Partnership Melds Network Monitoring with Student Information System

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 05/27/09

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Calaveras Unified School District (CUSD) in California has completed a $3 million district-wide network upgrade that includes a new IP telephony system along with an upgraded gigabit network infrastructure and a 100 megabit point-to-point wireless WAN across the school sites.

The district contracted with Alameda, CA-based VIP Tone to implement the "Vision 21 Project," which also included a district-wide server consolidation and virtualization initiative and network security. The new infrastructure is being managed by VIP Tone at a newly designed data center.

As part of the project, VIP Tone has implemented its EduTone Xchange District Portal, initially deployed for CUSD staff, including teachers, but soon to be extended to all students and parents. The platform provides identity management, single sign-on, and automated provisioning.

"Vision 21 provides our students and teachers with the best educational tools possible while improving communication between students, teachers, parents, and the community at large," said Jim Frost, superintendent. "Upgrading the network infrastructure at every school allows us to embrace new ways of teaching and learning that weren't possible before."

As the prime contractor on the three-year project, VIP Tone managed about 100 people from 12 subcontractors, including technology vendors such as 3Com, APC, DragonWave, Lightspeed, Sun Microsystems, and VMware.