“This shared ambition makes our collaboration even more valuable: together we are building the future of research and education”
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Greater independence, sustainability and cooperation
SURF brings the heart of its network back into its own cooperative
Over the past months, the core, metro, access, and peering routers for the new SURF network have been installed in a dedicated section of the Nikhef data centre at Amsterdam Science Park. The data centre is now fully operational. SURF has started moving equipment from the old data centre to the new facility at Nikhef.
Nikhef, the national institute for subatomic physics, is a member of SURF. By relocating the routers to the Nikhef data centre, located at Amsterdam Science Park, SURF chose to collaborate within its own community. In this way, Nikhef contributes to the SURF mission: supporting scientific research and education with advanced technology.
Freedom of choice
The switch means less dependence on commercial players and more freedom of choice. It fits seamlessly with our pursuit of greater digital autonomy. The Dutch part of the internet originated at the Amsterdam Science Park. Nikhef is the only organisation there to continue operating a fully autonomous data centre where users can connect with the whole world.
This international connectivity is one of the reasons for moving the heart of the SURF network to Nikhef. Sustainability also plays an important role: the Nikhef data centre uses its residual heat to heat both its own building and student housing – a fine example of responsible energy management.
The same vision on research
Nikhef is not a traditional data centre company. It manages its data centre with the same dedication with which it conducts its scientific research. It has a separate department for this, which runs the data centre professionally. This department was created out of the need to optimally facilitate experiments, with the best possible technology and infrastructure.
A recent expansion of the Nikhef data centre means that space is now also available for other parties with the same vision on research.
"This strengthens our solid collaboration in the field of information technology and infrastructure, which has been bearing fruit for more than three decades."
Institutions will benefit from intelligent network
With the installation of the new network routers, we have completed the first phase of the relocation. The testbed, the network lab and the data centre lab have also been relocated, and a new international connection to Frankfurt has been established in collaboration with DFN, Germany’s national research and education network. In the coming period, the equipment for all other network services will be relocated. The entire relocation is expected to be completed by the summer of 2027.
The affiliated institutions and users will not notice the actual move, as it is taking place behind the scenes. But over time, they will benefit from the advantages of the new SURF network setup: a high-quality, reliable, flexible and intelligent network infrastructure that is optimally connected worldwide. This is the next step in our work to create a future-proof network for research and education in the Netherlands.