Christ s College, Canterbury New Zealand College network infrastructure updated with state-of-the-art Allied Telesis switching technology

Transcription

1 Case Study Christ s College Christ s College, Canterbury New Zealand College network infrastructure updated with state-of-the-art Allied Telesis switching technology

2 Case Study: Christ s College, Canterbury New Zealand About the customer Christ's College began when Canterbury began, in 1850, and it was modelled on 'the great Grammar Schools' of England such as Eton and Westminster.The resultant early emphasis by the school on the classics often proved a sore trial to the farmers' sons who attended it.today the College flourishes, and has become one of New Zealand's best-known schools. It has moved with the times, being prepared to innovate and experiment; while at the same time preserving and adding to what has been described as 'the finest collection of buildings in New Zealand'. Christ s College is distinguished by its strengths in education and its forward thinking.the College, recognising the need to migrate from its restrictive Layer 2 computer network to a distributed Layer 3 topology, have put in place a comprehensive upgrade plan.their vision is to work from the core to the edge, adding more security and value along the way, and to expand their wireless network. To help achieve their vision the College turned to Allied Telesis, having demonstrated their proven history and expertise of delivering advanced network solutions. Using state-of-the-art Allied Telesis switching technology, Christ s College are updating their sophisticated IT infrastructure, keeping them well at the forefront of secondary school networks in the region. The customer network Christ s College has always been at the forefront when it comes to information technology. Throughout the school, teachers and students use state-of-the-art computer systems, and integrated learning software as part of their daily experience.the College s existing Layer 2 network caters for over 200 student machines in four computer labs, a music school, a library, two theatres, and a number of student boarding Houses.The network also includes an integrated wireless system, which they plan to expand. With an existing purpose built IT equipment room and dedicated fulltime staff, the College has a network that would be the envy of many businesses. The customer issues The College s flat Layer 2 network, while adequate in earlier years, had not been easy to scale or improve over time.this was in part due to the continually expanding size of the College and spread of its buildings, the most recent building addition being that of Cranmer Centre, formerly the site of Christchurch Girls High School. The network was slowing down due to a number of different issues, stemming from the inability to segment off different areas, which would reduce broadcast traffic traversing the whole school. Paul Rodley, Director of Information Technology at the College explained: Our existing network was functional, but it had reached its limits it couldn t be expanded easily and there was too much unnecessary traffic. Other issues were apparent with the growing network: Maintaining a uniform and secure configuration was a challenge due to the potential for any computer to gain access to others across the Layer 2 network. Also, many of the College students live away from home and not having their own computers, they need to have dependable on-site facilities.the benefits of Internet access are important not only for education and research purposes, but also to keep in contact with family and friends. Paul emphasises: Bringing on the boarding houses was essential. For 200 students, College is their home, as such, we need to provide access to the things dayboys have.to do this we needed a network which would potentially handle 100+ additional personal computers, and implement additional security. Page 2 Allied Telesis Case Study: Christ s College

3 The challenges Knowing that there were another 100+ computers planned for installation into new buildings, Paul and James Tolchard, Systems Administrator of Christ s College, put together a proposal to upgrade the network. The network was perceived to be running well, when in reality it was very difficult to manage, said James. Using advanced products from Allied Telesis, we devised a network upgrade plan to work from the core to the edge, adding security and value along the way. Their proposal gained the full support of senior management. With a goal of maximising the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) by pupils, teachers, and administration staff at Christ s College, it was clear that a short-term solution might prove to be more costly in the long term. Besides robust network protection for their main College buildings and surrounding facilities, the College needed scalability to handle new locations, affordability, and centralised management to make it easy to administer the entire system. Although teachers and administrators benefit from the network, improving the learning experience was the most important factor in the decision making. Integrating technology into the curriculum and providing teachers access to leading teaching aides such as Web-based learning resources is a focus for the College. The solution The solution was a Layer 3 network, providing the ability to meet the major upgrade goals, which were: 1. Segmentation 2. Security 3. Performance 4. Redundancy Segmentation is achieved through Virtual LANs (VLANs). When using VLANs, problems are localised to the affected section, not the whole network. In other words, a network failure in the science lab need not bother those working online in the music studio. Broadcast traffic is also localised within a VLAN, reducing its use of network resource. For example, computers in open access rooms, do not need to know that the printer in Science is there, broadcasting its location. The main advantage of using VLAN technologies is that users can be grouped together according to their need for network communication, regardless of their actual physical locations. Subdividing the LAN into smaller segments, or VLANs, increases overall reliability, performance, and makes the network easier to maintain. The new network connects all the College buildings with each other across a high-performance, switched backbone.there are 24 separate network areas, all connected via fiber, which is looped around the College for redundancy. Above: Students work in one of four computer labs at Christ s College Allied Telesis Case Study: Christ s College Page 3

