Day one - Tuesday 18 June - sponsored by Cisco

Registration and networking

Speaker: Joy Palmer, chief operating officer - Group CTO, JiscJoy Palmer, chief operating officer - Group CTO, Jisc welcomes you to Networkshop 2024.

Welcome to day one of Networkshop 2024

Speakers:<ul><li>Neil Shewry, director of networks, Jisc</li><li>Simon Farr, innovation and IT director, Jisc</li><li>Rob Evans, chief network architect, Jisc</li></ul>In this session, Neil Shewry will present the high-level strategy for Janet for the next five years (and beyond). Neil will talk through five key strategic areas of focus and will delve into specific activities and initiatives to illustrate some of the workstreams required to deliver on the strategy. Throughout he will highlight the benefits envisaged for Jisc, the UK research and education community, and research and education networking worldwide.Simon Farr will present the evolution of Jisc's services, making our high quality capabilities more accessible than ever, extending the reach and flexibility of Janet and embedding Hybrid cloud to address key research challenges and deliver on data sovereignty solutions for the sector.Rob Evans will talk about what has been happening on the network over the last 12 months, some of the major events and traffic trends, and what Jisc is planning for the next year and slightly further ahead.

The strategy: 2024-2030 (and beyond)

Speaker: Michael Webb, director of technology and analytics, JiscWhat do we need to do to allow the whole institution to benefit from AI? In this session we’ll explore how AI is both challenging and transforming our universities and colleges. We’ll explore Jisc’s approach to AI maturity and our recommendations on what tasks need to be undertaken to help you move to being an AI-optimised organisation.

A whole institution approach to AI adoption

Morning break

Speaker: Peter Goodwin, global customer solution architect director, EfficientIPJoin us for an insightful session on Zero Trust as we explore the critical role of DNS as the first line of defense. Discover how to implement and secure application access control for universities and institutions alike using a DNS security solution. Learn strategies for controlling internal DNS queries and allocating access based on granular security policies. Gain insights into managing and restricting IoT/OT device access to external domains. Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your security posture and empower your IT teams with DNS security to elevate your Zero Trust Network Access implementation.

Securing your institution: Zero Trust and DNS strategies for enhanced access control - sponsored by EfficientIP

Speakers:<ul><li>Alex Goffe, associate director technology, University of Manchester</li><li>Tony Curran, IT operations centre manager, University of Manchester</li><li>Craig Tyson, program director, University of Manchester</li></ul>A presentation on the new IT Operations Centre at the University of Manchester, the eyes, ears and heart of the IT service, monitoring IT clusters, network experience and how this service is enabling a better colleague and student experience.

24-hour ITOC people

Speakers:<ul><li>Paul Westmore, chief digital and information officer, Swansea University</li><li>Darren Griffiths, head of digital infrastructure, Swansea University</li></ul>This session will present Swansea University's three-year journey to a rock solid network infrastructure.

Laying digital foundations

Speakers:<ul><li>Katy Ellis, CMS / Tier 1 liaison, UKRI</li><li>Alessandra Forti, research fellow, Advance HE</li></ul>The Worldwide Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid (WLCG) has challenged its experiments to prepare for the vastly greater quantity of data expected from the High-Luminosity LHC, which is coming online in the next five years. This session discusses the motivation, method and results of 'Data Challenge 2024' as experienced by the ATLAS and CMS experiments.

WLCG Data Challenge 2024 - preparing for High-Luminosity LHC

Speaker: Simone Arena, distinguished engineer, Cisco SystemsIn this session, Simone Arena will share the latest innovations on both the Catalyst and Meraki wireless product portfolio to achieve two main goals: reducing IT operations complexity through AIOPs and building a flexible, secure and sustainable higher-ed wireless network for both on-prem, hybrid and cloud managed customers.

Cisco Wireless - when sophistication meets simplicity - sponsored by Cisco

Lunch break

Speaker: Rob Price, networking business unit CTO, LogicalisIn the increasingly digital world in which we live, IT is becoming an increasingly important component in driving organisational sustainability. Firstly, supply chain sustainability - using IT asset disposal (ITAD) companies, we can ethically dispose of IT assets for which we no longer have any use. Refresh programs allow us to use second user, remanufactured equipment in support of the circular economy. Secondly, IT needs to ensure that it is “keeping its own house in order”. Taking measures to ensure that IT keeps its own energy consumption to a minimum is key. Finally, and perhaps most importantly IT has the capacity to drive “consequential” energy savings in other non-IT systems. In Logicalis’ recent CIO survey, 96% of respondents said that they are directly involved in driving overall organisational sustainability for their businesses.

