The Michigan State Education Network (MiSEN) was created from collaboration of the Technology Readiness Infrastructure Grant (TRIG). MDE’s vision for the SEN builds on the work done by ISDs and local districts that built regional networks. Connecting these existing networks laid the foundation for the MDE/DTMB vision for the SEN - connect these regional networks into seamless digital paths connecting all K-12 buildings in Michigan. The goal was to leverage the work that local education agencies and ISDs have done over the past 20 years - to build regional networks that improve and reduce costs by sharing resources like server hosting, tech expertise, application support, Internet access, and more. Working with Michigan’s fiber-network vendor community played a critical role in efficient implementation of the State Education Network (SEN) in creating broad-reach infrastructure and engineering expertise.
During the grant years, Phase I - connecting 55 ISDs - was successfully completed in July of 2017. Several ISDs were immediately able to save money replacing locally-leased connections with connections over to the SEN. Some areas were paying as high as $8.50 Mbps/mo - and the SEN’s rate,
effective July 1, 2018, is only $0.46 Mbps/mo
.
ISDs improved security and reliability by avoiding the commodity Internet for the
INTRA
-net traffic. They had more secure connections to student data servers located at the SEN’s five aggregation hubs. And ISDs saw significant reduction in Internet access costs due to bulk purchasing of bandwidth. Savings ranged from 3-fold reduction for some ISDs to a 15-fold reduction for others.
Annual savings for the first 18 ISDs connecting for Internet access is $714,478/year.
The SEN also leveled the playing field by using the SEN to connect rural areas to competitive pricing available in urban markets. The SEN implemented 10GB connections from each ISD (some up to 100GB) to the SEN backbone which operates at 100GB.
Phase II will identify unconnected and under-served K-12 buildings. The goal is to extend the savings and other benefits noted above to buildings not currently connected to the SEN. Analysis is underway to identify un-served or under-served school buildings. E-Rate will play a critical role in addressing the initial capital costs and ongoing operating costs.
How can your district take advantage of these exciting cost savings? Email
[email protected]
for more information.