Ball State Centralizes Management, Policy Enforcement
Ball State University has deployed Netcordia's NetMRI network management system to monitor its entire campus network and enforce network policy for more than 18,000 students and 3,000 employees.
NetMRI detects faults and network problems, such as power supply issues or port errors that would have previously gone unnoticed or not been discovered in a timely fashion. The system provides a centralized platform that reports issues and helps staff address them before they cause much larger problems, such as a network outage during peak usage periods.
“We needed a solution that could facilitate proactive monitoring of our network and simplify our management process,” said Daniel Fortriede, Ball State’s senior network engineer for University Computing Services, in a prepared statement. "... Every morning I can go to the Issues page and see what is on the horizon for the day.”
Additionally, Ball State previously had difficulty ensuring all points on the network adhered to policy. Now the university uses NetMRI's policy enforcement functions help engineers rapidly effect changes across multiple devices from various vendors without significant programming.
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David Kopf is a freelance technology writer and marketing consultant, and can be reached at [email protected].