Quinnipiac U Overhauls Cross-Campus Network To Address Growth

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 06/23/09

Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT will deploy 3Com's H3C core-to-edge enterprise data networking solutions throughout its three-campus network that serves about 8,000 people. The network and its applications resources will be managed with 3Com's H3C Intelligent Management Center (IMC), and secured using 3Com's TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention System.

Fred Tarca, associate vice president, information services, said tremendous growth in campus facilities, student enrollment, and networked applications created networking challenges for Quinnipiac. The university has seen its key applications base grow tenfold during the last decade from six to about 60 enterprise-class applications--including a learning management system, video services, institutional enterprise resource planning, and a portal system--served out of its data center.

"Our challenge is to deliver application services anytime, anyplace, anywhere to a very demanding population," said Tarca. "We needed to keep costs down while not compromising on network performance, reliability, and security. We chose 3Com because we wanted to work with a vendor that delivers excellent products at a very competitive price with outstanding support.... We felt very comfortable choosing 3Com based on its H3C enterprise networking portfolio. We were already using 3Com Tipping Point solutions and we were aware of the strength of the company and the responsiveness of its people who are clearly committed to our success. Extending our relationship with 3Com to include their core products was easy."

Quinnipiac is deploying several H3C S9500 core switches and 100 H3C S5500G edge switches from 3Com among its three campuses. The H3C IMC will manage the network including its wireless network that serves student housing and other facilities. Quinnipiac also is relying on a number of 3Com services, including project management, deployment, and migration to deploy the new network.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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