In the new millennium, the RHRZ is still primarily responsible for centralised tasks that exceed the capacities of the individual locations. These include the networking and operation of network services, the operation of central servers and the support of decentralised systems, such as workstation computers and subnets, general consulting and support services and IT coordination. Courses on applications, systems and Internet use are also offered.

In April 2000, the RHRZ had over 21,000 registered users. At this time, around 30,000 e-mails are received and sent daily at the University of Bonn. There are around 100,000 daily accesses to the Internet, so that around 100 GB are received per day and 60 GB are sent per day. Approximately 2 TB of data was stored in the central back-up and archiving system in 2000. The local university network comprises around 12,000 connection points and 500 kilometres of cable. A total of 360 telephone lines connect the university network with the public telephone network. The University of Bonn has around 9000 workstation computers, which are supported with various functions. Approximately 500 personal computers are available in the university's PC pools.

Over the years, there have been significant and far-reaching developments not only in hardware, software and types of use, but particularly in the personnel structure at the University IT and Data Center. Compared to the year it was founded, the RHRZ has seen a rapid reduction in jobs. Whereas in 1974 there were still 22 machine operators working in three shifts, from the mid-1990s it was technically possible to run the machines at night under the supervision of just one ‘watchman’. With technical developments and the widespread supply of processors, data storage media and printers to the departments, more and more jobs are lost due to shrinking areas of responsibility.

The main role in the development of the 2000s: networks and their services. These new areas create tasks for which training as a mathematical-technical assistant or, even better, training at a university of applied sciences is required. As a result, jobs will have to be reallocated in the long term. A temporary solution to meet the job requirements is the increased recruitment of student assistants, who bring real added value to the University IT and Data Center.

In December 2000, a cooperation agreement is concluded between the University of Bonn and the Studierendenwerk for the construction of a joint backbone fibre-optic network. This contract is to play a very special role for the university's own network (BONNET).

The predominant question in the first 25 years of development at the RHRZ: to rely on the latest possibilities or proven technology and systems? In terms of operational safety and the customers' familiar environment, the focus to date has always been on a solution with predictable development. ‘This approach has meant that the University of Bonn has always spoken with a single voice: It was never institution XY that raised its voice on DP issues, but always the university as a whole. All institutions and committees up to the Senate and Rectorate were involved. For example, a request from the University IT and Data Center for investment funds is not a request from the University IT and Data Center for its own interests. Nor is it an application that merely serves to support individual subjects. It is always an application from the university.’ (Annual Report 2000, p.4)

Since the beginning of March 2000, the RHRZ has been offering the ‘RHRZ CD for Internet access’: The CD, which can be purchased for DM 5, is intended to make it easier for users to install and configure the network software required for access from the PC to BONNET at home by providing instructions and programmes.

The topic of user training emerges as a particularly important task: by April 2000, the RHRZ has more than 4000 participants in the basic courses on word processing.

The topic of networks and their services proves to be the greatest challenge in the development of the RHRZ and so the Bonn data network BONNET with its services achieves an availability of around 98% in April 2000.

In the year 2000, B-WIN reaches the limits of its capacity. The volume transferred grows by a factor of 2.2 per year and the data streams from abroad also increase to such an extent that the B-WIN network's capabilities are soon exhausted. In addition, new multimedia applications in teaching and research are contributing to a further increase in the usual data streams. For this reason, the B-WIN will be replaced by the Gigabit Science Network (G-WIN) in the year 2000. G-WIN will provide science and research at the University of Bonn with the world's most modern Internet. This consists of a core network with 29 nodes distributed across the whole of Germany. This means that the connection to the USA can also be increased to 622 Mbits/s from June 2000. DFN-Verein has decided on a new tariff structure for G-WIN, which stipulates that charges will now be calculated according to the monthly traffic volume. If the monthly data volume exceeds 25% of the nominal connection capacity, the next higher capacity class must be selected. This change means that considerable additional costs are to be expected for the University of Bonn, as the volume of traffic at the University of Bonn has grown exponentially: the growth factor from April 1997 to March 2000 is 1.9% per year. In January, the incoming data volume already reaches 2600 MB/month, which corresponds to an average utilisation of the B-WIN connection of 24%. To counteract this, the University of Bonn is appealing to all users: ‘Save internet resources!’ Among other things, users were asked to set their browser so that images are not loaded automatically.

After almost two years of development, a further novelty was introduced in the summer semester of 2000: the new customer database, be user administration, was activated at the RHRZ. This also had an impact on the immediate central services of the RHRZ.

The most far-reaching change was the merging of different user groups. In future, the distinction between employees, students and professors in the user ID will no longer apply. However, old identifiers were retained. The system for assigning user IDs was developed in such a way that a user ID could be assigned almost freely when an application was made; it only had to be unique within the university. From then on, the first letter of the first name and up to seven characters of the surname were suggested for the user ID. This change was also advantageous when changing status from student to employee, as it was no longer necessary to change the identifier. Only the rights and options associated with the change now had to be adapted.
Another change was that the new system provided up to three e-mail addresses for all customers, each with individually definable e-mail forwarding. Also affected by the changes was the registration procedure for students, which included a new activation procedure and thus significantly reduced the organisational effort. From the beginning of the summer semester 2000, students were sent an RHRZ PIN with their semester documents. With the help of this PIN, an automated activation of the user ID could be applied for at application PCs set up for this purpose.

