LITNET XXIV Conference: the Lithuanian annual review

The last week of August has a special place in LITNET’s calendar. In the same week, for the past 24 years, specialists from all LITNET technical centres have been gathering at our annual conference to share their achievements and shape their next year’s goals.

Our 2019 conference was held on the 26 – 27 August at a venue in a nature retreat in Trakai, the former capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Around 60 attendees from different LITNET institutions enjoyed the conference centre’s relaxing atmosphere and beautiful natural setting.

We were delighted to share the successful results of the completed EU-funded project thanks to which LITNET can now offer 14 more services to researchers in the country. The network backbone upgrade, a major development of our infrastructure’s core strength, was also showcased.

We were excited to listen to real user case stories, from representatives of institutions connected by LITNET, on the deployment of NREN-enabled infrastructure and services.

The Lithuanian academy of music and theatre demonstrated how exceptional network infrastructure and parameters enable theatre directors and musicians to create performances independently from the physical distance between them using LoLa (Low Latency audio/video transmission system).

We were intrigued to learn about the significance of LITNET infrastructure in metrology, the scientific study of measurement, and how the Time and Frequency Standard Laboratory is using LITNET resources to access other institutions and conduct scientific research in this field.

Security, with a special focus on LITNET CERT activities, cloud orchestration and automation, and virtual machine creation were also widely discussed.

Our conference had a true international flavour this year. We welcomed Nathalie McKenzie from GÉANT Partner Relations who presented GÉANT products and services portfolio currently available to LITNET and reminded us about the role of the Community Programme. The GÉANT network team and representatives from Baltic and Nordic NRENs met in a parallel session to discuss the GN4-3N project, the next generation network.

The impressive results achieved through the involvement in international activities of other NRENs in Europe were a true inspiration to try harder and be more resourceful and creative in the coming months.

Next year it will be our 25^th conference and we just can’t wait to celebrate with the community, this important milestone .