Alcatel Moves University of Southern Colorado to Gigabit Speeds
Alcatel (NYSE: ALA – news) today announced that the University of Southern Colorado has selected Alcatel’s Omni family of switches to increase network bandwidth and manageability.
The switches are placed throughout the 275-acre campus located in south-central Colorado.
With more than 4,300 students and approximately 500 full-time faculty and staff, effective network communication throughout the campus became a major focal point for the University. The University of Southern Colorado chose Alcatel’s OmniCore 5010 and 5052, and OmniStack 6024, to upgrade from a combination FDDI and 10/100 Ethernet network to Gigabit Ethernet.
The network upgrade removes the bottlenecks caused by increased usage and applications, such as performing Internet research, sending e-mails, accessing student records, and using e-Learning software tools.
Additionally, the University was looking to enhance network security and decrease broadcast traffic with Alcatel’s Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) technology. Through the use of VLANs, the University is able to separate and limit access to secured information such as student grades, administrative records and finances. The use of VLANs allows the University to secure and manage the network from a logical, instead of a physical standpoint.
“Since all dorm rooms are now wired for Internet access and the University is increasingly using high bandwidth applications such as multimedia and video streaming, it was necessary to upgrade to Gigabit Ethernet speeds,” said Shawn Ahlers, manager of technology support at the University of Southern Colorado. “Migrating the network to Gigabit Ethernet and establishing VLANs has eliminated the bottlenecks caused by increased usage that the University previously experienced.”
The University of Southern Colorado is also taking advantage of Alcatel’s newly released OmniVista network management solution to manage all of Alcatel’s data switches from a holistic, network-wide point of view. Management of the entire network is now more centralized, so pinpointing specific network outages is less labor intensive and easier to manage.
“With the network upgrade, the University of Southern Colorado’s faculty and students benefit from greater network reliability and speed, while the IT staff benefits from enhanced security and management,” said Greg Kovich, Alcatel’s director of education sales and marketing. “Alcatel’s networking equipment has been especially effective in the education realm as universities must keep pace with technology in order to remain competitive.”
About the University of Southern Colorado
The University of Southern Colorado is located in Pueblo, Colo., along the south-central portion of the state. The University is a member of the Colorado State University System and is a national model for qualitative change and academic excellence, and has demonstrated commitment to K-16 education and partnerships with the community and the region. The Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools accredits the University of Southern Colorado at the bachelor and master level.
About Alcatel
Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data networking solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With sales of $29 billion (EURO 31 billion) in 2000 and 110,000 employees, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com.
