Press Releases

ORION and CENGN partner to enhance Canada’s innovation economy

ORION and CENGN are proud to announce a new 10Gbps private peering connection that will open more opportunities and services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to test and validate their innovations.

This new collaboration builds on a history of partnership between ORION and CENGN, both dedicated to serving the innovation economy through digital infrastructure. CENGN strives to uplift Canada as a leader in the global ICT community by collaborating with SMEs and industry leaders like ORION. Currently, CENGN and ORION are working together on an Ontario expansion project that will bring CENGN’s services across the province.

Prior to this collaboration with ORION, CENGN provided peering connections for their projects through its members, Rogers and TELUS. By connecting to ORION, not only does CENGN increase its network redundancy, making it more reliable, but it also results in a quicker 10Gbps low latency network. ORION’s research, education, and innovation community from across Ontario will now also be able to leverage this network connection.

To complete the 10Gbps Broader Gateway Protocol (BGP) Peering connection, CENGN is linking fibre from their headquarters in Kanata to ORION’s Point of Presence (PoP) in Ottawa. A 10GE port connects each location using long-reach optics over dark fibre provided by CENGN member, Zayo.

Not only will CENGN Cloud users benefit from greater network reliability through redundancy, they will also enjoy five times the bandwidth. Through ORION, CENGN projects will have access to shared resources, cloud-based peering partners, and Canadian content providers that support innovation, plus Canada’s National Research and Education Network and global R&E networks, all of which will open up more partnership opportunities for Canadian organizations and businesses.

“We know that today’s complex problems can only be solved when diverse minds can collaborate on solutions,” said Alfonso Licata, President and CEO of ORION. “Our partnership with CENGN means that we are one step closer to the innovation ecosystem we were born to empower.”

This partnership brings together all the collaborators necessary to bring innovation to fruition, connecting academia, industry, researchers and educators.

CENGN's connection to ORION's research, education and innovation community cloud

A new 10Gbps private peering connection to help SMEs innovate and grow

ABOUT CENGN

Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN), is a consortium of industry, academic and research leaders dedicated to accelerating the commercialization of next generation communications solutions. CENGN’s internationally recognized testing centre employs interoperability between multiple software and hardware products, providing a unique environment to commercialize advanced products, applications and services. Our fully operational data centre is running a production OpenStack environment with multiple connections to a real-world WAN. CENGN services include: Proof of Concept (PoC) validation and hosting, interoperability/performance/ certification testing, technical training (SDN, NFV, IPv6, ODL, OpenStack), innovation for hire and commercialization acceleration. CENGN members include: Bell, Cisco, EXFO, Fujitsu, GENBAND, Invest Ottawa, Juniper, Mitel, Nokia, Rogers, TELUS, Wind River, and Zayo Canada.

ABOUT ORION

ORION is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to empowering Ontario researchers, educators and innovators. The organization fosters a community of more than two million users at more than a hundred universities, colleges, hospitals and research institutions, as well as the majority of Ontario’s school boards. ORION enables ground-breaking discoveries and cutting-edge education by connecting institutions and regions through our network, facilitating collaboration, and providing its community with the digital tools and expert support they need to make the world a better place.

For further information:  

Cathy Bogaart 
Director, Marketing and Communications, ORION 
Office: 416.507.9860 ext. 250 
cathy.bogaart@orion.on.ca