OARnet hosted its semi-annual Member Meeting on May 14 in conjunction with the Ohio Higher Education Computing Council (OHECC) annual conference held at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition to providing major operational, fiscal and research project updates, OARnet spotlighted how members are using its resources and services to support faculty and students at higher education institutions.
OARnet leadership provided updates on service offerings and network developments:
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Members will reap an average 7% rate decrease on their annual internet rate for Fiscal Year 2026. Service orders will be executed over the coming months.
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OARnet has sold all of the original licenses from the new VMware by Broadcom contract, which offers a significant reduction on the cost of bundled service offerings. Due to ongoing demand, OARnet can continue to offer licenses to members upon request.
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OARnet recently completed the negotiation of a direct contract with Omnissa, a spinoff from the Broadcom/VMWare transaction, for their virtual desktop software offering. The pricing reflects the aggregate purchasing power of the entire OARnet membership. Clients can contact their Business Relationship Managers (BRMs) for more details.
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OARnet spotlighted its aggregation contract for the Esri ArcGIS service. Currently, 38 member institutions are using this offering. BRMs can provide more details about how to enroll in the service.
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BRMs will contact members about visiting campuses in person during the upcoming years to learn more about institutional strategic priorities and goals and how OARnet can expand services to support plans. To ensure that organization contacts are up-to-date, members should visit gateway.oar.net.
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OARnet is working with the State of Ohio, NG911 and MARCS on building a backbone to support an emergency communications network.
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The engineering team reported on trends in data traffic on the statewide network. Between 2022 and 2025, peering traffic rose from 38% to 63%. OARnet has enhanced service via direct connections to Equinix facilities in Chicago, Illinois, and Ashburn, Virginia, and can provide transport to these sites.
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Many OARnet Points of Presence (PoP) locations are now co-located in world-class data center facilities. Members can speak with their BRMs about new data center opportunities.
OARnet hosted a panel discussion on shared regional resources, featuring Frankie Baker, chief information officer of Cincinnati State Technical and Community College; Bharath Prabhakaran, vice president and chief digital officer of the University of Cincinnati; and John Rathje, vice president of information technology and chief information officer of Kent State University. The panelists discussed the benefits of using OARnet’s shared fiber-optic backbone infrastructure, which provides redundancy and resiliency for technology on their campuses. A dependable network with shared services is a cost-effective and efficient model for ensuing seamless technology service delivery to students and faculty, the panelists said.
The Member Meeting also featured a presentation by Eric Adams, the founder and lead engineer for AAMTEX (Advanced Air Mobility of Texas), which is located at the National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence (NAAMCE) in Springfield, Ohio. Adams discussed how he has leveraged the OARnet network and its Internet2 (national research and education network) connection to provide fast and reliable data transmission for the operation of drones and electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. With support from the Ohio Supercomputer Center, the company is able to deliver data to researchers for real-time and offline analysis. Kent State University, for example, is conducting cybersecurity research.
The fall 2025 OARnet Member Meeting will be held on Thursday, Nov. 13, at the Ohio Technology Consortium facility in conjunction with various higher education associations’ meetings in Columbus, Ohio.
Photo gallery
Written by Andrea Gibson
Photos by Lexi Biasi
Since 1987, OARnet has delivered technology-based solutions that reduce costs, increase productivity and improve customer service. As a division of the Ohio Department of Higher Education's Ohio Technology Consortium, OARnet serves Ohio's education, health care, public broadcasting and government communities. Other members of the consortium include the Ohio Supercomputer Center and OhioLINK.