The digital platform

To be confirmed

Speakers:<ul><li>Amin Emami, telco specialist - systems and solutions architect, Bristol University</li><li>Simon Farr, innovation and IT director, Jisc</li></ul>Hybrid Cloud addresses latency concerns in Edge Computing and 5G/6G networks by strategically distributing computing tasks. By leveraging both local edge nodes and centralized cloud resources, Hybrid Cloud minimises data travel distances, reducing latency for critical applications. This approach optimises response times, ensuring real-time processing for emerging technologies like autonomous vehicles and augmented reality. Additionally, Hybrid Cloud's dynamic resource allocation enables seamless scalability, accommodating fluctuating demands in distributed environments. With its ability to balance local processing and cloud integration, Hybrid Cloud emerges as a pivotal solution, enhancing performance and unlocking the full potential of Edge Computing within advanced networking paradigms.

Hybrid Cloud - supporting Bristol University’s 5G ambitions and the generation beyond

Speakers:<ul><li>Robert Cleaves, lead network engineer, University of Bath</li><li>Gavin Edwards, chief data and technology officer, University of Bath</li><li>Matt Richards, senior network engineer, University of Bath</li></ul>The University of Bath has over the last number of years developed a space management platform. The platform uses technology to show utilisation of our campus down to room level. This is achieved via a variety of sources, including wi-fi, sensors, Zigbee, loraWAN, room bookings and more.

University of Bath space management 

Speaker: James Hodgkinson, AI technologist, JiscJoin our interactive workshop to explore generative AI and how it can be used in your everyday work. We’ll look at the latest ways tools such as Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and ChatGPT can be used for common tasks and examine some of the more specialised generative AI tools used in education. We’ll also explore what might be coming over the next few years, including how smaller language models may open up new use cases.

Hands on with generative AI 

Speaker: Cal Innes, subject specialist: sustainability, JiscAn exploration of key terms, concepts and emerging trends in digital sustainability with recommendations on how organisations can employ best practices. Topics will include:<ul><li>What is digital environmental sustainability?</li><li>Energy consumption and carbon footprint</li><li>E-waste generation</li><li>Positive digital impacts</li><li>Improving energy efficiency in the digital sphere</li><li>Minimising e-waste</li></ul>

Digital environmental sustainability: exploring the environmental impacts of ICT and empowering positive change

Afternoon break

Speakers:<ul><li>Martin Johnson, digital innovation specialist, Bedford College Group</li><li>Sam Neate, voice solutions engineer – session border controller, Jisc</li></ul>Martin Johnson from The Bedford College Group takes us through their journey moving to Teams Telephony. Jisc's session border controller became a life raft when their telephony system failed on GCSE results day. This session will cover the benefits and unique challenges they faced while migrating to Jisc's session border controller.

Implementing Teams Telephony with Jisc's session border controller

Speaker: James Bisset, security specialist, JiscJames Bisset outlines how to support executive leaders in building a roadmap to deliver improvements in your cyber security posture, drawing on experience from Jisc’s cyber security assessment service.

Building a roadmap for cyber security: advice for executive leaders

Networking drinks reception

Day one closes

Day two - Wednesday 19 June - sponsored by HPE Aruba

Speaker: Liam Earney, MD - higher education and research, JiscLiam Earney, MD - higher education and research, Jisc welcomes you to day two of Networkshop 2024.

