Boosting student success with an Aruba mobile-first network from edge to core

With increasing licensing costs and legacy equipment unable to keep up with new demands, Michael Uelses knew his institution’s infrastructure needed to evolve.

“We were embarking on a one-to-one mobile initiative to ensure our students are prepared for post-secondary success,” says Uelses, Director of Information Technology at the Nazareth Area School District. “We needed to modernize our network from the edge to the core to meet our objectives for providing exceptional experiences for teachers and students.”

Advice from Other Districts Seals the Deal

With its previous network, Nazareth was experiencing cost and complexity headaches. “Our existing vendor’s roadmap seemed to favor increasingly complex solutions with burdensome licensing requirements,” says Mike Fahey, Senior Application and Network Administrator at the 4,800+ student Eastern Pennsylvania district.

“Due to our district’s size and lean IT staff, we were interested in other options,” he adds.

The Nazareth IT staff began by surveying other districts and higher education institutions around the region to learn from peers about wired and wireless options. They quickly discovered numerous organizations were committed to Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company.

Reliability and Intelligence at the Heart of the Network

For wired networking, Nazareth was particularly excited about Aruba’s intelligent core switches.

Fahey说：“高可用性开关包括新的AOS-CX操作系统。”“这对于简单的可编程性和机上网络分析引擎非常有吸引力，这两者都可以为我们提供高级功能，同时降低了我们的有线和无线网络的复杂性。”

最终，拿撒勒人选择部署两个Aruba 8320开关作为其公用事业级有线和无线网络的基础。Fahey说：“通过同步运行两个开关，我们将获得一个完全冗余的网络，无论是计划还是计划外，我们的用户都无法检测到故障转移。”

“We had a very clear directive to get wireless right,” he adds. “Because everything ultimately connects back to the core of a network, a rock-solid core switch was key to fulfilling that mandate.”

今天10 g, up to 100Gig for tomorrow

为了支持电线吉比特Wi-Fi，拿撒勒人正在将其骨干连接升级到10Gbps。这使8230开关很自然。Fahey说：“它为我们提供了开箱即用的高速端口数量。”

The switch is easily scalable up to 100Gbps as we adopt more bandwidth-hungry applications, such as augmented and virtual reality for immersing students in subjects such as biology and engineering.

“In addition to positioning us for the Wi-Fi traffic needs of the future, we’re also in the process of upgrading our HPE Synergy blade servers, so we’re also using the 8320’s capability to handle a 40Gbps fiber connection to our servers right now,” Fahey says.

标准化Aruba Wi-Fi在室内和室外

For Wi-Fi, Nazareth had also struggled with its legacy deployment. “Previously, we had two Wi-Fi vendors,” says Uelses. “Over time, it became increasingly inefficient to troubleshoot and administer.”

在无线评估阶段，拿撒勒的IT员工用Aruba AP代替了最麻烦的现有课堂访问点。乌尔斯斯说：“第二天早上，那个教室的老师说'哇，今天的Wi-Fi今天很快'。”

“It was like flipping a switch,” he continues. “When all of the connectivity problems we’d experienced in that room vanished, we knew Aruba Wi-Fi was the right choice.”

Outdoor Wi-Fi boosts safety and security

Nazareth also extended Aruba’s Wi-Fi outdoors for the first time as a critical component of its security strategy and to support a new emergency preparedness app. Almost the entire perimeter of each school, which includes playgrounds, parking lots, sport fields, a stadium and an environmental center are now covered with outdoor Wi-Fi.

“We wanted to ensure that our faculty and staff were able to communicate outdoors and use our response tool导航准备which enables us to quickly determine who is accounted for and who isn’t during an emergency,” explains Uelses.

从安全的角度来看，拿撒勒现在已经制定了整体准备策略。

“We’ve issued iPads to our substitute teachers, as they didn’t always have a device compatible with NaviGate,” Uelses explains. “Now everyone gets to their assigned rallying points quickly and stays in communication via the Wi-Fi.

他继续说：“我们有多次成功的演习。”“我们对Aruba在帮助我们确保每个人都得到解决方面的作用感到非常满意。”

Utility Grade Wi-Fi that just works

当拿撒勒人部署其新的Wi-Fi时，立即显而易见。

“We rolled out 1600 new Chromebooks right after we implemented our new wired and wireless network,” Uelses says. “In return, we heard crickets. There were no complaints.”

Nazareth credits the load balancing intelligence embedded in Aruba’s Wi-Fi as a contributor to this success. “Aruba’s Mobility Conductor balances device and data loads automatically,” Fahey says. The only thing our users experience is excellent performance because it all happens completely in the background.”

Foundation Care: highly responsive, specialized tech support

Nazareth’s technical support experience has been equally impressive.

“We prefer to be hands-on with our deployments,” explains Fahey. “Aruba’s documentation is well written and the syntax from wired to wireless is consistent, making it easy to transition between them.”

“I’ve only needed to call support twice since we began to deploy,” he adds. “Each time I reached an engineer very quickly and they provided immediate answers. It’s been a great experience.”

Exceptional Wi-Fi Powers Classroom Innovation

Today, Nazareth’s teaching, learning and school safety are all significantly improved.

“In our classrooms, teachers are now confident that the Wi-Fi works,” says Uelses. “As a result, we’re definitely seeing them evolve their curricula to include new innovations and engagement options.” For example, teachers are using Google Expeditions VR Classroom kits to integrate virtual reality technology into their classroom and traditional computer labs have been converted into Affinity Rooms where students use Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Robotics, Stop Motion Animation and Coding.

有一个沉重的关注蒸汽有关活动and project-based learning. To support academic learning and student growth, teachers are also using technology in innovative ways by providing students with experiences in coding, robotics, virtual and augmented reality. Finally, teachers are transitioning from a traditional delivery of curriculum and knowledge with the use of textbooks to creating digital curricula that students can access through Schoology.

他补充说：“在地区一级，拥有高性能的Wi-Fi使我们能够采用越来越多的基于云的解决方案进行教学，学习和管理。”

Next Up: IoT and More

With its future-ready Wi-Fi in place, Nazareth also plans to securely address mounting IoT requests.

“Our facilities management staff is looking forward to the efficiencies they’ll gain by adding building automation and access systems to our IT network,” says Uelses. “Plus, there are opportunities for implementing IoT based teaching and learning solutions in our classrooms.

对于IoT所需的高级数据安全性，Nazareth采用了Aruba的ClearPass政策管理解决方案。“我们预计ClearPass将帮助我们为物联网，BYOD和Guest Device访问提供精简且安全的连接。”

Most importantly, Nazareth is keen to enhance student success in new ways. “Digital curricula and mobile experiences are here to stay,” says Uelses. “Our new network enables us to provide a safe environment that supports our teachers and learners for years to come.”