Enterasys, the network infrastructure and security division of Siemens (News - Alert) Enterprise Communications Group, announced that Vancouver Community College completed the deployment of Enterasys (News - Alert) network solutions in a new, 60,000 square-foot health sciences educational facility on the college's main campus. 

The network installation consists of Enterasys C-Series switches that connect and prioritize traffic for all IT services, including building-wide VoIP telephony, streaming video for the nursing training labs and wireless access points for student and faculty mobility.

Prior to the deployment of the Enterasys solution, Vancouver Community College was using Nortel core devices and Cisco (News - Alert) edge switches, which according to Ben Guanzon, director of IT for Vancouver Community College, were growing increasingly difficult and costly to manage.

“The network was impeding the ability to reliably deliver applications to our staff and students,” Guanzon said.

With Enterasys' network solutions, Vancouver Community College's IT staff has achieved network stability and comprehensive network visibility that empowers faculty and students to access the College's applications, with additional plans to scale this deployment across the entire campus, company officials said.

Guanzon and his team picked Enterasys based on a variety of features, including network manageability, interoperability with existing wireless access points, support for VoIP telephony, security and quality of post-sale service and technical support.

The team found that overall network management capability and support offered by his Enterasys team were “untouchable” by other leading vendors.

Enterasys solution has significantly increased operational efficiency in the new building, they added. It has allowed them to completely reverse the previous ratio of spending 80 percent of our daily routine responding to network problems and 20 percent on new projects. 

“Now, we are far more proactive and focus on planning and implementing new projects rather than reacting to complaints or switch failures,” Guanzon said. “We have been consistently impressed with the time, money and resources we've saved in the day-to-day management of the network since going with Enterasys.”

Recently Enterasys also supported the network infrastructure of Seton Hill University, according to a report. The network used wired/wireless data connectivity solution from Enterasys to provide secure networking for more than 5,000 devices across multiple campus locations.