in most states of Australia and we performance to our research community. Finally, I would like to thank the AARNet connected new medical research institutes During 2015 AARNet accelerated its focus on Board for their strong support and guidance and health precincts to AARNet. The AARNet providing products and solutions ‘above the throughout the year. I would also like to network once again exceeded both the core ’. Zoom, our cloud based video extend my sincere gratitude to the AARNet network availability metrics and delivery to product, grew strongly with more than Advisory Committee and its Chair, Jeff our customer premises equipment. Of 120,000 participants across 36,000 meetings Murray, for their reinvigorated approach significance was the successful completion of and has expanded to 31 organisations. The to assisting AARNet to meet its goals the roll-out of our next generation AARNet 4 CloudStor phenomenon continued for both throughout 2015. I would like to personally backbone network, which provides significant sending and storing ‘big data’ with almost congratulate the outstanding contributions increase in capacity to 100 gigabits per second 20,000 researchers using the system, and by each and every employee of AARNet this across the country ensuring even higher levels working with our international partners and past year. Their efforts are always above and of performance at a lower cost. In addition to CERN developing a global cloud mesh to beyond the call of duty and have positioned this quantum leap in capacity, AARNet has share data across international AARNet as a world leader in the global pushed the boundaries by developing two collaborations. Our Enterprise Services research and education community and new world-leading technologies. assisted customers with off-site backup data in our delivery to our customers. SDN (Software Defined Networking) is an centre services, network blueprint reviews emerging new technology, focused on and ongoing support with network teasing apart the data forwarding function of troubleshooting, supplier design sanity a piece of network equipment from its path checks and change management processes. calculation function, providing greater In 2015 AARNet delivered on its international network flexibility at a lower cost. AARNet engagement by continuing to drive the developed an SDN testbed which was development for ongoing funding for TEIN 5, officially launched at the Australian Open Chris Hancock the 5th generation of the Trans Eurasian Networking Foundation symposium in Chief Executive Officer Information Network and we were also Sydney with participating universities and responsible for the deployment of Eduroam the CSIRO linking to two international in 7 beneficiary countries throughout Asia. testbeds in the USA.

Selected Financial Data ($m) 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008* 2009* 2010* 2011* 2012 2013 2014 2015 Net Assets $36.8 $43.5 $60.2 $65.1 $65.8 $74.9 $82.6 $92.3 $107.9 $130.3 $150.4 $179.5 Surplus $11.2 $6.6 $16.8 $4.9 $0.7 $8.1 $8.7 $9.9 $15.3 $22.0 $19.8 $29.3 Net Tangible Assets $11.6 $19.5 $21.2 $20.8 $27.3 $34.2 $35.1 $40.0 $52.0# $64.2 $79.4 $109.8 Cashflow from Operations $6.9 $10.8 $14.7 $19.2 $21.0 $26.3 $31.5 $22.4 $29.4 $45.5 $31.5 $45.9 *The figures above have been restated to reflect the change in accounting policy adopted in 2012. Refer to note 1(c) in the 2012 Financial Annual Report 7 Genomics is generating new insights into the genetic causes of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and congenital disorders, and promises to transform healthcare. In 2003 the international Human Genome Project announced the first sequence map of a human genome, spending 13 years and US$3 billion to do it. Thirteen years later, Garvan’s KCCG is able to sequence 150 whole human genomes every 3 days, at a cost to Australian researchers of less than A$2,000 per genome. At full capacity, the centre can sequence 18,000 whole human genomes per year and is expected to generate in excess of 4.5 petabytes of data over the next three years. Dr Warren Kaplan, Garvan’s Chief of Informatics says at full capacity KCCG will be moving at least 4 terabytes of data Improving how complex per day from the sequencing centre to the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) diseases are treated supercomputing facility in .

AARNet collaborated with the University of New South Designing a specialised network for a new era of genomics research Wales Australia (UNSW) and the Garvan Institute of UNSW IT partnered with AARNet for the Medical Research to develop a specialised high-performance design and deployment of the network network for Garvan’s Kinghorn Centre for Clinical Genomics infrastructure required for the sequencing centre. The network provides high-speed (KCCG). This facility, the largest genome sequencing interconnections between Garvan/UNSW centre in the southern hemisphere, provides Australian and the NCI supercomputing facility. genomics researchers with cost-effective whole “There are more than 70 Garvan bioinformaticians working with local and human genome sequencing. international collaborators on genomic data, and we have mind-bogglingly large amounts of genomic information that needs to be moved over the AARNet network for analysis and storage at the NCI.

