Campus switchover to new IT network completed

The University of Wisconsin–Madison has transitioned to a new high-speed advanced research and education Internet network.

The crossover to the new 100-gigabit network was completed on Sunday during a period during a regularly scheduled early morning outage window, with no disruption noticed on campus.

The new network replaces WiscNet, the nonprofit consortium that provided connectivity to all UW campuses for more than two decades.

The transition to the new network was necessitated by legislation that requires UW System to withdraw from WiscNet. The decision to pursue a self-managed network was made following discussions between the Board of Regents, UW System Administration, and UW–Madison.

Once fully implemented, the new UW network will provide services to the 13 UW System four-year campuses and the 13 two-year UW Colleges, as well as UW-affiliated entities including University Research Park in Madison, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Innovation Campus in Milwaukee, Pioneer Farm in Platteville, La Crosse Medical Health Sciences Consortium, and other like entities.

The Division of Information Technology and UW–Madison are working on behalf of UW System to design, purchase, build and manage the network.