The Southport School CASE STUDY

The Southport School benefits from next-generation wireless network

Objective Background As a result, The Southport School sought to replace the legacy network with a next-generation To upgrade the school’s wireless network to Established in 1901 and located on the Gold wireless solution – a secure, agile and scalable deliver improved performance, security and Coast, The Southport School is an independent solution that supported a multi-device and visibility, plus allow seamless onboarding of Anglican day and boarding school for boys. multimedia environment with seamless BYOD BYOD devices. onboarding and centralised network management. The school currently has over 1,600 students from Preschool to Year 12 (including 200 Approach “It was clear that we needed to significantly boarders) and more than 300 staff across two improve network performance and enable better To design, configure and deploy a campuses. It offers a range of state-of-the-art access to the internet for our staff, students and next-generation wireless network solution facilities, including a 220 seat chapel, 600 seat using Aruba ClearPass and Palo Alto Networks visitors,” says Richard Humphreys, Director – ICT, drama and music theatre, and a swimming The Southport School. security platform. complex. IT Outcome IT Outcome Challenge # Centralised network management for easy Data 3 had become a trusted strategic partner The Southport School has a duty of care for to The Southport School over a period of nearly monitoring and reporting with improved BYOD its students within the context of a modern, policy control, enhanced data insights, smoother 10 years, delivering extensive services across the technology-driven teaching and learning school’s data centre and desktop environment, workflow automation, and network visibility. environment. as well as software provisioning and support.

Business Outcome However, it was clear that the legacy wireless As such, The Southport School looked to Seamless wireless experience across the school, network was struggling to cope with the demands Data#3 to help them procure and deploy the with significantly improved access, performance, of a growing student population and increasing best solution for their needs. Data#3’s in-depth coverage and user experience. use of BYOD devices. understanding of the school’s business and IT requirements meant they were ideally placed to In addition to a relatively weak security posture, recommend the right multi-vendor solution. wireless coverage across the school was poor, network performance was slow, and there was Following a comprehensive evaluation process, limited guest access. What’s more, the onboarding Data#3 recommended an end-to-end solution process for BYOD devices needed to be leveraging technology from Aruba, a Hewlett streamlined so that users could enjoy quick, easy Packard Enterprise company, and Palo Alto and secure access to the network. Networks. The decision was based not only on performance capability, but also the seamless The IT administrators had limited visibility over integration between Aruba and Palo Alto Networks. the network and were restricted in their ability to monitor usage data such as how long students were using the internet and the tasks they were completing online. IT administrators were also restricted in their ability to report and track inappropriate internet usage, including social media abuse and cyberbullying.

The Southport School - Case Study The Southport School CASE STUDY

The solution consisted of: The Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewall’s Conclusion direct integration with Aruba enables the linking • 235 x Aruba 315 access points Thanks to the new Aruba wireless network of student internet usage records and their • 2 x Aruba 7210 controllers solution and Palo Alto Networks, The Southport device authentication. The school uses the Palo • Aruba ClearPass for secure, streamlined School is well placed to meet the evolving Alto Panorama network security management onboarding of BYOD devices technology demands of its students application to manage both firewalls from a • Aruba AirWave for real-time data insights and staff. and enhanced visibility over the network single pane of glass, as well as for extra storage for internet usage logs. The Palo Alto Networks • 2 x Palo Alto Networks PA-3020 “From greater network coverage and improved next-generation firewalls next-generation firewall is also application aware and comes with the ability to run SSL inspection, security, to enhanced reporting capabilities and • Palo Alto Networks WildFire® cloud-based better BYOD control, we now have a powerful threat analysis service which can quickly identify an unwanted application on the network. platform upon which to deliver a seamless • Palo Alto Panorama™ network security wireless experience across the school,” enthuses management Richard Humphreys. Business Outcome Aruba ClearPass enables the school to quickly The business benefits of the new solution for The “And Data#3 was instrumental in pulling it all and easily on-board student BYOD devices, Southport School delivers: together and making it happen. We see Data#3 including laptops, tablets and smartphones. Aruba • Seamless coverage – students, staff and as a genuine partner; a technology partner that’s ClearPass also helps identify what devices are with us for the long haul to help us achieve being used on campus, how many are being guests now enjoy smooth access to the network with no coverage issues, regardless our goal of becoming a national leader in used, and which operating systems technology-driven teaching and learning.” are supported. of where they are on campus. • Improved performance – the school With enhanced control over the entire network, now consumes around 2TB of data per Aruba ClearPass offers centralised management, day, which was unthinkable on the legacy “From greater network coverage increased security thanks to device identity, network. improved BYOD policy control, and workflow • Agile onboarding – the new solution and improved security, to enhanced automation in the one cohesive solution. enables approximately 1,700 BYOD reporting capabilities and better devices to connect to the network quickly The new Aruba 315 access points offer and easily every day. BYOD control, we now have a significantly improved performance and easily • Better visibility – the new Palo Alto powerful platform upon which handle more than 50 BYOD devices per Networks next-generation firewalls allow to deliver a seamless wireless access point. administrators to monitor and report student internet usage via easy-to-use dashboards. experience across the school and Furthermore, the radio performance is excellent Students’ academic performance, behaviour Data#3 was instrumental in pulling it – band steering by the Aruba controllers now and computer usage results are all mapped sees over 90% of BYOD devices on the 5Ghz towards a diligence scale. This is vital to all together and making it happen.” spectrum. This capability is crucial in a high- enable the school to meet its duty of care density environment in order to meet increasing obligations. Richard Humphreys, Director – ICT, K-12 performance demands. • Enhanced security – Palo Alto Networks The Southport School. next-generation security platform is a The configuration of the new Palo Alto powerful firewall, that protects the school’s Network PA-3020 next-generation firewalls is network from external cyber threats. also significant. The school has two separate Additionally, Palo Alto Networks WildFire 1Gbps internet links provided by the University cloud-based threat analysis service of Queensland, however the new firewalls have intercepts suspect files and detonates them Interested in how Data#3 can help? active awareness of the sessions for each link on multiple virtual machines before they (i.e. session synchronisation). This ensures enter the school’s network. www.data3.com.au strong and reliable availability in a redundant environment. 1300 23 28 23

The Southport School - Case Study