8 case study What our customers are saying The size of the datasets means that “The reality is, we at Garvan are downloading them to the researcher’s moving towards being very The volume of data is increasing laboratory is impractical. Instead, connected to the world and we exponentially so we require a scalable researchers will access and analyse the see AARNet as the provider of network to meet our needs into the future,” data through tools and computing facilities says Dr Kaplan. underpinned by AARNet at NCI. the underlying fabric that makes it all happen.” Researchers from across Australia and With some of the most cost-effective around the world will be able to analyse genome sequencing facilities in the world, DR WARREN KAPLAN, CHIEF OF their Garvan-generated genomic information and genomic collections of international INFORMATICS, GARVAN INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL RESEARCH in a secure environment by using the NCI’s importance such as the MGRB, Australian supercomputer or high-performance cloud researchers are positioned to take a leading computing infrastructure. role in emerging genomics research. Enabling access to a world-class “We might be doing the genome genome reference collection sequencing. But we’re doing it on behalf of the genomics researchers of Australia. In addition, Garvan is creating a reference And we have a responsibility to them: collection of healthy human genomes from to be able to say with regards to the participants in existing longitudinal study challenges—be it storage, be it computing Opposite page: DNA molecules. cohorts. The Medical Genome Reference —we have addressed those. You do not This page, left to right: Genomic sequencing Bank (MGRB) project is part of a $24 million need to worry about that. And that’s really laboratory, Garvan Institute of Medical genomics research collaborative funded the big advantage to us.” Research, Sydney Australia, 2014. by the NSW State Government. Dr Warren Kaplan.

9 - a year in review

Managing the network is This year there were several 10Gbps international our primary function significant outages on the Sydney commodity upgrades to to Guam and to Singapore AARNet operates a world class IP links which impacted on network Seattle, San Jose, Palo Alto network, equivalent to international performance. Connectivity to the and Los Angeles Asia network was preserved by “Tier One” ISPs, where our Not all international research and deploying alternate paths through customers receive 100% backbone education partners are connected to network reliability with no service North America and our peering with other NRENs. their national NRENs, meaning their degradation during outages, planned traffic must transit our commodity or otherwise. One of the distinguishing features links rather than our research links of a research and education However, continuity in performance network is the careful capacity on SXTransPORT. over such vast geographic distances planning necessary to remain AARNet has now some 4 commercial can only be delivered by a ahead of the demand curve. grade PoPs in the USA. This delivers well-architected network. Our AARNet closely monitors all of its diversity and redundancy and allows operations group are the engine circuits to ensure sufficient AARNet to safely drive all circuits to room of our organisation. Network capacity. The peak demands of the maximum capacity. reliability again delivered 100% academic year determine the uptime over our own infrastructure capacity for a highly available and and 99.98% in end to end diverse network. AARNet Black Spots Fibre benefits performance. Faults and scheduled continually monitors the load, as a Broken Hills maintenance again went unnoticed percentage of the capacity of the by the user community as a result link rather than the absolute One of the most beneficial programs of deploying alternate paths to volume of traffic, to determine from the Commonwealth Government cover outages. required network upgrades. 34% has been the RBBP or Blackspots Our customers are increasingly of all received traffic is from Program announced in February 2009. valuing this reliability, international destinations meaning The RBBP is separate to the NBN and commissioning us to build diverse Australian research and education AARNet has an IRU for services on all paths into the network backbone. is increasing its collaboration internationally and domestic sections of the RBBP. This year we peering now accounts for 69% commissioned the Shepparton to of all traffic. Adelaide link creating diversity for South Australia and providing capacity into Broken Hill.

