Ensuring Uptime In Education

Distributed campuses and new digital initiatives pose constant challenges to network engineering teams managing education networks remotely. The constant addition of bandwidth-intensive applications and the integration of distance learning due to the global pandemic has placed a strain on the network. Increasing the likelihood of an outage and with limited technical staff at each location, any type of disruption would place learning at a complete standstill.

To ensure educational processes remain running smoothly, productivity is maintained and recovery costs are kept at a minimum, these institutions need a network safeguard.

Opengear’s proven solutions ensure always-on network resilience and maximum uptime for educational institutions, like this large university system. Deployed by K-12 institutions and universities of all sizes, our products ensure that infrastructure is scalable and able to be managed remotely.

To learn more about the importance of network resilience in education, download our white paper!

Supporting IoT Initiatives and Distance Learning

Educational institutions are integrating more smart Internet of Things (IoT) into their educational networks. IDC predicts that in 2025 there will be more than 40 billion connected devices. Implementing IoT in the classroom is no longer just about internet accessibility, it’s about extending connectivity beyond traditional smart devices to engage students, create immersive learning experiences, and solve common challenges.

Now that distance learning has been pushed to the forefront, IoT has become even more important. The integration of distance learning into digital curriculums has increased the need for constant connectivity so that faculty and students are able to interact through digital forms of communication. Learning management systems, such as Blackboard, video calls, and discussion boards are all critical for distance learning, solely done online they require always-on access.

Managing an IoT system in this environment involves the use of alternate connectivity and dedicated management devices that provide resilient access at the edge of the infrastructure. These devices require continuous monitoring, configuration, provisioning, and remediation to provide resilience.

Watch our webinar to learn about always-on connectivity needed in education.

Provisioning New Campuses

Educational institutions are constantly expanding with some facilities that can be located across the country. The Secure Provisioning NetOps module by Opengear enables engineers at these schools to ship equipment to new locations and provision it remotely, eliminating the need for highly skilled engineers on site.

Automating the initial provisioning, configuration management and disaster recovery of remote infrastructure, an Opengear appliance is incorporated into the initial rack shipped to the location, once powered on, it calls home over the embedded cellular module. TPM safeguards are embedded into the unit to ensure that the firmware, configurations, and authentication keys haven’t been tampered with prior to installation. Lighthouse Enterprise automatically pushes image, configuration, and script files to the device which then provisions other hardware at the location. Providing secure Zero Touch Provisioning to the entire local infrastructure from one appliance, the need for human interaction is eliminated, saving educational institutions resources.

Learn more about Secure Provisioning with Opengear.

Providing Continual Uptime

Networks are the lifeline of a campus. Due to their unique setups, each architectural component should be able to support growing requirements. Network outages on campus can result with:

• Disruption of educational processes: Challenges with accessing necessary resources can interrupt progress with learning
• Loss of staff productivity: Normal daily tasks are impacted when staff aren’t able to access operational systems and learning management applications
• High recovery costs: An educational institution’s reputation can be impacted due to events such as performance drop-offs, wireless outages, and poor connectivity

Extend your campus’ reach with Smart Out-of-Band and Failover to Cellular. Smart Out-of-Band allows administrators to manage infrastructure at the edge, detecting faults before they become failures. Failover to Cellular provides continued internet connectivity for remote LANs and equipment over high speed 4G LTE when the primary link becomes unavailable.

Read our infographic to learn how to reduce operating costs, and manage network devices from anywhere.

Dirk Schuma
Regional Sales Manager, Northern Europe