The GARR Annual Report 2025 is now available online. It provides an overview of the key infrastructure, technological and organisational developments delivered by GARR over the past year.
2025 marked a year of major achievements, most notably the completion of the GARR-T network. With the final sections delivered under the ICSC and TeRABIT projects funded by Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), an important cycle of infrastructure investment came to a close, further strengthening the role of the GARR network in supporting research and education across Italy. This accomplishment is particularly noteworthy given the demanding timescales within which the work was carried out.
The impact of these investments is immediately evident in the figures. The aggregate backbone capacity increased by 62%, from 24 Tbps to 39 Tbps, while the volume of data carried across the GARR network grew by 30% compared with the previous year.
Among the new network infrastructure, two new Points of Presence (PoPs) were established at the INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratories—one underground and one on the surface. Other significant developments took place in southern Italy and Sardinia, including the completion of the regional fibre-optic ring and the integration of submarine cable connections linking Golfo Aranci, Rome and Milan.
At the international level, GARR expanded connectivity to the GÉANT network to 800 Gbps. Access speeds to LHCONE were also increased in the year that the global research network celebrated its 20th anniversary. LHCONE was the first worldwide collaboration dedicated to the transfer, processing, storage and analysis of the enormous volumes of data generated by experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva. International collaboration also continued on the testing and development of next-generation networking services, with a particular focus on spectrum sharing, sensing and the distribution of time and frequency reference signals.
GARR has continued to invest in open, interoperable services managed directly by the organisation, ensuring full control over infrastructure, resources and data management. This approach includes the launch of eduVPN, an internationally federated service that provides simple and secure access to the Internet through a virtual private network (VPN). GARR’s growing focus on cybersecurity was also reflected in the introduction of DNSSEC, a set of extensions designed to strengthen the security of the Domain Name System (DNS).
Finally, GARR continued its commitment to professional development through a comprehensive programme of training initiatives on cybersecurity and other key topics, supporting technical skills development and knowledge sharing across the community.
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