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Net56 designed and implemented a robust IT network and provides on-going management, resulting in a 24 x 7 highly available architecture with built in redundancy, the adoption and integration of new applications, scalability for growth and overall increased productivity.
As the second largest district in the state of Illinois, serving over 39,000 students in all grade levels from 11 communities in Chicago's northwest suburbs, U-46 continues to be recognized as an IT leader integrating technology in the classroom to enhance student performance as well as aggressively sustaining the business aspect of education.
The District recognized the need to upgrade its current Novel 4.11 network as it was failing to provide sufficient file/print capabilities, and data sharing/user access was inadequate. In addition, administrative and district level services were not integrated in or managed through the network, placing an ever-increasing burden on the District.
With over 11,000 desktop computers and 4500 printers to manage, the PC Tech support group was challenged to manually perform asset management, software deployment and update/security management for all desktop computers. Knowing they could no longer continue to support the desktop systems efficiently without network and server provided support tools, and with a new school was opening fall of 2004 - it was critical to find a solution. The board opted to upgrade the network to ensure all computers run efficiently and productivity tools were available to administrative staff, students and teachers.
The District was well aware of the complexities in building a network environment, and determined the use of internal resources was not an option, as it would require new skills and significantly more time than partnering with an experienced professional such as Net56.
Increased network availability and user productivity were key requirements of the new network as was maintenance, monitoring and security 24 x 7. U-46 required a flexible, secure, dependable and centralized network allowing student and employee access to email, desktops, applications and data anywhere/anytime.
Beginning May 2004, Net56 delivered a fully managed robust Microsoft network with monitoring, security and disaster recovery.
- Redundancy was put in place to prevent server failures from bringing down the network as business-critical services will automatically failover, without interruption.
- Consolidated storage was enabled in an affordable, easy-to-manage Storage Area Network.
- Centralized storage is replicated to a central data center where backups and restores are quickly and easily implemented.
- Management of all aspects of the network including management of identities and security access for students/staff and browser-based administration tools provides for a global view of the network.
- Monitoring, Security, Backups and Antivirus are all performed without interrupting network access.
With Net56 planning and managing the implementation and support, U-46 was able to deliver the new system in a fraction of the time it would have taken in-house resources. The enhanced system and Net56’s expertise allows U-46 the ability to respond much more quickly to internal requests for IT support and external requirements for improved processing efficiency.
Net56's outsourcing approach minimized the District’s ever increasing IT burden by transforming U-46’s limited environment to a flexible, secure, dependable and scalable centralized network, improving service performance while achieving better collaboration and integration.
The District realized robust remote network access and management, efficient information storage and retrieval, and integration. Implementation of the Net56 Microsoft solution improved business and educational services as well as consolidation of the technology environment. The network offers staff and students:
- Access to email services, desktops, applications and data anywhere/anytime
- Increased network availability and user productivity
- Web-based collaboration tools, project management tools & network management tools
- Maintenance, monitoring, and security provided 24 x 7
- Robust remote network access and management
- Data back-up services
- Efficient information storage, retrieval, and integration
- Disaster recovery and high data availability
With resources mitigated, U-46 can now use the power of technology to facilitate and improve student performance through the implementation and use of various innovative technology methods that previously were not possible. Coupled with increased productivity and the ability to add new applications and grow the network without increasing the resources or time to manage them results in reduced total cost of ownership.
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