UTS sets ball rolling on network replacement

The University of Technology Sydney wants to replace its network to create a “wireless by default, wired by exception” environment.

For the first stage of the year-long project, UTS issued a request for tender for a network strategy partner in January of this year, and late last month, tendered for a procurement consultant.

The university wants to start the process by engaging someone to develop “a technology vendor-agnostic network strategic direction that will guide effective industry engagement for UTS to move towards an optimal future state network model.”

“In the future state, UTS will have moved to a network infrastructure with all possible endpoints connected by wi-fi with most desktop and laptop wired connections connecting to the network through wi-fi connections”, the tender documents explained.

The network will serve more than 45,000 students and nearly 2000 academic staff.

A university spokesperson told iTnews the upgrade will be replacing a network that is close to end-of-life, and will offer better cyber security, network monitoring, and automation.

UTS intends to launch tenders for the network itself toward the end of May.