PROMOTION: NETGEAR
How long has NETGEAR been working in the education sector, and how, in your experience, has it evolved in recent years? NETGEAR has been working within the education sector for many years. Over the last decade, I’ve noticed that the big change for many schools has been the shiſt in how technology is used. It used to be that pupils would go to the IT classroom, where there would be a bank of fixed PCs, to learn about technology. However today, connected devices – be it a laptop, tablet or mobile device – are present in most classrooms and are increasingly an integral part of the holistic learning environment. IT is no longer a stage in the education process, it is the way of the education process. For many, IT is now seen as mission critical.
What can you offer the education market? What makes us different from other vendors is that we provide schools with a balanced approach to network design. Schools need to establish what their path is – where are they now and where they want to go. Every school is unique. Providing a network design for one school doesn’t mean it would work for others. To help each school identify what it requires, we offer free site surveys – during which we review existing network layout and infrastructure, then provide recommendations that meet the individual challenges faced. An example: Blundell’s School was
pushing for the use of revolutionary technology throughout the school to meet the modern day needs of teachers and students. Through a site survey we could see that while the IT department wanted all classrooms, boarding houses and common rooms to have access to the network wirelessly, the sheer scale of the site, coupled with the thick stone walls, was proving problematic. So we worked with the school to update the network and situate wireless access points to optimise performance across the whole of the campus. As a result, Blundell’s recognised an increase in both the bandwidth and reliability of its network.
You're a guest contributor in this edition's BYOD feature; how are you working with the education sector to help manage the different devices being used? We encourage schools to consider
the number of devices within the establishment when considering infrastructure requirements, rather than
MISSION CRITICAL.
Edtech has now become an integral part of the holistic learning environment, says Tris Simmons, networking expert at NETGEAR
the number of students. For example, a school of 250 students will not be limited to 250 devices – it could easily be double this number, or more. Also, as the adoption of wearable technology continues to increase, especially with the launch of Apple Watch, we can expect to see a steady rise in students bringing their own wearable devices into education establishments. So we encourage schools to consider the effect this will have on the network. The need for more network bandwidth is one key need arising from more devices producing and consuming data; 10G switching is now on the check list and it wasn’t five years ago.
With the new academic year coming, what can we look forward to seeing from NETGEAR? Many schools will question whether a full
11ac wireless standard implementation is right for them at this time, following its ratification in late 2013. Its predecessor, 11n, continues to dominate wireless deployments through 2015 across the commercial and public sectors. 11n is about eight years old and is seen as sufficient to meet the demands on the network and continues to be the key chosen platform by many IT teams. Despite its benefits, 11ac is somewhat hamstrung by the lack of devices that can maximise access point throughput potential. This can end up proving to be a costly exercise, so a balanced approach may yield better return on capital employed (ROCE) and maximise IT budget use. The bottom line is that all schools are unique. They have different network infrastructure needs and should opt for a network that can flex and scale over time as needed. ET
For further information visit:
www.netgear.co.uk @Educ_Technology |
www.edtechnology.co.uk | 43
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