MORE COLLABORATION, TEAMWORK AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING ENABLED AT MORAVIAN COLLEGE WITH NEW INTEGRATED, SECURE NETWORKStudents get tailored, interactive, learning experiences with unified access campus-wide.
Moravian College is a private coeducational liberal arts college located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Tracing its founding to 1742, Moravian is recognized as America’s sixth-oldest college and the first to educate women. Moravian delivers a values-based liberal arts education in a caring environment, through which it nurtures in students the capacities for leadership, lifelong learning, and positive societal contributions. The college enrolls students from a variety of socioeconomic, religious, racial, and ethnic backgrounds, provides for highly personalized learning experiences, and offers many opportunities for students to direct their education towards individual and professional goals. To continue to provide a unique, collaborative learning environment, Moravian needed to replace its aging wired and wireless networks with an integrated infrastructure that would support a new initiative to equip all students with Apple® MacBook Pro® and iPad® devices.
CASE STUDY MARKET: EDUCATION REGION: NORTH AMERICA COMPANY: MORAVIAN COLLEGE
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Moravian College ALCATEL-LUCENT ENTERPRISE CASE STUDY
2
CHALLENGES• Createanewnetworkthatcan
supportanall-MacBookPro®
environment
• Improvewiredandwirelessaccess
everywhereoncampus
• Providehighqualitydata,video
andmultimediacommunicationsat
anytime
• Attractstudentswithanadvanced
wiredandwirelessnetwork
infrastructure
SOLUTION• Highqualityanywhere,anytime
accesstowiredandwireless
networkscampus-widewitha
Alcatel-LucentEnterpriseUnified
Accesssolution
• Aseamless,high-qualitynetwork
experienceforallusersonall
devices,includingMacBookPro®
computersandiPads®
• Moreeffectivepolicymanagement,
accesscontrolandusermanage-
mentwithClearPass™Policy
ManagementSystem
• Always-on,highqualitycommuni-
cationsduringandafterclasswith
anAlcatel-LucentOmniSwitch™
6900(OS6900)Core,OmniSwitch
6450GigabitStackableLAN
SwitchesandOmniSwitch6850E
StackableLANSwitches
• Campus-widewirelessnetwork
accesswithAlcatel-Lucent
OmniAccess™110seriesand
OmniAccess220seriesaccess
points
• Highqualitymobileexperience
providedbyAlcatel-Lucent
OmniAccess4550WirelessLAN
Controllers
• Wirelessmanagementtoimprove
networkperformanceandreli-
abilityprovidedbyAlcatel-Lucent
OmniVista3600AirManager
THECHALLENGESThroughout its history, Moravian College has remained vital by continually looking forward and planning for the needs of the next generation of students. Recognizing the significant role technology now plays in the lives of all students, the college embarked on a major technology upgrade program in 2013 as part of its strategic planning. A key part of that program was a new initiative to equip all undergraduate students entering the college with Apple® MacBook Pro® computers and iPads®. Faculty members would be equipped with the same devices to enable them to explore ways to make the best use of the technology for teaching both in and out of the classroom.
These first steps towards becoming an all-MacBook Pro® campus would enable Moravian College to create the “classroom flip” model of learning in which students access online lectures and resources outside of class and professors spend more time working directly with students
in the classroom. Ultimately, this approach will contribute to Moravian’s efforts to attract new students and retain them by creating more tailored, collaborative, and interactive learning experiences enhanced by innovative technology.
AgingnetworkscouldnotmeetexpectationsBut the aging data networks in place at Moravian College were supported by limited wireless capabilities and were not structured to support a 21st century learning environment. The wireless infrastructure in particular provided limited coverage, especially in student dorm areas, which resulted in a low quality user experience.
“After analyzing the communications and IT infrastructure we had in place, it became very obvious that we would never be able to achieve our goals without making changes,” said Scott Hughes, Chief Information Officer, Moravian College. “Surveys we conducted showed that a strong wired and wireless
" Today’s students have high expectations of what wired and wireless networks should provide to support their research for classes and their social interactions. They are asking a lot more pointed questions about those capabilities before they make a decision on a college. The existing network became increasingly strained given the explosion in wireless devices and demand for connectivity and speed. We needed to upgrade those networks to meet the expectations of our existing student population, and support our efforts to recruit new students."Scott Hughes, Chief Information Officer, Moravian College
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Moravian College ALCATEL-LUCENT ENTERPRISE CASE STUDY
Internet is very important to parents and students looking at college options, not just for the learning process, but also for their social and entertainment needs. The surveys also showed that our students were dissatisfied with the way our wired and wireless networks were performing. For example, all the wireless access points were completely autonomous. That meant students logged onto one access point could not maintain a connection to the network when they were moving to another area of the campus. They would drop out of the network and then have to log back on through another access point. Plus, the network did not have the coverage and capacity needed to meet quality expectations in all areas of the campus. Without significant changes we would not be able to support the level of use that our wired and wireless networks would get with a move to an all-MacBook Pro® environment. So the MacBooks and iPads® we were purchasing would not have fully serviced the pedagogical needs of the institution and our students.”
