HPE Hero Partner | CDW
With nearly 70,000 students and employees who needed to rely on the wireless network, the Elk Grove Unified School District looked to CDW for guidance
- CDW is a leading multi-brand technology solutions provider to business, government, education and healthcare organizations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. A Fortune 500 company with multi-national capabilities, CDW was founded in 1984 and employs more than 9,400 coworkers.
With nearly 70,000 students and employees who needed to rely on the wireless network, the Elk Grove Unified School District looked to CDW for guidance
The Aruba Partnership: CDW, Elk Grove Unified School District and HPE
The Story: Like many K-12 districts nationwide, Elk Grove Unified School District (EGUSD) is continuously pursuing educational equity, knowing it’s indispensable to student success. And classroom technology plays a starring role in helping achieve those goals. A major challenge to the district was the nearly 70,000 students and employees who needed to rely on the wireless network. Given wireless growth, performance issues with the District’s older access points quickly moved a network upgrade to the top of the IT team’s wish list. In addition, the team needed tools to remain on top of performance and security, as well as support for faster wireless based on 802.11ac APs. Their goal was to find a simple, secure Wi-Fi deployment for district-wide e-learning and testing, with always-on network connectivity for increasing mobile device and app usage that ultimately meets their “Classrooms without Walls” digital initiative with limited IT staff.
The Solution: Elk Grove Unified School District’s IT team moved forward with an RFP and the plan to use E-rate funds to complete a network full replacement. CDW, acting as a trusted advisor to the district, encouraged Aruba as the vendor of choice for the time-saving benefits and their suite of integrated network and management solutions. Ultimately, the solution implementation included: 802.11ac Wave 2 Instant Access Points, ClearPass for policy-based security and greater visibility and AirWave for fast, centralized district-wide troubleshooting.
The impact: Thanks to the new instalment, deployment speeds increased dramatically. Elk Grove was able to deploy nearly 3,000 Instant APs in two months, compared to what would have been a year or more, freeing the team to focus on strategic priorities. Additionally, the simplified and improved IT operations with a fully integrated network, including security and management solutions allowed for automated and secure device onboarding resulting in minimal IT intervention. Tangible effects to the students can also be measured through this solution as new system showed measurable writing improvements in Title I schools.
When it was time to replace our wireless network, we needed an infrastructure that could handle the demands of our current systems, and evolve as the district grows. We also had to do this with limited personnel, dollars and downtime. Aruba and CDW were able to do all of this.
Q&A with Tom Cahill, Vice President, Product and Partner Management, CDW
Tell us a little about the CDW & HPE relationship?
CDW is an HPE Platinum Partner and we have been working together for nearly 30 years. In fact, CDW is HPE’s #1 global partner. Throughout the years as both our companies have evolved, the consistent collaboration at all levels of each organization has allowed us to maintain an exceptional customer experience.
How does the HPE portfolio and partner programs, trainings and executive support help you win business and grow?
HPE’s technology portfolio spanning the cloud to the data center to workplace applications helps customers around the world make IT more efficient, productive and secure. For CDW, the NSP Training Series has been particularly effective in helping our sales force better understand HPE’s strategy and priority products and solutions. Commitment and engagement from both management teams ensures our mutual success.
How do you go above and beyond for your customers?
CDW prides itself on understanding customers’ needs better than anyone else, and our culture pushes us to continue to exceed customers’ expectations. In every customer conversation, we seek to understand their unique technology challenge and recommend technology solutions and services to best fit their needs.