Forsyth County School District Taps Extreme Networks to Power Cutting-Edge Digital Curriculum

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Education technology spending skyrocketed to $9.5 billion globally in 2017, signaling a strong recognition among educators that technology has become a defining component of the modern classroom. Forsyth County, one of the largest K-12 school districts in Georgia, deployed Extreme Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXTR) wired and wireless solutions to create a robust, software-driven infrastructure that seamlessly connects and integrates myriad devices, students, and digital learning services, enabling the district to make tech-driven academic and extracurricular activities like robotics, virtual reality and eSports a reality for students across 37 schools and 42 buildings.

Forsyth County School District is well-known for its innovation. Not only does it offer traditional curriculum at its 21 elementary, 10 middle, six high, and one virtual 6-12 school, but its Alliance Academy for Innovation delivers ground-breaking career and college subjects for high-schoolers. Here, students learn about aerospace engineering, cybersecurity, emergency medicine, and more—and even earn college credits or industry certifications. A full virtual academy complements onsite teaching within the district. Remote students can learn online and after-hours. This has enabled Forsyth County to completely do away with inclement weather days.

But these innovations place a strain on the network and staff. The district is one of the fastest-growing in the state with 6,500 staff, 50,000 students, and an influx of approximately 1,500 to 1,800 new students each year. Its network supports 100,000 unique devices each day, including 27,000 Chromebooks, Interactive Clear Touch white board panels, 1,500 video cameras, door locks, HVAC control, and teacher devices, with only five IT staff to provision, troubleshoot, and manage it. Forsyth County schools are also piloting the Georgia Department of Education online testing program – 95-99 percent of students will take the tests using wireless devices. By deploying Extreme's Smart OmniEdge ™ and Automated Campus™ solutions, Forsyth County can implement strict access network control policies, simplify management of its massive, sprawling network, better identify and resolve bottlenecks, and accommodate growing bandwidth demand without sacrificing service quality. This frees its IT team to focus on creating forward-looking educational experiences rather than network and device management.

Key benefits:

• Simplified network management: Given limited IT resources and a densely-populated geography, Forsyth County needed a simple, easy-to-use management solution that provides pervasive visibility across its expansive network. Extreme Management Center™ gives IT centralized management and end-to-end visibility, ensuring smooth operations and fast problem resolution.
• Future-proof infrastructure: As a cutting-edge district, Forsyth is building an eSports program for its high-school students, offering a highly-equipped robotics curriculum at Alliance Academy for Innovation, and using virtual and augmented reality to teach elementary school students STEM in a hands-on, interactive way. With ExtremeMobility™ access points and ExtremeSwitching™ technology, Forsyth has an unparalleled, high-density Wi-Fi network and supporting infrastructure to meet resulting bandwidth demands. ExtremeAnalytics™ software allows IT to understand what applications are running on the network, who is using them, and the response time for each application so they can quickly detect anomalies and optimize application performance.
• Heightened security: ExtremeControl™ NAC software integrates with Extreme Management Center to provide IT with granular visibility and control of guest and IoT devices across Forsyth's wired and wireless network, reducing security vulnerabilities. To boost the safety of its student body and staff, Forsyth County is leveraging its all-Extreme network to power more than 1,500 security cameras in the hallways of its schools. In the future, the school will add 600 additional cameras with advanced analytics and facial recognition capabilities that enable enhanced attendance tracking and increase student safety.

Executive Perspectives

Bob Nilsson, Director of Vertical Solutions Marketing, Extreme Networks
"As school districts around the country embrace technology, it often starts with adding more mobile devices or implementing online services for testing. But more devices and services alone don't make a classroom 'smart.' Forsyth recognized the importance of the underlying infrastructure, the connections between the devices, and the software that runs over top, in creating the classroom of the future. By prioritizing the network, Forsyth has created the foundation for digital learning to flourish."

Curt Godwin, Network Operations Coordinator, Forsyth County School District
"Our primary commitment is delivering the best possible educational experiences to our students, and we're thrilled to have Extreme as a partner. Since we started working with Extreme Networks, we have seen a significant improvement in network performance and we've been able to scale without sacrificing connectivity quality as our student and staff population grows. But more importantly, we can now pioneer forward-looking, immersive technologies – from virtual reality to advanced facial recognition – to redefine what education really means."

Extreme Connect
The Future of Education will be on display in full-force at the Extreme Connect User Conference, May 13-16, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. For more details and to register, click here.

Additional Resources

• Forsyth Case Study 
• Advancing The Quality Of Education With Innovation And One-Hundred Thousand Unique Devices Blog
• Extreme Smart OmniEdge Solution Page
• Extreme Automated Campus Solution Page
• Extreme K-12 Solution Page
• Extreme Management Center Product Page
• ExtremeMobility Product Page
• ExtremeSwitching Product Page
• ExtremeAnalytics Product Page
• ExtremeControl Product Page
• Connect with Extreme via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube

About Extreme Networks  
Extreme Networks, Inc. (EXTR) delivers software-driven solutions from the enterprise edge to the cloud that are agile, adaptive, and secure to enable digital transformation. Our 100% in-sourced services and support are number one in the industry. Even with 30,000 customers globally, including half of the Fortune 50 and some of the world's leading names in business, hospitality, retail, transportation and logistics, education, government, healthcare and manufacturing, we remain nimble and responsive to ensure customer and partner success. We call this Customer-Driven Networking™. Founded in 1996, Extreme is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information, visit Extreme's website or call 1-888-257-3000.

Extreme Networks and the Extreme Networks logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Extreme Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Other trademarks shown herein are the property of their respective owners.

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