How Florida Gulf Coast University Built a Scalable, Modern Network to Enhance Student Experiences
Published: August 27, 2024
Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) is located in southwest Florida, serving over 16,000 students across an expansive 800-acre campus. FGCU is dedicated to providing a comprehensive education while fostering an environment of innovation and growth. As the university continues to expand, it sought to enhance its infrastructure to support the increasing demands of students and faculty, ensuring seamless connectivity across its campus.
FGCU faced significant challenges with its existing network infrastructure, which relied heavily on Cisco technology. The university needed a more proactive and reliable wired and wireless network to support its growing student body and campus facilities. The primary obstacles included resistance to change, the need for more proactive monitoring, and the desire to improve IT operations to help them address issues before they impacted users.
FGCU partnered with Extreme Networks to completely transform its network infrastructure. The university replaced its network with Extreme's advanced wired and wireless solutions, resulting in unparalleled connectivity across the campus. Through close collaboration and partnership with Extreme, FGCU was able to overcome resistance to change, proactively monitor its network, and prepare for future opportunities in networking. Extreme's solutions enabled FGCU to address issues before they impacted users, providing a seamless and robust network experience for students and faculty.
Even though it is a huge change, switching vendors, specifically when you're looking at wired and wireless infrastructure across major organizations, I didn't have any issues after working with Extreme. They were collaborators. They were partners.
Challenges
- Resistance to change was hindering their ability to innovate and implement new technologies.
- Reactive network monitoring was leading to inefficient operations and delays in addressing issues.
- Limited by outdated network infrastructure.
Extreme Solutions
- Extreme Wireless
- Extreme Wired
- ExtremeCloud IQ
Results
- Enhanced Connectivity: Seamless, high-speed network access across campus
- Proactive Monitoring: Ability to identify and address issues before they impact users
- Simplified Management: Easier network management and operations
- Future-Proof Network: An IT infrastructure that can support new technologies to further enhance the student experience.