Decatur City Schools改善了学生与新Aruba Wi-Fi和有线解决方案的参与，以实现卓越目标

USE CASE:Improve educational outcomes by boosting student engagement using high-performance, reliable and easily deployed Wi-Fi and wired infrastructure, with AI and cloud-based management saving time and budget.

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建立100％的大学和职业倡议，在阿拉巴马州的迪凯特市学校推出了多方面的教学转型。这项努力迅速导致官员确定该地区现有的有线和无线环境无法应付新需求。

“Our decade-old legacy infrastructure was increasingly lacking in performance,” explains Emily Elam, Supervisor of Technology for the 8700-student district. “In addition to our existing 1:1 initiative in 4th-8th grade, we also planned to supply every 9th-12th grader with a Chromebook at our two new high schools. With the growing demands and device densities, we clearly needed an infrastructure refresh.”

Positive Experiences Lead to Aruba Embrace

首先，Decatur评估了是更新其现有解决方案还是寻求其他选择。埃拉姆（Elam）对她以前的地区的惠普（Hewlett Packard Enterprise）公司Aruba的熟悉程度，使Scales倾斜了。

We’re definitely realizing value from modernizing our wired and Wi-Fi infrastructure. We credit Aruba with being an exceptional partner in making it happen.Emily Elam,Supervisor of Technology, Decatur City Schools

“I had a great experience with HP at my prior district, where there were very few issues with the networking equipment and the warranty meant no costly repairs,” Elam says. “This made Aruba ownership a very cost-effective way to be good stewards of taxpayer funds. We also used Aruba ClearPass for policy-based access control and our experience with it was equally positive.”

Although Elam was confident about Aruba, Decatur’s network administrator was initially concerned, being heavily invested in the incumbent. “Fortunately, the more he learned about Aruba’s product quality, intuitive interface, ease of configuration and extensive support resources, he became excited about making the leap,” says Elam. “We’ve never looked back.”

阿鲁巴基础设施 +中心=长期连通性提升

In collaboration with Aruba representatives, Decatur began a multi-year update to coincide with the availability of E-rate grants. This included high-performance Aruba Access Points, in Instant mode (IAPs), and access switches along with cloud-based Aruba Central, for network management and operations.

“In addition to addressing our short-term needs, the set-up provides the flexibility to evolve our network over time,” says Elam. “Aruba’s demonstrated track record for supplying efficient and effective pathways for smoothly transitioning to the latest technologies, as they’re required, is a big plus.”

The district also deployed Aruba’s mobility controllers to create a guest network via VPN tunneling back to the data center. “Our teachers and staff need access to their mobile phones for various reasons, particularly in case of an emergency,” Elam says. “Combining our IAPs with a VPN enables us to offer connectivity for those BYOD devices.”

Aruba Central降低了网络的复杂性和成本

Given Decatur’s ultra-lean IT staff, officials were especially attracted to Aruba Central’s breadth of features and cost efficiencies.

埃拉姆说：“在其优势中，阿鲁巴中心（Aruba Central）消除了对现场服务器和相关成本的需求。”“这也避免了固有的服务器管理和更新任务，这有​​助于缓解已经具有挑战性的目标，以跟上我们所有的技术需求和请求。”

From cost savings to IT productivity

What’s more, Central supplies a wealth of other attributes. “For instance, with our old system, configuring and updating network settings was cumbersome,” says Gary Cloer, Network Administrator at Decatur. “Central not only simplifies those processes, it’s also easy and intuitive to use.”

Non-disruptive fine-tuning is another capability Cloer values. “Previously, updating network configurations required taking Wi-Fi offline for several hours as our old system was overly complicated to administer,” Cloer says. “Using Central, making needed changes takes seconds.”

总体而言，Cloer感谢每个IAP的简洁视图，他们的表现以及客户与他们的联系。他说：“这使我们可以了解是否需要随着利用模式的变化需要进行任何调整。”“拥有如此强大而直观的工具可以使我有时间专注于其他关键项目。”

切换创新未来的有线投资

在有线方面，阿鲁巴的开关正在满足多个近期和长期需求。Elam说：“例如，我们购买了一些带有普通基金资源的开关，以使各种物联网系统能够部署。”

This enables Decatur to run current IoT solutions, such as security cameras, door locks, intercoms and telephony, over the wired network without any congestion, she says. Further, Decatur’s wired network is now future-proofed to support new requirements as they emerge.

她解释说：“ Aruba的高功率POE开关端口和多Gigabit以太网功能为我们提供了今天所需的功能。”“将来，我们可以轻松地利用Aruba为其访问开关构建的许多功能。”

Aruba Clearpass - 统一的连线和Wi-Fi政策

Decatur is also anticipating rewards from unifying Wi-Fi and wired access by deploying ClearPass. This will supply the district with one system that works to authenticate students, teachers, staff and guests, saving time and addressing security needs.

Elam说：“我们感谢颗粒状的可见性和增强的安全性ClearPass将为我们提供与我们网络联系的内容和什么。”“我们还将改善对带宽利用的控制，这对于有效管理客人和互联网流量尤其重要。”

将无色端口和动态分割置于工作

Other projects on the horizon include leveraging the colorless port and Dynamic Segmentation capabilities within Aruba’s switches.

The former enables a switch port to automatically use information, supplied from ClearPass, about a connected device to determine whether it’s a camera or an HVAC sensor for automatically assigning appropriate access rights. This eliminates manual port configuration tasks.

Similarly, Dynamic Segmentation leverages ClearPass to micro-segment traffic using district-defined rules to increase data security as information travels across a network.

在超过例外和目标的同时启用新产品

With its new network providing a modern infrastructure foundation, the benefits at Decatur rapidly added up. “When you open two new schools, with new equipment and new Chromebooks for each of about 2500 student, expectations run high,” says Elam.

她继续说：“我们高中的所有云应用程序 - Google教室，帆布学习管理和在线教科书 - 都取决于可靠的体验。”“我们的新连线和无线基础设施使我们能够超越学生，老师和员工的期望。”

电子竞技团队领先

除了为课堂系统提供动力外，高性能Wi-Fi还为吸引学生的新选择打开了大门。其中之一是支持电子竞技团队，并拥有大学奖学金机会。

“The State of Alabama sanctions three Esports games, of which we participate in League of Legends,” Elam says. “The bandwidth and performance requirements are very high, and it must be stable, as higher education scholarships are on the line. Our Aruba Wi-Fi gives us the confidence to encourage our students to participate and win.”

学术成果比比皆是

Most importantly, Elam reports that Decatur is surpassing its excellence goals. Two significant measures are reduced absenteeism and higher graduation rates.

她说：“通过加强学生的参与度，我们希望旷工持续下降3％。”“取而代之的是，缺勤率下降了14％，这是巨大的。”

For graduation rates, the target was a two percent increase. “We’re on track to exceed that goal as well,” Elam says. “We’re very pleased with how far we’ve moved the needle, especially considering the challenged demographics of our district.”

“We’re definitely realizing the value from modernizing our infrastructure,” she adds. “We credit Aruba with being an exceptional partner in making it happen.”