Weathering the storm: Engineering natural disaster-resistant eResearch infrastructure

Aotearoa has a long history of natural disasters from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to flooding, landslides and wildfires. As we’ve witnessed in recent years, climate change will only increase the regularity and ferocity of extreme weather events. As many of Aotearoa’s research institutions and scientists are involved in studying and responding to such natural phenomena, it is during these events when availability of our research infrastructure is most critical.

This talk will outline the challenges faced, partnerships formed and steps taken by REANNZ to deliver robust research network infrastructure that is resilient to regional disasters. We’ll also introduce strategies that can be used by institutions and researchers to leverage existing capability and cutting edge connectivity technologies to maximise uptime of scientific instrumentation, offices, and campuses empowering kiwi researchers to create a better tomorrow.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aaron Murrihy is the Technical Lead for Networks at REANNZ. His passion is for building simple, reliable, scalable networks and advocating for the same within the REANNZ membership. His responsibilities include network architecture and availability, automation and infrastructure security. Outside of work he can usually be found hitting the local trails on his mountain bike or with a ball at his feet on the futsal court.

For more information about eResearch NZ / eRangahau Aotearoa, visit:
https://eresearchnz.co.nz/