For Kansas, the network of the future is one step closer to reality.

The Kansas Research and Education Network (KanREN), a non-profit, member-based consortium of research, education, and community anchor institutions has announced plans to provide 100Gbps services for members by mid-2016.

“100Gbps connectivity for our research universities is a fantastic step forward,” said Cort Buffington, executive director of KanREN. “Ensuring our institutions have the connectivity they need to enable research is an economic boon for the entire state. Meeting our members’ connectivity needs with an efficient, pragmatic and cost-effective approach is our utmost priority, and I’m pleased that we’re moving forward with the 100Gbps project.”

One hundred times faster than Google Fiber, KanREN’s 100G benchmark is more than just a connection.

This technological achievement reflects vision, leadership, and initiative from Kansas’s leading institutions in an effort to expand research and education opportunities throughout the state. Working collaboratively through KanREN’s member-based consortium offers opportunities to scale and accelerate access at rates otherwise prohibitive – all without state or federal funds.

“KanREN’s move to 100Gbps opens new collaboration opportunities for our members,” said Brad Fleming, KanREN’s assistant director for technology. “Capacity of this kind enables resource sharing such as high-speed remote data backup with a peer organization. That kind of resource trading helps improve data security while lowering costs. Regardless of the technology trend; SDN, NFV, etc; everything requires bandwidth and KanREN’s new 100Gbps network settles those needs for the foreseeable future.”

Several KanREN anchor institutions have committed to deploy the service as it becomes available including the University of Kansas, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas State University, and Wichita State University.

“This is a remarkable collaboration to keep the state of Kansas at the forefront of research,” said Ken Stafford, vice provost for information technology services at Kansas State University. “With this network, we are not only meeting the increasing demands of today, but accommodating and planning for the needs and innovations of tomorrow.”