SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) company, today announced that a large and rapidly growing number of educational institutions (K-12 and higher education ) are upgrading their network infrastructures with Wi-Fi 6E to enable the next generation of digital classrooms and campuses. The increased capacity, superior performance, and better support for client and IoT device density made possible by Wi-Fi 6E, combined with specific innovations in Aruba’s access points (APs), enable these institutions to provide extraordinary on-campus and classroom experiences for their students. , faculty, staff and visitors.
Doane University, Texas A&M University, Meramec Valley R-III School District, and Festus R-VI School District are just a few of more than 250 educational institutions — and more than 1,400 organizations in total — that have moved to Aruba Wi-Fi 6E Access Points as the foundation to enable teaching, learning, and smart campus initiatives since the introduction of Aruba’s Wi-Fi 6E solutions in May 2021. Group 650 indicate that these numbers have given Aruba a market-leading position in providing 6E Wi-Fi infrastructure.
“In the fast-growing and competitive enterprise Wi-Fi 6E access point market, Aruba has taken the lead and shipped more than 35% of all enterprise Wi-Fi 6E access points since launch. market creation,” said Chris DePuy, technology analyst and founder of 650 Group.
Key concerns for educational institutions driving this move to Wi-Fi 6E include the need to support an ever-increasing number of client and IoT devices connecting to the network, support collaboration and innovation, increase bandwidth to support new use cases such as definition video, AR/VR and distance learning, future-proofing their network investments and meeting the ever-increasing expectations of students, staff and teachers in ubiquitous, always-on and powerful connectivity. Additionally, K-12 districts and universities are integrating IoT devices for student safety, lighting, security cameras, and HVAC solutions – all of which are part of overall building automation and form the basis of the creation of intelligent installations. The value that institutions can derive from creating smart facilities includes supporting sustainability initiatives through conservation as well as savings on resources such as electricity, heating and air conditioning.
Founded in 1872, Doane University is the oldest private college in Nebraska and is designated as “Top National Liberal Arts College” by US News and World Report. Located in Crete, the main campus of the University is made up of 21 buildings. including six university residences that house 800 students. Doane also operates two satellite campuses located in Lincoln and Omaha. The technology department is committed to investing in technology that provides modern service, 21st Century-long learning experience for their students and creating a network for where the University wants to be in the future.
“As we move forward in our digital transformation, we are seeing an exponential increase in student devices, as well as our own IoT devices that need to be on the network,” said Ryan Dorshorst, director of technology operations at Doane University. “We need to support a growing variety of mission-critical applications that support research and collaboration, as well as high-bandwidth applications for learning and entertainment, such as streaming video, video communications, and augmented reality/virtual reality. With Aruba’s 6E Wi-Fi access points, we can meet our immediate needs and have the ability to grow to meet the future needs of our campus, staff, and students.
With the largest student body in the United States, Texas A&M University serves nearly 73,000 students and employs more than 11,000 faculty and staff. The main campus, located in College Station, Texas, spans over 5,500 acres. Texas A&M offers degrees in more than 130 degree programs at 17 colleges and is home to 21 research institutes. The University recently embarked on a journey to create the Next Generation Aggie Network (NGAN) and plans to move the entire campus to Wi-Fi 6E within three years.
“Every day we have approximately 120,000 unique devices on our network,” said Ed Pierson, chief information officer at Texas A&M. “When we started designing NGAN, we needed a resilient network that could scale quickly and easily as our needs evolved. We plan to use our Aruba Wi-Fi 6E network to support location-based services indoors with Open Locate for public safety and Passpoint for DAS implementation. Our goal is to build a smart campus of tomorrow and this requires a secure, reliable and high-performance network. The deployment of Wi-Fi 6E was the obvious choice , and with our strong partnership with Aruba and our other Aruba solutions in place, we knew we would be successful in this endeavor.
Comprised of nine K-12 schools, the Meramec Valley R-III School District in southeast Missouri serves 3,000 students and employs 450 teachers and staff. Believing that instructional technology should enhance and expand the learning environment, engage students, and enable them to create, communicate, collaborate, and think critically, the district asked its technology department to facilitate the integration of technology in all areas of education. district – both inside and outside the classroom.
“Wi-Fi 6E has increased the performance of our network 10x on average,” said Debby Haley, Chief Technology Officer, Meramec Valley. “It means students and teachers are spending their valuable time in class instead of waiting for overdue learning materials such as videos to load and play.”
Haley continued, “The implementation of Aruba Wi-Fi 6E has been such an improvement over our older technology that we are certain that going forward we will be requesting the 6E model in future purchase requests. .”
Festus R-VI School District, located south of St. Louis, Missouri, operates four schools with a total enrollment of 3,300 students. The district aims to support excellence in teaching, learning, and assessment through effective uses of technology. To support this goal, the district is implementing a comprehensive district-wide technology plan. Critical to this plan is ensuring that staff and students have access to the latest technology to prepare them for future success.
“At Festus School District, one of our goals is to ensure that students are prepared for success when they graduate, pursue college, vocational training, or enter the workforce,” said Josh Bauman, Chief Technology Officer at Festus R-VI School District. “One of the ways we prepare them is by quickly adopting advanced technologies so that our students are familiar and comfortable with technology in their life after K-12. With our recent installation of Aruba 630 Series Wi-Fi 6E Access Points, we now have a “future-ready” infrastructure to support our “future-ready” students.
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About Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, is the global leader in secure, intelligent edge-to-cloud networking solutions that use AI to automate the network, while harnessing data to drive powerful business results. With Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform) and as-a-service options as part of the HPE GreenLake family, Aruba takes a cloud-native approach to help customers meet their connectivity, security and financing needs across campus, branch office, data center, and remote work environments, covering all aspects of wired, wireless, and wide area network (WAN) LAN.
To learn more, visit Aruba at www.arubanetworks.com. For real-time updates, follow Aruba on Twitter and Facebookand for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba products, visit the Airheads Community at community.arubanetworks.com.
