Utah School District Selects Fluke Networks' AirMagnet Enterprise to Secure Wireless Networks Across More Than 55 Locations

EVERETT, Wash., Dec. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Fluke Networks today announced that the Jordan School District, a K-12 school district in West Jordan, Utah, has selected AirMagnet Enterprise as its wireless intrusion detection/prevention system (WIPS/WIDS) for monitoring, securing and troubleshooting its wireless local area networks (WLANs).

With more than 55 locations, 1,300 access points (APs) and 25,000 networking devices, the district's wireless network supports more than 50,000 students and faculty and is essential to the day-to-day operations of the district and individual schools. Furthermore, with wireless devices being integrated into class curriculum regularly (for example, for test taking), and with students constantly bringing the latest gadgets to campus, it was vital that district IT staff have complete visibility into the network to determine whether devices are friend or foe (or approved versus unapproved).

"District users previously spent the majority of their time - 90 percent - on the wired network. After a complete overhaul of the wireless network last year, this has shifted dramatically, with users now spending more than 60 percent of their time on the wireless network. This massive uptick in usage, combined with an explosion of wireless devices inside and outside the classroom, exposed many security and performance flaws, making us realize that we needed better visibility into what was happening on our WLAN," said Ron Bird, network and technical services manager at Jordan School District.

To get this "visibility" into the network, Jordan School District selected AirMagnet Enterprise. Not only does the system provided dedicated 24x7 security and performance monitoring and remote troubleshooting 100 percent of the time, but its intelligent spectrum analysis capability was also a key differentiator over the competition. Using dedicated radio hardware, AirMagnet Enterprise can quickly detect and specifically classify sources of RF interference that can severely impact the performance of the Wi-Fi network. It is the only WIPS/WIDS solution on the market today with this integrated capability.

"In addition to standard district devices causing interference, such as mobile labs, wireless video cameras, A/V systems, temperature controls and more, we have thousands of students bringing in new gadgets that can affect network performance and security. The ability to remotely utilize the integrated spectrum analysis capability allows our team to pinpoint the exact physical location of the interference and deploy staff already onsite to help remediate. Being able to proactively understand the exact source and impact of these problems allows us to restore critical network service as quickly as possible to all users," Bird said.

Jordan School District also selected AirMagnet Enterprise because it easily integrates with a variety of infrastructure technology. "Most districts are a hodge-podge of wired and wireless networking technology, and we're no different. We needed a solution that would easily integrate with various infrastructure vendors. Enterprise is designed to be an overlay system, so this interoperability, so to speak, was not a problem," Bird added.

AirMagnet Enterprise's new dynamic threat update (DTU) technology is also important to the district and Bird's staff. DTU allows the district's system to be automatically updated with the latest signatures to protect against new threats or vulnerabilities, saving the team both time and resources. "Knowing that our WLAN monitoring system will be automatically updated to detect the latest security and performance threats means that we can focus on delivering technology benefits to our students and educators, and rely on the experts at Fluke Networks to keep us continuously at the leading edge of wireless protection capabilities," Bird said.

For more information about AirMagnet Enterprise, please visit Fluke Networks. For more information about the latest signature updates, please visit the AirWISE Community.

About Fluke Networks

Fluke Networks is the world-leading provider of network test and monitoring solutions to speed the deployment and improve the performance of networks and applications. Leading enterprises and service providers trust Fluke Networks' products and expertise to help solve today's toughest issues and emerging challenges in WLAN security, mobility, unified communications and data centers. Based in Everett, Wash., the company distributes products in more than 50 countries. For more information, visit www.FlukeNetworks.com or call +1 (425) 446-4519.

SOURCE Fluke Networks