Malone University Selects Enterasys for Residence Hall Networks and New Data Center

ANDOVER, Mass., Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterasys Networks, a Siemens Enterprise Communications Company, today announced that Malone University in Canton, Ohio, has deployed Enterasys equipment to create an IT infrastructure to support voice, data and video in a multi-vendor environment for its on-site resident students and six residence hall buildings, as well as its newly created data center – providing a more secure campus network for students, faculty and staff, while greatly improving productivity among its small IT staff.

"Like most universities, we have a hard time managing and controlling resident student computers.  After a virus infection that impacted many students in our residence halls, we installed an N-Series switch from Enterasys, as well as the Enterasys (also known as Dragon) Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), in order to give us more visibility and control over users network activity," said Clark Hoopes, director of information technologies at Malone University.  "Since then, we have significantly reduced the amount of time we spend configuring students' computers and removing viruses and other security risks, which is critical as we have only two employees managing the network along with many other IT systems and services."  

Malone University's six residence halls and more than 1,100 on-site resident students can now easily connect to the university network without the need to load any software on students' computers.  Prior to working with Enterasys, about 40 percent of the resident students in the fall semester would experience security issues.  With better service and availability of the network, user satisfaction has improved significantly. The ability to easily control and configure students' network connectivity has also resulted in a reduction in help desk calls and a more productive IT staff.

According to Hoopes, the biggest improvement with the new infrastructure is the ease in which students and faculty can get access to the wireless network.  Because of the Enterasys equipment in place students, faculty, adjunct faculty, staff and visitors can easily connect to the wireless network without any support from the help desk staff. Furthermore, the Enterasys switches and network configuration have eliminated cease and desist orders from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for the past five years, which is a significant savings in network support staff time.

The University also recently combined two smaller data center locations into a new data center and installed an Enterasys S-Series Ethernet switch to ensure its network is able to support future initiatives.  The IT network team has begun to implement a 10 Gigabit network in order to achieve faster throughput and support for its ERP system and IP telephony initiatives, as well as provide the infrastructure necessary for the ever increasing demands for multi-media on campus.  

"With Enterasys, our senior network engineer, Jim Shaffer, does not get the service runaround.  He can communicate with ease with our representatives and they understand our problems," said Hoopes.  "Some of Enterasys' competitors are more focused on forcing us to follow them, while Enterasys ensures interoperability, provides competitive pricing, and always comes through with excellent service and support."  

About Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co KG

Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co KG is a premier provider of end-to-end enterprise communications, including voice, network infrastructure and security solutions that use open, standards-based architectures to unify communications and business applications for a seamless collaboration experience. This award-winning "Open Communications" approach enables organizations to improve productivity and reduce costs through easy-to-deploy solutions that work within existing IT environments, delivering operational efficiencies. It is the foundation for the company's OpenPath® commitment that enables customers to mitigate risk and cost-effectively adopt unified communications. Jointly owned by The Gores Group and Siemens AG, Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co KG includes Cycos and Enterasys Networks. For more information about Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co KG or Enterasys please visit www.siemens-enterprise.com or www.enterasys.com

SOURCE Enterasys Networks

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