Alamo Colleges in San Antonio, Texas, which educates over 65,000 students and employs 7,000 staff members, has enhanced its security and accessibility by integrating solutions from Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. This initiative comes as part of the college's effort to leverage technology to maintain safety standards across its five campuses and regional learning centres.
Challenges and Technological Transition
The primary challenge faced by Alamo Colleges was bridging a technology gap across the vast San Antonio area, while also fostering a work-life balance by migrating staff and faculty from desktop to mobile devices. The institution prioritised safety and security, aiming to provide a reliable and accessible network.
Deployment of Alcatel-Lucent Solutions
To meet these objectives, Alamo implemented Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch® platforms and OmniAccess® Stellar wireless networking to enhance network performance across its campuses. These technologies expanded access with initiatives like Park and Learn, allowing students to connect to the internet and complete studies from parking lots without needing to enter the campus facilities physically.
Security Enhancements
For improved security, Alamo Colleges utilised the Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX® phone system, facilitating emergency communications with campus dispatch and local authorities. A recent addition was the Alcatel-Lucent Visual Notification Assistant (VNA), which enhances response times by providing precise location data during emergency calls from mobile devices.
Streamlined Network Management
The Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista® Network Management system provides Alamo’s IT staff with a comprehensive view of the entire network, streamlining maintenance and monitoring across various facilities and ongoing construction projects.
Technological Benefits
Alamo Colleges benefited from redundant, high-performance networks with OmniSwitch solutions, ensuring reliable data transfer. The OmniAccess Stellar network guarantees consistent Wi-Fi coverage throughout campuses, including parking lots.
Cost and User Experience Advantages
Implementing the ALE solutions enabled Alamo to reduce recurring service costs. The network management system allows for better decision-making by providing insights into switch usage and port availability. Additionally, the Visual Notification Assistant supports emergency notifications and crisis management, further enhanced by integration with Rainbow™ by Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise.
“The Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise products are reliable and just work. What I like best about the partnership with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise is they’re always there for us,” said Christopher Delgado, Senior Manager of Network Operations, at Alamo Colleges.
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Alamo Colleges in San Antonio, Texas supports more than 65,000 students and 7,000 staff.
It's five campuses and smaller regional learning centres connect students and staff, expanding the reach of learning for the community.
Colleges' challenge
Alamo’s challenges included leveraging technology to support its high standards of safety and security as a priority for its campuses.
They were tackling a technology gap among users across the diverse landscape of the larger San Antonio area and also wanted to support an effective work-life balance by transitioning faculty and staff from desktop to mobile devices.
Action taken
To ensure accessibility for all, Alamo deployed secure, high-performance Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch® platforms
A long-time customer of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Alamo Colleges has stayed focused on providing a secure, reliable, and accessible network for learning.
To ensure accessibility for all, Alamo deployed secure, high-performance Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch® platforms and Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess® Stellar wireless networking across its campuses.
They expanded the reach of the OmniAccess Stellar Access Points to develop Park and Learn, enabling students to connect and complete their studies from the parking lots without the need to physically be on campus.
Alcatel-Lucent solution
Security and safety are of the utmost concern, and Alamo has leveraged its Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX® phone system to make emergency calls to Alamo Colleges dispatch, 911, and local Bear County authorities. They recently added the Alcatel-Lucent Visual Notification Assistant (VNA) solution, which can pick up a call from a user on a mobile device and provide their location, expediting response time.
To manage all these systems, Alamo uses Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista® Network Management. With one view of all the networks, Alamo’s IT staff can monitor the network during the ongoing construction of centres and provide maintenance remotely across its far-reaching network.
Products and solutions
- Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX® Enterprise
- Alcatel-Lucent 8128 MIPT handsets
- Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch® 6900-X72-F
- Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch® 6960E-U28
- Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch® 6860E-P48
- Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch® 6450E-P48
- Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess® Stellar AP1101
- Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista® 2500 Network Management System
- Alcatel-Lucent Visual Notification Assistant (VNA)
Results obtained
Technical benefits
- Delivers redundant, reliable networks and high data transfer rates with OmniSwitch layer 3 and chassis solutions.
- Provides consistent and complete Wi-Fi across campuses and parking lots with OmniAccess Stellar wireless network.
- Advanced phone system supports 911 calls and notifies college security and county authorities with Alcatel-Lucent VNA solution.
- Simplifies monitoring with a unified view of the network and visual maps showing the status of switches in all college facilities.
Financial benefits
- Saves on recurring service costs with the ALE solutions.
- Network Management single view shows how many switches and how many ports are in use, which helps in decision-making.
User experience benefits
- Provides messaging notification services, conferencing capabilities, and broadcast alerts during a crisis on campus with VNA connected with Rainbow™ by Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise.
- eSports' popularity with students is growing thanks to high-performance networks.
“The Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise products are reliable and just work. What I like best about the partnership with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise is they’re always there for us,” said Christopher Delgado, Senior Manager of Network Operations, at Alamo Colleges.
