Grove City College

Grove City College boosts digital-first education by advancing institutional agility

  • Customer Profile

    A leading-edge higher education institution for nearly 150 years, Pittsburgh-based Grove City College is continuing its tradition of academic technology innovation to power digital-first education by leveraging NaaS for intelligent, secure wired and wireless infrastructure that supports connected, immersive, and IoT-enabled experiences.
    • Vertical: Enterprise, higher education
    • Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
    • Customer size: 2,500 full-time students on a 180-acre campus

    Vision

    Supply premium hybrid academic and residential experiences enabled by digital, connected, and IoT-enabled technologies while providing students, faculty, and staff with a safe and secure campus environment.

    Objectives

    • Accelerate networking infrastructure deployments
    • Reduce procurement and administration complexities
    • Achieve cost and other resource efficiencies
    • Deploy resilient, secure, high-performance networking infrastructure

    Outcomes

    • Gains flexibility and agility to rapidly address technology demands
    • Streamlines procurement and administration significantly
    • Boosts institutional sustainability and carbon-reduction efforts

    Collegiate 1:1 pioneer

    From its picturesque 180-acre residential campus north of Pittsburgh, highly-ranked and nationally-recognized Grove City College has focused on developing leaders of the highest proficiency, purpose, and principles since 1876.

    “As part of our commitment to academic excellence, we’ve provided students with a no-fee technology package for about three decades,” explains Vince DiStasi, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO at Grove City College. “This includes a mobile computing device that is theirs to keep for the duration of their time with us.”

    In addition to providing digital-first, aways-on connectivity for students’ college-issued devices, the institution also fully supports any type of device a student, faculty, or staff member wishes to bring on campus.

    “With academic, research, athletics, and operational technologies increasingly connected, immersive, and IoT-enabled, all of this creates an exponential explosion of demands on our network,” DiStasi says.

    Embracing NaaS

    Although taking the traditional path of up-front, CapEx-based purchases for technology procurement could continue addressing networking needs, the Grove City College IT staff recently decided to seek an alternative. “Like most institutions, meeting new demands using the traditional approach essentially resulted in upgrading a subset of our campus each time,” says DiStasi.

    “Additionally, our IT budget oscillated due to funding competition from other departments that were similarly expected to evolve, innovate, and advance their programs,” he adds. “With something as fundamental as the network for delivering today’s hyper-connected academic education, we needed to break free from those oscillations and establish a consistent cost and growth path.”

    Already an HPE GreenLake customer for compute and storage, along with HPE Aruba Networking for its unified wired and wireless infrastructure, Grove City College was excited to learn about the HPE GreenLake for Networking network as a service (NaaS) offering.

    “Our Aruba equipment has performed extremely well from day one,” DiStasi says. “It was critical that the solution underlying a subscription model would provide us with the same high-quality infrastructure and exceptional support, which is what we’ve come to rely on with HPE Aruba Networking.”

    "With HPE GreenLake for Networking we bypass traditional procurement complexity and move on to quickly getting deployments done," says Vince DiStasi, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO at Grove City College.

    a teacher holding a tablet

    Phasing in HPE GreenLake for Networking

    In collaboration with its local partner, NWN Carousel, and its dedicated HPE Aruba Networking team, Grove City College decided to investigate adopting NaaS using a phased strategy. “We not only wanted to smooth out costs, but also ease procurement and administrative challenges,” DiStasi says.

    “Unlike leasing, where you still need to complete a multi-step procurement process, dedicate headcount to technology management, and commit resources to leasing administration, the NaaS solution offered a way to streamline all of those processes,” he says. “In addition, capital purchases inherently require over-provisioning, to ensure IT can accommodate utilization growth, which we also sought to eliminate with NaaS.”

    For Grove City College, a significant advantage of the HPE GreenLake for Networking offering is its overall flexibility for transitioning to NaaS. “It wasn’t all or nothing,” says DiStasi. “We could take a transitional approach that permitted us to also continue leveraging our previous capital investments in HPE Aruba Networking solutions.”