Welcome to day two of Networkshop 2024

Speakers:<ul><li>Alex Owen, senior physicist programmer, Queen Mary University London</li><li>Jon Hayes, professor in physics, Queen Mary University London</li></ul>As the UK’s journey towards NetZero accelerates, we need robust information to inform both strategic and operational decisions, from policy development and funding allocation to hardware procurement, code optimisation and job scheduling. The UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure NetZero Scoping Project published its technical report and recommendations in August 2023 and funded the IRISCAST project which took a learning-by-doing approach to conduct a proof of concept 24-hour carbon audit snapshot across a multi-site heterogeneous research infrastructure. IRIS has gone on to fund a Carbon Mapping Project (IRIS-CMP) which builds on the IRISCAST work to build practical carbon models and to deliver an outline delivery roadmap. We present our key IRISCAST and IRIS-CMP findings, recommendations, and lessons learned, in the context of the UKRI Net Zero DRI journey.

Measuring carbon: IRIS and UKRI NetZero DRI

Speaker: Richard Jackson, lead cloud solutions architect - security, JiscThis talk will cover Defender 365, including Endpoint, Identitiy, O365 and Cloud apps. We will cover fundamental controls but also explore features which we do not commonly see deployed in the sector.

Optimising Defender: getting more out the platform

Speakers:<ul><li>Kevin Panter, head of digital technologies, Bedford College Group</li><li>Mike Foster, technical operations specialist, The Bedford College Group </li><li>Martin Johnson, digital innovation specialist, The Bedford College Group</li><li>Jonathan Dews, senior IT technician, The Bedford College Group</li></ul>The Bedford College Group, like many other colleges, had for many years preferred to put new kit in the classrooms to provide the best possible student experience. Combined with mergers over time this had resulted in some tired equipment in multiple server rooms. A complete rethinking of the group digital provision was required covering everything from staffing to structure, from the number of data centres to a new digital strategy. Being empowered to make changes, the team set out on an ambitious plan to transform the backend server, firewall and inter-site infrastructure, while also continuing with BAU activities such as maintaining cyber essentials, refreshing a 1950s tower block containing over 500 desktops, introducing a new sixth form, merging with another college and introducing teams telephony. This is not how to do the work, nor is it entirely a warning to others to not attempt as much!

The Bedford College Group has been on a digital transformation journey over the past few years and it isn’t over yet!

Speaker: Nick Skelton, consultant in digital higher educationNetworking and other digital infrastructure has long been critical for the day-to-day operations of universities, but viewing ‘infrastructure as plumbing’ leads to underappreciated, downbeat and budget-starved infrastructure teams. Thankfully this is changing. Digital is increasingly recognised as part of institutional strategy. It overcomes constraints and enables entirely new ventures. Digital is a tool for growth. Nick will explore the eight fallacies of higher education digital infrastructure and reflect on how IT professionals and university leaders can better understand each other’s point of view.

What university leaders want from digital infrastructure and how to persuade them to pay for it!

Speaker: Tom Hayman, cloud chief technology officer, JiscEveryone has a different journey to the Cloud and this session will talk about best practice, misconceptions, and some insight from my experience of my personal journey to the Cloud.

How to leverage the cloud

Speaker: Renyk de’Vandre, network operations manager, University of BirminghamBirmingham University has re-architected its DDI (DNS, DHCP, IPAM) service, removing legacy and unnecessary operational dependencies to create a foundation for innovation, operational resilience and flexibility. The relationship between AD DNS and Infoblox DDI was an example of an operational challenge that caused unnecessary duplication of function and management. After analysing this relationship, our goal became clear: migrate AD DNS to the Infoblox DDI without interruption and realise the benefits of a consolidated platform. The project was a success, the world didn’t end! Now we feel the knowledge, benefits and experience we gained during the migration process is something from which our colleagues in other institutions would benefit. In this session we will bust some myths surrounding the use of non-Microsoft DNS in a Microsoft environment, discuss why you would want to migrate from Microsoft DNS, your option, some of the challenges faced, and how we at Birmingham University achieved it.

The operational and strategic benefits of migrating Active Directory DNS to Infoblox DDI and why the world didn’t end when we did!

Speaker: Mike Foster, technical operations specialist, The Bedford College Group Technical skills are critical but there's another equally important skillset that doesn't always come easily to those of us with technical skills. To quote "How to Win Friends and Influence People", "Even in such technical lines as engineering, about 15% of one's financial success is due to one's technical knowledge and about 85% is due to skill in human engineering”. With simple tips and tricks we can become more approachable and trusted, improving the perception of ourselves and our teams and increasing the chance colleagues come to us for advice next time that iffy looking email lands in their inbox!

