REANNZ network - our why

REANNZ was established to serve the complex and unique needs of New Zealand’s research and science community, whose needs differ from other user groups:

• Science and research is highly collaborative - many researchers and scientists have multiple collaborators across many institutions and many countries.

• Resource sharing is common - the specialist tools and infrastructure to support science and research eg Synchrotrons, High Performance Compute, Radio-telescopes, Genomics laboratories - are expensive and are often shared with multiple users requiring access, both nationally and internationally.

• Data transfers are unpredictable – unlike enterprise use patterns, they may be one-off or may occur sporadically every few weeks, or months or even years.

• Bespoke applications and protocols are more common due to the complexity of moving larger files - they require a higher level of support and specialist expertise in data-transfer and troubleshooting assistance.

• Gigabytes, terabytes and even petabytes are common – the large size of datasets, the number of collaborators and frequency of change, pose a unique challenge.

• Real-time streaming to multiple destinations – the inability to store all data at the source means data must be moved to remote storage or processing in real-time as it is collected, otherwise it will be lost.

The demands that led to the establishment of REANNZ are also shared across the globe. REANNZ is one of over 120 National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) worldwide, all sharing a similar mandate and approach to supporting research and science for their region.