Dell Networking connects European education institutions to the future

Dell is working with a range of education customers across EMEA to introduce networking solutions that help answer student needs faster and more effectively. In an increasingly mobile world, reliable and fast networking infrastructures are vital to supporting and fostering BYOD environments and high-speed research needs.
Instant access to information is quickly becoming an expected amenity by students and staff when researching or communicating. By delivering next-generation networking architectures, Dell is helping end-users connect to education networks more quickly and on mobile devices to ensure constant access to learning materials.

For example, the UK’s Milton Keynes College has chosen to end its longstanding affiliation with Cisco to introduce a new Dell Networking infrastructure and Dell PowerEdge M620 blade servers, providing faster access speeds and increasing bandwidth to support concurrent student engagement across wired and mobile devices. “Thanks to the networking redesign with Dell we are able to provide an improved service to our students and we’re already receiving positive feedback. Our new data centre significantly reduces energy consumption and the associated costs, freeing up funds for investment in other projects”, said Dr Daniel Hidlebaugh, director of IT Development and Emerging Technologies, Milton Keynes College. “We now have plans to similarly upgrade our infrastructure at our other two campuses, working alongside Dell to replicate our success across the whole organisation.”

In Germany, Jacobs University Bremen has deployed a special network, consisting of Dell Networking 6200 Series switches, to support the administration of an entire HPC cluster. “As part of the HPC environment, we required a specialised network infrastructure capable of supporting the vast amounts of data processed,” said Dr. Achim Gelessus, head of the Computational Laboratory for Analysis, Modelling and Visualization. “Dell has been involved from the very beginning, with experts in the planning of aspect, and has delivered a total end to end solution, including an innovative network design, capable of handling our workloads”

In the Netherlands, Vechtdal College turned to Dell to replace its legacy wireless infrastructure with a solution which could support the rapidly growing mobile usage and traffic seen across the campus. By deploying Dell’s new W-Series access points and its W-Series ClearPass Access Management System, Vechtdal has seen a dramatic improvement in WiFi connectivity across the college with teachers, students and staff receiving reliable access campus-wide with no gaps in coverage. On top of this improvement to connectivity, the new WiFi network saves Vechtdal’s IT staff a significant amount of time in management and maintenance. “I’m now able to dedicate more time to our tablet project and bring-your-own-device due to the simplicity of the Dell Networking WiFi solution,” said Lars Boerdijk, Technical Engineer at Vechtdal College.