Those pesky humans - a cheat sheet 

Speaker: Paul Knee, head of security operations, JiscIn this session we will be taking you through our co-design journey with our members to form the national research and education security centre, hearing first hand from our early adopters on the journey so far.

Journey to the national research and education security centre 

Speakers:<ul><li>Alex Goffe, associate director technology, University of Manchester</li><li>Warren Mittoo, IT network team lead, University of Manchester</li><li>Paul Westhead, network architect, University of Manchester</li></ul>Join University of Manchester as they give a view on the issues they face and the plans to move forward one of the largest academic networks in Europe. Showcasing the vision for the new network for the University of Manchester, they will showcase innovations and work with sector colleagues such as Jisc.

2030 - a network odyssey 

Day two closing thoughts

Day two closes

Day three - Thursday 20 June (online) - sponsored by Juniper

Speaker: Joy Palmer, interim chief operating officer - Group CTO, JiscJoy Palmer, interim chief operating officer - Group CTO, Jisc welcomes you to Networkshop 2024.

Welcome to day three of Networkshop 2024

Speaker: Jen Linkova, TCP/IPv6 plumber, GoogleEnabling IPv6 on a large enterprise network sounds like a daunting task, but turning off IPv4 and migrating such a network to IPv6-only mode sounds like science fiction. This session tells a story of migrating Google's enterprise network to IPv6-mostly mode, where IPv6-only and IPv4-enabled devices co-exist on the same network.

Mission possible: turning off IPv4 in Google Enterprise Network

Speaker: Tom Micciche, cloud engineer - security, JiscThis session will highlight some of the native tooling within AWS and Azure for protecting web applications, regardless of whether they are cloud based or hosted on the Janet Network. We will explore common attack types targeting web applications and some of the possible solutions available to prevent these.

Protecting web applications in the cloud

Speakers:<ul><li>Tim Chown, network development manager, Jisc</li><li>David Kelsey, head of PPD computing , UKRI</li></ul>In this session we'll begin by exploring the current business drivers, rationale and approaches for research and education sites to deploy IPv6. With nearly half of all Internet user traffic now IPv6, it's very timely for research and education organisations to consider their IPv6 strategy. We'll then focus on the example of the CERN experiment community, which perform more than 90% of their data transfers over the Worldwide Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid (WLCG) infrastructure using IPv6. That network spans over 150 sites in 40 countries and handles 200PB of data annually. Since last year all the UK sites (known as the GridPP community) have dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 support on their storage. We'll look in detail at how the CERN community has deployed IPv6, the key lessons learnt, the differences in IPv6 thinking, and report on the current drive towards IPv6-only operation through analysis of the remaining IPv4 traffic.

IPv6 in 2024: the business drivers and rationale for deployment and how the CERN community is now heading towards IPv6-only operation

Speakers:<ul><li>Tom Cox, engineering manager, Jisc</li><li>Ian Carter, senior security solutions architect, Jisc</li></ul>Learn about how Jisc develops reactive threat detection with automation and infrastructure as code.

Engineering high quality cyber threat detection

Speaker: Nick Brown, senior cloud solutions architect - M365, JiscWork smarter, be more productive, boost creativity, and stay connected to the people and things in your life with Copilot—an AI companion that works everywhere you do and intelligently adapts to your needs. Find out how Copilot's use in education can assist teaching and learning and what to watch out for.

Microsoft Copilot 

Speaker: Ben Chapman, head of architecture and engineering, JiscJisc's protective DNS, also known as Janet Network resolver service (JNRS), has immediate security benefits. It enables organisations to prevent access to millions of known malicious locations while also providing secure intelligence to the sector - further improving the service.

Protective DNS capabilities - how it helps, what it does, why you should use it

Speaker: Parmjit Dhugga, Warwick award manager, University of WarwickIn today’s dynamic landscape, recent university graduates find themselves navigating a transformed professional environment. The rapid deployment of machine learning and the evolving demands of employers necessitate a fresh approach to education. Now, more than ever, universities must produce interdisciplinary graduates equipped with the essential knowledge, skills, and behaviours to thrive in their early career roles.

