Belnet, the IT partner for research, education and public services, has rolled out its brand new BNIX platform through which a large part of Belgian internet traffic passes. Thanks to the renewal, BNIX is future-proof, not only to deal with ever-growing data streams, but also to meet specific customer needs such as extra scalability, technological innovation and user-friendliness.
"Internet traffic has evolved enormously since 1995, when Belnet founded BNIX," says Dirk Haex, Managing Director of Belnet. "In 2020, the corona crisis made internet traffic soar like never before. Since then, peaks of up to 500 gigabits per second are the new normal on the BNIX platform. Fortunately, the platform had the capacity to deal with this, enabling millions of Belgians to work and study from home. Thanks to the renewal of BNIX, we remain ahead of future evolutions as well – expected and unexpected."
Higher data peaks, less energy consumption
For this renewal, Belnet invested in a new and flexible platform. This still has the robustness and stability that characterized the previous platform but adds more scalability and technological innovation. Belnet purchased several switches, each with a capacity of 3.2 terabits per second. If necessary, it can easily be scaled up.
"This prepares BNIX for future data peaks and creates opportunities to expand our geographic presence to other data centers, to increase port density, and to meet specific customer needs”, explains Stefan Gulinck, Network Architect at Belnet. “For example, we now also offer private VLANS, places where participants can connect with each other to exchange internet traffic directly between them."
The new BNIX platform also contributes to a significant reduction in the ecological footprint of the Belgian internet. Thanks to technological innovation, all the ports on the new platform together consume only a third of the energy compared to the previous platform. And the evolution in the chip sector has also rendered the production process a lot more energy efficient.
No concessions in terms of hardware
The completion of BNIX's renewal was originally planned earlier. "During the hardware delivery, we came across issues that we could not reconcile with the quality standards we had envisioned," explains Dirk Haex, Managing Director at Belnet. "We didn't want to make any concessions there, so we took the time to carefully choose and order new hardware. We regret this delay, but we knew the existing BNIX platform would still do its job, and now we have a new platform that will continue to do so in the coming years. Together with all Belnet colleagues who have helped make this happen, I’m very proud of that achievement."