10 fibre builds allowed AARNet to provision new services for many new and existing customers now within reach of the network. Our customers’ focus on data centre access for cloud services for Web Services, Azure, Rackspace and many others has given rise to many new connections into the network. AARNet has also leveraged its new infrastructure to double the investment by exchanging SXTransPORT provides vital services in addition to the current routed fibre pairs with other carrier partners. research infrastructure to internet access. It is enabling the use of This in turn has extended the AARNet more economic customer equipment. reach to new customers and increased the USA diversity for existing customers. AARNet4 backbone network is now fully Networks (SCCN) implemented, with a minimum of 2 core is a most valued partner for AARNet. Peer-Edge (PE) routers at diverse Now into its 12th year, the sponsorship locations in each state interconnected at capacity known as SXTransPORT plays a a minimum of 100Gbps. The majority of critical role in astronomy projects such Universities and major customers have as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and now migrated to AARNet4 and are now the Australian Square Kilometre Array taking advantage of the increased Pathfinder (ASKAP) projects. These performance and new services available. 40Gbps links to the US provide for ‘big data’ transport ahead of anticipated demand, and ensures that Australia Building the last mile continues to play an integral role in While the network design builds in major research programs, such as diversity and redundancy across all genomics, radio astronomy, climate elements of the backbone, the last modelling and high energy physics. AARNet customers benefit greatly from mile will continue to be a significant optimised international unmetered use undertaking for AARNet. of the network regularly achieving data In 2015, AARNet completed many streams of 7Gbps. thousands of pair/kms increasing access to, and diversity for, the AARNet backbone network. AARNet gratefully Rolling out AARNet4 acknowledges the Commonwealth AARNet completed the rollout of Government, which through the AARNet4, the 4th generation of the Education Investment Fund (EIF), has network architecture. allowed AARNet to build dark fibre in nearly every state. This replaced the previous AARNet3 Mt Gambia and Whyalla were significant routed backbone with a distribution undertakings and a great benefit for layer of 100Gbps-capable devices, regional South Australia. All of these capable of layer-2 and layer-3 VPN 11 Physicists are recreating the conditions of the Universe just after the ‘Big Bang’. They are searching for new discoveries in the head-on collisions of protons of extraordinarily high energy and these discoveries will change our understanding of energy and matter. Following the discovery of the Higgs boson, data from the ATLAS experiment allows in-depth investigation of the boson’s properties and the origin of mass.

A global collaboration Data processing for some 500 trillion collisions at the LHC requires fast and reliable research networks spanning the globe with processing facilities distributed over those networks. The day never ends for the ATLAS experiment – it is a true global collaboration involving thousands of scientists from more than 177 universities How the secrets of the and laboratories worldwide. universe are discovered Australia’s involvement Physicists are recreating the conditions of What are the basic forces that have shaped the Universe just after the ‘Big Bang’. our Universe since the beginning of time? The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics (CoEPP) How will they determine our fate? based at the University of is Australia’s leading research centre in These are the fundamental questions driving high-energy physics. The Centre is a the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron collaborative research venture between the , the University of Collider (LHC) at the CERN (European Adelaide, the University of Sydney and Organisation for Nuclear Research) laboratory Monash University. in Geneva, Switzerland. Through its work on the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in CERN, CoEPP researchers contributed to the Higgs boson discovery in 2012 and provided valuable, and essential, resources to the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). 12 case study AARNet provided CoEPP connectivity to the WLCG during the famous first run of the Australian research groups have been part LHC and now for its second run, where of this for the best part of 25 years,” says even greater demands are placed on the The WLCG consists of 170 computing CoEPP Director Prof Geoffrey Taylor. underlying computing infrastructure. centres in 42 countries, linking up national Dr Taylor says greater network bandwidths and international grid infrastructures. The role of networking to Australia will be crucial in order for CoEPP to continue to provide meaningful The mission of the WLCG project is to “The site’s high availability and reliability contributions to the computational power provide global computing resources to has been achieved as a direct consequence needed for the physics analyses. store, distribute and analyse the ~30 of the stellar performance of the Petabytes (30 million Gigabytes) of data underpinning network connectivity As CoEPP continues to achieve international annually generated by the LHC. The CoEPP between the Australian Academic Research recognition for Australia in the field of research computing team provides Network (AARNet) and corresponding WLCG high-energy physics, its collaborative grid-connected storage and computing Tier 1 site at TRIUMF (Canada’s national capacity and contribution to worldwide resources via its ATLAS Tier 2 grid site. laboratory for particle and nuclear physics) projects relies ever more on the capabilities “It’s a very exciting time for physicists. The across AARNet’s trans-Pacific SXTransPORT of the networking infrastructure connecting Higgs boson discovery is a milestone for link. Sustained transfer rates of High Australian researchers and resources to the physics community, and for human Energy Physics data sets greater than the world. understanding of the fundamental laws that 7Gbps between North America and govern the Universe. As scientific Australia are not uncommon,” says discoveries go, this is up there with finding Prof. Taylor. Opposite page: First half of the CMS inner a way to split the atom. tracker barrel. This page: Workers assembling the ATLAS SemiConductor Tracker (SCT) at CERN.

