SEATTLE, WA, National Education Computing Conference - June 30, 2003 - Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced three school-district deployments: Wake County Schools, Clovis Unified School District and St. Paul Public Schools are adopting Cisco Catalyst switching solutions to prepare for the annual fall Back to School season.
These customers will use the newly announced Cisco Catalyst 4500 with the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Supervisor Engine II-Plus, Cisco Catalyst 2940, and Cisco Catalyst 2970 switching products to deliver controlled Ethernet-based access for students and faculty and introduce network-based applications to the educational environment, including student learning tools such as Accelerated Reader and Read 180, as well as administrative and attendance programs.
An end-to-end Cisco switching deployment can be a powerful solution for school districts looking to replace older unmanaged hub-style connections at the network edge, and upgrade to a single managed network that can accommodate wireless as well as voice, video and data applications. Cisco Cluster Management Suite (CMS) will be extended to all Cisco IOS Software-based supervisor engines for the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series platform, enabling centralized management using embedded CMS software, or Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)-based network management platforms such as CiscoWorks, providing unparalleled investment protection and total cost of ownership.
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Supervisor Engine II-Plus is a new entry-level supervisor for the industry leading Catalyst 4500 Series platform that delivers wire-speed, non-blocking Layer 2 and 3 switching and basic Layer 3 and 4 intelligent services with resiliency and control required for converged data, voice, and video networking deployments. Supervisor Engine II-Plus enables highly secure, predictable and manageable network deployments, and is typically deployed in the wiring closet in educational environments.
The Cisco Catalyst 2940 Series Switches are small, standalone, managed switches with 8 10/100TX ports and integrated Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet uplink options. Its unique "classroom-friendly" design sports such features as a compact size, durable metal shell, easy wall or under-the-desk mounting, convection cooling for silent operation, optional cable guard, and a built-in security lock for theft prevention, allowing it to reside directly in classroom, lab or library settings. Easy to manage and configure, the Cisco Catalyst 2940 features embedded CMS as well as a new, simple web-based Cisco Express Setup capability that simplifies basic configuration set-up.
The Cisco Catalyst 2970 Series is a 24-port fixed configuration switch that gives customers a more affordable way to increase productivity in high-performance educational settings with 10/100/1000 to the desktop and intelligent services.
Wake County School District in Raleigh, North Carolina, serves 106,000 students in 127 schools, and has selected a Cisco end-to-end network for both wired and wireless access. The Cisco Catalyst 2970, Cisco Catalyst 2940 and the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Supervisor Engine II-Plus Series switches will serve in the district's classrooms and sub-workgroups. Cisco Aironet wireless solutions have been deployed to connect mobile classrooms to campus local area networks, saving construction costs. Many schools have deployed wireless computer labs that consist of a mobile cart containing 15 or more wireless equipped laptops and an access point, which can be wheeled into a traditional classroom, transforming it into a computer lab. The district plans to upgrade to IP telephony in the future.
"With more than 2.5 million Web requests per hour, our job is to remove barriers to give students controlled access to learning resources," said Vass Johnson, director of network systems for the Wake County Public School District. "The common interface and centralized management of Cisco products offer improved total cost of ownership. Deploying Catalyst 4500 Series chassis with the Supervisor Engine II-Plus gave us a high-density chassis in the wiring closet and the ability to provide the rich intelligent services and security we needed for our large student base. The Catalyst 2970 Series allows us to affordably bring Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to smaller workgroup deployments like student labs, while the Catalyst 2940 Series allows us to now extend network connectivity to all classrooms because of its size, density and theft prevention options."
Clovis Unified School District, California, supports 37 public schools, and offers a wired and wireless access for students, teachers and administrators. The district has turned to the Cisco Catalyst 2940 Series to extend the Cisco-based infrastructure into the classroom and replace older-style hubs throughout its campuses; one of its first applications will be servicing a reading lab. "We're a technologically sophisticated school district, and view the Cisco Catalyst 2940 as a network extension into the classroom," explained Mike Hamilton, network analyst for the Clovis Unified School District. "In addition to the benefits of centralized manageability and improved reliability, the Cisco Catalyst 2940 offers advanced IOS functionality for improved security and quality-of-services, as well as easy migration from Fast Ethernet to Gigabit uplinks."
Saint Paul Public School District, located in St. Paul, MN, serves over 80 school facilities connected via a wide-area Cisco-based network. The district offers computer-based curriculum throughout its K-12 classrooms, in addition to a centralized student information system, library application, and enterprise messaging, and requires a sound infrastructure to provide all 13,000 district computers with network access. "We're preparing our classrooms now with the Cisco Catalyst 2940 Series, replacing approximately 100 older-style mini-hubs and low-end switches that can't provide the reliability and manageability we require," said Bryan DeGidio, network administrator, Saint Paul Public School District. "When school re-opens in the fall, teachers and students will be pleased with the switch's silent operation and the reliable access they receive."
For additional information on these products, please go to: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/
