Seton Hill University Replaces Cisco Gear with Enterasys Wired and Wireless Connectivity Solutions

Total Cost of Ownership, Ease of Network Management are Key Factors in Campus Network Infrastructure Upgrade

Enterasys, the network infrastructure and security division of Siemens Enterprise Communications, today announced that Seton Hill University, a leading Catholic liberal arts university in Greensburg, Penn., has implemented its seamless wired/wireless data connectivity solution to provide secure networking for more than 5,000 devices across multiple campus locations. The Enterasys solution is a full-scale replacement of the University’s previous Cisco infrastructure, delivering a cost-effective, easy-to-manage network that provides always-on connectivity, as well as support for Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony.

“Prior to the Enterasys deployment, we spent ten years as an all-Cisco network environment,” explained Phil Komarny, CIO of Seton Hill University. “As time went on, the network became increasingly difficult to manage and costly to maintain. Our legacy telephony solution was nearing its end of life, and we came to the realization that our infrastructure would not support a VoIP deployment. Cost-effective network efficiency was the key priority as we sought a solution that would support more than 2,000 full-time students and 250 faculty members.”

After evaluating a variety of leading networking vendors, Komarny and his staff selected Enterasys based on the design criteria of ease-of-use, reliability, scalability, security, interoperability with their Polycom VoIP phones, and total cost of ownership. Today, Seton Hill University’s 21st-century network delivers always-on Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) to each user’s desktop, secure wireless connectivity for laptops and other devices, and traffic prioritization for seamless VoIP telephony across 25 campus buildings in three separate locations—all while lowering deployment, management and maintenance costs. Komarny expects to see a complete return on investment within five to seven years of the initial deployment. The HiPath Wireless solution provides a cost-effective way for the University to deploy 802.11n technology, delivering wired/wireless integration while supporting a broad range of mobile voice, data and location-based applications. Enterasys C-Series switches offer scalable, wire-rate support for environments such as campus networks that require multilayer switching capabilities and support for high-density GbE ports. The Enterasys N-Series flow-based switch gives Komarny and his staff complete visibility and control of individual users and voice/video/data applications—and with the Enterasys Lifetime Warranty, the University no longer needs to allocate funds for end-of-life switches.

Enterasys NAC provides extensive Network Access Control configuration options for granular, identity-based control, including a guest/system registration feature. The industry-leading identification and visibility capabilities of the Enterasys Security Information and Event Manager (SIEM) solution allow University IT staff to proactively manage the IT security infrastructure and improve remediation and response times. The entire infrastructure is easily managed by Enterasys NMS Policy Manager, automatically centralizing all role-based access policies for users, applications, protocols, VLANs, ports, and data flows.

“It’s exciting for our team to have these tools to help us better manage and protect the campus infrastructure,” Komarny said. “The Enterasys NAC, SIEM and NMS Policy Manager software have given us the unprecedented ability to see all network activity in real time, which means there are no more surprise attacks.”

Komarny said that the HiPath wireless component of the new network has been the most significant improvement, as both student body and faculty demand for wireless access continues to grow. “With the new network, we have already seen a dramatic rise in wireless use with this fall’s crop of incoming students,” he added. “With the HiPath portfolio, people want to use the campus wireless services –and because of Enterasys NAC, SIEM and NMS, we know users will not compromise our infrastructure.”

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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