13 AARNet International Network

Amsterdam Amsterdam London London Seattle Seattle

Beijing Seoul New York Seoul Palo Alto New York Beijing PSanalo AltJoseo Tokyo San Jose Tokyo Los Angeles Lahore Los Angeles Lahore Thimphu Thimphu Taipei Hong Kong Taipei Honolulu Miami Dhaka Hong Kong Honolulu Miami Thuwal Dhaka Hanoi Mauna Lani Thuwal Mumbai Hanoi Manila Mauna Lani Mumbai Bangkok Manila Guam Bangkok Guam Colombo Colombo Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur Singapore Singapore

Bandung Bandung Suva Suva

Sao Paulo Key Sao Paulo Key Other R&E PoP Other R&E PoP Perth Sydney Santiago Other R&E Network Cape Town Perth Sydney Santiago Other R&E Network Cape Town Buenos Aires AARNet PoP Auckland Buenos Aires AARNet PoP Auckland 1 Gbps 1 Gbps 1 Gbps Back Up Path 1 Gbps Back Up Path 2.5 Gbps 2.5 Gbps 10 Gbps 10 Gbps 40 Gbps 40 Gbps n * 100G DWDM Transmission n * 100G DWDM Transmission AARNet National Network

DarwinDarwin

CCairnsairns

TTownsvilleownsville

MackayMackay

RRockhamptonockhampton AliceAlice Springs Springs GladstoneGladstone

MRMROO SippySippy Downs Downs BrisbaneBrisbane Geraldton LismorLismoree KKalgoorliealgoorlie Narrabri Narrabri ArmidaleArmidale Broken Hill Orange PPortort Macquarie Macquarie Port Augusta Broken Hill PParkesarkes Orange Port Augusta NewcastleNewcastle PPertherth BathurBathurstst WhyallWhyallaa SySydnedneyy MildurMilduraa Wagga Wagga Wollongong AAdelaidedelaide Wagga Wagga Wollongong CCanberanberrara VVictorictor Harbor Harbor Bendigo Bendigo SheppartonShepparton BallarBallaratat MtMt Gambier Gambier MelbourneMelbourne GeelongGeelong KeKeyy AARNeAARNett NAPs NAPs KeKeyy Regional Regional Sit Siteses 11 Gbps Gbps 2.52.5 Gbps Gbps 1010 Gbps Gbps HobartHobart nn * * 100G 100G DWDM DWDM Tr Transmissionansmission 16 2015 Operational Highlights

EIF funded Annual growth in dark fibre projects complete traffic up by backhaul between Palo Alto benefiting connects to 54.78 % AND nearly every (2014-2015) Los Angeles state AARNet

Domestic peering IDG builds Tonga now accounts for 33 connects to new paths and Fiji % 40Gbps and to 69 on SXTransPORT 517k of all traffic to Seattle pair Kms AARNet

AARNet4 complete - one of the world’s connects over longest unregenerated New connection high-performance to Broken Hill and 24,000 110,000 optical networks Alice Springs AU users per day Zoom licences

