District Administration - November/December 2011 - (Page 28)

cio Continued District How to Update Your Network on a Budget that those using the cloud could be doing more to protect their data—54 percent encrypt transmissions, for example, while half manage staff access. “As more organizations test the cloud, CdW-G expects security concerns to dissipate,” Kurtz says. in the K12 district environment, one thing is clear: Whether or not district leaders want it, the cloud environment is here to stay, says Perry Correll, marketing director at Xirrus. And the cloud brings bottom-line benefits. “Freeware on the Web, students bringing their own tablets—that helps a lot if your it budget just got cut this year,” he says. “We are going in that direction. i’m not the greatest believer that the cloud is going to solve the world’s problems, but there [are] definite advantages. i ask the question in seminars, and half the group says, ‘i’m not going to allow that stuff.’ i Districts must decide when to upgrade systems to access video editing and distance learning. Above, students enhance their learning with real-time information delivered wirelessly to a Cisco CIUS. tablet. can’t really say it, but you’re not going to have a choice. Give up. it’s here.” Xirrus worked with Plano (texas) independent School district during the summer of 2008 to blanket the district’s 80 schools with a wireless network for the first time, which presented numerous challenges, says dan Armstrong, director of technical support. The technical staff needed to install between 6,000 and 7,000 wireless access points, ensure that multimedia and other heavy-bandwidth use worked from one end of each building to the other, and learn how to support a wireless network going forward despite being “a bunch of guys who cut their teeth and grew up on a wired connection,” Arm- strong says. Last but definitely not least, the district needed to quickly think through, with the help of staff, how to lay out acceptable use guidelines for the wireless network, given that students would be bringing their own devices—as many as 7,000 to 10,000 each day. “You think about it from a technology standpoint,” Armstrong says, “but the biggest issue with putting it out wasn’t even technical—it was the policy issues with the public network.” Seven-Year Plan Cisco has seen customers extending the life cycle of their existing network from four or five years to more like six or seven years, Too Much Technology for Too Little an Infrastructure? In 2007, A three-school DIstrIct in new hampshire started to see the first signs that its technology infrastructure was just too small for the equipment it had purchased. With 1,600 students and 300 staff members, the sAU 27-litchfield (n.h.) school District was struggling to keep up with the increasing demands on its outdated network—from employee email, to online student testing, to multimedia applications. And because the network server had been set up in the high school, all network traffic in the district had to be rerouted to the high school. “Prior to the fall of 2007, we had some preliminary signs of problems,” says stephen Martin, the district’s business administrator. “employees were increasingly unable to access the network and email.” In 2008, middle school students were taking the northwest evaluation Association (nWeA) online test when the wireless connection went down. the test eventually resumed, but the interruption caused inaccuracies in the results, Martin recalls. the problems stemmed from a combination of events: In the 2005-2006 school year, the district bought laptops for every teacher and purchased more Pcs for classrooms. Mobile laptop labs, in which 20 to 25 wireless laptops were carted from classroom to classroom, were rolled out in the middle school. More middle and high school students were using multimedia applications, which took up more bandwidth. Finally, the district was implementing more network-based applications, including email, which were filed and stored in the high school. It was in the fall of 2009 “when everything hit the wall,” Martin recalls. “the network was broken.” Martin declared an emergency and brought in an outside consultant to analyze the problem and recommend corrections. In March 2010, the consultant identified some serious problems, including the need for more bandwidth. A three-year implementation plan was expected to cost $354,000, out of a $19 million annual district budget. New Technology Leadership the district hired a new technology director, Kyle hancock, in July 2010. hancock made some important changes. “Why are all the servers centralized in the high school, with no redundancy in other buildings?” he asked. “to improve redundancy and mitigate ongoing problems,” he explains, “we decentralized a bit and made sure each school [had a server and] could operate somewhat autonomously.” last spring, the district created a guest 28 November/December 2011 District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - November/December 2011

District Administration - November/December 2011
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
Inside the Law
Administrator Profile
District Profile
CIO news
How to Update Your Network on a Budget
The Importance of IT Team Unity
Creating an Anti-Bullying Program With the Resources You Have
The Ultimate Empowerment Program for Parents
Taking the Helm in Cheating Scandals
Readers’ Choice: Top 100 Products
New Directions
Professional Opinion
Problem/Solution
Going Mobile

District Administration - November/December 2011