Feature Story

December 15, 2003

By Charles Waltner, News@Cisco

Thanks to Cisco Systems, the School District of Osceola Country Florida has become a star student of data networking.

In a recent state audit of schools for the effectiveness of their investments, the school district received a rare A+ for the wide area network (WAN) it built to connect the teachers, administrators and 40,000 students in its 47 schools.

Ray Glueck, director of information and technology services for the Osceola County school district, says the reasons for such a result began more than five years ago when Osceola decided to commit itself to an all-Cisco based network. It's a decision that is now delivering much more than just good grades. The move to Cisco equipment has paid huge dividends by helping Osceola greatly reduce management overhead and increase the school district's return-on-investment with a more productive network. And by having an all-Cisco network, Osceola has been able to take advantage of some of the most exciting communications technologies of recent years, including wireless data communications, Internet protocol (IP)-based phone systems, and even wireless IP phones (see sidebar).

Like a good education, Osceola's commitment to Cisco technology was as much about building for the future as addressing pressing practical needs. In the early 1990s, Osceola found itself in an equipment quagmire. Since the school district's data network had not been built with an overarching architectural plan, it evolved into a hodge-podge of equipment, which was becoming increasingly difficult to manage, Glueck says. Problems started developing as some vendors went out of business or others stopped support for certain equipment.

Such frustrations led Osceola to reexamine its network strategy, which led to Cisco.

"Our research showed that Cisco was the leader in data communications," Glueck says. "We could see that Cisco was getting stronger and stronger. Its market share was growing, and large organizations were reporting solid results from using Cisco gear. It all added up to better support, superior products, and more communications flexibility."

Osceola upgraded its last piece of the remaining legacy equipment last year and now runs a 100-percent Cisco network.

"Though it wasn't financially viable to replace all of the old gear all at once, by embarking on a planned path to evolve our network with Cisco gear we have built a communications infrastructure that now keeps us ahead of the rapid changes in our school district's communication needs as well as the constant changes in computing technology," Glueck says.

Like many school districts, Osceola faces a variety of challenges, including a diverse student population, rapid growth, budget constraints, and pressures to improve student performance, particularly from the federal government's "No Child Left Behind" program.

But thanks to its Cisco-powered network, communications isn't one of Osceola's concerns. Glueck reports the all-Cisco network is proving far easier to manage and is much more reliable than the school district's previous Heinz 57 equipment amalgam. But even more impressively, the reconstructed network is allowing Osceola to take advantage of new communications technologies.

Osceola's A+ network first paid such dividends when the district began migrating to an IP-based office phone system.

"Our data network didn't need any tweaking or upgrading because the network was solid," Glueck says

Glueck says the data network was proving even more reliable than its conventional phone service because the lightening storms which frequent central Florida rarely knocked out the data network but often disabled phone service.

Osceola embarked on IP telephony two years ago with a "starter kit"—a limited deployment to an administrative department and then a high school. Now every new school is equipped with a Cisco IP Communications system, totaling a half-dozen locations. And the district is upgrading existing schools as quickly as budgets and resources allow. The district's current private branch exchange (PBX) office phone system cannot support the additional phone numbers the school needs as it grows. It would require an expensive "forklift" upgrade, Glueck says. In contrast, Cisco IP Communications networks can scale to support virtually any number of phones.

"If you just look at the cover, you wouldn't buy the book," Glueck says of IP telephony. "You think, 'a phone's a phone.' But you see that's not the case once you start using IP telephony."

Glueck says one of the biggest benefits from IP telephony is from less overhead moving phones when people change work locations. A teacher, for example, can move to a new office, even a new school, and keep the same phone number. Unlike traditional phones, an IP phone number isn't linked to the wire coming from the wall, but, rather, is linked to the phone itself. Osceola's legacy PBX phone system, on the other hand, requires an outside technician, who costs $65 an hour and takes three days to respond, Glueck says. Osceola can easily manage changes with the Cisco IP phones in a few minutes. The fact that Osceola can run its own IP phone system and avoid steep monthly maintenance fees typical of traditional PBX phone systems is a major cost savings, Glueck notes.

Cisco IP phones also make it far easier to locate people, since the system comes with an online directory accessible via the phone's LCD screen. And the directory is never out of date, since any additions or changes to phone numbers are automatically recorded using a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) database, much like email addresses are organized.

In addition to IP phone communications, Osceola's all-Cisco infrastructure has also provided the school district the foundation to expand into wireless networking. Osceola has already equipped more than half of its schools with wireless data networks and will finish deployment throughout the district by March 2004.

Glueck has been pleasantly surprised by the cost of wireless networks. He says the infrastructure runs $12,000 to $25,000 per school, depending on the size of the campus and design considerations.

"Most of our cost is in equipment, since wireless network deployments happen about as quickly as writing a purchase order," Glueck says.

Glueck also speaks to his confidence in the security of his wireless network.

"Security is a big issue and wireless networks are even more exposed than wired networks," Glueck says. "But Cisco has ensured dependable protection by incorporating an array of authentication protocols, access controls and other robust security functionality into its wireless products."

He says wireless networking is helping with education as well as administration. Osceola, for example, is equipping teachers with wireless laptops, which they can use for grading, research, and assignment creation even as they move from class to class. In other cases, students can use wireless personal digital assistants for conducting science experiments outside, such as testing the pH of water or taking pictures of wildflowers.

Glueck admits that it is hard to calculate a return-on-investment figure for wireless networks, since they add all-new capabilities rather than replace existing technology. But like the wired network, the Cisco-powered wireless networks are getting high marks.

"It is proving reliable and easy to use," Glueck says. "It just works. And that's the most important thing to me."

Sidebar: The Wireless Kingdom

Some IP communications magic is happening near the Magic Kingdom.

The brand-new Celebration High School located near Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fl., has been one of first schools in the Osceola school district to try the latest in Cisco IP Communications technology: wireless IP phones.

Scott Muri, vice principal of Celebration, says his Cisco Wireless IP Phone 7920 has quickly become an invaluable tool in his work at the 1,500-student school. With the wireless IP phone, Muri is free to roam the 50-acre campus to talk and meet with students, faculty and administrators without missing a single call.

"I have my office in my hand," Muri says. "That gives me the freedom to be visible on this campus—getting to know students and teachers—rather than locked up in a room answering calls."

The Cisco 7920, released in April 2003, provides all the features of a typical high-end office phone but with the freedom of a cell phone or walkie-talkie. Muri says the IP phone outshines walkie-talkies since it allows similar un-tethered communications but with far more privacy. And the wireless IP phone outshines the Nextel cell phones some Celebration administrators use because it works inside as well as outside buildings.

The Cisco wireless IP phone taps into the same wireless networking infrastructure Celebration's students, teachers and faculty use to connect their laptops and PDAs as they move about campus. And the phone—like wired IP phones—is tied into the school's IP telephone system as well as into the school's intercom system for making public announcements. The wireless IP phone can even work on other wireless local area networks (LANs) connected to the school district's wide area network (WAN), a feature which will help administrators keep their office in hand no matter where they travel.

Now that's some kind of magic.

Charles Waltner is a freelance journalist based in Oakland, Calif.