The CSIRO is mulling the deployment of a WAN acceleration solution to speed up applications as it continues to consolidate its data centres down to two in the ACT.
The national research and development body has highlighted Sharepoint, Citrix, CIFS, HTTP, LDAP, CommVault Backup, Exchange and Netbios as in need of a speed boost.
“Some CSIRO applications run slowly due to historically LAN based applications running across inter-capital WAN links,” CSIRO documents state. “CSIRO is seeking solutions that accelerate protocols that are latency intolerant.”
The R&D body operates 1Gbps links between capital cities and is in the process of upgrading the network to 10Gbps between Victoria, NSW and the ACT. Its Perth centre currently operates on a 10Gbps link to AARNet, and is home to the high performance computing (HPC) Pawsey Centre, integral to Australia and New Zealand's joint bid for the global astronomy project, Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
The CSIRO also leads the way with IPv6 deployment – the next generation internet protocol that many network operators in Australia have yet to implement, despite IPv4 address space quickly running out – and has singled out the protocol as a key selection criteria as part of the expression of interest request.
“CSIRO’s definition of success with this project is to noticeably reduce user waiting time for transactions occurring across the WAN,” the documents read.
The CSIRO is hoping to sign a contract after going through a tender process by the end of 2010.