California State University To Upgrade All Campuses to New High-Speed Network

California State University (CSU) is upgrading to a new, energy-efficient, high-speed network with the option to add cloud computing technology in the future.

CSU selected the Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch product line based on its standards compliance-based networking, broad features, security, availability, and performance, according to information released by Alcatel-Lucent. The university will upgrade four of its campuses to the new system over the next year, followed by the remaining campuses, until all 23 of them are operating on the same standardized local area network equipment.

The project between CSU and Alcatel-Lucent will cost an estimated $22 million over eight years, but is expected to save the university millions of dollars over that time because of the energy-efficiency of the equipment, according to Alcatel-Lucent.

"We expect to gain significant operational efficiencies with this Alcatel-Lucent infrastructure that will also open doors to the future with its flexibility," said Michel Davidoff, director of cyberinfrastructure for the CSU Chancellor's Office, in a prepared statement. "We can easily evolve the network to provide more advanced services in the future with minimal investment, such as linking kiosk technology or security. And as a result, we expect to avoid considerable costs over the next eight years."

The Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch architecture offers 10GigE to 40GigE network speeds. Its services can be accessed through private, public, or hybrid clouds to support smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. According to an Alcatel-Lucent study of more than 6,000 enterprises, 45 percent of educators who responded said they "would prefer to use cloud-based solutions that allow multiple devices to access data independent of where it's located, rather than having the application tied to device specific storage."

California State University serves almost 430,000 students and employs 44,000 faculty and staff at its 23 campuses across the state.

Further information about the Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch technology is available at enterprise.alcatel-lucent.com.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].

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