2015 28,000 150,000 29,000,000 240%pa users files transfered files stored growth 17 Electronic sensors and sensor networks used in agricultural research generate very large data sets. In the current research environment, members of large multidisciplinary research teams can be located hundreds or thousands of kilometers apart. The ability to transfer very large data files quickly and efficiently between team members at various locations is becoming increasingly necessary. “Under the previous eight to ten megabit per second internet system, a video file of an animal’s behaviour used to annotate sensor data took one hour and forty minutes to transfer from Armidale to Brisbane. This can now be done over AARNet in less than five minutes, a whopping twenty-fold increase in speed,” said CSIRO’s David Paull. He says AARNet’s high-speed file transfer capacity will lift the capability of this Removing barriers to innovation regional research centre by allowing researchers to share large data files in for scientists in regional areas real time. Access to the network enables data analysis to be performed by staff with specific statistical expertise at A 10 Gigabit per second AARNet link is different locations within a very short enabling animal scientists based at the CSIRO period of time. FD McMaster Laboratory near Armidale to For example, a new CSIRO and NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) share research data more efficiently with research project aimed at estimating feed experts at other CSIRO facilities and partner intake of individual grazing animals uses institutions across Australia. audio and motion sensors for capturing data related to feeding behaviours. The sensors generate very large data sets that require a high level of annotation to deliver precise and accurate estimates of pasture intake for individual animals within a herd.

18 case study What Our Customers Are Saying Capturing this information with a high level “Handling and sharing the large of precision and repeatability is extremely data sets generated by sensor These data sets are transferred over the valuable for developing new breeding and networks in a timely manner AARNet connection from where the precision management programs,” he says. experimental animals are located at CSIRO’s between sites would be FD McMaster Laboratory to scientists with The aim is to enable enhanced monitoring extremely difficult or near specific statistical expertise located in of livestock health and welfare in differing impossible under the old network. Brisbane. The scientists in Brisbane then landscapes, and to make Australia’s Access to AARNet’s high speed are also able to work with the raw data as livestock industries more efficient and network opens up exciting new better adapted to our ever-changing an integral part of the research team to opportunities for agricultural develop methods and prediction algorithms environment. for the pasture intake of individuals within science and industries that were the herd. not previously possible.” Team leader, Paul Greenwood from NSW DPI PAUL GREENWOOD, NSW DEPARTMENT OF PRIMARY INDUSTRIES says, new sensor technologies have the potential to become very useful research tools for future studies in animal science, particularly for grazing livestock. “Sensor technologies give researchers the ability to record information from animals without constraining the expression of Opposite page: Steer with sensor on ear. their normal behavioural patterns. This page: CSIRO cattle grazing.

19 AARNet staff our Australian Capital Territory 08 New South Wales 40 The Organisation The AARNet Board AARNet Pty Ltd [ACN 084 540 518] of Directors is the not-for-profit company that The Board of Directors is operates the AARNet network, responsible for the overall providing high-capacity Internet direction of AARNet and for 12 services to Australia’s universities, providing benefits to the research institutions including the South Australia shareholders as required CSIRO, DSTO and ANSTO, and other under the constitution. research and education For more than 20 years, organisations. 01 AARNet has shared and Shares in AARNet Pty Ltd [AARNet] exchanged expertise with our are held by the thirty-eight shareholders and customers Australian Universities and the in many ways, supporting 10 CSIRO as listed in the enclosed national and international AARNet Annual Report Appendix A. collaboration and innovation Western Australia AARNet is a licensed Australian in research and education and telecommunications carrier [#61 networking. under the Telecommunications Act AARNet has been effective in 09 1997 Cth]. making representations to Netherlands The Chief Executive Officer reports government on policy, to the Board of Directors listed in legislation, strategy and the enclosed AARNet Annual programs to improve the 01 Report Appendix A. The AARNet telecommunications facilities Advisory Committee [AAC] and services available not represents the interests of the only to the education and members and is a source of advice research sector, but to all Tota l on policy and business matters. Australians. as at Regional Network Organisations, December which are generally state based, 81 2015 elect one representative to the AAC.

