Case Study

Aruba Instant On Wireless Solutions

Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes

Client: Peterborough Diocese Education Trust (PDET)

Vendors: Aruba HPE

Project Date: July 2023 – August 2023

Peterborough Diocese Education Trust (PDET) consists of 33 primary schools across Peterborough; all of which we have recently migrated to the cloud. To get the most out of the new cloud technologies, it was imperative that every school had access to good internet and wireless.

As part of the Department for Education-funded initiative, Connect the Classroom, two of the sites were approved for full funding. This, however, still left six schools that had poor rated systems without DfE funding.

The existing systems were old, unmanaged and, in most cases, did not provide adequate coverage for the school—in addition, many of the access points were failing or faulty.

The Challenge

To upgrade those six sites to the latest specification wireless. As the Trust was self-funding the work, the project needed to be costed effectively and executed within budget.

Like many MATs up and down the country, budgets are tight. Despite these economic challenges, working in partnership with the Trust, we knew the sites needed upgrading to allow them to fully utilise the cloud technologies we had recently implemented.

The Trust did not have the budget to self-fund the schools up to full DfE specification under the Connect the Classroom programme, so we had to look at alternatives that would give the schools an up-to-date wireless solution at a much-reduced cost.

The Solution

Working with Aruba and the Trust, we looked for like-for-like swap-outs, using the school’s existing cabling infrastructure. To further reduce cost, we swapped all the failing and old-spec APs for Aruba Instant On APs, replacing all the old switches for Aruba Instant on Power Over Ethernet (POE) switches. All the new devices were then adopted into a single pane of glass management portal.

The Result

An up-to-date, latest-spec wireless solution, fully-managed at a low cost.

Lee Hughes, PDET Chief Operating Officer said, “We knew we had to make a significant wireless upgrade at six of our schools for them to make the most of the new cloud technologies we have recently migrated to.

Budgets were tight and, as only two of our schools were eligible for DfE funding under the Connect the Classroom programme, we knew we had to look at alternative options.

Computeam were able to put together a proposal that would upgrade all six sites, to the latest wireless specifications, fully-managed at a fraction of the cost of full Connect the Classroom installs.

In addition to the obvious cost savings, as Computeam used the school’s existing cabling where possible, disruption was kept to a minimum, meaning all six sites were completed during the summer break”.

Computeam Statement

We were delighted to be able to get all six schools upgraded, within a budget that was a fraction of a full Connect the Classroom solution.

The net result is that all six schools now have great wireless and can leverage the power of the cloud technologies we have recently migrated them to.The feedback we’ve had from the schools is that there is now full coverage across most of the school, faster speeds, and improved stability.
Dean Hateley, Key Account Manager

Key Lessons

This project showed us that:

- High spec, low-cost school wireless solutions were available from Aruba
- Utilising existing school cabling enabled us to vastly reduce cost, reduce downtime and disruption
- Aruba Instant On provides a high-spec, fully-managed wireless solution perfect for primary schools

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