    Wi-Fi leads the way

    Facing a refresh of its wireless network, Grove City College decided to adopt new Aruba Wi-Fi 6 indoor access points (APs) throughout its academic buildings. Subsequently, the institution added all residence halls and a newly purchased off-campus building to the NaaS model.

    “From a financial perspective, our CFO is really pleased with the subscription model,” DiStasi says. “Instead of bringing him large capital requests whenever a networking expansion is appropriate, we simply communicate the change in the monthly cost.”

    Adopting NaaS also substantially alters the conversation around networking infrastructure costs when constructing new buildings or renovating existing facilities. “Instead of saying that we need a half a million dollars, the conversation is around the delta in our current subscription and the date that will take effect," says DiStasi.

    Gaining flexibility and agility

    Today, Grove City College enjoys multiple benefits from its transition to NaaS, starting with flexibility and agility, whether a small augmentation need or a more extensive scenario, such as a cafeteria remodel that requires updating to new, higher performance APs.

    “Rather than the complex traditional procurement process, where we investigate departmental budgets, determine how to allocate deployment costs, and gain approvals from stakeholders to proceed, we bypass all of that complexity,” DiStasi says. “We simply obtain the subscription cost change from Aruba and immediately move on to getting the deployment done.”

    “HPE GreenLake for Networking improves our sustainability by supporting our institutional goals for reducing our carbon footprint and minimizing e-waste,” says DiStasi.

    students on their devices in a classroom

    Right-sized network improves sustainability

    Grove City College is also gaining sustainability benefits, as HPE GreenLake for Networking facilitates network “right-sizing” by allowing the college to purchase and deploy only what’s needed. “When infrastructure is a capital expense, it forces overprovisioning to ensure you’re future-proofed,” DiStasi says. “With NaaS, we’re not purchasing equipment that sits on a shelf.”

    Further, when the institution outgrows a solution, the equipment is acquired by HPE for refurbishment and reuse by other organizations, rather than ending up disposed in a landfill. “We know that equipment will get reused, rather than becoming e-waste," says DiStasi. "This improves our sustainability by supporting our institutional goals for reducing our carbon footprint and minimizing e-waste.”

    On the horizon

    As one of the first higher ed institutions to adopt HPE Aruba Networking’s CX Switches from edge to core, Grove City College anticipates continuing its technology leadership. This includes an ongoing transition to NaaS for the institution’s traditionally-procured CX Switches, ClearPass for securing access, and UXI (User Experience Insight) for performance monitoring from the perspective of users and devices.

    “With high-performance networking vital to fulfilling our educational mission, tools like UXI are critical to ensuring we’re proactively identifying issues, so we can quickly pinpoint the source of a problem and resolve it,” says DiStasi.

    The institution will also soon begin installing outdoor APs and is undergoing a major renovation to its science building that will include expanded and upgraded networking infrastructure.

    “Many of our public safety and facilities management employees now need continuous connectivity, so we’re adding appropriate high-performance coverage,” says DiStasi. “For our science building, we’ll be adopting the latest Wi-Fi 6E and CX switches, with an anticipated expansion of our NaaS subscription to include both wired and wireless.”

    AI-powered support for hybrid academics

    According to DiStasi, network performance and user experiences are particularly important as the institution continues pursuing a hybrid academic model. “Committing to hybrid moves audio and video onto the network indefinitely, as well as other solutions and their associated IoT sensors for security, safety, and comfort,” he says.

    To streamline network administration and enable the data-driven decision making that supports this hybrid academic model, Grove City College is also adding AI-powered HPE Aruba Networking Central to its networking stack as part of its NaaS subscription.

    “We see Central as being a big part of our future,” says DiStasi, “We gain advanced analytics, intelligent management, and AI-driven troubleshooting for finding root causes of issues in seconds. This gives us instant information that we can communicate to our internal teams for fast remediation, or to a user if it’s something they need to fix.”

