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Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District Preps for 21st Century Learning with Aruba Networks Gigabit Wireless Network
[June 16, 2015]

Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District Preps for 21st Century Learning with Aruba Networks Gigabit Wireless Network


Aruba Networks (News - Alert), an HP company, (NYSE:HPQ) today announced that Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District (CFISD) of Houston, the third largest school district in Texas and the 23rd largest in the nation, is deploying a new Gigabit wireless infrastructure to support the district's commitment to 21st century K-12 education. Using Aruba's 802.11ac solution and ClearPass Policy Management platform, CFISD plans to adopt a Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) policy for its 113,000+ students and 14,000 staff and teachers.

As part of its vision to maximize students' potential and prepare them to be global leaders, CFISD realized they needed to deploy the right technology across their school campuses and in their classrooms. The district is implementing a one-to-many device strategy and will allow students and staff to bring their own devices onto the school campuses.

"We expect to support nearly a half million devices," said Frankie Jackson, Chief Technology Officer, CFISD. "To do this successfully, we need a reliable, high speed infrastructure that can scale, can deliver uninterrupted coverage across our schools and in the classrooms, and can authenticate and provide secure access for all of these devices."

To address these challenges, CFISD replaced its existing wireless infrastructure with Aruba's 802.11ac solution, installing more than 8,000 Aruba 200 Series Access Points both indoors and outdoors, 7200 Series Mobility Controllers, AirWave network management and ClearPass for 802.1X and guest wireless authentication. With the help of partner Layer 3 Communications of Houston, Texas, the district is currently installing the new infrastructure in its middle and high schools and plans to roll out the new wireless network in its elementary schools in the fall.



Said Jackson, "Our vision in this district is that in our classrooms, every teacher and every student can be connected at very fast speeds 100 percent of the time. We anticipate elementary students bringing at least one device onto campus with them, middle schoolers bringing two and at the high school level, as many as three per student. By enabling a reliable, high-speed connection for these devices, we hope to not only increase the use of technology in the classroom, but to improve overall academic achievement by allowing students to collaborate, communicate, problem-solve and engage in creative and critical thinking."

Jackson noted that the network was crucial to turning CFISD's vision into reality. "We knew we needed to fix the foundation before we started purchasing and bringing in devices. You don't want to apply new wallpaper before fixing cracks in the walls," she said.


ClearPass was a key factor in CFISD's decision to select Aruba. The district's vision - to allow BYOT for all students, staff and faculty, as well as allow guests to connect to the wireless network - meant that security, authentication and policy management were key concerns. With ClearPass, CFISD can now identify all BYO devices and create differentiated policies based on the type of users - for example, student, teacher, administrator or guest - to determine the appropriate network access that each user's device can have.

"We looked at a number of solutions and Aruba had the policy management we were looking for and was the best value," Jackson commented. Jackson and her team were also impressed by Aruba's dedication and partnership with the district and its commitment to helping CFISD meet its goals, even allowing them to borrow equipment and resources during implementation.

Added Jackson, "A company that will partner with your district to ensure you don't fail is invaluable."

About Aruba Networks, an HP company

Aruba Networks, an HP company, is a leading provider of next-generation network access solutions for the mobile enterprise. The company designs and delivers Mobility-Defined Networks that empower IT departments and #GenMobile, a new generation of tech-savvy users who rely on their mobile devices for every aspect of work and personal communication. To create a mobility experience that #GenMobile and IT can rely upon, Aruba Mobility-Defined Networks™ automate infrastructure-wide performance optimization and trigger security actions that used to require manual IT intervention. The results are dramatically improved productivity and lower operational costs.

To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com. For real-time news updates follow Aruba on Twitter and Facebook, and for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba products visit Airheads Social at http://community.arubanetworks.com.

© 2015 Aruba Networks, an HP company. Aruba Networks' trademarks include Aruba Networks®, Aruba The Mobile Edge (News - Alert) Company® (stylized), Aruba Mobility-Defined Networks™, Aruba Mobility Management System®, People Move Networks Must Follow®, Mobile Edge Architecture®, RFProtect®, Green Island®, ETips®, ClientMatch®, Virtual Intranet AccessTM, ClearPass Access Management SystemsTM, Aruba InstantTM, ArubaOSTM, xSecTM, ServiceEdgeTM, Aruba ClearPass Access Management SystemTM, AirmeshTM, AirWaveTM, Aruba CentralTM, and ARUBA@WORKTM. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


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