Huntington University.

Huntington University, a 1,200-student higher education institution, needed to bring its wireless service up to speed. For years, the school had maintained two entirely separate network solutions – one for faculty and staff, and the other for student residences.

It was time for a change. Leaders knew that providing a fast and reliable wireless experience was a requirement for both teachers and students. Another issue was that administrators didn’t have control or visibility into the existing residence hall network as an outside provider was managing this separately, which presented the potential for a major security risk.

With two campuses, one in Indiana and one in Arizona, the school was looking for a solution that would provide a fast and reliable wireless experience for faculty and students.  The solution had to take into consideration the vast diversity of devices such as but not limited to; laptops, smart phones, tablets, smart TV’s, gaming consoles & so many more.

They also needed more control and security, so they could know who was on their network, what they were doing, and if they were allowed to be there.

Matrix Integration entered into an IT consulting engagement with Huntington University to analyze the issues. The Matrix team conducted both wired and wireless network surveys to assess what Huntington already had in place and what needed to change to support their future vision. They looked at where, when and how people used the network – when is it most congested? What devices are being used and how much power and bandwidth do they need?

Ultimately, Matrix came up with a plan that included upgrading the core of the university’s fiber and switching infrastructure. The Matrix team was able to upgrade existing links to 10GBE by changing out optics as well as running some new single-mode fiber to upgrade other connections to 10GBE.

The university also chose to increase the number of access points on campus to handle the growing density of devices.

The Matrix team secured all of these pieces with a network access control system. The IT professionals at Huntington can now see who is on their network and what they’re doing from a single pane of glass.

Students, faculty and staff are now enjoying a high-speed, consistent wireless experience whether they’re working or enjoying a movie night. What most don’t know is that the solution is also freeing up time and money for the university to spend on other priorities.

By modernizing the network infrastructure and streamlining two wireless solutions into one, Huntington University has been able to cut its monthly costs in half. Beyond saving real dollars on monthly costs they can now enjoy a much more secure, simplified network.