    “If a department wants to determine whether it can afford an infrastructure expansion within a specific building or across multiple facilities, we can easily provide them with factual data around cost and feature sets for making their decisions," DiStasi says.

    students working on their devices in a library

    Realizing management flexibility

    Currently, Grove City College continues to manage its HPE Aruba Networking infrastructure with in-house staff, just as it did before NaaS.

    “Adopting NaaS is a separate decision from managed services,” DiStasi says. “At this time, we have a team capable of managing our wired and wireless infrastructure, so we continue to manage it ourselves.”

    However, with HPE GreenLake for Networking, the institution has the flexibility to lean on its technology partner should it decide to augment its in-house expertise, DiStasi adds. “Plus, the HPE GreenLake for Networking solution includes multiple management options – fully-managed, lightly managed, self-managed, etc. – so you can evolve as your situation changes,” he says.

    Tips for success

    For peers interested in pursuing NaaS, DiStasi offers some sage advice. “First, when you adopt NaaS, realize it’s the opposite of a traditional model in terms of provisioning,” he says. “So, we recommend that others start by underestimating their infrastructure needs and growing as required, to ensure wired and wireless networks are right-sized.”

    In addition, NaaS enables IT to improve communications and understanding around infrastructure capabilities and costs. “If a department wants to determine whether it can afford an infrastructure expansion within a specific building or across multiple facilities, we can easily provide them with factual data around cost and feature sets for making their decisions.”

    In short, DiStasi says every higher education institution is wise to consider transitioning to a subscription-based model for acquiring network technology. “NaaS has nothing to do with giving up control and the financial model works exceedingly well,” he says. “Adopting HPE GreenLake for Networking is one of the best decisions we've ever made and we wouldn't go back.”

    Read more

    Adopting HPE GreenLake for Networking is one of the best decisions we’ve ever made and we wouldn’t go back.
    Vince DiStasi, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO at Grove City College
  • Customer Profile

    A leading-edge higher education institution for nearly 150 years, Pittsburgh-based Grove City College is continuing its tradition of academic technology innovation to power digital-first education by leveraging NaaS for intelligent, secure wired and wireless infrastructure that supports connected, immersive, and IoT-enabled experiences.
    • Vertical: Enterprise, higher education
    • Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
    • Customer size: 2,500 full-time students on a 180-acre campus

    Vision

    Supply premium hybrid academic and residential experiences enabled by digital, connected, and IoT-enabled technologies while providing students, faculty, and staff with a safe and secure campus environment.

    Objectives

    • Accelerate networking infrastructure deployments
    • Reduce procurement and administration complexities
    • Achieve cost and other resource efficiencies
    • Deploy resilient, secure, high-performance networking infrastructure

    Outcomes

    • Gains flexibility and agility to rapidly address technology demands
    • Streamlines procurement and administration significantly
    • Boosts institutional sustainability and carbon-reduction efforts

    Collegiate 1:1 pioneer

    From its picturesque 180-acre residential campus north of Pittsburgh, highly-ranked and nationally-recognized Grove City College has focused on developing leaders of the highest proficiency, purpose, and principles since 1876.

    “As part of our commitment to academic excellence, we’ve provided students with a no-fee technology package for about three decades,” explains Vince DiStasi, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO at Grove City College. “This includes a mobile computing device that is theirs to keep for the duration of their time with us.”

    In addition to providing digital-first, aways-on connectivity for students’ college-issued devices, the institution also fully supports any type of device a student, faculty, or staff member wishes to bring on campus.

    “With academic, research, athletics, and operational technologies increasingly connected, immersive, and IoT-enabled, all of this creates an exponential explosion of demands on our network,” DiStasi says.

