Enterasys Provides Secure BYOD Solution for Sinclair Community College

ANDOVER, Mass., Nov. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterasys Networks, a Siemens Enterprise Communications Company, announced today that Sinclair Community College, located in Dayton, Ohio, has deployed identiFi™, the new Enterasys WLAN solution, to support its BYOD and wireless networking initiatives.  Responsible for supporting the Wi-Fi needs of 24,000 students and 4,000 faculty and staff, Sinclair Community College selected the Mobile IAM solution from Enterasys as its comprehensive BYOD capabilities provide total security, full IT control and a predictable network experience for all users.

An early adopter of BYOD, Sinclair Community College developed an in-house secure LAN solution using open and standard products. Although this solution helped launch its BYOD program, it lacked the necessary granular controls and automation necessary to keep pace with the college's escalating networking demands. With 20 buildings in downtown Dayton and five remote locations, Sinclair Community College needed a tool that could quickly adjust and distribute policies to all of its locations. The Enterasys Mobile IAM policy automation and provisioning capabilities enable a single policy approach for the college's wired, wireless and VPN deployments that simplifies management and eliminates potential security holes.

"Sinclair Community College has been ahead of the BYOD curve and we wanted to get better. The Mobile IAM solution from Enterasys had a lot of capabilities that we weren't able to do on our own, plus a road map that showed they put a lot of forethought into the BYOD space," said Scott McCollum, CIO of Sinclair Community College. "We used to have other vendor's products – as well as Enterasys – to manage our BYOD program, but now our entire networking infrastructure is based on the Enterasys OneFabric architecture."

Mobile IAM can automatically discover and track over 50 attributes per user and device on the network. The IT team at Sinclair Community College leverages this rich store of information to provide intelligent network management and policy enforcement that simplifies managing the college's BYOD program. As a result, IT support staff can more easily identify and troubleshoot connectivity issues, preventing problems from being escalated to a network engineer.

"We don't want our students or faculty to worry about whether or not the network is working, and thanks to Enterasys, their focus remains on their studies," said Darnell Brown, Senior Infrastructure Engineer at Sinclair Community College. "Plus, the Enterasys network allows us to be more flexible so we can say 'yes' more often to network access requests, allowing us to create options for our students and faculty to complete their work."

The college has also heavily invested in virtualization, from both a server and desktop standpoint. With over 600 software applications streaming to student and faculty desktops, Sinclair Community College has hundreds of virtual machines running through Enterasys S-Series data center switches, and also plans to deploy Data Center Manager to manage their virtualized environment. This virtualization gives the college much needed flexibility, with no need to worry about where the classes will be taught; the necessary applications are dynamically delivered as needed, even to mobile devices.

Enterasys partnered with Chi Corporation to ensure the college's IT staff was trained on the benefits of the new OneFabric network, delivering a system with exceptional performance while remaining easy to manage.

"With expertise across data center, storage and access edge, Chi Corporation is in the unique position of being able to support Sinclair Community College's entire IT needs," said John Thome, Jr., vice president, Chi Corporation. "We were able to get them quickly up to speed on the simplicity and manageability benefits of the Enterasys identiFi solution to ensure a seamless networking experience for mobile students and faculty."

An Enterasys customer for over 12 years, Sinclair Community College attributes its long-term satisfaction to Enterasys' best-in-class customer service and networking products that meet the market's needs.

"One of the reasons we have been an Enterasys customer for so long is they allow us to be more efficient and in control of the network, rather than running around and putting out fires," said McCollum. "The number of devices we are required to support on our network is growing astronomically, but the stability of Enterasys equipment has allowed us to stay current with these growing demands. We trust Enterasys to help us continue this trend in supporting a successful BYOD environment."

Resources

• Enterasys Social Media Newsroom
• Enterasys Higher Education Solutions
• Enterasys identiFi Wi-Fi Solutions webpage

About Enterasys Networks and Siemens Enterprise Communications 
Siemens Enterprise Communications is a leading global provider of unified communications (UC) solutions and network infrastructure for enterprises of all sizes. Leveraging 160 years of experience, we deliver innovation and quality to the world's most successful companies, backed by a world-class services portfolio which includes international multi-vendor managed and outsourcing capabilities. Our OpenScape communications solutions provide a seamless and efficient collaboration experience – on any device – which amplifies collective effort and dramatically improves business performance. Together, our global team of UC experts and service professionals set the standards for a rich communications experience that empowers teams to deliver better results. Siemens Enterprise Communications is a joint venture of The Gores Group and Siemens AG, and includes Enterasys Networks, a provider of network infrastructure and security solutions, creating a complementary and complete enterprise communications solutions portfolio.

SOURCE Enterasys Networks