ACADEMIA

The University of Reading, an internationally recognized research institution in the areas of arts, humanities and science, is meeting heavy network traffic demand from 19,000 staff and students by selecting Extreme Networks and business partner Data Integration for the complete refresh and development of its IT infrastructure. Three projects have been put in place to replace the existing infrastructure and improve access by implementing a resilient, highly available network to support the growth of the University. The initial project saw the replacement of the core and distribution layer of the network with Extreme Networks' BlackDiamond 6800, Alpine 3800 and Summit 200 switches, creating a highly resilient, high performance network core. The second project, readingConnect, extended the campus network into the Halls of Residence, providing 100 Mbps connections into 5,000 rooms which formerly relied on slow dial-up access. With Extreme Networks' BlackDiamond 6808 core switches driving the Halls of Residence network, the readingConnect project is able to deliver fast services to the University's students, allowing them to work more flexibly without compromising the security of campus resources. The current e-Infrastructure Project, currently scheduled to complete in Spring 2006, aims to deliver high-performance, highly reliable, QoS access to the desktop throughout the University. "The Extreme Networks equipment has enabled us to link together all the departmental networks within the University that previously were using their own equipment," said Mike Roch, Director of Information Services at the University of Reading. "Standardizing the network has made supporting it consistent and manageable, and we have 9,000 Extreme Networks ports currently spread across the network with the aim of growing this to 14,000." For the University of Reading, total cost of network ownership is of paramount importance and it needed a network solution that delivered performance, without complex management and administration. With its solution based on a single hardware, software and management architecture and managed by Extreme Networks' EPICenter software suite, Extreme Networks has provided a network that can be configured and managed from a central location. Additionally, the University also sought to protect its corporate systems, such as payroll and financial applications, from access by unauthorized users. "With Extreme Networks' Layer 3 switching capabilities, we can take advantage of wire-speed Access Control Lists (ACLs) without degrading network performance to help improve the security of our network," continued Roch. "Increasingly our customers regard the network as the foundation of their IT objectives," said Suresh Gopalakrishnan, vice president of worldwide marketing for Extreme Networks. "This reliance on the network demands a new class of flexible and highly available enterprise networking technology. It is a testament to our solutions that the University of Reading has trusted Extreme Networks to support its vision of the learning environment of the future."