Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today announced
that Chapman University, California’s third largest private university,
has standardized on Aruba wireless, and deployed Aruba switching,
security and management solutions, to modernize and mobilize its 11
schools and colleges across its main City of Orange campus and Irvine
location.
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Chapman University selects Aruba to secure and automate IT operations and deliver new digital experiences. (Photo: Business Wire)
Home to over 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students, Chapman is
seeing more than 13,000 concurrent devices connecting to its network
daily. According to Phillip Lyle, Assistant Vice President of Enterprise
and Research Infrastructure at Chapman, the demand for secure and
reliable wireless has topped the IT team’s priority list and has become
a key differentiator for attracting and retaining today’s mobile-centric
students.
“Students that we’ve surveyed tell us that wireless is the most
important service on campus,” Lyle said. “Our students rely on it every
day, and it is critical to the educational experience in our classrooms.”
Chapman found that their legacy wireless network could not address the
University’s growing needs. In particular, the outdoor coverage was
spotty and students were lodging complaints about frequent disconnects.
The University was using an open configuration that lacked the kind of
encryption, authentication, and role-based policy necessary to deliver
secure network access, particularly as IoT devices are added.
Furthermore, the network required manual tuning, configuration and
management, all of which cost the IT team valuable time and resources.
Chapman sought an infrastructure that could automate deployment and
management tasks, securely onboard IoT devices, and allow IT to develop
role-based access policies to simplify the connectivity experience for
students, faculty and guests. The University also wanted a full wired
and wireless solution for its latest campus additions – Keck Center for
Science and Engineering, and Chapman Grand, the newest and largest
apartment-style student housing.
Chapman turned to Aruba, deploying both indoor and outdoor access
points as well as Aruba’s 303H
Series APs designed to meet the unique requirements of residence
hall and hospitality needs, 7200
Series Mobility Controllers, a combination of 8320, 3810 and 2930 switches,
Aruba
ClearPass and AirWave
network management.
Simplicity and manageability were key factors in Chapman’s decision to
select Aruba. Explained Lyle, “When we replaced our existing equipment
with Aruba’s, the process was so much easier and faster than our initial
deployment. Previously, we had to tune each individual access point, but
with AirWave we were able to automatically determine and provision the
settings for each AP. This saved us a tremendous amount of time and
effort. Even some of the other vendors we evaluated admitted that Aruba
AirWave offered superior management capabilities to their management
platforms.”
This simplicity extended to the deployment of the 303H Series APs in the
Chapman Grand residence hall, which is designed like a 400-unit
apartment complex. Using the APs in concert with Aruba’s zero-touch
provisioning, Chapman was able to quickly bring the new building online,
saving the IT team a substantial amount of time and cost.
ClearPass was also a primary factor in selecting Aruba, as the IT team
needed a way to implement secure role-based access policies across the
wireless and wired network, while making it easy for users to connect.
This capability is particularly critical in Chapman’s new flagship Keck
Center for Science and Engineering which has a robust wireless
deployment, but also utilizes the Aruba 8320 switches for aggregation
and analytics to anticipate the increased bandwidth demands that a
science building could generate.
ClearPass is integral to Chapman’s transition from an open network to an
authenticated system for students, staff and faculty, as well as
managing guest access.
“With ClearPass we can now manage the type of access each individual
receives depending on their role as student, faculty or staff. And we’ve
established a captive portal for guest access that has been
well-received by visitors,” added Michael Ferguson, Network Operations
Manager for Chapman.
ClearPass also allows students, staff and faculty to register their own
personal devices and is crucial to the University’s IoT strategy.
Ferguson noted that the University is seeing a great deal of IoT device
demand with alarms, door locks, smart lighting and HVAC sensors, as well
as students just wanting to connect TVs and printers. Chapman is using
ClearPass to effectively manage all of this, with an eye towards using
it for full wired and wireless access control in the near future.
Moving forward, Chapman will evaluate Aruba Meridian in a Proof of
Concept scheduled for summer 2019. The University will pair Meridian
with an application called CriticalArc to enable location awareness for
reporting security incidents. Beyond public safety, Chapman is also
interested in wayfinding and other location-based services that could be
used to improve its users’ experiences.
“Experience – that of our students, faculty or visitors to campus – is
the most important consideration for our network deployment,” said Lyle.
“In the past, we’d have 150 students in a classroom, and maybe a handful
of them would have problems connecting and accessing a quiz. That’s a
significant problem. Since we moved to our Aruba infrastructure, the
number of complaints have diminished, and surveys reveal that wireless
is not only the most important but also one of the top-rated services
now for our students.”
About Chapman University
Chapman University is California’s third largest private university and
ranks fifth in the U.S. News & World Report listing of Best Regional
Universities in the West. Chapman is categorized by the Carnegie
Classification as an R2 “high research activity” institution and offers
personalized education to more than 9,000 undergraduate and graduate
students. Chapman strives for diversity and inclusion by recruiting and
supporting students representing a variety of backgrounds, experiences,
learning styles and unique talents. The campus has produced a Rhodes
Scholar, been named a top producer of Fulbright Scholars and hosts a
chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious
honor society. Founded in 1861 and based in the City of Orange,
California, Chapman also includes the Harry and Diane Rinker Health
Science Campus, 21 miles south in the Irvine Spectrum, Orange County’s
technology hub. In 2020, the university will open its 11th college, the
Fowler School of Engineering in its newest facility, Keck Center for
Science and Engineering.
About Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is a leading provider of
secure, intelligent networks that enable customers to thrive and deliver
amazing digital experiences in the mobile, IoT and cloud era. We are
changing the rules of networking to make it simple for IT and
organizations to bridge the physical and digital worlds at the Edge.
To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com.
For real-time news updates, follow Aruba on Twitter and Facebook,
and for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba products,
visit the Airheads Community at http://community.arubanetworks.com.
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