• TechnologyInnovator
• NextInnovator
• EnterpriseInnovator
• SecurityInnovator
• DefenseInnovator
• WirelessInnovator 
• HPinnovator
• EnergyInnovator
• TransportationInnovator
• SMBinnovator (beta)

• NextInnovator(at)Live.com

• Ghost City
• Frontline Sentinel
• Innovation Insights
• WebInno
• Over the River
• Enderle Group
• Security Insights Blog 
• McAfee Audio Parasitics
• Rethinking Security
• Ovum
• iSuppli
• Canalys
• eMarketer 
• CRM Help Desk SW 
• Rethink Research
• The Gadgeteer
• Master the Moment

 

Upgrades enable unified wired and wireless networks to embrace new learning environments.

HP has announced that three educational institutions have selected HP Networking solutions, a core component of the HP Converged Infrastructure portfolio, to enable unified network environments, improve bandwidth connections and support the latest educational tools for students and faculty.

Rush-Henrietta Central School District in Henrietta, N.Y., Dallas Independent School District (ISD) in Texas, and Cuesta College, in San Luis Obispo, Calif., faced challenges with aging legacy networks that were impeding their ability to support the increased use of mobile devices and advanced learning solutions. Further, disparate network infrastructures required separate management of wired and wireless environments, driving up costs and preventing seamless technology integration into the classroom.

These institutions’ common goal was to reduce maintenance costs and improve user experience by unifying network infrastructures.

Upgrading the network while lowering total cost of ownership

State-mandated online-testing requirements and budget cuts strained Rush-Henrietta Central School District’s network to the point where monthly network outages were common. The district needed to rethink its legacy infrastructure to provide the best education possible to its 6,000 students through innovative teaching techniques and leveraging wireless devices in the classroom.

“Meeting state mandates and our own curriculum aspirations on a declining budget required a robust networking infrastructure capable of boosting performance while lowering total cost of ownership,” said Thomson Thomas, network and Infrastructure administrator, Rush-Henrietta Central School District. “Upgrading our entire wired infrastructure with HP Networking solutions immediately saved us $100,000 over competing offerings, while meeting our long-term growth requirements with better performance and less maintenance. Moreover, this upgrade allowed us to improve our existing, non-HP wireless network to support the 802.11n standard. ”

Replacing its Cisco infrastructure with HP Networking switches that include HP Intelligent Resilient Framework, an innovation that allows multiple switches to be virtualized while operating as a single switch, solved the network-downtime issues by enabling a true converged wired and wireless network that is flexible and scalable.

With the new HP 5800-24G Switch Series, part of the overall wired-network upgrade, the school district was able to increase wireless bandwidth by 25 percent, which helped support a bring-your-own-device initiative for students and faculty.

Unifying networking to prepare for the future

For Dallas ISD, accessing information from any device across more than 200 facilities created network challenges. To effectively cope, the district was forced to restrain network access for the entire 175,000–plus students and faculty.

“Our legacy network infrastructure wasn’t keeping up with the ongoing demands of supporting students and faculty,” said Gray Salada, executive director, Dallas Independent School District. “By deploying HP Networking solutions, we are getting quality technology without compromising budget resources. This allows us to deliver top-notch services to those who matter most—our students. ”

Dallas ISD began its network upgrade with the HP 10512, HP 8212 and HP 5400 Switch Series to create a foundation for a unified wired and wireless environment. The HP Intelligent Management Center allowed Dallas ISD to monitor service quality across all facilities that were being upgraded with the new HP infrastructure as it came online. The school district improved connectivity speed from 100Mb to 10Gb, paving the way for IT to support future virtual and collaborative learning environments.

Creating a flexible core for greater bandwidth

Cuesta College realized the need to upgrade its aging legacy infrastructure to keep the school’s critical applications running without interruption. HP Networking solutions provided a flexible infrastructure that enabled Cuesta College to increase network bandwidth and meet the needs of students and faculty.

“With an aging network infrastructure and decreasing higher-education budgets statewide, Cuesta College needed a partner who could help us upgrade to a network that meets the needs of 21st century computing as well as our economic conditions,” said Toni Sommer, vice president, administrative services, Cuesta College. “HP Networking solutions provided us with a high-performance platform that will allow us to improve existing services and to build new network applications for students, faculty and staff. Additionally, the capital and operating-expense metrics HP Networking presented were simply unbeatable.”

Cuesta College worked with HP partner Golden Star Technology of Cerritos, Calif., to deploy the HP 10500 Switch Series for consistent connectivity at the core, the HP 5830 Switch Series for high-port density at the core and edge of the network, and the HP 5120 Switch Series for its security control policies and manageability.