Case Study

Executive Summary

Overview • 30,000 students and 2,000 employees, including teachers and staff. • Implementation of new services: e-learning, remote examining board, teleconferences, remote use of the system, BYOD.

Challenges • Limited network capacity • Slow connectivity speeds • Constant firefighting of network bottlenecks

Results • Satisfied users • Improved network structure capable of high speeds and reliable connectivity • Reduced network management and Strengthens Innovation troubleshooting time • IT team is now available to pursue Capacity with Extreme Networks new programs and technology

Extreme Networks' Solutions The Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos) is a private Jesuit • ExtremeSwitching X8 university of higher education supported by the Antônio Vieira Association. • X460 Switches It integrates a network of 200 schools with 2.2 million students worldwide. According to the General Course Index of 2014, published by the Ministry • X440-G2 Switches of Education and Culture in , it is the second best private university • X670 Switches in the country, with the best undergraduate course in this category. With • S-Series Switching headquarters in São Leopoldo, the institution is home to the largest • 3805 & 3825 APs computer science hub in the state of , where more than • Extreme Management Center 60 companies from 10 countries hold laboratories. In addition to São Leopoldo, Unisinos recently launched a campus of 55 thousand square meters in Porto Alegre, the state capital, and maintains e-learning agreements in other cities of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná and São Paulo, gathering 22 institutions throughout the country with 3,500 employees, it serves 30,000 students. Looking for Academic Excellence Being strongly present in the south of Brazil, Unisinos prides itself on academic excellence. The institution’s long-term goal is to become a global benchmark in research, an activity more commonly performed in the country at public institutions. However, achieving that goal with an outdated network infrastructure was an impossible task.

WWW.EXTREMENETWORKS.COM 1 “The network is the nervous system of any organization. After evaluating all the prerequisites, the architecture At a university, even more,” assures the Unisinos IT developed by Extreme Networks was the most balanced manager, Marcos Knewitz. He argues that, “Besides the for Unisinos’ needs. Per the IT manager, Extreme's project entire administrative area depending on the network, it is brought innovation and effectiveness to Unisinos. "The impossible for teachers and students of the institution to characteristics of our traffic are vertical and horizontal, satisfactorily use the resources available without a good and Extreme Networks was the one vendor that best quality connection.” And that is exactly what was not demonstrated a balance to satisfactorily serve this occurring at Unisinos. architecture within our budget," he adds. “In 2015, we had 47 times more data traffic than when The network designed by Extreme for Unisinos has the previous network was deployed in 2007. We lived in physical and virtual control platforms of 6,000 wired everyday life, therefore, all the difficulties that a network network ports and more than 700 wireless access without any capacity could present in a large entity such as points that enhance the university’s ability to become a Unisinos occurred,” comments Knewitz. smart school by offering better services and innovation Without hiding the frustration, Knewitz notes, "At 7:30 capabilities generated by reliable connectivity. Currently, p.m., when classes begin, we no longer had a network. the network reaches 13,000 simultaneous connections on The students were coming in wanting to use some Wi-Fi the Wi-Fi network. The system also supports the flow of and could not get access. The connected parking lot gates data generated by computer labs, a technology park with also did not work because the network failed with the more than 60 companies, video conferencing, transmission excess of demand." of university radio via streaming, e-learning poles, and an Internet channel that reaches peaks at 1.5 gigabits per In addition, other problems created by the lack of second frequently. network capacity and bandwidth prevented the institution from progressing to the future. Momentary crashes across the data network were common, as well as slow wired and wireless connections to Moodle, the university’s virtual e-learning platform. Connectivity, disconnection, and blocking of video and audio streaming and a reduction of the quality of closed circuit TV were also common occurrences. At the center of all these difficulties was the Unisinos IT team, whose daily, almost full-time task, was to try to reestablish the operation of the network, even if only momentarily. As a result of the IT team’s lack of time and the network’s infrastructure created a margin for innovation of almost zero, in addition to widespread user dissatisfaction. Balancing the Network to Innovation, Excellence Address Demand and Effectivity With so many challenges to overcome, Unisinos and the Since the deployment of the new network, Unisinos has IT team looked for a new network solution that would be left a state of total network exhaustion and entered one of capable of supporting the university’s demand, which grew reliability and greater capacity. The network is no longer every day from students and faculty bringing their own impossible to use, the IT team and end users can now devices and from the implementation of new and innovative pursue many new opportunities. "We have been able to university services. To accomplish this, the institution power a lot of direct services in the classroom. A professor, compared several solutions available on the market, for example, is no longer prevented by the network from considering the convergence between the total cost of lecturing interactively and since material isn’t unavailable the solution over five years, the knowledge of the vendors, anymore they don’t need to compensate students’ grades partners, and internal team, and Gartner’s evaluation. for network challenges they don’t have control over.

WWW.EXTREMENETWORKS.COM 2 This is a transformation in innovation and academic The Art of Being Invisible excellence, we have the potential to leverage other investments and possibilities, " Knewitz says. Although it is hard to measure the success of deploying the new network, Unisinos IT staff believes that everyone is very The IT manager recalls that when the university was satisfied. For Marco Knewitz, “if the implementation of the growing its portfolio of services it expanded geographically, project was successful, we are not seen. So, I believe that something that was only possible through the deployment our work was very well done.” While it is natural for IT to be of the new network that had the capabilities to support the overlooked when things are going well, the executive recalls new increased traffic. "We now have a stable and reliable that mobile service users highly praised the speed and system, with delivery capabilities and we are free from stability of the network. any anomalies caused by a lack of network capacity. In addition, the IT team can work on other projects, build new Growing Partnerships technology solutions, and think about innovating programs. The new network unlocks unlimited possibilities for Unisinos, A long-time partner of Extreme Networks, TechDech with much more control and visibility,” emphasizes Knewitz. Informática has more than 16 years providing intelligent IT solutions. Its nearly two decades of relationship with The Wi-fi network is now open to classroom computers Unisinos, marketing and installing Extreme solutions, and and for students’ personal devices. Another benefit for providing technical support services throughout its life, was e-learning and regular classroom students is the ability crucial to the achievement of this ambitious project. to download from the Internet and access course content whenever they need it. For the professor, Unisinos enabled According to Adão Bernardes, Systems Engineer at easy access to a mobile system with information about TechDech Informática, "The biggest challenge at Unisinos grades, services, and attendance sheets in the classroom was to provide a secure, stable and fast structure for included and available from anywhere on campus. administrative and academic teams". He explains that “when the project idea came along, we felt very comfortable According to Knewitz, Extreme’s network solution has developing it together with Extreme because we knew we allowed safe access and sharing of employee, teacher, would have all the technical and commercial support to student, and visitor materials. “In 2016, we promoted more meet our client's needs, with whom we have a relationship than 500 events between lectures, seminars, and high of trust”. school visits. For all of this to work properly, we needed a high-capacity network and a high-performance connection,” notes Knewitz.

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