Internet resilience for Ontario’s research and education community
A group brainstorming session at last winter’s network planning workshop.
The business of research, education and innovation increasingly depends on the reliability of your connectivity. For this reason, ORION is proud to announce that with the addition of a second major (100Gbps) Internet transit point, our constituents can now access redundant Internet service. Our user community told us last winter in our Network Planning Workshop that one of their top priorities was network resilience. So, we are excited to share the news of this important milestone. This internet resilience is the result of an additional second Tier 1 Internet transit point, giving your ORION Internet connection geographic and provider diversity.
What is resilient Internet and why is it important?
For those wondering why internet redundancy is so important, the key concept is simple. Without a secondary system in place, it only takes one point of failure – like a squirrel bite through a cable – for your network to go down. By adding an additional Internet transit point, we can ensure your connection is constant and reduce the risk of interruption to your critical data path. This will assist in safeguarding the operation of your most vital internet applications such as domain name servers, cloud applications and e-commerce, and most importantly, protect the continuity of your business.
ORION’s primary Internet transit point is located in our Toronto Point of Presence (PoP). Our objective was to find a secondary transit point at another location which did not interconnect through the Toronto PoP. After consideration of several options, we selected a direct 100Gbps connection from our York University PoP to a major Internet hub in Chicago. These connections operate in an active-active load-sharing approach, which provides automatic failover in the event of a problem at either location.
This achievement is part of ORION’s ongoing commitment to a reliable and robust digital infrastructure. We are continually upgrading our network and enhancing our services to effectively respond to the changing needs of our constituents and our increasing reliance on digital services. By improving your Internet resilience, your organization can focus on supporting a strong, long-term recovery that helps workers, employers and communities get back on their feet.
What does this mean for ORION constituents?
For our constituents with Internet already provided by ORION, the great news is, you are already using our resilient Internet. These changes came into effect in November and the upgrade was automatic. For our constituents not currently subscribed to ORION’s Internet service who wish to find out more, please contact your community development representative or email communitydev@orion.on.ca.
Thank you to our community
This important update to our Internet service was the result of working directly with our network constituents, and so I would like to thank you all for your assistance and feedback. We stay committed to working with the community and know this is a key component in enhancing our services.
Thanks,
David Smith
Chief Technology Officer, ORION