Carousel Industries Assists Dean College in Completing State of the Art Wireless Upgrade, Increasing Network Performance and Security for Students
New 802.11n a/b/g/n System Increases Reliability, Security of Wireless Connectivity Throughout Campus, Including New Performing Arts and Dining Center
Exeter, Rhode Island, April 26, 2011 -- Carousel Industries, a leader in data networking and converged communications, announced that it has completed an extensive wireless upgrade and installation for Franklin, MA-based Dean College, an academic institution with over 1,200 students. The first phase of the wireless upgrade was completed in January of 2011 and covered a total of 23 campus buildings, including 11 residence halls. It also included a full wireless integration of Dean College's new 28,800 square foot Performing Arts and Dining Center -- which contains rehearsal, performance and instruction spaces as well as a student dining center.
Back in the late nineties, Dean College was one of first universities in the country to convert its entire campus to wireless networking. By 2009, however, the aging infrastructure was no longer able to support the increased demands on the network, largely from the onset of social media usage by both faculty and students. During the planning phase of its Performing Arts and Dining Center project -- an enormous undertaking in itself-- Dean made the decision to upgrade the wireless infrastructure of its entire campus. Dean College consulted with Carousel Industries to spearhead the networking project, which had to be completed in just one year.
"When we started this infrastructure upgrade -- an ambitious project by any measure -- we had three fundamental goals: increasing our network capacity and reliability," recalls Darrell Kulesza, CIO of Dean College. "By working with Carousel, we were able to accomplish each of these objectives within our allocated time frame and budget allowance. Carousel was instrumental in the planning, integration and the overall success of this project."
The upgrade included the installation and integration of high-capacity switches, new, state of the art wireless equipment, in addition to a complete recabling of the entire campus. Most of the infrastructure work -- such as swapping out racks of equipment, reconfiguring and cabling -- would need to be completed during the summer months to avoid conflicting with busy academic seasons.
Out with the Old, In with the New
Carousel began by mounting access points and upgrading the entire campus to Cat 6 Ethernet cabling, and then installing what would function as the system's backbone: an Aruba 3x 5400 series router system with 2910 edge switches. Carousel also specified 335 Aruba AP-105 access points, effectively blanketing the entire campus in reliable 802.11n a/b/g/n wireless connectivity. At the center of it all, two Aruba 6000 Mobility Controller were installed to manage the traffic flow of wireless activity. Following is a summary of products included in the installation:
- HP ProCurve 2910al series data switches
- Aruba AP-105 802.11n wireless access points
- Aruba 6000 Mobility Controller with policy enforcement firewall
"When we began working with Dean College in 2009, we needed to complete some very ambitious goals within an extremely compressed time frame," commented Brian Feshler, Sales Director at Carousel Industries. "After careful consideration of Dean College's usage requirements -- both in the existing buildings on campus as well as within the new Performing Arts and Dining Center -- Dean IT and Carousel carefully planned and implemented a system that would support the both the existing and future needs of students and faculty -- and in a highly secure manner."
The wireless implementation was completed by August of 2010, and the Performing Arts and Dining Center opened shortly thereafter to student and faculty acclaim. Dean College now has a wireless system across its entire campus that is scalable, cost efficient and secure. The College is now collaborating with Carousel Industries on yet another technologically ambitious project entailing a new disaster recovery system.
Contact:
Kelly Harman
862-210-3075 ph
kharman@carouselindustries.com
Carousel Industries designs, delivers and supports technology solutions that become the foundation of our clients’ businesses. This includes unified communications, virtualization, Voice over IP (VoIP), video conferencing and collaboration and data infrastructure solutions. Since Carousel was founded in 1992 we’ve grown an average of 30% - 50% per year with estimated 2010 revenues of over $220 million. Today we have over 5,000 customers, including 35 of the Fortune 100. Carousel has been recognized by both VAR and CRN Magazines as one of the top technology integrators in the US and we’ve been listed in the Inc. 500 five times.
Carousel is headquartered in Exeter, RI with over 850 employees working from offices in 23 locations across the US, including over 250 service technicians deployed across the country. For more information visit www.carouselindustries.com