    Embracing NaaS

    Although taking the traditional path of up-front, CapEx-based purchases for technology procurement could continue addressing networking needs, the Grove City College IT staff recently decided to seek an alternative. “Like most institutions, meeting new demands using the traditional approach essentially resulted in upgrading a subset of our campus each time,” says DiStasi.

    “Additionally, our IT budget oscillated due to funding competition from other departments that were similarly expected to evolve, innovate, and advance their programs,” he adds. “With something as fundamental as the network for delivering today’s hyper-connected academic education, we needed to break free from those oscillations and establish a consistent cost and growth path.”

    Already an HPE GreenLake customer for compute and storage, along with HPE Aruba Networking for its unified wired and wireless infrastructure, Grove City College was excited to learn about the HPE GreenLake for Networking network as a service (NaaS) offering.

    “Our Aruba equipment has performed extremely well from day one,” DiStasi says. “It was critical that the solution underlying a subscription model would provide us with the same high-quality infrastructure and exceptional support, which is what we’ve come to rely on with HPE Aruba Networking.”

    "With HPE GreenLake for Networking we bypass traditional procurement complexity and move on to quickly getting deployments done," says Vince DiStasi, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO at Grove City College.

    a teacher holding a tablet

    Phasing in HPE GreenLake for Networking

    In collaboration with its local partner, NWN Carousel, and its dedicated HPE Aruba Networking team, Grove City College decided to investigate adopting NaaS using a phased strategy. “We not only wanted to smooth out costs, but also ease procurement and administrative challenges,” DiStasi says.

    “Unlike leasing, where you still need to complete a multi-step procurement process, dedicate headcount to technology management, and commit resources to leasing administration, the NaaS solution offered a way to streamline all of those processes,” he says. “In addition, capital purchases inherently require over-provisioning, to ensure IT can accommodate utilization growth, which we also sought to eliminate with NaaS.”

    For Grove City College, a significant advantage of the HPE GreenLake for Networking offering is its overall flexibility for transitioning to NaaS. “It wasn’t all or nothing,” says DiStasi. “We could take a transitional approach that permitted us to also continue leveraging our previous capital investments in HPE Aruba Networking solutions.”

    Wi-Fi leads the way

    Facing a refresh of its wireless network, Grove City College decided to adopt new Aruba Wi-Fi 6 indoor access points (APs) throughout its academic buildings. Subsequently, the institution added all residence halls and a newly purchased off-campus building to the NaaS model.

    “From a financial perspective, our CFO is really pleased with the subscription model,” DiStasi says. “Instead of bringing him large capital requests whenever a networking expansion is appropriate, we simply communicate the change in the monthly cost.”

    Adopting NaaS also substantially alters the conversation around networking infrastructure costs when constructing new buildings or renovating existing facilities. “Instead of saying that we need a half a million dollars, the conversation is around the delta in our current subscription and the date that will take effect," says DiStasi.

    Gaining flexibility and agility

    Today, Grove City College enjoys multiple benefits from its transition to NaaS, starting with flexibility and agility, whether a small augmentation need or a more extensive scenario, such as a cafeteria remodel that requires updating to new, higher performance APs.

    “Rather than the complex traditional procurement process, where we investigate departmental budgets, determine how to allocate deployment costs, and gain approvals from stakeholders to proceed, we bypass all of that complexity,” DiStasi says. “We simply obtain the subscription cost change from Aruba and immediately move on to getting the deployment done.”

    “HPE GreenLake for Networking improves our sustainability by supporting our institutional goals for reducing our carbon footprint and minimizing e-waste,” says DiStasi.

    students on their devices in a classroom

    Right-sized network improves sustainability

    Grove City College is also gaining sustainability benefits, as HPE GreenLake for Networking facilitates network “right-sizing” by allowing the college to purchase and deploy only what’s needed. “When infrastructure is a capital expense, it forces overprovisioning to ensure you’re future-proofed,” DiStasi says. “With NaaS, we’re not purchasing equipment that sits on a shelf.”

