ACADEMIA

Kutztown University has deployed Avaya's next-generation Virtual Services Platform (VSP) 9000 in its network to support state-of-the-art academic applications and advances in data, video, and voice technology for years to come.

Kutztown University supports over 10,000 students and approximately 1,000 full- and part-time faculty and staff with two networks -- one residential, the other academic and administrative -- at its campus in Berks County, Pennsylvania. With its network nearing capacity and more of its research and scientific projects requiring high-performance computing and massive bandwidth capacity, the University proactively looked to update its network technology. It wanted a cost-effective and energy-efficient data center solution that would address its growing traffic needs, provide a clear path to network virtualization, and maintain a small footprint.

After careful consideration, Kutztown University selected the Avaya VSP 9000 to replace its long-serving Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch (ERS) 8600 data center infrastructure. The Avaya VSP 9000 delivers a next-generation, high-density, scalable architecture that will help IT staff better contend with the University's academic needs, where high-bandwidth applications are increasingly driving demand for high-performance networks. It offers immediate support for 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and is future-ready for the emerging 40 and 100 GbE standards. When combined with the Avaya VENA Enterprise Fabric, the Avaya VSP 9000 will simplify Kutztown University's data center, ease the deployment of new services, and allow the IT team to virtualize both its networks to protect them against failure.

Kutztown University has consolidated its academic and administrative data center down to a single, ultra-reliable Avaya VSP 9000 and has completed the same upgrade in its residential core. It expects the new network to reduce overall operating expenses and provide the University with the highest levels of flexibility and reliability.

This announcement highlights Avaya's commitment to bringing The Power of We(TM) to every Avaya customer to help drive faster collaboration, smarter decisions and better business results.

Quote "Universities are increasingly making use of applications that require enhanced performance and throughput -- and this trend will continue to grow. Kutztown University's science department, for example, transfers massive amounts of data from various atmospheric research institutions that it uses to teach geological modeling. The Avaya VSP 9000 will help ensure that our network can accommodate even the most demanding use cases and applications, while always staying on and available to every user. We believe it will be very effective in supporting the university's mission of educating students." --Kevin Schukraft, manager of network technology, Kutztown University