In case you didn’t know about it, the Pan European research and education network, aka GÉANT2, is having a launch celebration this week for what is being promoted as the next generation of research and educational networking in Europe. Touting 500 Gbps performance, this enormous meta-network is managed by the non-profit, UK-based DANTE (Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe), which is charged with building and maintaining networks in Europe and globally for the research and education community. GÉANT2 consists of 30 national research and education networks (NRENs) that link as many as 34 countries and enables collaboration not just across Europe, but also around the planet. In fact, according to this very informative article about the network from the European site EduBourse,

it provides the highest capacity and offers the greatest geographic coverage of any network of its kind in the world.

Such a network represents a giant step in linking global research institutions, which should go a long way toward providing resources and services to those researchers who previously didn’t have access. And it should open up a new “data highway” for the ability to share the massive volumes of data being created with these new resources.

Visit the GÉANT2 website http://www.geant2.net for more information.

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