20 …and our team The skill of our people and the culture they have created has resulted in a small and effective group of highly motivated, dedicated and expert staff. The CEO, together with the Executive Management Team, with careful planning is continually striving to add depth to the AARNet experience. This strategic plan has enabled our national research and education network to develop and maintain one of the largest operational footprints in the world. Vale Rob Ewin During 2015, we welcomed a number AARNet 2005-2012 of staff into our team. The total number of AARNet employees grew to 85. The growth in our numbers reflects the AARNet staff and many in the Higher A number of staff from AARNet, need to efficiently resource the Education Sector were shocked and including the CEO Chris Hancock, organisation for improved customer saddened to hear of Rob Ewin’s sudden participate in the Australian American service and infrastructure growth to passing. Rob was a dedicated and Leadership Dialogue program, which is meet the demands of our customers significant contributor to AARNet and he a private diplomatic initiative with the and shareholders. Owning and operating will be greatly missed. mission to broaden and deepen mutual our own optical infrastructure has understanding between Australian and transformed AARNet into an asset American leaders and to enhance the owner and operator. With this capability Community participation framework for regional security in a manner that underwrites economic and AARNet requires skilled and competent AARNet is enthusiastic about cultural prosperity for Australian and network, operations and infrastructure supporting STEM and further serving resources, and the commercial expertise American citizens. the community. to continue to deliver to our customer freedom of connectivity not previously This year, an AARNet-sponsored team seen in Australia. of high school students won a top spot in the inaugural Australia Regional FIRST Important Publications AARNet will continue to require higher Robotics Competition. AARNet also Previous Annual Reports: financial resources and a greater number continues to sponsor conferences, http://www.aarnet.edu.au/about-us/ of expert and skilled staff for long-term conventions and community events with publications.aspx planning and operation of the network high-speed Internet connections in kind, to meet the growing dependence on AARNet’s Access Policy: examples being the annual QUESTnet networking technology, services and http://www.aarnet.edu.au/about-us/ conference; Museums and the Web Asia; applications for research and education. policies.aspx e-Research Australia; the Adelaide Mini In parallel AARNet will continue to foster Maker Faire from which the ABC AARNet’s Peering Policy: and develop its technical and business broadcast live radio across the AARNet http://www.aarnet.edu.au/about-us/ staff and management who are working connection; and RFLAN, an on-line policies.aspx to deliver enhanced customer service, computer hobbyist/enthusiast event held network and infrastructure growth to AARNet’s Content Policy: at the Sports Stadium, Curtin University. http://www.aarnet.edu.au/about-us/ the Australian research and education policies.aspx community. 21 The economics of sharing the capital costs mean that a fibre build can extend over a large footprint and connect more sites – co-contributing makes connectivity to AARNet cost-effective and therefore possible when the cost of an individual build is out of reach. For schools in Australia today, connectivity to AARNet is not just about an Internet connection. It’s about ensuring long-term access to a reliable, scalable, affordable, high-performing network that will support wireless access for thousands of devices and at the same time enable access to the cloud marketplace, data centres, Australian universities and research organisations, as well as online resources and digital tools for teaching and learning anywhere in the world. One example of the application of the co-investment model involves seven Schools co-invest in infrastructure non-government schools in the Kew area of Melbourne, VIC. These schools took to meet future needs advantage of their geographical proximity and formed a collaborative consortium to co-invest in fibre optic infrastructure AARNet works closely with schools to develop sustainable with AARNet. solutions for delivering the high-bandwidth and low-latency A dedicated optical circuit, initially lit up at connectivity that provides staff and students with access to 1Gigabit per second (Gbps) and scalable up to multiple Gbps on demand, was deployed the digital tools and resources they need to thrive in the at each of the schools in the consortium. digital age. Co-investing in AARNet infrastructure is a cost- Even though the schools compete with effective solution that has gained traction around the each other, co-investing to ensure that future bandwidth needs could be met in country in recent years. a cost efficient way was an attractive proposition. Janet Smith, Director of Technology and Curriculum at Methodist Ladies College, one of the participating schools, said the

