4) What are some examples of challenges that can be found in a college network?
All places where, instead of using a pen and paper and notebook, you see most of the students using tablets, and they are taking notes there, like labs and classrooms. When they work, they expect to have some basic Wi-Fi capabilities in the classrooms for students. The teacher in those classrooms will have some of that material hosted on the Cloud, or have it belong to the university’s personal Cloud. The first question [to solve this] is, do teachers and students live on the same network, or do we segregate the traffic on different networks to ensure that we have the right delivery and quality of service for the teachers and have access to their material? For the students, they can take notes locally and [access] the Cloud later.
But, what about outside? You want to allow your students to have access to their network when they’re potentially lounging on the lawn in between buildings. That might be nice, but it brings its own set of challenges. Now, you have people that are in indoor classes that need to have access to those same networks and services. For an end user, it’s nice and convenient, but convenience typically means a lot more complexity from the person providing all that convenience.
5) What tips should colleges follow to keep their network performance high?
a. I think they need to be proactive and focus on monitoring the basic infrastructure from a performance and help perspective. You can assume that everything is working, but if you’re responsible for delivering that service, you can’t assume that someone else will take care of it. You have to be proactive about monitoring. No one else will do it.
b. Look at the tool sets and vendors that are out there providing solutions that are specific for the project or network that you have. Look for easy-to-use tools there, and for tools that can solve logical problems. You can’t always fight fire all the time; you have to evolve at some point.
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