News

Gavilan College Ramps Up to 802.11n Wireless

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 07/23/09

Gavilan College has deployed Xirrus 802.11n WiFi arrays across the 150-acre campus in Gilroy, CA. The college currently consists of 200 teachers serving 7,000 students. The installation allows students and faculty to use their own notebooks, netbooks, and smart phones from anywhere on campus to access the student self-service portal and research materials.

"For every [Xirrus] XS8 or XN8 there are going to be four or eight devices to manage from the competitor," said Saul Salinas, senior systems administrator Thirty [Xirrus] devices or 150 [competitor] devices--we don't want to be managing that many devices, that's too many code revisions, too many moving parts."

Salinas was also sold by the amount of customer attention he received during the evaluation process, "It's more service than you're going to get from one of the big unnamed companies. That really came through. I know I'm not going to sit through a phone tree for half an hour. They're going to know our setup and the names of our buildings: 'Hey, do you remember our gym?' 'Of course, I do.' I talked to other vendors that didn't even want to come out and do a real site survey. They wanted to do one after they'd sold us gear if there were dead spots. [With Xirrus] you're very important as a customer, and you are not going to get lost in the shuffle--that really came through."

Xirrus gear is also in use at Brigham Young University-Hawaii in Laie; Chapman University in Orange, CA; and Colorado State University in Fort Collins.