Case Study: Speedier Access to Education in a High-Speed World

The Challenge

When you’re tasked with re-architecting your school district’s entire wireless infrastructure, which serves over 80,000 students at 80 different schools, it’s not an equipment refresh. It’s an IT project several magnitudes larger Again, 80,000 students, 80 schools, and access points throughout to ensure each student has fast, easy access to online educational tools. It was a big project. It needed the leader in designing and deploying big IT solutions for school districts. It needed Netsync.

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

No quote better exemplifies Netsync’s approach to deploying an IT solution for customers better than this one from New York Times bestselling author Stephen Covey, who wrote The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. Netsync’s solutions architects and engineers did what they always do first—interview key stakeholders to find out what their perfect solution would look like.

Seek First to Understand. Netsync Did, Then Went to Work.

At each of the school district’s 80 locations, Netsync performed site surveys and walkthroughs to evaluate rack space required, the availability of power, and switch configurations and connectivity. They crafted a detailed migration plan that included port counts on all connected devices and the precise placement locations for all APs (Access Points) and phones.

In addition, Netsync provided the school district with an online project portal, which included individual accounts for all district personnel involved in the project. The portal allowed for documentation management, real-time tracking and maintained the often updated project schedule.

The Partnership, the Project, the Plan

Netsync has closely partnered with Cisco for almost 20 years. When combined with Netsync’s technical abilities and experience, Cisco’s products and services have been masterfully deployed to solve issues and deliver solutions for some of the largest school districts, government entities, and enterprises in the world.

When combined with Netsync’s technical abilities and experience, Cisco’s products and services have been masterfully deployed to solve issues and deliver solutions for some of the largest school districts, government entities, and enterprises in the world.

To meet the wireless demands of the school district, Netsync deployed 19 Cisco Catalyst 3850 48-port Power over Ethernet (PoE) access switches at designated hub sites. Cisco Catalyst 3850 Series Switches are the next generation of enterprise-class stackable access-layer switches that provide full convergence between wired and wireless on a single platform. 

At each school, Netsync installed well over a hundred Cisco Access Points. They utilized the following four models to address indoor and outdoor access, and different 802.11 standards: the Cisco Catalyst 9100 Series, the Cisco Aironet 3802i Series Indoor Access Point, the Cisco Aironet 3802e Series Indoor Access Point with directional antenna, and the Cisco Aironet 1532e series outdoor Access Point with omnidirectional antenna.

Cisco Catalyst 9100 access points exceed the new Wi-Fi 6 wireless standard and provide radio-frequency excellence for high-density environments. Cisco Aironet Access Points provide network operators with simple deployment and the flexibility to balance coverage. They adjust to unexpected traffic with dual radios that automatically meet changing demands.

Received, Staged, Tested, Shipped and Delivered. Then Perfectly Deployed.

All equipment comprising the school district’s new wireless solution was received and asset tagged at Netsync’s staging and logistics facility. Burn-in testing was conducted on all equipment and configurations and firmware were installed. Netsync documented each network asset and all were shipped and ready for immediate installation, after which all were tested and turned up by Netsync’s experienced field technicians.

Can 80,000 People be Wrong?

The school district’s tens of thousands of students now understand why Netsync is the go-to provider when educational institutions need innovative technology solutions.