4 Case Study: Christ s College, Canterbury New Zealand The Solution The new network connects all the College buildings with each other across a high-performance, switched backbone.there are 24 separate network areas, all connected via fiber, which is looped around the College for redundancy. Connection Speed 10/100 1 Gigabit Admin network Legacy Areas 100MB fiber Rapier 16F Rapier 16F AT-9924Ts Core Switch Server Farm Firewall Internet Music Richards House Lab 1 Jacobs House Science Lab 2 School House Library Lab 3 Flowers House Chapman Lab 4 Above: Christ s College Computer Network Page 4 Allied Telesis Case Study: Christ s College

5 Benefits of the new solution Scalability: The College is investing in the future and investing wisely. At the core, the AT-9924Ts provides a solution that can scale as the school changes. It supplies feature rich, resilient switching technology capable of dealing with multi-casting (for streaming video), network control, and security. The AT-9924Ts also provides ultimate flexibility with two 20Gbps expansion bays so the switch can grow with the network and even provide 10Gigabit Ethernet for maximum possible bandwidth. Increased coverage: The College campus has spread as the school has grown in size and location. Gigabit fiber links between the core and edge switches, provide the bandwidth to allow the schools IT team to converge voice, video, and data across a single network. Staff and students are assured of full access to network resources even while remote from the main College campus. Enhanced security: The switches at the edge provide advanced Layer 3 switching features to support multicasting applications like streaming video, while offering tiered security to provide controlled network access. Educational resources: The College provides advanced online services across the Intranet. Using applications like ClickView, which is integrated with the College s Intranet and library system, allows students and teachers to simply click on a link to immediately view a video presentation streamed across the College network. As well as providing the latest information in digital form, this simplifies access to multimedia information for learning and presentation in the classroom. Paul explains: "The College wanted to keep improving on the already high standards provided to students, and have the ability to adopt new teaching resources," Paul enthusiastically adds, For example, now, in Geography, every machine has access to Google Earth this is very network intensive, but an essential learning tool. Manageability: Paul and James have implemented advanced network monitoring to allow accurate statistics to be gathered on network resources, and any potential problems to be flagged before they arise. Paul and James agree: The great thing now is that we are not hamstrung by the old network. The new network provides so many more management and operational capabilities - including monitoring, reliability, throughput, and enhanced security. Future plans As part of the ongoing upgrade of Information Systems at Christ s College, there are future plans to add additional functionality and keep the schools network at the leading edge of ICT infrastructure.these include: Upgrading the Firewall - to allow staff and students remote access to the school network using Virtual Private Network technology. The addition of another AT-9924Ts in the core of the network to provide a fully redundant mesh topology. Implementing full access control on the edge switches for security (802.1x) and advanced management of resources by those within the main College campus as well as staff and students making use of remote facilities. Multicast TV that could be created and broadcast across the network by students. An enhanced wireless network to allow students and staff full access to network resources from wherever they are on the College campus. Relationship built on trust with Allied Telesis Allied Telesis are proud to have assisted the College in meeting their networking requirements and providing a network that will be the basis of future online learning for many years to come.the College is extremely satisfied with the quality and performance of Allied Telesis products, and the hands-on support provided throughout the upgrade process. Both parties are looking forward to working together for many years to come. Paul concludes: The support from Allied Telesis has been outstanding, and we are very excited about the future. About Allied Telesis Inc. Allied Telesis was founded in 1987 and now has offices around the globe, more than 2,800 employees and over $500M of worldwide annual revenue.the attributes which have led Allied Telesis to achieve its leading position in the enterprise, operator and connectivity business segments can be summarized by four key elements: its business focus on networking technology for professional markets, where Allied Telesis has proved to be the only company capable of providing a total end-to-end solution at a high price/performance ratio; the ability to handle every aspect of its own products from design to marketing; the development of components and solutions which accommodate flexible, efficient and reliable network construction; and support from sound warranty terms and quality services. Allied Telesis connects the IP world efficiently thanks to affordable and highly reliable network solutions. For more information see: Allied Telesis Case Study: Christ s College Page 5

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