Education Industry- wireless optimization and end user management case study

About the company

This Southern Californian-based school district was founded in 1972. Over the years, this conglomerate of many different schools has been frequently recognized among the top school systems in California and the United States. It gained distinct achievements, such as being labeled as a California Distinguished School 48 times since 1986 and producing 13 Blue Ribbon Schools, the nation’s highest level of recognition for K-12 campuses. With 22 elementary schools, 6 middle schools, and 6 high schools, this school district contains over 34,000 students and employs over 1,271 teachers and 838 staff members. 

CHALLENGES

This organization needed assistance for wireless optimization and end user management, which involved putting a border on their network so that unauthorized individuals do not get in. The IT staff at this school district engaged PM2NET to provide professional services to design, configure, and deploy Aruba ClearPass into their network.

For the majority of the school district network, the staff was having trouble designing and implementing ClearPass both from a software and licensing perspective. The staff was unable to effectively manage their ClearPass network and they were unable to integrate ClearPass with their staff and guest wireless network. Some of the licensing and ClearPass hardware that was purchased was too much and the customer did not know where to put everything for the proper installment.

Assessment and solution

With a need to set up ClearPass and their wireless system properly, PM2NET managed their network and Aruba wireless implementation, from analysis, design, implementation, and testing. PMN2ET began by analyzing and discovering the existing Aruba wireless and ClearPass networks. Once PM2NET gained a solid understanding of what comprised the Aruba network, PM2NET created a high-level design document. PM2NET used this high-level design document as a roadmap for the district’s wireless and ClearPass implementation.

After designing the wireless infrastructure for the district, PM2NET began the implementation phase for wireless optimization by inputting wireless controllers, virtual controllers, and access point locations for 33 sites. The engineers also began to set up rules for rogue APs and intrusion detection; set up alerts in case any access points and controllers go down; import maps and draw walls for each site; and place all APs on maps.

This school district’s IT staff also needed help with properly implementing their network access management software, Aruba ClearPass. PM2NET began by implementing the high-level design and setting up the latest ClearPass server software on their network. PM2NET installed these two ClearPass servers with failover and redundancy to prevent system downtime during mission-critical moments. Different configurations of ClearPass were also created for the guests who sought to use the district’s network, and PM2NET engineers configured the appropriate guest roles, created a custom guest portal page, and configured the Guest enforcement policies.

Once all of the hardware licensing and configurations were in place, PM2NET and the IT staff at the district teamed up to test the different use cases. These involved testing user experience with the newly installed ClearPass, making sure clearpass does what it’s supposed to security-wise for the different roles and users, and the district’s devices. 

advantages

As a school district, this organization had many needs surrounding not just wireless performance, but also network access control for the different users. This involved enforcing different policies depending on the individual’s role at the school district - whether they be an employee, guest, or student. The proper installment of Aruba ClearPass and the wireless expertise of the PM2NET staff was utilized for this cause.

The district was very happy with the end-result of their wireless and ClearPass network. There were no complaints from the staff about their wireless experiences once the project was complete. The engineering staff was able to easily manage the wireless users once the project was complete, and they reaped the benefits of proper ClearPass installation in its entirety following best practices. In the end, this school district attained great benefits such as the proper configuration of ClearPass and ease of managing users for the different roles at the district.