THESOLUTIONTo enable Moravian College to achieve its communications objectives, the IT team worked with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise and Advance 2000, an Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise partner, to design an integrated wired and wireless network tailored specifically for the Moravian College campus. The new unified access network is engineered to provide students and faculty with secure anytime, anywhere
access with any device across the entire campus. It is also sized to fully meet the needs of the College today and support future expansion, as required. With this infrastructure, Moravian College can now provide students and faculty with the best technology and collaborative learning tools needed to transform the way students learn and professors teach.
Ubiquitous wired and wireless access to the network is enabled by the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Unified Access solution, which provides all users with a seamless,
high-quality network experience whether they are using their MacBook Pro® computers or iPads®. This solution has also streamlined network management efforts by enabling the IT team to manage the entire network, govern access, and maintain the security of all traffic based on a single set of usage policies. “With the unified access solution, we are able to converge all data, video and multimedia traffic onto one secure network. All three are very important components in a higher education
“ We needed a network that could effectively handle the academic load that would be placed on it and easily support the social and entertainment load the students would generate. We looked at other suppliers, but Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise was able to provide a solution that aligned perfectly with our vision and objectives. And it was the only supplier that was able to provide the dense coverage and capacity needed to create and maintain the high quality experience students expect from a wireless network.”Scott Hughes, Chief Information Officer, Moravian College
BENEFITS• Fullsupportforanall-MacBook
Pro®environment
• Moreubiquitouscoverageforany
user,anywhereoncampus,inand
outoftheclassroom
• Competitivepositioningwith
studentsbasedonadvanced
networkcapabilities
• Leadershippositioninginhigher
educationbasedoninnovative
approachtouseofcorporateand
commercialtechnologies
• Morecollaborative,knowledge
sharingenvironmentfortailored,
interactivelearning
www.alcatel-lucent.com/enterprise Alcatel, Lucent, Alcatel-Lucent and the Alcatel-Lucent logo are trademarks of Alcatel-Lucent. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The information presented is subject to change without notice. Alcatel-Lucent assumes no responsibility for inaccuracies contained herein. Copyright © 2014 Alcatel-Lucent. All rights reserved. E2014034735EN (June)
CUSTOMER SUMMARY
Moravian College
MARKET: Education
FACULTY: 107 Full Time; 139 Part time
NUMBER OF STUDENTS: 1,461 Undergraduate; 226 Graduate
URL: www.moravian.edu
environment and unified access has allowed us to build a single infrastructure that can support all traffic and multiple networked devices securely, without overloading the IT team with network management and support requirements,” said Hughes. “And the ClearPass Policy Management System that is part of the unified access solution makes it easier to determine, measure and develop student engagement with our collaborative learning approach by making it easy for us to control network access, enforce security policies, and track usage.”
The always-on, high quality, enriched communications provided by unified access during and after class is enabled by a 40G-capable Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch 6900 (OS6900) Core, OmniSwitch 6450 Gigabit Stackable LAN Switches and OmniSwitch 6850E Stackable LAN Switches. These versatile switches provide Moravian College with the reliable, high performance network infrastructure needed to support
real-time, converged data and video applications, anywhere on campus.Wireless network access across the campus is provided by Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess 110 series and OmniAccess 220 series access points. The multi-functional OmniAccess 110 series access points maximize mobile device performance in high-density Wi-Fi® environments. They can be configured to provide part-time or dedicated air monitoring for spectrum analysis and wireless intrusion protection, virtual networks (VPNs), and wireless mesh connections where Ethernet drops are not available. And the OmniAccess 220 series access points deliver gigabit Wi-Fi to mobile devices with ClientMatch™ technology that ensures consistently high performance across a Wireless LAN (WLAN) infrastructure. Finally, this entire infrastructure is managed by the Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista 3600 Air Manager, an operations management software solution that provides visibility and control of the network through
“ The prevailing wisdom in higher education is that the average student is entering a post-secondary education environment with three devices they want to be able to connect to the network. But I believe that it is more likely that they are coming in with up to six devices. And they want to be able to use those devices at any time, either independently, or together. Working with Advance 2000 and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, we’ve designed a network that can handle that level of use and deliver a high quality experience anywhere on campus.”Scott Hughes, Chief Information Officer, Moravian College
real-time user and device monitoring, centralized configuration and compliance management. This allows the IT team to see exactly where users are and how the network is performing at all times.
THEBENEFITS“This entire solution gives Moravian College the fastest, most reliable converged network possible campus-wide to meet the expectations today’s students have of communications technology both in and out of the classroom,” said Hughes. “It will not only help Moravian College achieve its communications objectives and enable a more collaborative learning environment, but will also provide us with a competitive advantage in our efforts to attract and retain students. And it positions the college at the forefront of thinking when it comes to the best way to leverage corporate and commercial grade technologies to build education networks. Other colleges and universities are now looking at what we’ve done with our network as an example of how they can improve their own communications infrastructures.
“With this new network, Moravian College can achieve its vision for a new education environment in which everyone has the same tools and access to the same experience regardless of where they are on campus or which network they are using. The classroom walls are totally removed with the availability of a full blown modern wireless network. And teaching, learning and collaboration can happen anywhere on campus, anytime it’s appropriate.”
