SUNNYVALE, Calif. – August 27, 2013 –
Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN), a leading provider of next-generation network access solutions for the mobile enterprise, today announced that Gwynedd-Mercy College, a Catholic college with a strong foundation in liberal arts and renowned programs in health care, education and business administration, has deployed a new Aruba wireless LAN (WLAN). The new network is delivering reliable, pervasive wireless access for students, faculty, staff and guests on all four of Gwynedd-Mercy College’s Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-area campuses.
Gwynedd-Mercy College selected the Aruba solution after a thorough review of and ‘bake-off’ between solutions from Cisco, Meru Networks and Aruba. The College chose Aruba due to the cost-effectiveness of Aruba’s solution, as well as Aruba’s unique ability to support role-based access and manage multiple devices with one controller. After selecting Aruba, Gwynedd-Mercy College enlisted Comm Solutions, a Malvern, Pennsylvania-based end-to-end technology solutions provider, to manage the new WLAN deployment, which is comprised of Aruba AP-105 access points (APs), Aruba mobility controllers and the Aruba AirWave Network Management System. The College is also piloting Aruba’s ClearPass Access Management System and plans to fully deploy the solution later this year.
“Our students are using the wireless network everywhere on campus for both academic and personal reasons, and our faculty is increasingly relying on mobile devices to deliver a rich, interactive learning experience. Our prior wireless network simply couldn’t keep up with demand,” said John Reilly, Associate Director of Enterprise Systems for Gwynedd-Mercy College. “With our prior WLAN solutions from Proxim and Cisco, we received many complaints of poor connectivity, dead spots and dropped connections. With the new Aruba WLAN, we have not logged any complaints about the wireless performance since we’ve deployed it and our end-users are thrilled with the level of connectivity they can enjoy from anywhere on campus.”
The new WLAN supports a wide range of applications and programs at Gwynedd-Mercy College, including its new iPad initiative, wherein the College is providing iPads to some faculty as well as to graduate students for their fieldwork. The new network also supports the College’s Blackboard learning management system (LMS), an emerging eText program, and the PowerCampus student information system from Ellucian, which delivers access to critical College information such as maps, directions, grades, course schedules and tuition invoices via a smartphone application.
The Hobbit House, Gwynedd-Mercy College’s pre-K program for three- and four-year olds, is also benefitting from the new Aruba WLAN. The College recently invested in 33 iPads and a special iPad cart for the pre-K program and installed interactive projectors on sliding rails. With the sliding rails, the young children can roll the projectors all the way down to floor level and interact with them while a faculty member controls what the students are seeing via the iPads.
Looking ahead, the College is developing a new 50,000 square foot academic building that will be the most technology-enabled building on any of their four campuses. Expected to open in January, 2014, the new building will house the School of Business and the School of Education. The building’s classrooms, community spaces and auditorium will be outfitted with 30 Aruba AP-135 access points, which are designed to maximize mobile device performance in extremely high density Wi-Fi environments.
“Aruba Networks’ industry-leading wireless LAN solutions are helping our faculty to leverage a wide range of innovative wireless educational tools to present information in new and exciting ways, and enabling our students to access and interact with classroom materials like never before,” said Karl Horvath, PhD, CIO for Gwynedd-Mercy College. ”Our Aruba WLAN allows us to deliver a richer, more interactive education experience to our students, better preparing them for success after graduation.”
About Aruba Networks, Inc.
Aruba Networks is a leading provider of next-generation network access solutions for the mobile enterprise. The company’s Mobile Virtual Enterprise (MOVE) architecture unifies wired and wireless network infrastructures into one seamless access solution for corporate headquarters, mobile business professionals, remote workers and guests. This unified approach to access networks enables IT organizations and users to securely address the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon, dramatically improving productivity and lowering capital and operational costs.
Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions. 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 athttp://community.arubanetworks.com.
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