Enterasys Selected by Langara College to Replace Cisco for Cost Savings and Easier Management

Network for more than 19,000 Students Replaced in One Month and Managed by Only Two Administrators

Enterasys, the network infrastructure and security division of Siemens Enterprise Communications, today announced that Langara College of Vancouver, British Columbia has replaced its Cisco edge networking switches with Enterasys solutions to improve network management and deliver application availability for more than 19,000 students across two of its campuses. Through Enterasys solutions and support, Langara College’s IT staff of two network administrators can now maintain complete control and visibility of more than 3,000 networked devices, while ensuring high availability to each student and faculty workstation for critical applications such as video streaming, wireless and distance learning programs.

“My staff was spending 80 percent of their time on operational activities, including troubleshooting and configuring our aging Cisco switches. A complete upgrade was necessary to ensure the secure delivery of bandwidth and applications,” said Richard Eskandar, associate director of IT Services for Langara College. “Enterasys led the pack of vendor responses to our RFP, and they worked closely with our VAR to replace our entire network, including 150 high-performance switches, in one month.”

Eskandar selected Enterasys based on the criteria of ease of management, total cost of ownership, the flow-based technology and the policy-based security built into the solutions portfolio. “The simplicity of end-to-end management using Enterasys NMS was the most important criteria for us,” Eskandar explained. “Having the ability to easily implement authentication and leverage their unique policy-based access empowers my staff to have more control over the network.”

Langara College’s Enterasys solution is designed to enable cost-effective data collaboration between departments, support for education-critical applications, and Internet connectivity for staff and students. The Enterasys S-Series switch serves as the server farm switch, while Enterasys N-Series and C-Series switches at the network edge enable seamless connectivity across eight buildings in two locations. The components are easily managed with the integrated Enterasys Network Management Suite (NMS), which delivers pinpoint visibility and control to the centralized operations team through student/staff/guest role-based policies. As a result, Eskandar has seen the troubleshooting and management aspect of his daily workflow reduce dramatically.

Eskandar also cites the high level of customer service offered by Enterasys as a deciding factor in the deployment choice. “Enterasys support before the sale was good, but has been even better after the sale,” he said. “We feel confident in our decision to go with Enterasys because they stand behind their products and are quick to answer any questions we have. As the College continues to grow, this will become even more important to our staff.”

About Siemens Enterprise Communications
Siemens Enterprise Communications is a premier provider of end-to-end enterprise communications, including voice, network infrastructure and security solutions that use open, standards-based architectures to unify communications and business applications for a seamless collaboration experience. This award-winning "Open Communications" approach enables organizations to improve productivity and reduce costs through easy-to-deploy solutions that work within existing IT environments, delivering operational efficiencies. It is the foundation for the company's OpenPath® commitment that enables customers to mitigate risk and cost-effectively adopt unified communications. Jointly owned by The Gores Group and Siemens AG, Siemens Enterprise Communications companies include Siemens Enterprise Communications, Cycos, and Enterasys Networks.

For more information about Siemens Enterprise Communications or Enterasys please visit www.siemens-enterprise.com or www.enterasys.com

Note: Siemens Enterprise Communications & Co K.G. is a trademark licensee of Siemens AG. HiPath, OpenOffice, OpenScape and OpenStage, are registered trademarks of Siemens Enterprise Communications & Co K.G. or its affiliates. All other company, brand, product and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

This release contains forward-looking statements based on beliefs of Siemens’ management. The words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "forecast," "expect," "intend," "plan," "should," and "project" are used to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results to be materially different, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions, changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates, introduction of competing products, lack of acceptance of new products or services and changes in business strategy. Actual results may vary materially from those projected here. Siemens does not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

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