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| ANSecurity worked closely with the ICT department to ensure a seamless transition without any downtime |
ANSecurity, a specialist in advanced network and data security, has announced a successful project and ongoing relationship with Balliol College and New College, part of Oxford University that has helped to transform campus networking infrastructure to meet increased demand for secure mobile device access.
A significant upgrade project
With 750 students, 150 fellows and around 100 administrative staff each; Balliol College and New College are supported by a dedicated team lead by Christopher Thompson, director of ICT services. The small department manages a community of increasingly mobile users requiring access to internet connectivity, local applications, file storage and print resources. Spread across several grade 1 listed buildings and outdoor areas, the colleges had struggled to deliver both bandwidth capacity and reach through its core and wireless network.
Seeking a solution and following a formal tendering process, the ICT department selected ANSecurity to deliver a significant upgrade project to both its core network and links into the wider Oxford University WAN as well as improvement of its legacy Wi-Fi network.
“The selection of ANSecurity was based on its deep knowledge of the Juniper and Ruckus technologies that offered a great fit for our requirements and willingness to go that extra mile to ensure a successful project,” explains Thompson.
As colleges that run all year round campuses serving students during term time and corporate events during the breaks, ANSecurity worked closely with the ICT department to ensure a seamless transition without any downtime that could impact the colleges’ schedule. This meant a diligent site survey to ensure optimal coverage and extensive pre-staging and testing of each element to allow for a smooth implementation.
Result
“ANSecurity were extremely sensitive to our requirements and over the 3 month project we installed 140 access points at New College and upgraded several core switches without any hitches,” says Thompson, “ANSecurity also helped to ensure that all of the elements were seamlessly integrated with our Bradford Campus manager system which is used to implement end point device validation our VLAN based security policies.”
Since the infrastructure refresh, Thompson has called upon ANSecurity to assist with minor configuration tweaks and updates to ensure it maintains the highest levels of security and connectivity for its students and staff.
“This is an environment where ICT needs to be transparent for our user community and our project with ANSecurity is an example where no drama is exactly what we want,” quips Thompson, “Our ongoing relationships with them and both Juniper and Ruckus are ones that we value and will continue to grow in the future,” Thompson concludes.
Following multiple successful projects at New College and Balliol College, ANSecurity has engaged in several additional projects and ongoing contracts with 15 other Oxford University colleges.