22 case study He also says the collaboration is fostering other on-going mutual benefits for local capacity and effective on-line learning schools. management systems as critical for the shared-infrastructure idea became viable delivery of education. “We’ve started discussing possible offsite because other nearby schools had common backup solutions where we hand over part learning and curriculum goals that would be “A key challenge for schools today is to of our server room to another school in advanced with the faster internet provide a solid, robust and high performing exchange for the same thing in their server connection. network that provides the students and room – mutually beneficial and cost staff with the tools to support their effective,” he said. “The advantages for teachers and students teaching and learning. It made economic are many, including the reliable high speed and practical sense to collaborate to ensure This shared-infrastructure model has been connectivity AARNet provides to an we all benefited from a high speed and deployed to other school collaborative increasingly sophisticated suite of teaching first class quality internet link for our consortia, including Canberra Girls Grammar tools used to support and enhance the schools,” he said. “The cost efficiency was and Canberra Boys Grammar, ACT; classroom experience,” she says. critical and it was so pleasing to see us all Christchurch and Methodist Ladies College, WA; and St Hilda’s and Iona, WA, with other Each of the schools involved identified work together for a common outcome.” deployments at various stages underway their long-term bandwidth needs, factoring Trinity Grammar’s IT Director Rob Flavell elsewhere across the country. in the current growth of devices on their says that while AARNet delivering a fast respective networks and the increasing connection at a price the school can afford availability of, and demand for, digital is key, the relationships AARNet has with curriculum resources and services. the broader research and education Mark Glover, Business Manager for communities, including entities such as the This page: Students from Genazzano FCJ, another school in the CSIRO, are also of great interest and value. Methodist Ladies College. consortium lists bandwidth, wireless

23 Increasing our on cloud and professional services

Zoom dominates the video CloudStor a home grown conferencing market for phenomenon education CloudStor Sender, the web platform AARNet was one of the first customers enabling researchers to transmit files to contract with Zoom when it was just too large to be sent using email, has a 4-person start-up. grown into what can only be described as a phenomenon. It has been one of our most successful and beneficial services due to not only The platform was introduced in June a great product. but also the very 2010 and was developed by a co- advantageous pricing and terms, which operative of NRENs from across the globe. includes the location of Zoom servers in In five short years 28,000 users have Australia for optimum video performance. flocked to the service in Australia alone, transferring an average of 500Mbps 24 AARNet is very proud of Zoom’s success. hours a day, every day of the year. In The Zoom product has made deep fact, 150,000 files were transferred in inroads into the Australian education the past year; one every 3 minutes. market with customers purchasing more than 110,000 Zoom licences. This These new users have brought with mirrors Zoom’s success in the US higher them many new ideas and AARNet, as education market with Zoom having a part of the international community that major presence in 86% of the top 200 developed the software on which national universities. Zoom’s success is CloudStor Sender is based, has turned simply due to its quality, ease of use, them into a reality. and reliability. Zoom has worked closely Users wanted to ensure file integrity; in with schools since day one to make effect a digital “seal”. We are working sure that it has the features that with Australia’s peak measurement educators need, such as video breakout body, the National Measurement rooms, co-annotation, remote control, Institute, and the Australian recording, and LMS integration. Government’s VANguard program to provide cryptographic time stamping and verification to do just that. The user community also identified security as an issue. Most systems 24 secure data by uploading an unencrypted file and encrypting it on the server, meaning the server must know the password, which is a security weakness. During the year, AARNet employed encryption using the user’s browser to provide the highest level of assurance. CloudStor “Personal Storage for Super Users” now provides 100 gigabytes of storage for some 19,287 individual researchers. Re-branded as simply Images from In the field website http://www.inthefieldstories.net/ CloudStor, the service currently stores some 29 million files with storage growing at 20% per month or 240% pa. Enterprise Services turns 3 The Global CEO Forum Over the past year, more than 75 The Enterprise Services group, an launches “In the field” institutions have helped test the platform, independent technical consulting Fascinating stories from around the entrusting the storage and transferring of service completed its second year of more than 180 terabytes of data to the world about people and projects service. With the help of our customers, operation that saw its number of connected by high-capacity research we are now progressively rolling out the assignments increase to 29 of which and education networks. 19 were delivered to members. service to researchers around the country. Global research and education (R&E) Enterprise Services continue to grow in networks are much more than fibre, a number of consultancy areas. In routers and switches. They are vital Eduroam’s expanding footprint Networking, the team has assisted a infrastructure that traverses the globe, Eduroam’s footprint is increasing number of new non shareholder enabling access to content and steadily in Australia. All, except one of customers to smoothly migrate onto resources, connecting people, delivering the Australian universities and other AARNet, for existing customers we have new experiences, fostering collaboration redesigned and reconfigured customer research organisations including CSIRO, and cultivating interdisciplinary networks to be highly available across communities striving to make a ANSTO, NICTA, AIMS and Intersect, multiple campuses. Research related difference. The Global CEO Forum participate in Eduroam AU. consulting featured prominently this commissioned AARNet to develop a web NSW Health has rolled out Eduroam, year with market and sector reviews of presence that brings together inspiring joining QLD Health and various other research storage infrastructure. stories and achievements that showcase the collaboration of the health institutions in other states and A new security practice area was global R&E network community. This territories. As education and research created this year which led to the launch is a truly global effort and with users increase reliance on wireless of a joint security service offering with contributions from around the world. connectivity, Eduroam usage continues AUSCERT. The team saw significant to increase exponentially. growth in requests as independent AARNet is actively involved in improving technical advisors on a number of global Eduroam service delivery through customer procurement panels where its global collaboration and standardising our consultants were able to question ‘ancillary services’ for global service and validate proposed solutions in delivery (e.g. services enabling relation to institution’s campus needs operational deployment, monitoring, and AARNet carrier network services. metrics and support) and is a key goal of AARNet’s Eduroam team.

