Crop & Food Research has awarded FX Networks a 3 year contract to design, supply and manage Crop & Foods entire KAREN network connection across the country.

FX Networks will provide an innovative solution for Crop & Food utilising Sun Hardware and Opensource Software - making large scale 1Gbps access feasible for Crop & Food. The design covers putting together a 3-8 site IP Network connected via KAREN and using industry standard BGP routing. In addition FX Networks will manage the network, and combined with FX Network's Open Service Networking Portal give Crop & Food a realtime web based access to information about the performance of the service.

Crop & Food Research IS Manager Dean Patfield has this to say:

"..FX Networks have managed our WAN and Internet services for a number of years and we have a strong relationship with them. It was a natural progression to use FX Network's expertise to put together a solution for connecting Crop & Food sites via KAREN. We've worked collaboratively to design and implement a cost effective solution which suits our requirements.."

Jamie Baddeley, General Manager of Internet Services with FX Networks said "..Based on history and performance of providing Crop & Food Internet services, Crop & Food were confident that we had the expertise and experience to smoothly manage Crop & Foods KAREN implementation. They felt that our independent viewpoint in terms of the KAREN network added real value. The fact that were well versed in delivery of high performance networks, combined with our track record of solid Internet service delivery meant that we were trusted to bring things together successfully.."