Net56

Net56 restructured and upgraded an existing IT network to achieve a stable and redundant network infrastructure, ensuring network performance, information integrity and a fixed IT budget.

Because technology is not the driving force for schools as it is in business, the need for technology can often be distorted or misunderstood – yet there are obvious reasons schools choose technology solutions such as the need to pass state school efficacy indicators, student attendance, truancy and/or scores on standardized tests.

As a well established community with a longstanding reputation for excellence, Deerfield Public School District 109 was not faced with these fundamental needs and yet it recognized the need to improve their technology and provide the crucial infrastructure necessary to support educational/business needs as well as pave the way for technological innovation promoting engaged learning. Technology had become an integral part of payroll, purchases, curriculum, student services and education for the District and it became necessary to upgrade the network for a stable and secure system, but were concerned it was simply not affordable.

The District had come to a crossroads in terms of security, reliability and growth encountering network challenges that required regular outside assistance causing an ever-increasing burden on the school budget with no increase in much-needed technology expertise. Like many districts, Deerfield was grossly under-resourced.

Network weakness were identified to include an inadequate data center facility which fell short of best practice, a lack of redundancy in the structure of the network and technology staff were not being used effectively in support of education goals as their time was largely spent troubleshooting network related problems.

In January of 2002, the school district partnered with Net56, outsourcing all of it’s information technology operations to achieve a stable and redundant network infrastructure ensuring network performance and information integrity as well as deliver thin client technology to enhance learning and relieve the district of the technology management burden.

Net56 took over the design, methodology and management of the entire Network and Operations for Deerfield District 109 business offices and the six elementary and middle schools in the district. This included day-to-day support, operation and maintenance of the hardware and software that comprises the District wide and local area network and data processing platforms, including comprehensive management, monitoring and support for all servers, firewalls, routers, switches, workstations, active local-area-network devices, operating systems including all upgrades and applications as well as specialized applications.

Net56 restructured its existing backbone network to provide a stable and more robust system; centralized management for a uniform & consistent platform; upgraded the Wide Area Network; provisioned for the future of voice over IP (VoIP) and wireless computing.

Helpdesk services at the Net56 office afforded the District better management, immediate responsiveness, and overall improved support due to readily available expertise and expansive resources. Within the scope of the contract, Net56 also provided Web Development, Web Hosting services as well as innovative and forward thinking Consulting. (see application development case study)