Colleges Centralize Wireless Networks to Increase Efficiency and Performance

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For universities that span several different locations, optimizing wireless networks poses a major challenge due to the geographical separation between campuses. For example, Ivy Tech—an Indiana community college with 32 campuses across the Hoosier state—had 14 different wireless networks.

There has been a move in the wireless world to optimize and centralize wireless networks so that disparate networks don’t negatively affect multicampus colleges, reports Ed Tech Magazine. Ivy Tech brought together all 32 campuses under the same wireless network last summer.  

Prior to the centralization, it was difficult for the university to make IT repairs as each local network presented unique challenges and solutions. It also prevented the university from implementing new products, as differing network hardware systems made this difficult.  

To solve the problem, Ivy Tech deployed over 900 pieces of hardware across 100 physical locations, which helped create a standardized network across all locations. Using Cisco Systems hardware, the university bolstered its backbone to 10 Gbps—up from the 1 Gbps most of the university’s networks were limited to in the past.

Similarly, in Georgia, Kennesaw State University is in the process of merging with Southern Polytechnic State University. Kennesaw State’s IT team is in the process of connecting the two campuses’ networks, as both were nearing the end of their life cycles.

“It will be much, much easier when everything is on one vendor,” Nickolaus Hassis, the executive director of the university’s infrastructure support services, told Ed Tech Magazine. “The biggest thing is going to be the overall insight into what’s happening on the wireless networks on both campuses, all at once.”

April 28, 2017      

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