Decatur City Schools与新的Aruba Wi-Fi和有线解决方案提高了学生的参与，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.
建立100％的大学和职业倡议在阿拉巴马州的Decatur City学校推出了一项多方面的教学和学习转型。努力迅速揭示官员确定该地区现有的有线和无线环境无法应对新的需求。
“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评估是否更新其现有解决方案或寻求其他选项。Elam熟悉Aruba，赫沃特Packard Enterprise Company，她以前的地区倾向于尺度。
我们显然意图lizing value from modernizing our wired and Wi-Fi infrastructure. We credit Aruba with being an exceptional partner in making it happen.艾米莉·埃拉姆，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.”
虽然ELAM对Aruba有信心，但Decatur的网络管理员最初关注，仍然关注，在强大的投资中投入了现任。“幸运的是，他了解到Aruba的产品质量，直观的界面，易于配置和广泛的支持资源，他兴奋地迈出了跃迁，”伊拉姆说。“我们从来没有回头过。”
Aruba基础设施+ Central =长期连接收益
与阿鲁巴代表合作，Decatur开始了多年的更新，以恰逢电子率补助金的可用性。这包括高性能Aruba接入点，即时模式（IAP）和访问交换机以及基于云的Aruba Central，用于网络管理和操作。
“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.”
阿鲁巴中央减少了网络复杂性和成本
Given Decatur’s ultra-lean IT staff, officials were especially attracted to Aruba Central’s breadth of features and cost efficiencies.
“在其优势中，阿鲁巴中央消除了对现场服务器和相关成本的需求，”Elam说。“这也避免了固有的服务器管理和更新任务，这有助于减轻已经具有挑战性的目标，以跟上我们所有的技术需求和要求。”
从成本节约到IT生产力
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.”
无破坏性微调是另一个能力克隆值。“以前，随着我们的旧系统过分复杂于管理，更新需要Wi-Fi的网络配置，”克罗尔说。“使用中央，制作所需的变化需要秒。”
总体而言，克罗尔赞赏每个IAP的简明视图，它们是如何表演的，并且连接到它们的客户端。“这让我们可以看到是否需要任何调整作为利用模式的变化，”他说。“拥有如此强大而直观的工具释放我的时间来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，阿鲁巴的交换机正在回答多近近期的需求。“例如，我们为我们的一些交换机提供了一般基金资源，以便能够部署各种IOT系统，”Elam说。
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.
“Aruba’s high-powered PoE switch ports and multi-gigabit Ethernet capabilities provide us with the features we need today,” she explains. “In the future, we can easily take advantage of the many capabilities Aruba is building into its access switches.”
Aruba清除通道 - 统一有线和Wi-Fi政策
Decatur也预期奖励从统一Wi-Fi和通过部署Clearpass的有线访问。这将提供各个系统的区域，该系统旨在验证学生，教师，员工和客人，节省时间和解决安全需求。
“我们赞赏精细的可见性和增强的安全性清除通道将为我们提供谁以及连接我们网络的谁，”Elam说。“我们还将有效地改进了带宽利用率的控制，这对于有效地管理客观和互联网流量尤为重要。”
将无色港口和动态分段放在工作
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.
类似地，动态分割利用Quotppass使用区定义的规则利用微段流量，以将数据安全性提高为跨网络进行信息。
超出异常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.
“我们高中的所有云应用 - 谷歌教室，画布学习管理和在线教科书 - 依靠可靠的经验，”她继续。“我们的新有线和无线基础设施使我们能够超越我们的学生，教师和员工的期望。”
Esports团队带领
除了供电课堂系统外，高性能Wi-Fi还是为参与学生的新选项开门。其中一个是支持eSports团队，完成大学奖学金机会。
“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.
“通过加强学生参与，我们希望看到旷工的3％下降，”她说。“相反，旷工下降了14％，这是巨大的。”
对于毕业率，目标增加了2％。“我们也在轨道上超越这一目标，”Elam说。“我们对我们搬到了针头的距离非常满意，特别是考虑到我们所在地区的挑战人口统计学。”
“We’re definitely realizing the value from modernizing our infrastructure,” she adds. “We credit Aruba with being an exceptional partner in making it happen.”
