Cleaning Out Your Closet on Campus

It’s that time again—time to clean out your closet, your wiring closet, that is! Right now, your closet is probably outfitted with out-of-date networking equipment, equipment that can’t keep up with the latest campus applications or IT and higher education trends. As much as you want to hold onto all of your equipment because budgets are being squeezed like never before, you may be paying too much to maintain your legacy network. Not only that, but ask yourself if you are delivering to the expectations of today’s digitally savvy students who want Wi-Fi that simply works so that they can get their homework done efficiently and download video games fast—from any device, of course. With all the time and effort you and your team put into keeping your old network going, you’re unlikely to achieve your primary goal, namely to advance your school’s academic mission through innovative and effective technologies. According to recent statistics, only 56% of colleges report having comprehensive Wi-Fi throughout 81% to100% of their campuses¹—and this is a big concern. Can your current equipment provide uninterrupted coverage for everyone anywhere on campus and on any device? To get to where you want to be, you likely need to beef up the foundation of your network, which is the heart of the entire education system. Western Sydney University is a great example of a higher education institution that completely updated their Wi-Fi network. It’s not easy to determine what to keep and what to part with, so we made a decision chart to get you started. By answering each question, you’ll be able to clarify how you plan to go about modernizing your college or university’s network to ensure that it’s meeting the needs of students, faculty, and non-academic workers. And, if you want to learn more about how to avoid common pitfalls of campus Wi-Fi deployments, Download our white paper: 10 Myths About Wi-Fi in Higher Education. START WITH ACCESS SWITCHES ¹ ACUTA and ACUHO - I