When most people think about major infrastructure projects at a university, they imagine new buildings or campus expansions. But at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), a transformative initiative has been reshaping their technology infrastructure, fortifying its network against threats and improving the way technology services are delivered—by building resilience.
In 2021, leadership at KPU decided to invest in diverse network connections across its existing five-campuses, located quite far apart in three cities (Surrey, Richmond, and Langley). The goal? Greater resilience—and the ability to weather both digital and physical storms.
“Our campuses are quite far apart and offer very different programs,” explains Ken Yip, Director of Technology Services at KPU. “We’ve always had single WAN connections to each campus. So, if there was an outage, it could bring administrative services and teaching and learning activities to a halt.”
Going dark is not something any institution wants to experience. A bustling lecture suddenly silenced, online teaching and learning interrupted, or vital research data frozen mid-access could spell disaster. Even a brief outage could cripple campus operations, leaving thousands of students and faculty disconnected from their critical resources.
To mitigate this risk, and to ensure that their students, staff, faculty and researchers could always rely on the resources they need, KPU developed a plan to implement redundant fibre pathways to each campus—ensuring there’s no single point of failure in the network.
The strategy aligned perfectly with KPU’s broader IT roadmap, which includes transitioning from on-premises systems to cloud-based services. “We’ve been migrating ERP, data storage, and Citrix environments to cloud platforms like AWS and Azure,” Yip says. “But to make that shift effective, we also needed redundant, reliable connectivity.”
This multi-year project came with its share of complexities. Environmental impact assessments and construction-related challenges added further complications to the timeline. “Redundant connection to one of our sites was initially projected to be cost prohibitive,” Yip recalls. “But by taking the time to collaborate with vendors and BCNET, we identified innovative solutions that significantly reduced the overall cost.”
That’s where BCNET’s role became pivotal. “It was a hands-off procurement process for us,” Yip notes. From managing the RFP process to facilitating creative vendor solutions, BCNET helped KPU find innovative solutions, reduce costs and execute on KPU’s goal to keep their campuses connected and stable.
Now nearing completion, the project covers four campuses beyond KPU’s central Surrey site, which already had redundant connections. Two campuses are now fully upgraded, with the remaining two slated for completion by August 2025.
Beyond disaster recovery, the upgrade also allows KPU to simplify and centralize its infrastructure. Instead of maintaining duplicate systems at every location, the university can now consolidate services at a single data centre and in the cloud. “It makes support easier for our lean IT team,” Yip says. “We’re no longer managing clones of systems across five locations.”
Through the collaborative efforts of KPU and the BCNET team, their campuses have become a model of resilience and innovation. What could have been a costly and complex project became a streamlined success story.