This post authored by Priyaa Arumugam, senior product marketing manager at HPE
Maximize your E-Rate funds with the new HPE Aruba Networking 5420 Switch Series
The growing number of personal devices in schools and campuses has increased the need for digitized learning methods. To deliver current curriculums, local school districts need to make smart investments in technology that provide better student-teacher experiences while meeting IT requirements for greater reliability, security, and value.
Outdated infrastructure canโt handle todayโs demands
Legacy architectures lack the processing power and speed required to handle the increasing number of applications and devices. 47% of K-12 schools in the US1 lack adequate bandwidth to support digital learning tools across their campuses. Additionally, maintaining these outdated systems is costly, strains already tight budgets, limits funds for newer technologies, and creates future cost uncertainties, impacting IT efficiency and maintenance. Keeping technology current and well maintained in a sustainable, predictable manner is a strategic priority.
Security risks are growing
Education networks are prime targets for cybercrime โ 56% of K-12 institutions were hit by ransomware in 2021-20222. 90%3 of districts provide a device for every student and each student represents 3-6 devices connected to the network. All these devices limit network visibility, expand the attack surface, and increase security risk. It is important to have a modern mobile-first network architecture that can quickly adapt and scale to meet security threats.
Reliable access to learning environments
Post COVID-19, K-12 institutions have adopted hybrid learning options requiring uninterrupted access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Inconsistent or unreliable network performance impacts student-teacher communication and collaboration. It is essential to eliminate any downtime and identify connectivity issues that might impact daily operations.
HPE Aruba Networking โ a trusted partner for your smart education journey
Building a network foundation that is always secure, supports any learning modality on any device, and is agile enough to quickly adopt solutions that facilitate learning is imperative for K-12 institutions.
HPE Aruba Networking solutions can help meet your goals, optimize your network, and potentially maximize your funding available to upgrade and maintain network infrastructure. Our security-first AI-powered networking solutions leverage your existing network and deliver better user experiences and outcomes. Our solutions can help:
1. Increase performance and availability
HPE Aruba Networking CX switches deliver superior performance, throughput, and actionable insights. Built-in workflows automate thousands of CLI instructions, minimizing network downtime required to reestablish services or implement changes. AOS-CX provides high availability so uninterrupted learning can remain the #1 priority. Upgrades and updates can be easily enabled, reversed, and changed without impacting the network.
2. Enhance network security, visibility, and troubleshooting
Mitigate IT and OT risks with deeper visibility and real-time monitoring. Reduce complexity and troubleshooting with switches purpose-built for mobility and IoT, featuring intuitive management tools and built-in analytics. Policy-driven security for users and devices supplies visibility, control, and Dynamic Segmentation of traffic throughout the network. Consistent role-based policies are enforced across wired and wireless networks, to ensure traffic is secure and separate
3. Improve modularity
Get a network that can scale and respond faster to ever-changing requirements, evolve, and adapt quickly to new deployments, use-cases, and moves/adds/changes, even with limited IT staff. Enjoy seamless connectivity with existing Wi-Fi and IoT devices across campuses, handle new bandwidth demands, and support integrations required by digital transformation initiatives.
To accelerate these outcomes, HPE Aruba Networking continues its innovation with new and enhanced options in our diverse campus, branch, and data center switching portfolio.
Introducing the new HPE Aruba Networking CX 5420 Switch Series
The HPE Aruba Networking CX 5420 Switch Series is a modern, flexible, and intelligent modular switch chassis ideal for access, small core, and aggregation deployments.
Created for operational efficiency with built-in MACsec hardware capability, analytics and automation, CX 5420 switches provide a flexible, future-ready access layer solution thatโs easy to deploy, simple, secure, and resilient. Benefit from:
- Single operating system simplicity. The CX 5420 switch chassis is based on the HPE Aruba Networking CX Operating System (AOS-CX), a modern, databaseโdriven operating system that automates and simplifies many critical and complex network tasks.
- Highly available performance with VSX Live Upgrade, enabling non-disruptive fast upgrades.
- Robust security and deeper visibility with dynamic segmentation and role-to-role security enforcement.
The HPE Aruba Networking CX 5420 Switch Series delivers seamless wireless and IoT integration, security-first networking performance, flexibility, and value to handle constantly evolving network requirements and increasing workloads for K-12, government and higher-ed environments. The CX 5420 switch chassis delivers superior performance, real-time insights that cuts complexity, and flexible programmability to be business-ready for tomorrowโs applications.
For additional information on the E-rate process, visit https://www.arubanetworks.com/solutions/primary-education/e-rate/
Sources
2 https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2022/07/12/the-state-of-ransomware-in-education-2022/
