Eton College

Windsor, U.K. 1,300 students. Secure, high capacity networks for BYOD, digital classrooms and boarding rooms.

As a boys’ boarding school, Eton is home to 1,300 students who join at age 13 and continue until age 18. Teaching staff also lives on campus, so school operations never stop. As Eton has moved from a completely wired network environment to wireless infrastructure and applications over the past five years, the infrastructure continually changes to stay ahead of usage demands.

“As an independent boarding school, you have some unique demands on networks and equipment,” said John Sainthouse, Head of Information Technology at Eton College. “We have an unusually large network for a school.”

Four hundred buildings, all major facilities systems, and school-provided desktop computers, laptops, and audio-visual equipment are connected over the core network. The core network also powers Eton’s RUCKUS® wireless network, which started with 100 access points. In the past three years, boys have increasingly arrived at Eton with multiple devices—at least a laptop, tablet, and smartphone—and they expect a robust wireless network. Students’ Wi-Fi requirements, coupled with a cloud-based Virtual Learning Environment, use of video in classrooms, online access to college systems, wireless classroom technology, and the IP phone system require a high-performance wireless infrastructure.

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