25 In an effort to share the knowledge, AARNet signed an Agreement in May with TEIN*CC for some €350,000 to deploy Eduroam in up to 7 of the current beneficiary countries throughout Asia. The TEIN Eduroam project was established to extend the deployment of Eduroam into countries where there is limited or no existing Eduroam deployment. The countries selected to participate in the project are; Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, and Malaysia. The project is designed to establish basic Eduroam infrastructure in the participating countries, and give participants the knowledge required to operate as an Eduroam National Roaming Operator (NRO) for their respective country. The deployment will see the country’s NREN becoming the National Roaming Operator (NRO) and 3 institutions within AARNet extends each country becoming Eduroam participants. Some countries already have Eduroam into Asia basic Eduroam deployments (Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan), whilst others have none (Bhutan, Indonesia, Eduroam is the very successful global wireless network Nepal). The project will provide NROs with access service that provides users (students, staff and the equipment and knowledge required to operate a compliant Eduroam deployment faculty) in the research and education communities with that is consistent with established NROs. mobility between participating institutions’ wireless The expected date of completion of the th infrastructures, and removes the burden of institutional project is 30 June 2016. administration of guest network access. Data and privacy is During the year AARNet organised three training sessions for NROs and institutions protected. It is easy to use and provides a single solution participating in the project. The training for the mobile connectivity requirements of hundreds sessions were all held via Zoom AARNet’s video conferencing service and designed to of participating institutions worldwide. prepare participants for the two-day workshop to be held at APAN 41 in Manila, Philippines in early 2016.

26 case study Eduroam will be a great benefit for shared course delivery and co-location of students on participating campuses. This project is a model collaboration with the NRENs of New Zealand, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, all of whom are very pleased to be able to assist their near neighbours in Asia. All costs will be paid by TEIN*CC with European Commission funding.

Opposite page: TEIN meeting. This page: TEIN meeting. TEIN network.

27 Appendix A

List of Shareholders Board of Directors The Australian National University Chairman: Emeritus Professor Gerard Sutton AO The Commonwealth Scientific and Executive Director: Mr Chris Hancock (CEO) Industrial Research Organisation University of Canberra Charles Sturt University Non-executive Directors Macquarie University Mr Chris Bridge Southern Cross University The Australian Catholic University Dr Christine Burns (appointed 18 May 2015) The University of New England The University of New South Wales Mr Robert Fitzpatrick* The University of Newcastle (appointed 18 May 2015) The University of Sydney Professor Linda Kristjanson University of Technology, Sydney Mr Jeff Murray University of Western Sydney University of Wollongong Mr John Rohan* Charles Darwin University Professor Deborah Terry Bond University Emeritus Professor Mark Wainwright AM* Central Queensland University Dr David Williams Griffith University James Cook University Professor Ian Young AO Queensland University of Technology (to 13 November 2015) The University of Queensland *Denotes independent director University of Southern Queensland University of the Sunshine Coast The Flinders University of South Australia The University of Adelaide University of South Australia University of Tasmania Deakin University La Trobe University Monash University RMIT University Swinburne University of Technology The University of Melbourne Federation University Australia Victoria University Curtin University Edith Cowan University Murdoch University The University of Western Australia

28

35