January 28, 2020 By BlueAlly
New Mobile-First Network Connects More than 8,000 Educators and 73,000 Children of Active-Duty Military and DoD Civilian Families
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today announced that the United States Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) has upgraded its network using Aruba’s wireless and security solutions to deliver secure, reliable, “always on” Wi-Fi for students, teachers and staff in the entity’s network of 164 schools around the world.
DoDEA wanted to upgrade its existing wireless network to meet the increasing access demands from students and teachers, while providing them with enhancements in productivity, learning and security. The department wanted a solution that could identify, profile, secure and monitor every user, as well as every device – including IT-managed laptops, Chromebooks, smartphones and IoT devices – on the network. It also wanted to ensure that this process was simple and automated, to enable faster IT helpdesk remediation.
After a thorough evaluation, DoDEA selected Aruba to provide the new infrastructure. Using approximately 5,500 Aruba access points, Aruba mobility controllers and Aruba ClearPass to provide wireless RADIUS, guest access and onboarding, DoDEA deployed a centralized architecture that meets its access and security needs while enabling greater mobility for its users. Encryption, authentication and access control are all handled by local country network administrators, while DoDEA’s Peachtree, Georgia Network Operations Center controls and manages the network. DoDEA personnel can roam from base to base without having to reestablish network access.
The new Aruba infrastructure now allows students to connect quickly and securely to the Wi-Fi network to conduct coursework on their mobile devices. From the IT team’s perspective, the previously-frequent outages and issues with performance have been eliminated and network administrators are pleased with the “set it and forget it” capabilities of the Aruba network.
Said DoDEA’s Chief of the Architecture Branch, “Aruba provided the secure and reliable network foundation we needed today, while allowing us to plan for growth in the future. Aruba’s roadmap for continuous development will ensure that our organization can continue to provide world-class, secure connectivity to serve the children of our military and civilian leaders.”
