HP ProCurve Networking - Customer stories

	University of Beira Interior
	“We examined various network options available in the market, but it was the affordability and benefits of the Adaptive EDGE Architecture™ from ProCurve Networking that really appealed to us over the competition. The new network is working well – even the students sing its praises.” Dr Rui Costa IT manager Health science faculty University of Beira Interior Portugal

The University of Beira Interior (UBI) is a public university located in the city of Covilhã, Portugal. It is organised into five faculties – Science, Engineering Sciences, Human & Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities and Health Sciences – and has over 5,000 students and 600 teaching staff. It awards graduate degrees in fields ranging from medicine and aeronautical engineering to sociology and the humanities.

e-learning – a new approach to education
UBI’s faculty of Health Sciences is the first in Portugal to adopt an e-learning approach across its entire medical science course. This teaching method does not involve classrooms filled with students listening to a lecturer or written tests. Instead, online trainers and tutors publish study material and reference information on the university’s intranet. Furthermore, classrooms are fully equipped for self-study development.

Supporting such an innovative e-learning environment requires a network infrastructure that can handle considerably higher traffic volumes than those usually associated with traditional teaching establishments.

As a result of this, and prompted by the continued growth of the faculty’s student and staff numbers, UBI decided to invest in a new faculty building with its own modern data network.

Modernising the network
Dr Rui Costa, IT manager, Health Science Faculty, UBI explains, “Over the last few years our old faculty building had reached its maximum student capacity. It was outdated, built to a poor specification and its aged network couldn’t cope with the traffic volumes generated by our e-learning techniques. The network was also extremely unreliable and security was a problem. We needed a modern network to handle the traffic generated by our contemporary teaching methods.

“In line with modern trends towards networks that can simultaneously handle high volumes of email, self-learning material and video images over a Local Area
Network (LAN), we required a secure, reliable, easy-to-use and highly flexible networking solution. Security, bandwidth control and managing user access at an affordable price were paramount.”

ProCurve Networking Adaptive EDGE Architecture™
As part of the university’s rigorous selection process, a tender was communicated for an IT vendor to implement the solution. ProCurve Networking along with Cisco, Enterasys and Nortel Networks all made proposals for the new network. At the end of the process, it was the security, reliability, flexibility and access management benefits offered by ProCurve that the university were impressed by.

“We examined various network options available in the market, but it was the affordability and benefits of the Adaptive EDGE Architecture™ from ProCurve Networking that really appealed to us over the competition,” adds Costa.

UBI expressed its opinion and discussed its needs with ProCurve Networking. Working in partnership with Prológica SA, specialist staff from both organisations proposed a customised networking solution based on the Adaptive EDGE Architecture™.

UBI’s LAN includes one ProCurve EDGE Fabric Switch 8100fl series in the core with seven 10 Gb Ethernet modules. This switch delivers high availability, high bandwidth and cost-effective fabric interconnectivity for the Adaptive EDGE Architecture™. The distribution switches at the edge comprise six ProCurve Switch 5400zl series with 840 ports and one ProCurve Switch 3500yl series. These layer switches offer the most advanced intelligent edge capability in a stackable form factor. A ProCurve Switch 5304xl, Wireless Edge Services Module (WESM) and 12 ProCurve Radio Port 230 units enable the wired LAN platform to also operate a wireless LAN. Unified network management is provided for users on both the wired and wireless networks through ProCurve Manager Plus, ProCurve Mobility Manager and ProCurve Identity Driven Manager.

Command from the centre – control to the edge
Today, the traditional strategy of handling authentication and enforcing access policies at the network core is redundant. Organisations need an architecture that uses the network edge to provide security, mobility, and simple, manageable access to several services – but it must also maintain complete control from the network centre. This approach allows networks to be costeffective and easily updated.

The ProCurve Networking Adaptive EDGE Architecture™ answers this challenge. Based on industry standards, this design strategy maintains complete command of the network from the centre and brings control and intelligence to the network edge where users connect.

Access decisions are automatic. Medical students recognised by the network gain access regardless of their location, while unknown users are denied access or only given basic privileges. The faculty now benefits from network access control that is enforced at the edge, but readily commanded from the centre. Network integrity is preserved, assets protected, and productivity and efficiency increased.

By strategically deploying intelligence in this way, ProCurve handles new traffic with limited impact on performance and cost. To simplify the network further, ProCurve delivers data, voice and video connectivity over one of the industry’s most affordable and easy-to-manage infrastructures.

A new network for a new era
“Thanks to ProCurve Networking, we now have a faculty building equipped with a highly reliable and secure network that satisfies the needs of 480 medical students and about 50 staff. Its speed is truly impressive and it readily copes with the high traffic volume created by our teaching methods.

“Our new network is also flexible enough to satisfy any future demands as our student population grows to 1,000. It really does complement our modern teaching facilities, laboratories and library,” comments Costa.

“Not only does our network come with a standard lifetime warranty, I believe we can reduce the yearly cost of ownership by between 10 and 15 per cent. Overall, ProCurve Networking has completely satisfied our expectations. The network is ideal for the faculty,” concludes Costa.