Colubris Networks, a leader in intelligent, multiservice wireless LAN (WLAN) systems, today announced its selection and initial deployment by the Abbotsford School District of British Columbia, following rigorous evaluation of leading WLAN vendors. The selection establishes the Colubris Intelligent MultiService System (CIMS) as the K-12 district-wide standard for all WLAN deployments throughout its 50 schools, and is believed by observers to be setting new benchmarks for strong security policy enforcement, low operational costs and high availability in distributed educational institutions. The deployment’s near-term value is approaching $1 Mil US.
The Abbotsford district is expanding the opportunities for its grammar, junior high and high school students to access online learning resources. For example its Abbotsford Virtual School enables students to take courses online while maintaining close communications with teachers. “The success of One-To-One [one laptop to one student] education initiatives such as ours depends on reliable, ubiquitous wireless access with absolute security policy enforcement, and ease of management,” said Ray Jung, District VP for Information Technology, Abbotsford School District. “Our selection of Colubris was immediately validated as we replaced the problem-plagued network that we had previously installed with the Colubris system and saw our One-to-One vision become a virtually trouble-free reality.”
Increasingly recognized throughout British Columbia and Canada for its technology leadership, the Abbotsford technology team envisioned expanding student access to education resources beyond the narrow constraints of specific classrooms and class times. The team rigorously evaluated multiple leading WLAN infrastructure solutions and found the Colubris TriPlane architecture provided superior network reliability when compared to other architectures. In addition, the Colubris system completely satisfied the, “Big 8,” network criteria increasingly used in the educational community: robust security and access policy enforcement; immediate detection and containment of rogue APs and users; accurate location detection; elimination of single points of failure for highest availability; easy-to-use guest access; centralized management of remote school networks; scalability, and the ability to converge multiple services on a single network.
The Seven Group, a value added reseller in British Columbia, is providing the installation and maintenance services for the deployment.
Making a Major Electronic Education Initiative a Reality
The Abbotsford school district with its 50 elementary, middle and high schools has a student population of almost 20,000. The Abbotsford Traditional Secondary School is one of the five schools at all grade levels where the Colubris WLAN will be initially deployed. Students there now receive the full value of the district’s One-To-One laptops in education initiative launched last year. The advanced electronic education initiatives that increasingly factor into the planning decisions of school districts throughout North America envision a new world of online educational programs and communications resources for all students in all subject areas. District-wide Internet access and inter-school resource-sharing greatly enhances the Abbotsford district’s student educational experience. This vision had been unfulfilled because of unreliable wireless LAN technologies previously deployed in the schools.
“The Colubris system was easy to install and configure and has performed exceptionally well. It really meets those “Big 8” network criteria we’ve defined for successful One-to-One deployment, and the performance difference is like night and day. We have gone from two to five trouble calls per day with our previous network to perhaps fewer than that a month with the Colubris system,” Jung concluded.
The Colubris deployment includes InReach MultiService Access Points that provide ubiquitous coverage, seamless mobility and robust security, InMotion MultiService Controllers that coordinate AP operations for consistent quality, security and service as clients roam, and the InCharge Network Management System and RF Manager for comprehensive network management and intrusion prevention. The InCharge System automatically identifies and blocks WLAN security threats, and centrally manages the entire infrastructure.
“We’re delighted to have been selected by Abbotsford,” said Chris Koeneman, Colubris Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Service. “This is a strategic enterprise win because it reflects the rigorous and growing needs of so many enterprise sectors, and validates the power and manageability advantages of our solution.”
About Colubris Networks
Colubris Networks is the leading global provider of intelligent multiservice wireless LAN systems for service providers and enterprises. The company’s award-winning products deliver seamless, secure access to broadband services and applications while unifying existing network infrastructures, security and management systems. Colubris Networks’ equipment is deployed by more than 1,000 organizations worldwide. Colubris’ many awards include Red Herring’s top 100 private companies in North America, Fierce Wireless Fierce 15, Supercomm Superquest Award, and Mobile Trax Mobility Award.
