Olds College Builds a Futuristic Community Learning Campus Without upgrading our infrastructure in partnership with Avaya, we would have missed a huge opportunity to elevate our competitiveness on the post-secondary landscape. Olds College — Jordan Cleland, Vice President of OLDS, ALBERTA, CANADA – Founded in 1913, Olds College is a premier Canadian Advancement, Olds College integrated learning and applied research community specializing in agriculture, horticulture and environmental management. Olds College prepares students for careers in agriculture, horticulture, land management, trades, business, fashion and rural entrepreneurship. For more information, visit www.OldsCollege.ca. Challenge: To increase post-secondary participation rates in a rural, resource-based economy Central Alberta is a vast, agricultural and primary resource extraction region extending eastward from the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Prior to 2008, the most attractive opportunities for a typical high school graduate were to go to work on the family farm, or to take a job in the oil and gas sector. Either choice effectively closed the door to higher education. High school graduates who go straight into agriculture miss out on the chance to learn about advanced technologies that will enable them to farm more successfully into the next generation and continue Alberta’s rich agricultural heritage. CASE STUDY 1 avaya.com “A key ingredient in our food supply is not A new Community Learning Campus would a few. The Avaya Connect Channel partner’s found on the label,” says Jordan Cleland, use technology to redefine post-secondary services are ongoing today. Vice President of Advancement at Olds education in Alberta. Instead of building College. “Like so many vocations, agriculture classrooms in each community, a public- Olds College worked with Avaya to review today depends on advanced technologies.” private partnership would build an eLearning the College’s existing technologies and center where students can attend school architecture. Input from the Olds College in virtual classrooms. An instructor at Olds user community highlighted challenges Opportunity: To redefine College can reach students as far away and needs. Avaya designed the technology the rules for education as Rocky Mountain House (120 km west, foundation based on a 10 gigabit distributed population 6,874) and Stettler (142 km core for an always-on, scalable and efficient As Alberta greeted the new millennium, the east, population 5,843). campus-wide solution that would enable the Province had a vision to make broadband Olds College eLearning vision to become a internet connectivity available to all “We jumped at the chance to create reality. Albertans in urban and rural communities opportunities for students, to offer them alike. The Province set out to bridge the a practical education, to enhance both The College now serves as the hub for a “digital divide.” By 2005 they had launched individual opportunity and rural economic growing, virtual campus. Thus far, nearly the Alberta SuperNet, a high-speed digital development,” Cleland says. “Students twenty sites across Alberta benefit from network linking government offices, schools, could earn dual credits – at the end of high-speed video conferencing facilities that health-care facilities and libraries in 429 high school they could enter college with depend on Olds College’s network. communities. as much as half the credits they need to “Now that we’re offering virtual classrooms complete a diploma.” Two educational institutions in central with video conferencing, these things just Alberta – Olds College and Chinook’s To learn more about the Community have to run,” says Joe Guenther, Senior Edge School Division – approached the Learning Campus, visit Network Administrator for Olds College. Province with a proposal. Leveraging the http://www.communitylearningcampus.ca. Alberta SuperNet, their idea would make Olds College backed its dual data centers specialized education available in many with redundant, high-availability firewalls. small communities. It would also take down Technology enables the “We operate two data centers, each with an the fence between high school and college rural-education solution Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 8600, linked education. Olds College asked a Gold Avaya Global via fiber,” Guenther explains. “Each stack Connect channel partner to be the first and edge switch is connected to both data The network was chosen private-sector partner in the Community centers for redundancy. Distributing the load because of Avaya’s ability also distributes the demand for power and “ Learning Campus project. The Avaya to provide Active/Active Connect Channel partner contributed $3.1 cooling.” million for the eLearning center, technology Resilience from the Dual “The network was chosen because of Avaya’s infrastructure and advisory services. Core to the network ability to provide Active/Active Resilience edge without requiring “ The Avaya Connect Channel partner worked from the Dual Core to the network edge without requiring complexity,” recalls the complexity. with Olds College to design systems for videoconferencing, virtual desktops, and Avaya Connect Channel partner’s on-site Technical Chair for Olds College. “With this – Avaya’s Global Connect Channel voice over internet protocol (VoIP), to name partner On-site Technical Chair for Olds College 2 avaya.com network in place, it also gave us the ability landscape. So it has to do with the very Avaya’s Data Solutions offer to upgrade the existing phone switch to a future of the College. We could not have a portfolio of products that hybrid VoIP switch.” done that without the Avaya technology upgrade.” enable enterprises like Olds Olds College has 240 Avaya IP Phones College to build networks across all of its buildings, and plenty of Real education, real future. Students living that are always-on, providing room to expand. “It’s a converged network,” in small communities no longer need to be Guenther explains. “So I can go to any of intimidated about going away to a bigger city up to seven times better our buildings and plug an IP Phone into the to attend college. They can dip a toe into resiliency; efficient, up to network, and it works.” higher education, without leaving home. 40 percent more energy Olds College is planning to implement They can also learn about the advanced efficient; and scalable, virtual desktops soon. Some of the remote technologies the competitive world of providing up to 20 times learning sites are two hours or more from agriculture relies on for everything from better performance than Olds. “How do we give students in those measuring feed to tracking livestock via the classrooms the same level of access, as Global Positioning System. Cleland explains: other data solution leaders. though they’re sitting right here?” Guenther “We have a 97-year history as an agriculture asks. “One of the answers is virtual school, and now Olds College students go desktops.” Students use their own, familiar into agriculture in 2010 and beyond with a two more from a village 200 km away. “It’s computers to access the applications solid footing in technology.” all we thought it could be: 19 high school and data on the College’s network. “You students from all over the Province, taking have to have a great infrastructure in the User satisfaction. Every year, Olds College college courses for dual credit,” Cleland background to do that,” Guenther notes. surveys its faculty. The faculty satisfaction says. “The students’ opportunity to take scores for the IT department have risen from these courses will greatly enhance their 35 to 85 percent. Guenther gives part of the career prospects.” RESULTS credit to the high-performance applications and reliable Avaya network infrastructure. Avaya’s Data Solutions offer a portfolio of Olds College has become the technological products that enable enterprises like Olds hub for central Alberta’s Community Performance. Video conferencing and virtual College to build networks that are always- Learning Campus. Educators from around desktops are demanding applications. With on, providing up to seven times better the globe visit Olds to learn how they can 20-gigabit uplinks into each switch stack, resiliency; efficient, up to 40 percent more duplicate this success. Olds College’s bandwidth worries are a thing energy efficient; and scalable, providing up of the past. “We can have virtualized servers to 20 times better performance than other “Sure, there was a cost to doing it, but all tied into a shared storage-area network, data solution leaders. Avaya continues to there would be a higher cost if we had with zero latency,” Guenther says. augment or enhance its Data Solutions done nothing,” Cleland says. “We had the product families to deliver the most unique opportunity to innovate and, from Example: A college veterinary instructor is advanced technology available. scratch, create the Community Learning teaching in the eLearning Center at Olds Campus, to be seen as a forward-thinking College with twelve high school students in school. Without upgrading our infrastructure the classroom. In addition, there are five in partnership with Avaya, we would have students from a town 100 km away, and missed a huge opportunity to elevate our competitiveness on the post-secondary 3 Always on. Engagement sites across central Efficient. Avaya Ethernet Routing Switches APPLICATIONS & SERVICES Alberta depend on Olds College’s network for take advantage of the industry’s