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Striving to provide its students and faculty with the latest technology offerings for improved learning and productivity, Indiana University recently decided to deploy Gigabit Ethernet capabilities in the school's 75 Bloomington campus computer labs. The labs, known as student technology centers, are segmented by various functional departments and serve 35,000 students.
By delivering Gigabit Ethernet to the workstations located in the student technology centers, the university's network operations group has achieved greater network reliability, faster deployment of new software, and significant performance improvements of the high-bandwidth applications in each cluster.
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Indiana University has a history of technology achievement and adoption. According to Richard Sammis, who was the Network Operations Manager for the campus during the initial stages of this deployment, technological excellence is an ongoing pursuit. "We continually strive to improve our network in order to bring new capabilities and greater efficiencies to our students, faculty, and staff," said Sammis, "As we installed new Cat 6 wiring in our remodeled student clusters, we realized that bringing ProCurve Networking's Gigabit Ethernet solution to the desktop in these locations was a real possibility."
The timing was perfect. In addition to the prospect of Gigabit Ethernet at the desktop afforded by the new wiring, Sammis was receiving pressure from students and faculty to bring greater bandwidth and performance to the school's network.
With the emergence of Gigabit Ethernet technologies, which have10 times the speed of 100Mbit networks and 100 times the speed of standard Ethernet, access to blazing fast network connectivity has become a reality - not only in the network infrastructure, but also on PC desktops and workstations. Until recently, the cost of Gigabit Ethernet limited its application to servers in the data center and to the network core. As the availability of ProCurve Networking's affordable Gigabit technologies in both desktop PCs and core networking equipment becomes standard and more affordable, the benefits of delivering Gigabit Ethernet at the edge of the network are more attainable than ever.
Realizing this, Sammis made the decision to begin deploying ProCurve Networking's Gigabit Ethernet solution to the edge of Indiana University's network. The 45 student labs located on the Bloomington campus were a logical starting point.
Each lab contains as many as 56 workstations intended for individual students and class instruction. They host various bandwidth-intensive applications, and when entire classes utilize a cluster, the workstations are oftentimes called upon to perform the same tasks simultaneously.
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Many of the labs are designated for functional departments and host specialized, high-bandwidth applications that benefit from ProCurve Networking's implementation. For example:
- The Fine Arts Lab utilizes large graphics files that need to be shared
- The Telecommunications Lab contains digital video applications and regularly employs streaming video
- The Geology Lab utilizes a high-bandwidth geographic image system (GIS)
- The Music Lab requires significant throughput for scores and music files
- The Chemistry Partner Lab uses molecular imaging software
- The Information Commons, located in the campus library, hosts several multimedia applications
The university's IT staff deploys new applications and software to machines in a lab simultaneously, requiring significant, concurrent bandwidth from the network core to the edge.
There was a clear need to optimize the performance of the applications in the clusters, provide the ability to share large files, and ensure the workstations could all operate concurrently in a class setting.
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Indiana University is utilizing the HP ProCurve Switch 4100gl series to provide Gigabit capabilities in the student clusters. The Switch 4100gl series is cost-effective, intelligent, easy-to-use, and available in compact 8-slot and 4-slot modular form factors. Based on HP Fast Path Technology, these switches provide top performance and high reliability.
The HP ProCurve Switch 4100gl series' modular design allows for easy expansion as the university's network grows, providing the flexibility to add more users, more bandwidth and various levels of Ethernet Fiber connectivity. A new module offering 20 10/100/1000 ports and 2 mini-GBIC slots delivers high-density Gigabit to the existing switch at the edge of the network. For added convenience, there are two pre-bundled HP ProCurve Switch 4100gl's, the 4140gl and the 4160gl, that have these Gigabit modules pre-installed. The HP ProCurve Switch 4100gl series supports 192 10/100 ports or 160 Gigabit ports and 16 mini-GBICs.
Sammis couldn't be happier with the school's new 4100gl series switches and the Gigabit technology they deliver to the student cluster workstations.
"By deploying the ProCurve Networking solution and Gigabit technology in our student computer labs, we have experienced a remarkable increase in effective bandwidth delivered to the end user of our network, achieved better utilization of our backbone network, and achieved a significant improvement in the performance of certain applications," he remarked.
In terms of sheer performance, Sammis indicated Gigabit Ethernet in the student technology centers has resulted in faster response time for applications that consume large amounts of bandwidth. Running Gigabit allows applications that require uninterrupted transmission, such as streaming video, to get the bandwidth they need to perform as expected.
In addition, there has been faster network response when large files are transferred or when all workstations in a cluster are performing the same tasks simultaneously because the feeds to the clusters have also been provisioned with Gigabit Ethernet. As students and faculty access multiple network applications on the clusters' workstations at the same time, Gigabit prevents desktop clients from getting bogged down waiting on the network to catch up to the faster GHz processors of their desktop PCs.
Sammis appreciates the flexibility afforded by ProCurve Networking equipment, knowing he can deploy Gigabit Ethernet capabilities in stages. The new Gigabit technology allows the university to easily scale its network for increased performance and productivity. Based on the success of the current ProCurve Networking Gigabit deployment, Sammis hopes to see Gigabit Ethernet become the university's standard offering for students on campus.
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- Faster response times for high-bandwidth applications
- Improved performance for programs requiring constant, dedicated bandwidth
- Ability to perform the same tasks and share large files on many workstations concurrently without network slowdown
- Capacity to easily push new software and applications from the network core to clusters at the edge
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Hardware
Software
- Lifetime software upgrades included in purchase price
- HP ProCurve Manager software included in purchase price
HP services
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Lifetime warranty with next-business-day advance replacement (available in most countries) on most products for as long as the customer owns it *
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Telephone support available during normal business hours
- Technical product support available via e-mail
- Comprehensive network design and configuration services offered at no extra charge
* The HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9300m series and Secure Access 700wl series have a one-year warranty with extensions available.
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When you are ready to explore the benefits a ProCurve Networking solution can offer you, call HP at 1−800−975−7682.
To learn more about ProCurve Networking's Adaptive EDGE Architecture™ solutions, visit our home page.
Purchase: HP business solutions, products, and supplies can be purchased at your local HP partner, or bought directly from HP either online or by calling 1−800−613−2222.
Finance: HP finance plans provide all the benefits of new technology without the risk or cost of ownership. For details, call 1−888−999−4783.
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