March / April 2005
User survey gives ORION top marks - many looking to introduce new applications
ORION’s user institutions, virtually unanimous in their positive reviews of the network’s performance and reliability, are looking forward to introducing new and innovative applications over the network, according to ORION’s first user survey.
Designed to solicit feedback from ORION’s connected institutions, the survey asked representatives about a wide range of issues, from the quality of ORION’s client services, to plans to introduce new applications over the network.
With his eye on the bottom line, one of the most important statistics to come out of the survey, according to ORION President/CEO Phil Baker, is that 98 per cent of users intend to maintain their connection to ORION over the next three years.
“That’s a significant result and a strong vote of confidence in ORION,” said Baker. “It all comes down to whether we’re making a difference and these results show that we are.”
While based on interim results of 52 of 65 connected institutions, the survey shows that half of the connected institutions expect to require additional services from ORION, such as VLANs and implementing multicast capabilities.
Although a handful of ORION’s users already had access to significant bandwidth prior to ORION, 80 per cent of ORION’s new users report that the network has brought a significant enhancement to their level of connectivity, allowing them to take greater advantage of advanced networking capabilities.
The results show that nearly 70 per cent of institutions are poised to introduce in the very near future a whole range of new and innovative applications over the network. These include advanced videoconferencing, gaining access to new digital library resources, collaborating with other institutions to implement shared data storage, and gaining access to distributed and high performance computing resources.
Among the school boards that responded, plans range from introducing new professional development opportunities for teachers, to offering virtual field trips and advanced interactivity in the classrooms.
Some 98 per cent gave ORION’s Network Operations high ratings for their work and expertise. ORION’s communications outreach and administrative services also got top marks.
Typical comments were very positive and speak to the institution’s intention to begin to leverage innovation and introduce new ways of supporting researchers, educators and learners.
“Further applications to share resources among institutions are certain to evolve over the next few years. Collaborative applications in particular are generating a lot of interest,” said Robin Griffin, Associate Director, Enterprise Networks, University Technology Services, McMaster University.
"ORION has done an excellent job in community outreach and marketing, industry and government collaboration and promotion of partnership initiatives in networking, research and education. ORION provides us with many exciting opportunities in education and research partnerships that are now possible through this advanced network. ORION is putting Ontario on the world map and we are proud to be part of the ORION community," said Lan Nguyen, VP of Innovation and Information Technology at Centennial College.
“Inter-institutional applications and services will grow dramatically over the next year. We are glad to be part of this new network,” said Terence Verity, CIO of Seneca College
“We have been impressed with the operation and availability of the ORION network. ORANO has done an excellent job in working with the members to keep them informed of any problems related to network operations. Uptime has been great …” said Ed Blasinski, Manager of Communication Services, ITS, Brock University.
Comments from the annual survey will assist ORION in planning for the future development of the network and to evaluate its success in meeting the user’s current and future requirements.
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