|
West Chester University of Pennsylvania Rightsizes Network Infrastructure With High Performance 802.11n Wireless LAN From Aruba Networks
SUNNYVALE, CA, Jul 14, 2009 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) --
Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN), a global leader in wireless
LANs and secure mobility solutions, today announced that West Chester
University of Pennsylvania (WCU) is deploying Aruba 802.11n Wi-Fi
networks at two of its newest residence halls. The deployments follow
a favorable assessment of the projected monetary and sustainability
impact of using Aruba's 802.11n networks in lieu of wired LANs as the
primary form of network access. The residence hall wireless networks
will be fully commissioned in August 2009, with dark Ethernet cabling
installed only as a back-up. Once the 802.11n network demonstrates
the expected benefits of wireless, the university intends to forgo
wired LANs in future residence halls in favor of Wi-Fi.
The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, with 14
universities and more than 112,500 students, is the largest higher
education provider in Pennsylvania. Founded in 1871, WCU is the
second largest institution in the state system with a total
enrollment of 13,600 undergraduate and graduate students.
To reduce the university's carbon footprint, Dr. Greg Weisenstein,
WCU's president, is driving a comprehensive sustainability and green
campus initiative across the university. The high energy consumption
of traditional wired LANs, and the toxicity and landfill issues
associated with data cabling, make the residence halls an ideal target
project.
"Our objective is to use wireless wherever we can, and deploy
Ethernet only where we absolutely must," said Adel Barimani, WCU's
CIO and Interim Vice President of Information Services. "We reached
this position after analyzing the infrastructure requirements in both
our existing and new residence halls."
Richard Chan, WCU's Assistant Director of Networking and
Telecommunications, acknowledged that "each seven story facility
typically houses about 625 students. Using Aruba wireless networks in
existing facilities will eliminate roughly 1050 Ethernet ports and
fourteen 80-port switches per building, a savings of roughly $100,000
in existing buildings and $250,000 in new buildings that would
otherwise require wire installation. Additionally, the reduced
cooling and power requirements of the Aruba Wi-Fi networks are
expected to lower the carbon footprint of each building by more than
25 metric tons per year."
Network rightsizing is a three step process that matches
infrastructure with user needs. The first step entails assessing the
actual or projected utilization of closet switches and ports. In a
typical existing facility it is not unusual to find that that 40% of
ports are underutilized or not used at all. The second step involves
consolidating required ports into fewer switches to lower deployment
and maintenance costs, and reduce electricity and HVAC usage. The
third step involves deploying 802.11n Wi-Fi with Adaptive Radio
Management to enhance the mobility and productivity of users who
don't need a wired link. Aruba has developed a calculator to show the
estimated monetary and CO2 emissions savings resulting from
rightsizing.
"One of the reasons customers are drawn to Aruba's network
rightsizing program is because our 802.11n wireless LANs are designed
to deliver performance comparable to, or better than, wired
networks," said Robert Fenstermacher, Aruba's head of education
marketing. "Technologies such as Adaptive Radio Management optimize
the performance of the Wi-Fi network and clients in real-time,
delivering wire-like performance over the air. To reduce electricity
and cooling expenses we've designed power-efficient 802.11n access
points and controllers, the latter drawing in some case one-quarter
of the wattage of competing controllers. West Chester University
joins the California State University System, Brandeis University,
and a growing cadre of higher education institutions that have turned
to rightsizing to control expenses and enhance user mobility."
Additional information about network rightsizing can be found on-line
at http://www.arubanetworks.com/solutions/network_rightsizing.php.
About Aruba Networks
People move. Networks must follow. Aruba securely delivers networks
to users, wherever they work or roam. Our mobility solutions enable
the Follow-Me Enterprise that moves in lock-step with users:
-- Adaptive 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi networks optimize themselves to ensure
that users are always within reach of mission-critical information;
-- Identity-based security assigns access policies to users, enforcing
those policies whenever and wherever a network is accessed;
-- Remote networking solutions ensure uninterrupted access to
applications as users move;
-- Multi-vendor network management provides a single point of control
while managing both legacy and new wireless networks from Aruba and its
competitors.
The cost, convenience, and security benefits of our secure mobility
solutions are fundamentally changing how and where we work. Listed on
the NASDAQ and Russell 2000(R) Index, Aruba is based in Sunnyvale,
California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle
East, and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more, visit Aruba at
http://www.arubanetworks.com. For real-time news updates follow Aruba
on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ArubaNetworks.
Copyright 2009 Aruba Networks, Inc. AirWave(R), Aruba Networks(R),
Aruba Mobility Management System(R), Bluescanner, For Wireless That
Works(R), Mobile Edge Architecture, People Move. Networks Must
Follow., RFProtect, The All Wireless Workplace Is Now Open For
Business, Green Island, and The Mobile Edge Company(R) are trademarks
of Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks
are the property of their respective owners.
Media Contacts
Michael Tennefoss
Aruba Networks, Inc.
+1-408-754-8034
mtennefoss@arubanetworks.com
Patty Oien
Breakaway Communications
+1-415-358-2482
poien@breakawaycom.com
SOURCE: Aruba Networks, Inc.
mailto:mtennefoss@arubanetworks.com
mailto:poien@breakawaycom.com
[ InfoTech Spotlight's Homepage ]
|
