Today, the bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon is pervasive. In all kinds of enterprises, IT managers are finding that wireless demands are beginning to exceed the capabilities of their current networks—legacy systems meant for casual use and low-volume traffic. With the rapid consumerization of IT, they're facing more and more mobile devices that have to be provisioned and managed easily and securely.
Meru Networks (News - Alert), Inc., a provider of virtualized wireless LAN solutions, announced its new Meru Education-Grade (MEG) wireless platform, designed to help campus IT departments support academic goals to deliver learning-essential applications that work over a robust Wi-Fi network despite the crush of bring your own device.
The platform is compromised of Meru’s bring your own device provisioning and guest management software, Identity Manager. Identity Manager is a software platform for onboarding guest and employee devices that dramatically reduces IT workload and ensures a trouble-free end-user experience.
"According to Gartner (News - Alert), Wi-Fi enabled devices will grow from less than 1 billion units in 2010 to more than 3 billion in 2015. A large number of these devices end up on university campuses. This growth is having a major impact on higher education IT professionals who are tasked with ensuring that wireless devices brought onto campus are on-boarded predictably and securely, regardless of the capacity crunch these devices place on the university's Wi-Fi networks," said Sarosh Vesuna, VP & general manager of the education business unit for Meru Networks, in a statement. "The Meru Education-Grade wireless platform is designed to mitigate the impact of BYOD while enabling 'uninterrupted learning' for the entire university population."
For schools that need to provide pervasive Wi-Fi connectivity to support the flood of Wi-Fi devices from BYOD, Meru provides the WLAN equipment and management software needed for classroom and campus coverage, secure guest access and multimedia support for video and audio learning applications. Student benefits of the platform include connectivity, mobility and applications, and IT benefits include simplicity, fast on boarding of new students and their devices and density.
"We can make better use of our Wi-Fi network now, using it as a utility rather than a mere form of access. Meru's wireless platform enables our transformation to 21st century learning with flipped and hybrid classrooms, computer-based instruction, and unified communications and collaboration," said Peter Harvin, chief information officer for Anderson University.
Meru also provides a Wi-Fi-based uninterrupted learning management solution for classroom, school, campus or district-wide deployments for K-12 and primary schools. With Meru and LanSchool, schools can easily support 1-to-1 and bring your own device initiatives; IT can manage the wireless network, teachers can manage the class and students can manage their assignments.
To learn more, visit www.merunetworks.com/industries/education.html.
Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli