OARnet, OH-TECH receive award for statewide collaborations

The Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARnet), the Ohio Technology Consortium (OH-TECH) and the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) were recently recognized for their collaborative business approach with entities around the state.

Government Technology, the organizers of the 2019 Ohio Public Sector CIO Academy, presented the award at a May 20 event to Charles See, ODHE vice chancellor for external relations and education technology. This is the second year for this event, which is focused on enhancing leadership skills for Ohio’s senior-level technology executives and utilizing information technology as a strategic tool.

OARnet has been working with the State of Ohio on many fronts across the digital landscape, including the transfer of more than 34 individual network systems onto OneNet, the state’s channel on the 100 gigabit-per-second OARnet backbone. The OARnet network provides support to Innovation District projects around Ohio and to organizations leveraging co-location facilities at the State of Ohio Computing Center.

OARnet also delivers network connectivity to other entities, such as universities, colleges, K-12 schools, health care centers, public broadcasting stations and local government offices. Many of these communities are eligible to leverage aggregate pricing through OARnet for services and products, such as virtualization software and commodity internet access, saving the organizations millions of dollars each year.

Ohio Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted joined State Chief Information Officer Ervan Rodgers II to present the CIO Academy Awards to recognize outstanding IT leadership across the State of Ohio and local government. Earlier, Husted and Rodgers spoke to attendees on the topic of Epic Innovation. They outlined how InnovateOhio and the state’s IT organizations will work together to improve customer service through data sharing and streamlining government services throughout the enterprise.

ODHE oversees higher education for the state, with responsibilities that include authorizing and approving new degree programs, managing state-funded financial aid programs and developing and advocating policies to maximize higher education’s contributions to the state and its citizens. OH-TECH functions as an umbrella organization for Ohio’s statewide technology infrastructure organizations: OARnet, the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) and the Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK).