Aruba Brings Wireless Networking to the West Chester Area School District for “Classroom of the Future” Program
06/21/2007
District-wide network links computers on every desk of every high school English and math classroom, frees classroom space, reduces load on IT staff
Sunnyvale, CA, June 21, 2007 – Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN), a global leader in secure mobility solutions, today announced that the West Chester Area School District (WCASD) is deploying Aruba’s wireless LAN and client-to-core security solutions throughout the school district. WCASD is one of the ten largest school districts in Pennsylvania, serving more than 12,000 students drawn from a 75 square mile area in central Chester County, and is one of 79 school districts selected to participate in the first year of the government-funded “Classrooms for the Future” high school program. This innovative program provides computers for English and math classes, and trains faculty and staff how to best harness the power of technology to enhance classroom discussions, lessons, and projects. Network integration partner, Comm Solutions, provided Aruba wireless LANs to network the computers, and Aruba role-based access controls and firewalls to harden the network against attacks and manage access.
“Our objective was to deploy a highly reliable wireless network that required minimal IT overhead, could be centrally administered, and was scalable for future expansions,” said Chris Ross, network support director for WCASD. “While the Aruba network is very extensive in terms of fielded equipment and the number of sites served, we have been able to deploy and maintain the network without adding any additional IT staff. Additionally, we were able to replace the dedicated computer labs in the elementary schools with in-classroom computers, freeing up valuable space for additional classrooms without having to construct new buildings.”
To simplify deployment, Comm Solutions Company used Aruba’s RF Plan software to import the schools’ floor plans and determine optimum placement of the access points. RF Plan eliminated the need to conduct a full site survey, lowering the time and cost of network needs analysis and design.
“K-12 schools are caught in a difficult situation because there are several programs that supply advanced computing equipment, but IT budgets are funded locally and generally don’t allocate additional money for new IT staff,” said Mike Kirby, Aruba’s vice president of Americas sales. “The best way to manage this situation is to ensure that the networking infrastructure is simple to deploy, requires minimum IT overhead to install and manage, and doesn’t need a forklift upgrade to accommodate future needs. We have tailored Aruba’s secure mobility solutions to meet these requirements, and WCASD is a testament to the effectiveness of that effort.”
About Comm Solutions Company
Comm Solutions is an end-to-end enterprise solutions provider specializing in the design, development, deployment, and support of converged networks, secure wireless systems, Microsoft Active Directory implementations, and leading edge security solutions. Based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, Comm Solutions’s experienced team of engineers, project managers, and consultants provide solutions drawn from the industry’s leading manufacturers for managing and optimizing the most demanding IT environments.
About Aruba Networks, Inc.
People move. Networks must follow. Aruba securely delivers networks to users, wherever they work or roam. Our mobility solutions enable the Follow-Me Enterprise that moves in lock-step with users:
Adaptive 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi networks optimize themselves to ensure that users are always within reach of mission-critical information;
Identity-based security assigns access policies to users, enforcing those policies whenever and wherever a network is accessed;
Remote networking solutions and fixed mobile convergence ensure uninterrupted access to applications as users move;
Multi-vendor network management provides a single point of control while managing both legacy and new wireless networks from Aruba and its competitors.
The cost, convenience, and security benefits of our secure mobility solutions are fundamentally changing how and where we work. Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com.
© 2008 Aruba Networks, Inc. AirWave®, Aruba Networks®, Aruba Mobility Management System®, Bluescanner, For Wireless That Works®, Mobile Edge Architecture, People Move. Networks Must Follow., RFProtect, The All Wireless Workplace Is Now Open For Business, Green Island, and The Mobile Edge Company® are trademarks of Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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Media Contacts
Michael Tennefoss
Aruba Networks, Inc.
+1-408-754-8034
mtennefoss@arubanetworks.com
Patty Oien
Breakaway Communications.
+1-415-358-2482
poien@breakawaycom.com
Bill Buckalew
Comm Solutions Company
610-644-5155
wbuckalew@commsolutions.com
© 2011 Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Specifications are subject to change without notice.