    Further, when the institution outgrows a solution, the equipment is acquired by HPE for refurbishment and reuse by other organizations, rather than ending up disposed in a landfill. “We know that equipment will get reused, rather than becoming e-waste," says DiStasi. "This improves our sustainability by supporting our institutional goals for reducing our carbon footprint and minimizing e-waste.”

    On the horizon

    As one of the first higher ed institutions to adopt HPE Aruba Networking’s CX Switches from edge to core, Grove City College anticipates continuing its technology leadership. This includes an ongoing transition to NaaS for the institution’s traditionally-procured CX Switches, ClearPass for securing access, and UXI (User Experience Insight) for performance monitoring from the perspective of users and devices.

    “With high-performance networking vital to fulfilling our educational mission, tools like UXI are critical to ensuring we’re proactively identifying issues, so we can quickly pinpoint the source of a problem and resolve it,” says DiStasi.

    The institution will also soon begin installing outdoor APs and is undergoing a major renovation to its science building that will include expanded and upgraded networking infrastructure.

    “Many of our public safety and facilities management employees now need continuous connectivity, so we’re adding appropriate high-performance coverage,” says DiStasi. “For our science building, we’ll be adopting the latest Wi-Fi 6E and CX switches, with an anticipated expansion of our NaaS subscription to include both wired and wireless.”

    AI-powered support for hybrid academics

    According to DiStasi, network performance and user experiences are particularly important as the institution continues pursuing a hybrid academic model. “Committing to hybrid moves audio and video onto the network indefinitely, as well as other solutions and their associated IoT sensors for security, safety, and comfort,” he says.

    To streamline network administration and enable the data-driven decision making that supports this hybrid academic model, Grove City College is also adding AI-powered HPE Aruba Networking Central to its networking stack as part of its NaaS subscription.

    “We see Central as being a big part of our future,” says DiStasi, “We gain advanced analytics, intelligent management, and AI-driven troubleshooting for finding root causes of issues in seconds. This gives us instant information that we can communicate to our internal teams for fast remediation, or to a user if it’s something they need to fix.”

    “If a department wants to determine whether it can afford an infrastructure expansion within a specific building or across multiple facilities, we can easily provide them with factual data around cost and feature sets for making their decisions," DiStasi says.

    students working on their devices in a library

    Realizing management flexibility

    Currently, Grove City College continues to manage its HPE Aruba Networking infrastructure with in-house staff, just as it did before NaaS.

    “Adopting NaaS is a separate decision from managed services,” DiStasi says. “At this time, we have a team capable of managing our wired and wireless infrastructure, so we continue to manage it ourselves.”

    However, with HPE GreenLake for Networking, the institution has the flexibility to lean on its technology partner should it decide to augment its in-house expertise, DiStasi adds. “Plus, the HPE GreenLake for Networking solution includes multiple management options – fully-managed, lightly managed, self-managed, etc. – so you can evolve as your situation changes,” he says.

    Tips for success

    For peers interested in pursuing NaaS, DiStasi offers some sage advice. “First, when you adopt NaaS, realize it’s the opposite of a traditional model in terms of provisioning,” he says. “So, we recommend that others start by underestimating their infrastructure needs and growing as required, to ensure wired and wireless networks are right-sized.”

    In addition, NaaS enables IT to improve communications and understanding around infrastructure capabilities and costs. “If a department wants to determine whether it can afford an infrastructure expansion within a specific building or across multiple facilities, we can easily provide them with factual data around cost and feature sets for making their decisions.”

    In short, DiStasi says every higher education institution is wise to consider transitioning to a subscription-based model for acquiring network technology. “NaaS has nothing to do with giving up control and the financial model works exceedingly well,” he says. “Adopting HPE GreenLake for Networking is one of the best decisions we've ever made and we wouldn't go back.”

    Adopting HPE GreenLake for Networking is one of the best decisions we’ve ever made and we wouldn’t go back.
    Vince DiStasi, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO at Grove City College