HP Makes the Grade with K-12 Educational Institutions from Coast to Coast

Schools switch to HP Networking solutions to keep pace with mobile device boom while adding flexibility to their networks

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HP (NYSE:HPQ) today announced that three large school districts have chosen HP Networking solutions to improve network performance and keep pace with the demands of thousands of students and faculty.

“HP Networking solutions enabled us to deliver quality service to our students and faculty without network downtime.”

Thompson School District in Colorado, Westerly Public Schools in Rhode Island and Paso Robles School District in California evaluated networking solutions from HP as well as Cisco and other vendors. Each district selected HP Networking products to address increased bandwidth consumption on their networks by laptops and mobile devices.

In addition, growing student and faculty populations required IT departments to deliver on-demand services rapidly, securely and affordably.

HP Networking solutions are part of the HP Converged Infrastructure portfolio, which integrates data center technologies into pools of interoperable resources to improve agility.

Network upgrade speeds performance, increases flexibility

Supporting more than 17,000 students and staff across 35 locations, Thompson School District needed to upgrade its 10-year-old network infrastructure to keep the district’s operations running smoothly. The highly competitive bid also included Cisco, Foundry and Extreme Networks. The district selected HP products through Lewan & Associates, a provider of networking solutions and an HP channel partner.

“Our existing network was not keeping pace with our bandwidth demands,” said Derrick Hoffman, senior systems engineer, Thompson School District. “The new HP-based network delivers over 50 percent better performance than the old one. In addition, with HP’s lifetime warranty we can free up budget to invest in other IT projects that provide value to faculty and students.”

Thompson has deployed more than 160 HP edge and core switches. HP E5400zl switches provide consistent connectivity at the core, while HP E3000 intelligent-edge switches perform routing on the district’s wide-area network. At the core of these switches is HP ProVision ASIC, which ensures quality of service and scalable, granular security. Thompson also opted for HP intelligent-edge, dual-radio HP E-MSM310 access points, which provide secure wireless connections for approximately 6,000 desktop and notebook PCs throughout the district.

Extended wireless network addresses boom of mobile devices

With more than 4,000 students and faculty, Westerly Public School District was struggling with the growing use of laptops and internet-enabled mobile devices connected to its network. After evaluating solutions from HP and Cisco, Westerly chose HP E8200 zl, HP E5400 zl and HP E2910 al series switches. Westerly also selected HP E-series MSM wireless controllers and HP Networking Manager Plus for simplified, single-pane-of-glass management of its wired and wireless network environments.

“We started experiencing an increase in the number of devices connecting to our network, and the subsequent rise in the volume of data being accessed,” said Mark Lamson, director, Information Technology, Westerly Public Schools. “HP Networking products allowed us to enhance the performance of our wired and wireless networks without sacrificing security or manageability.”

Revamping IT for faster and more secure connectivity

Paso Robles School District serves more than 7,000 faculty and students across 13 campuses. After evaluating competing HP and Cisco solutions, Paso Robles chose the standards-based HP E2910 al and E5400 zl switch series, as well as HP E-series MSM wireless controllers. By simplifying network management and increasing network performance at a reduced total cost of ownership, Paso Robles gained a significant return on its IT investment.

“A school district of our size needs a robust and reliable IT system,” said Carl Behmer, technology supervisor, Paso Robles School District. “HP Networking solutions enabled us to deliver quality service to our students and faculty without network downtime.”

At the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) 2011 education conference, HP also announced new products for the HP Digital Learning Suite and that Derry Township School District has chosen HP notebooks for the expansion of its one-to-one computer program to schools throughout the district.

More information about HP networking solutions is available at www.hp.com/networking.

HP Converged Infrastructure is a key component of the Instant-On Enterprise. The Instant-On Enterprise embeds technology in everything it does to serve customers, employees, partners and citizens with whatever they need, instantly.

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