ARUBA J9729A Product Data Sheet
Objective
Refresh complete wireless and wired
network infrastructure to support access
by all students and sta
Approach
Investigated the relevant products
available in the market and evaluated
solutions from four vendors,
including meeting HPE engineers
to discuss requirements
Case Study
Georges River Grammar
upgrades wireless network
for BYOD
Reliable, easy to manage HPE infrastructure
meets Bring Your Own Device challenges
IT Matters
• Provided reliable, seamless connectivity
for users, with redundant core switches
maximising availability
• Increased speed of network by a
factor of 20, from 1Gbps to 20Gbps,
improving student access to resources
• Reduced time to manage network and
user devices through IMC software,
including cutting troubleshooting time
by 30 per cent as well as saving time
due to fewer logon failures
• Simplified access for students with
no need to install any software on
their devices
Business Matters
• Enabled school to get maximum value
from its investment due to the HPE
lifetime warranty
• Ensured safe and compliant access of
students to the internet
• Provided future-proof infrastructure
with ability to scale as student
numbers grow
Georges River Grammar
chose Hewlett Packard
Enterprise to provide a
complete wired and wireless
network, including switches,
controllers and access points.
This delivers fast, reliable
access for students and sta
including those using their
own devices. HPE Intelligent
Management Center
(IMC) provides centralised
management, saving time
for the school’s IT team.
Challenge
Refresh wired and wireless infrastructure
In schools around the world, technology is
creating new opportunities for learning and
new challenges for IT sta.
One school meeting these challenges
is Georges River Grammar in Australia.
The school has around 800 pupils
covering an age range from five to
18 years as well as nearly 100 sta.
Recently, it needed to upgrade its ageing
wired and wireless network to support
more access by students.
“The model that everyone is going to is
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and 1:1,
where kids bring their own laptops or
tablets,” says Matthew Gebran, network
manager at Georges River Grammar
School. “We needed a complete wireless
infrastructure that would have an access
point in every single room to provide
coverage, and the backbone and switches to
handle moving all that data around.”
Case study
Georges River
Grammar School
“Hewlett Packard Enterprise has expertise in education and when we talked
to them, they knew exactly where we wanted to go.”
– Matthew Gebran, network manager, Georges River Grammar School
Industry
Education
Page 2
Georges River looked at possible solutions
from four dierent companies. As part of
this activity it talked to Hewlett Packard
Enterprise partner Virtunet and met HPE
engineers at their oice in Sydney to discuss
the requirements.
Following this process, it chose a solution
from HPE that includes switches, access
points and wireless controllers. The new
network provides access for sta, students
and guests with temporary guest usernames
and passwords that expire automatically.
“Our decision was influenced by our past
good experience with Hewlett Packard
Enterprise, the solution’s attractive price and
the HPE strength in education,” says Gebran.
Solution
Complete network
The wireless solution is based around an
HPE MSM760 access controller with 66 HPE
MSM460 dual radio 802.11n access points
used to provide Wi-Fi in each classroom.
A further four HPE MSM466-R dual radio
outdoor 802.11n access points are used
to provide access in the playground for
students who want to work outside.
Pupils use the system to access homework,
quizzes and other resources posted by
teachers and can log in to the Moodle
e-learning system from home. Students have
their own email address which is used by
teachers to communicate with them. The
school also has 20 Apple TV devices that
enable children to share their screens on a
classroom projector.
Two HPE E5406 PoE+ switches provide
a highly available, redundant core and
18 HPE 2920 switches are used for the
network edge, including providing wired
network access for around 30 devices in
three computer labs. The edge switches
have Power over Ethernet (PoE) capability,
which simplified the network roll-out.
While the school considered getting the
switches and wireless components from
dierent vendors, it chose HPE for the
complete solution. Gebran comments, “It’s
a lot easier to manage a solution from one
vendor, with a single point of contact and it
also speeded up implementation.”
Speedy rollout
Fast implementation was important to
Georges River because it could only roll
out the solution within a two-week school
holiday. According to Gebran, the IT team
needed to install the system in the first week
and test in the second so they had to plan
correctly to leave enough time for testing.
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