The following IT courses took place at the RHRZ in 2000:

• First steps on a Windows PC,
• Advanced operation of a Windows PC,
• Introduction to the Internet workstations of the RHRZ,
• Word processing under Windows,
• Internet intensive course,
• WWW and e-mail,
• Excel,
• Word,
• SPSS for Windows,
• ACCESS database system
• Internet NEWS,
• Internet FTP,
• LINUX-Unix on the PC,
• Windows 2000 on the workstation PC,
• Introduction to FORTRAN 90,
• C under UNIX.

As well as the following courses and lecture series on specialised topics:

• Tables and form letters with Word,
• Creating scientific papers with Word,
• homepage creation,
• creating presentation documents with PowerPoint,
• Basic PC knowledge,
• Use of data networks,
• Lecture series for administrators on the organisation of IT in the interaction between local and central services.

2003 sees two important changes: Dr Rainer Bockholt takes over the management of the Regional University IT and Data Center and, also from 2003, the University IT Data Center is responsible exclusively as an IT service provider for the university, so the ‘Regional University IT and Data Center’ (RHRZ) becomes the ‘University IT and Data Center of the University of Bonn’, or ‘HRZ’ for short.

To improve access to the Internet and work on databases, the WLAN@BONNET pilot project is launched in 2003.

The further expansion of the university network (BONNET) is also making progress: the HBFG application for the ‘Expansion of the university's internal data network, 3rd construction phase (2004-2007)’ was submitted. The main objectives of the 3rd construction phase were to upgrade the BONNET backbone to 10 Gigabit technology, to connect the university buildings with at least 1 Gigabit/s across the board and to set up a fail-safe firewall supply. The procurement was recommended in full by the DFG in accordance with the application. However, the provision of funds took much longer than requested (2004-2007), namely until 2013.

The WLAN@BONNET project, which got off to a good start, is to be expanded in 2005. As a nationwide network was not feasible for cost reasons, 6 WLAN locations were initially set up. The following locations were selected: Römerstraße 164 (AVZ III), Wegelerstraße 6 (HRZ/ IAP), Meckenheimer Allee 171 (Botanical Garden), Meckenheimer Allee 172 (IKG), Poppelsdorfer Allee 47 (IKP) and the main building.

To use the WLAN@BONNET, users need regular access and a functioning WLAN card. In addition, a functional VPN client from Cisco and a configuration file for the VPN client must be available on the computer. The transmission rate of the WLAN network in 2005 is 54 mbit/second.

The new IT helpdesk, still called Infopunkt in 2005, is officially opened in the Plaza on the ground floor of the HRZ. At the same time, the 60 new public PC workstations (OECAPs) on the ground floor are put into operation. At that time, all university members could use these from Monday to Friday between 7.30 am and 9.30 pm.

As part of the first Bonn University Festival, the HRZ opened its doors to visitors. Interested guests were able to surf the internet freely on one of the 60 PCs or take part in a video conference. The new public printing system and poster printer were also in use. If they brought a digital image, visitors were able to take a printed image home with them and view the earth from space using the new super-fast networks.

On 01.08.2005, a new phase begins for the HRZ, as the University IT and Data Center launches its training programme for IT specialists for system integration and welcomes its first two trainees, who incidentally are still working at the University IT and Data Center today (as of November 2024).

Thanks to the development of BASIS, the first electronic course catalogue of the University of Bonn was released in 2008. The system was operated on virtualised servers for the first time. The virtualisation platform ‘VHRZ’ later also provided the infrastructure for many other HRZ services.

From the winter semester onwards, over a period of 10 years, modules for Bachelor's degree programmes with a final examination were conducted by HRZ lecturers. The topics were: Creating scientific papers, spreadsheets, statistical analyses with SPSS, presenting and programming with Java. Students from many subject areas were able to earn 3 credit points by passing the exam.

Plone 3, the first centralised content management system for websites at the University of Bonn, will be launched in June 2009.

In addition, after a two-year conception and planning phase, a new central repository for the university's users is launched: the File Service Infrastructure (FSI). It offers significantly more storage space than the AFS, which has been in use since 1992.

In September 2009, the University IT and Data Center of the University of Bonn hosts the first ZKI Autumn Conference with 250 participants and 40 companies in the auditorium of the main building.

The year 2009 is also characterised above all by extensive restructuring in the University IT and Data Center's machine room: In May 2009, the HRZ server room will undergo extensive remodelling of the network and server infrastructure. The switches used to connect the central servers to the network will be replaced by newer models that also enable a 10Gbit/s connection.

As both the network and the server infrastructure have become ‘overgrown’ in recent years as a result of repeated modifications and additions, which are not ideal for ensuring stable operation in the long term, all existing servers will be converted into larger server cabinets and reconnected. These conversions also serve to optimise the air conditioning in the HRZ server room in order to increase the efficiency of the existing air conditioning system. As part of the conversion, around 350 network connections and more than 100 servers and storage systems in 10 distribution cabinets will be converted, which will also result in outages of central services. Thanks to the extensive preparations in the weeks beforehand, downtimes will be minimised.

Also in 2009, the first planning discussions take place to convert the backbone network node in Katzenburgweg into an emergency machine room. It should take nine years before it is ready for operation.