The HEAnet Strategic Plan was developed in collaboration with stakeholders and international peers to inform our strategic direction for 2020-2022. Given the positive impact on the education and research community and continued relevance, the strategy has been extended for a further two-year period.
We are delighted to present the HEAnet Strategic Plan 2023-24. This 2-year plan will allow HEAnet to continue our vision to enable Ireland’s digital ambition and mission – delivering common, repeatable and shareable solutions for all of education.
The loyal support of our funders, stakeholders and clients has continued to help HEAnet grow and allows HEAnet to continue to deliver its exemplar shared services. We will work with them to deliver on sectoral and national policy ambitions into the future.
HEAnet Strategic Plan focuses on the five core pillars, Connectivity, Security, Identity, Brokerage and Research Engagement.
Connectivity
This fast, effective resilient connectivity will be vital for our education and research clients when accessing any part of the internet. We will focus on diversifying international connectivity and this will be achieved by working closely with GÉANT, enabling HEAnet to share services for advance research, education and innovation on a global scale.
Security
The increased incidence of high-profile ransomware attacks has firmly set mitigation of cyber security attacks as the highest client priority. HEAnet will establish a sectoral Security Operations Centre (SOC), enabling consistent and comprehensive 24/7 detection and alerting capabilities across the education and research sector.
Identity
HEAnet’s Identity service portfolio will evolve and expand over this strategy period. eduroam Wi-Fi service allows students and researchers to securely access the internet at eduroam enabled locations both nationally and globally. EduVPN will provide secure access from public networks, pending the successful pilot, this will be made available to all HEAnet clients. The infrastructure for Edugate, HEAnet’s federated sign-on-service (SSO) will continue to upgrade and support all the Edugate services.
Brokerage
HEAnet brokerage team will endeavour to save our clients time and money, in partnership with the Department of Education and the Office of Government Procurement (OGP). Our team will continue to assist clients in streamlining their ICT procurement process.
Research Engagement
HEAnet will continue to contribute to the development of Open Science in Ireland. We aim to further support the development of research infrastructure, foster collaborations and assist in accessing Irish and EU funding opportunities.
