Aruba ClearPass ensures connectivity for 1.4 million museum visitors

When any of Stan Rehfuss’ 1.4 million annual guests visits his organization, they’re treated to robust Wi-Fi access and mobility-enabled exhibits throughout the 716,000 sq. ft. facility.

“During our latest expansion, we determined it was time to update our WLAN,” says Rehfuss, Technology Systems Manager for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. “We needed to provide secure Wi-Fi to visitors and contractors as well as our staff and interactive exhibits.”

Exceptional Guest Wi-Fi, Staff Mobility & More

为了配备其最新的机翼，以及其余的公共，课堂和研究空间，博物馆调查了各种Wi-Fi选项。惠普公司Aruba Networks提供了最有吸引力的解决方案。

“Aruba’s solution was robust, flexible and easier to manage,” Rehfuss says. “As a public entity with enterprise needs and a lean IT staff, management efficiencies and cost-effective scalability are important to us.”

ClearPass Centralizes Control of 5-Star WLAN Solution

在当地合作伙伴的支持下，博物馆选择了各种Aruba技术，例如供应商Agnostic Clearpass政策经理，机上和客人。博物馆使用ClearPass，在其多生物环境中获得了有效的网络访问控制，同时供应出色的客人和员工移动性。

The Museum also adopted Aruba’s indoor and outdoor access points (APs) and 7200 Series Mobility Controllers. Additionally, it deployed another multivendor network management tool, Aruba’s AirWave, for Wi-Fi optimization.

Standardizing on 802.11ac

With Aruba’s ClearPass, we’re efficiently and effectively providing robust, secure access for all.
Stan Rehfuss,Technology Systems Manager for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science

Most recently, the Museum began standardizing on Gigabit Wi-Fi by adding 802.11ac-enabled equipment in key locations, including installing the new outdoor AP-277 to supply cost-effective access for staff and guests.

“Deploying the AP-277 gave our staff tablet-based capabilities for checking in summer camp attendees,” Rehfuss says. “Now, parents don’t even need to leave their cars, smoothing drop-offs and improving experiences. Plus it was fast and easy to install.”

ClearPass Boosts Security, Streamlines Control

To safeguard its multivendor wireless and wired environment, the Museum values ClearPass for complete access control in a mobile world, Rehfuss says. ClearPass combines ultra-scalable, next-generation AAA (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting) services with a policy engine that leverages contextual data based on user roles, device types, app usage and location – all from a single platform.

“For security, our previous system required multiple SSIDs with separate VLANs behind each of them,” Rehfuss says. “Because we host many events every year, from corporate meetings to weddings, we also frequently added ad-hoc SSIDs.”

“As a result, we had SSID soup,” he continues. “It was confusing and time-consuming to manage. With ClearPass, that’s all solved because policies are centralized and streamlined, eliminating the need for multiple SSIDs”

Supporting BYOD and interactive exhibits

根据Rehfuss的说法，ClearPass已大大提高了Wi-Fi安全性。与ClearPass政策经理一起，通过应用基于角色的凭据来支持博物馆多种类型的访问需求，包括员工BYOD和基于展览的设备，这是一种轻而易举的信息。

“Our employee mobility is completely BYOD,” explains Rehfuss. “ClearPass Onboard enables staff members to authenticate their own devices. Then, Policy Manager automatically determines the appropriate level of access.”

这是一个类似的故事为其他类型的计算,wireless or wired. “For instance, our exhibits increasingly use mobile devices for interactivity,” Rehfuss says. “With ClearPass, we set policies for each type of use and the tool handles the rest. It’s that simple.”

基于角色的访问扩展到客人

The Museum also relies on ClearPass to make external access privileges as easy to manage as internal credentials. ClearPass Guest gives Museum visitors and contractors rich, secure guest access that is automatically separated from internal traffic.

“Previously, we only offered guest access to contractor groups, like employees from other museums,” Rehfuss says. “Such groups frequently come to our site to assist with their traveling exhibits.”

“Now, we provide secure connectivity to individual contractors,” he adds, as ClearPass automates role-based guest policy enforcement and extends it to all types of contractor devices without adding to the Museum’s management overhead.

Visitors sign on with ease

ClearPass also furnishes the industry’s only secure, enterprise-grade encryption method for public guest access, enabling the Museum to extend access to visitors with confidence. The public guest portal can easily be modified to support the large number of events held at the museum.

“Last year alone, the Museum served more than 1.3 million visitors onsite, and today’s museum visitors expect guest Wi-Fi,” says Rehfuss.

Combining ClearPass With AirWave Optimizes Wi-Fi

For maintaining overall WLAN health, the Museum also appreciates the seamless integration of ClearPass and AirWave. Like ClearPass, AirWave unifies multivendor network management by lending extraordinary visibility into each AP on the network.

Together, the solutions also provide speedy issue diagnosis and troubleshooting. “When we’re investigating device authentication issues, we begin with the ClearPass Access Tracker,” explains Rehfuss.

“From there, we can automatically launch AirWave to help drill down to a problem’s source,” he adds. “Such granular troubleshooting was non-existent, before.”

Enterprise Scalability Provides for Today and Tomorrow

Moving forward, the Museum is considering ways to further tap Aruba’s enterprise scalability. This could include adopting mobile engagement options, such as Aruba’s Meridian Mobile App Platform and Aruba Beacons. These technologies can augment visitor services, offer turn-by-turn directions to amenities and contribute proximity-aware interactivity.

“With proximity awareness, we could present interactive features to guests as they encounter an exhibit,” says Rehfuss. “Also, by combining traffic flow analytics and wayfinding technologies, we could guide visitors to under-utilized areas of the Museum in real-time.”

#GenMobile Wi-Fi + ClearPass = Multiple Rewards

Overall, Wi-Fi modernization has proven critical for supplying pervasive mobility and amenity promotion to the Museum’s increasingly #GenMobile constituencies. #GenMobile are today’s new breed of tech-savvy mobile device users.

Powering science on a sphere

According to Rehfuss, just one #GenMobile example is an exhibit the Museum calls Science on a Sphere. “Docents use a tablet, secured using ClearPass, to manage the exhibit,” Rehfuss says. “This makes reliable, secure Wi-Fi is essential to fully engaging the public.”

Branding and promotions a breeze

即使展览营销也可以推动ClearPass内置的高级服务。可自定义的客人门户提供组织品牌并支持外部服务。这使得可以轻松地包括展览促销，活动信息，特别优惠，多媒体选项和其他内容。

Uninterrupted Experiences, Wherever Users Roam

Today, the Museum’s staff, contractors and visitors enjoy uninterrupted, high-quality, secure mobile experiences wherever they work or roam. And, it’s all possible without added burdens to the organization’s IT staff.

“Whether its exhibits, research, events or day-to-day operations, we’re becoming more dependent on wireless connectivity,” Rehfuss says. “With Aruba and ClearPass, we can efficiently and effectively ensure it’s all seamless to our mobile users.”