At Cybera, our roots are firmly planted in our digital network, and it remains core to everything we do. By managing a dedicated, unmetered fibre pipeline that connects Alberta’s post-secondary institutions, K-12 schools, and other research organizations — to each other and the world — we create a stable launching pad for the public sector to learn, share, and innovate without boundaries.
As we look back at our 2025-26 fiscal year, we are proud of the massive network growth, structural upgrades, and stability our team was able to accomplish.
Here is a snapshot of what our network team achieved over the last year, and what it means for our member community:
Ensuring continuous network availability
For educators, researchers, and public sector staff in Alberta, a stable and hardy internet connection is as vital as paper and pencils. That’s why we are incredibly proud that Cybera’s network experienced zero unplanned network-wide outages throughout the entire year. And with only 32 non-trivial member support requests all year, it was a remarkably consistent accomplishment by our network team!
Why this matters
Whether members are running data-intensive research simulations at a university, or data intensive platforms in a K-12 classroom, they need to know the network will simply work. This uptime is a testament to the resilience of Cybera’s digital infrastructure. It means fewer disruptions, less administrative headache, and a network members can completely rely on.
Strengthening Alberta’s network integrity
This past year, Cybera’s network team partnered with the Government of Alberta to help 38 of our member organizations successfully create and sign Route Origin Authorizations (ROAs). These ROAs prove that specific networks are authorized to route specific IP addresses, preventing accidental routing errors or malicious “route hijacking”. This work with our government partners included completing ROAs related to our K-12 community, which immediately secured traffic for our serviced school districts.
The Government of Alberta is now using this successful initiative as a template to roll out the same security standards across other K-12 member organizations over the coming months.
Why this matters
By finalizing these ROAs, we have significantly strengthened the routing integrity for individual members as well as Cybera’s broader network. This ensures member’s data is delivered exactly where it needs to go, making our networks less vulnerable to routing threats that can cause data to be sent to the wrong destination, either accidentally or maliciously.
Network connectivity to a new data centre
We have officially established network connectivity to the Calgary-based datacentre — the Equinix CL3 — which opens a direct, low-latency pipeline to major cloud environments, including AWS Direct Connect.
This accomplishment was made successful thanks to funding through a pilot proposal with CANARIE and the City of Calgary, who provides the fibre infrastructure throughout the city.
Why this matters
Thanks to this new data centre connection, all connected Cybera members can bypass the public internet and enjoy streamlined, low-latency access to services like AWS Direct Connect. This connection drastically reduces data transfer fees by avoiding public internet egress charges, allowing Cybera members to access cost-effective p cloud services.
Gaining clearer insights with “NetFlow” traffic metrics
To continuously optimize our digital environment, the network team began collecting network metrics this past year using a tool called NetFlow. These metrics focus on non-content metadata describing traffic communication patterns — the “who, what, where, when, and how much” of data transmission, not the content itself. It tracks source/destination IPs, ports, protocols, timestamps, and data volume, while keeping users’ actual images, words, and private communications strictly confidential.
Why this matters
Enhanced visibility into Cybera’s broad network traffic patterns will help us to enhance our network more effectively. Instead of reacting to network bottlenecks after they happen, we can now identify key areas of usage, run smart traffic engineering to maximize efficiency, troubleshoot technical bugs faster, and catch cyber threats before they disrupt members’ campuses, offices, or classrooms. It allows Cybera to be proactive, ensuring we efficiently scale the network to match members’ future needs.
Looking ahead
All of these milestones were built upon a foundational, 19-month architecture overhaul to increase Cybera’s capacity to the SuperNet. With our new framework active, we are connecting to the SuperNet at 140 Gbps! Let’s put that into perspective: a 140 Gbps network connection can transfer data at approximately 18 gigabytes per second. Under ideal conditions, that’s enough capacity to download a 100 GB game in under six seconds, or move one terabyte of data in under 60 seconds. Compared to typical home internet connections, it is 1,400 times faster.
These network expansions help provide our members with the increasing network access they need to transfer data. For example, the Calgary Catholic School District recently upgraded their connection to 25 Gbps. Additionally, a number of other member organizations have scheduled 40 Gbps or 100 Gbps upgrades.
Moving forward, Cybera remains dedicated to driving digital innovation across Alberta and beyond. We are actively monitoring and testing next-generation technologies, such as AI tools or quantum networking breakthroughs, to guarantee our digital environment stays ahead of our community’s evolving needs. By maintaining our focus on collaboration, we will ensure that our network continues to serve as a powerful, collective platform for our members to learn and innovate.