IrelandQCI consortium partner HEAnet rebrands as Asiera
Asiera (formerly known as HEAnet and EduCampus) is Ireland’s National Education and Research Network. We deliver high-speed internet connectivity and ICT shared services to all levels of the Irish education sector.
Encompassing approximately 210,000 students & staff (third level) and approximately 900,000 students & staff (first and second level), Asiera connects these Irish learners and researchers to the Internet, online educational resources, and to fellow national educational and research networks in Europe, the USA, and the rest of the world. That’s over one million students, researchers and staff relying on our national education network every day.
Asiera (formerly known as HEAnet and EduCampus) has been in operation since 1983 as a collaborative endeavour between its member institutions. Our vision is to enable Ireland’s digital ambition and mission – delivering common, repeatable, and shareable solutions for all of education.
Asiera’s strategy focuses on five core pillars: Connectivity, Security, Identity, Brokerage and Research Engagement.
Connectivity
This fast, effective resilient connectivity is vital for our education and research clients when accessing any part of the internet. We focus on diversifying international connectivity by working closely with GÉANT, enabling Asiera to share services for advanced research, education, and innovation on a global scale.
Security
The increased incidence of high-profile ransomware attacks has firmly set mitigation of cyber security attacks as the highest client priority. Asiera has established a sectoral Security Operations Centre (SOC), enabling consistent and comprehensive 24/7 detection and alerting capabilities across the education and research sector.
Identity
Asiera’s Identity service portfolio continues to evolve and expand. eduroam Wi-Fi service allows students and researchers to securely access the internet at eduroam enabled locations both nationally and globally. Asiera has successfully rolled out eduroam Wi-Fi to almost 500 locations across Ireland.
EduVPN will provide secure access from public networks, pending the successful pilot, this will be made available to all Asiera clients. The infrastructure for Edugate, Asiera federated sign-on-service (SSO) will continue to upgrade and support all the Edugate services.
Brokerage
The Asiera brokerage team save our clients time and money, in partnership with the Department of Education and the Office of Government Procurement (OGP). Our team assist clients in streamlining their ICT procurement process. Asiera has over 65 frameworks that clients can choose from and helps generate collective savings of €7m per annum. The brokerage team works with over one hundred suppliers providing a wide variety of hardware and software products and services, negotiating group discounts on behalf of clients.
Research Engagement
Asiera contributes to the development of Open Science in Ireland. We aim to further support the development of research infrastructure, foster collaborations and assist in accessing Irish and EU funding opportunities. Alongside several of its clients, Asiera is delighted to be part of the IrelandQCI consortium led by the Walton Institute at SETU in Waterford on behalf of CONNECT and the SFI research centre for Future Networks.