Unlocking talent: navigating digital skills development across disciplines

Speaker: Craig Scott, director of IT, Tyne Coast CollegeThis session presents the trials and tribulations from our 12 month journey of migrating a 3,200 device network from being SCCM and Group Policy managed to Intune managed.

Migrating to Intune

Speakers:<ul><li>Sophie Wilkins, cyber outreach and engagement manager, Jisc</li><li>Mark Tysom, product manager, cyber security, Jisc</li></ul>We all have a responsibility to understand and complete cyber security mandatory training, covering topics such as malware, phishing and password security. But what is the real impact of something as simple as a successful phishing campaign? What impact does this have on our everyday practices if an entire digital estate is lost and what can we do to plan for such an event? In this scenario-led workshop, we will look at the current cyber landscape across the education sector and examine the damage that a threat actor can do with something as simple as a single successful phishing link click-through. We will present a scenario and ask teams to consider their reaction in the event of an outage, consider what plans/procedures are in place, where these are housed and what holes can we identify to improve our readiness as a whole organisation.

Cyber incident awareness

Speakers:<ul><li>Ollie Smith, Cloud solutions architect M365, Jisc</li><li>Nick Brown, senior cloud solutions architect - M365, Jisc</li></ul>Learn about data retention, archiving and backup within Microsoft 365 - and being DPA18/GDPR compliant. This session will cover Microsoft and Jisc best practice for keeping data (as long as it is necessary!), where to store data and backup/archiving within 365. With Microsoft's storage reductions, it is essential you are only keeping data for as long as you need to. Aside from being compliant, a properly implemented retention and archiving solution will also mean reducing your overall data footprint (and staying away from needing to purchase additional storage!).

M365 retention, archive, backup 

Speaker: David Laverty, reader, Queen’s University BelfastDr Laverty is a reader with the School of EEECS at Queen’s University Belfast. His work is mainly focused on electrical power system metrology and time transfer technology with adjacent work in data systems, cyber security and machine learning. He is known as the founder of the open source project OpenPMU, a device which produces accurate time synchronised observations of electrical power system phenomena. Recently he has been working to address the vulnerability arising from reliance on 'space-based' time to synchronise power system apparatus. He has developed novel methods to detect GNSS spoofing attacks using commodity equipment. While protocols such as PTP and SyncE do not lend themselves to wide area distribution over public networks, NRENs provide an opportunity to investigate challenges and solutions towards creating national time transfer networks. Dr Laverty is working on terrestrial time transfer technologies (microwave/fibre) to provide resilient time transfer to critical national infrastructure.

Monitoring the Irish Electrical Power Grid Using PMUs at HEAnet/NREN POP Sites with Precision Time Protocol (PTP) synchronisation

Speakers:<ul><li>Ben Stott, azure engineer, Jisc</li><li>Marc Edwards, azure solutions architect, Jisc</li></ul>A session to discuss the new features available in Intune and how they can help you to reduce your IT workloads and meet Cyber Essentials controls.

New features of Intune and how they can reduce IT workloads and assist with Cyber Essentials

Speakers:<ul><li>Isobel Yeo, senior researcher, National Oceanography Centre</li><li>Michael Clare, principal researcher, National Oceanography Centre</li></ul>What would you do if your internet connection was cut for 18 months? This talk will share lessons learned about building resilient networks in the face of massive events. The 15th January 2022 Hunga volcanic eruption was the largest on Earth in more than a century. Here, we present findings from surveys performed acquired only months after a large eruption to show how powerful flows of volcanic material plunged into the ocean, scouring deep gullies, and causing extensive damage to international and domestic cables, cutting communication links to the Kingdom of Tonga at a critical time. These powerful flows travelled at high speeds (up to 122 km/hour) over 100 km - the fastest flows recorded under the sea. We will discuss how to increase resilience against seafloor hazards for subsea cables that carry more than 99% of all digital data traffic worldwide.

What happens when volcanoes meet the internet?

Speaker: Liam Earney, MD - higher education and research, JiscLiam Earney, MD - higher education and research, Jisc closes day three of Networkshop 2024.

Day three closing thoughts 

Day three closes

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Networkshop&#x27;s programme features keynote speakers, panels and training sessions from education, research and the public sector to navigate the dynamic landscape of connectivity and develop practical strategies to power positive change.