Loyola High School overhauled their aging network with switches from Extreme Networks to improve network reliability, visibility, and management with their limited IT staff. The new network provides fast and reliable access to critical resources for 1,300 students and staff. It is centrally managed, improving security and productivity. With the Extreme Networks solution, network issues are reduced and downtime eliminated, allowing the IT team to focus on other initiatives and the school to meet its educational goals.

1. 1Loyola High School of Los Angeles – Case Study
Introduction
Loyola High School of Los Angeles, founded in 1865, is the oldest continuously-run
educational institution in Southern California. As a Catholic college preparatory school
conducted by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), Loyola remains committed to providing
a rigorous education to a diverse group of young men who leave the school prepared
for lives of leadership and service to their community.
To realize their goal of achieving the best possible outcome for 1,200+ students,
while helping 100+ faculty and staff gain uninterrupted access to critical educational
resources, Loyola High School overhauled their network with high-performance
switches from Extreme Networks.
Business Challenge
Loyola High School had a flat, fiber network with ancient switches. Challenged with
a small staff and budget, the IT team convinced the school administration of the
need to play catch up in terms of replacing all of their network switches to remain
competitive with other schools in their area.
Because the existing infrastructure lacked the tools and vendor support to manage
and monitor the network, the network staff of two experienced every issue
imaginable. When the network malfunctioned, they were required to walk around the
campus to figure out which switch was causing the problem. Loyola needed a new
system that could be easily managed with limited personnel and that could give them
visibility and control of all their network components – wired and wireless – from one
central location.
With over 4,000 devices requiring access to a variety of cloud-based applications, it
was critical that the network be upgraded with secure, reliable and high-performance
equipment so that Loyola could deliver on their college-preparatory mission by
providing fast, reliable access to critical applications for students, faculty and staff.
“Extreme Networks has definitely helped the school align our goals for
achieving the best possible student outcome while helping teachers access
the resources that they need without any interruption.”
LAUREN B. LAMPIETTI
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, LOYOLA HIGH SCHOOL
CASE STUDY
INDUSTRY
• K-12 Education
INSTITUTION STATS
• Networking IT Staff: 2
• Students/Faculty/Staff: 1,300+
• Locations: Main campus with 12
buildings
CHALLENGES
• Network reliability and availability
• Network visibility
• Network management support
PRODUCTS UTILIZED
• S and K-Series modular switches
• B and C-Series stackable switches
• OneFabric Control Center
• NetSight network management
RESULTS
• High-performance, reliable switches
• Increased productivity
• Reduced costs
• Centralized network management
• Top-notch support
High School Overhauls Network
with High-Performance Switches
from Extreme Networks
EXTREME NETWORKS CASE STUDY: LOYOLA HIGH SCHOOL

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Loyola High School of Los Angeles – Case Study 2
Extreme Networks Solution
Having experienced difficulty getting network support in the
past, Loyola High School sought a new vendor capable of
providing the best possible support. Loyola had researched the
products offered by Brocade, Foundary, Cisco and HP/3Com and
were left unimpressed with how their products performed. After
their network consultant took them on a tour of a local college
running Extreme Networks, Lauren B. Lampietti, Chief Technology
Officer said, “I was sold as soon as I saw their Extreme network in
action and I never looked elsewhere.” The top deciding
factors were Extreme Networks support capabilities and their
proven track record.
Loyola overhauled the whole network – upgraded the backbone,
network devices and replaced the switches in 12 buildings – with
an Extreme Networks solution consisting of high-capacity S- and
K-Series switches at the core and C- and B-Series switches at the
edge for fast, reliable network access. NetSight has improved
security and reduced the network management complexity by
providing operating details on all of the network equipment from
one, easy-to-manage view.
The network team has been most pleased with the C5 10-gig
switches which have been “rock solid” and able to handle
anything they need and the S1 for the core which has been super-
efficient, very fast and has had zero issues since implementation.
“Availability has been perfect and there is zero-downtime. I can
sleep at night now. I have no worries about how the devices on our
network are running,” says Lampietti.
Results
Loyola High School is able to provide fast, reliable network access
to enhance teaching and learning objectives for over 1,300 users
using 4,000 devices throughout 12 buildings, while increasing
productivity and reducing costs:
• High-Performance, Reliable Switches – According to
Kevin Behnke, Senior Network Engineer, “The usage and
performance of the Extreme Networks switches has been
spectacular. They are never tapped out.” Since going with
Extreme Networks, availability has been a huge benefit.
“The number of help desk tickets having to do with network
issues virtually disappeared once the implementation was
completed,” says Behnke.
• Increased Productivity and Reduced Costs – The high-
capacity Extreme Networks switches have provided cost
and productivity savings for Loyola’s network team thanks
to the efficiency of the low energy switches and the
number of the devices that the switches can handle. With
power over Ethernet (PoE) functionality, installation time
has been reduced and built-in redundancy assures the high
school that their mission-critical PA system, phones and
Wi-Fi will always be up and running. Students, faculty and
staff are able to easily get on the Internet and they no
longer have to wait for the pages to load which enables
them to be more productive.
• Ease-of-Management – The control and visibility offered
by NetSight has improved security and enabled the
network team to be more productive. If the network team
encounters a network anomaly, they no longer need to
walk from building to building, they simply get the details
and stats on the switches from the NetSight network
management console. “Extreme products have freed up a
lot of resources on my team. With one less thing we have to
worry about we can focus our time and resources on other
initiatives,” says Lampietti.
Loyola has nothing but praise for the Extreme Networks support
team. “The support has been amazing, they are very thorough
and always willing to go that extra mile and to help even on areas
that aren’t related to the network gear,” says Behnke. When asked
to compare the support they receive from Extreme Networks to
other vendor’s support, Lampietti says, “It’s like comparing a high-
performance Porsche to a Toyota with 100,000 miles on it. There
is no contest.”
With their new high-performance Extreme network in place and
meeting all of their needs, Loyola High School is free to shift their
focus more toward educational technology professional development
to ensure the best and brightest future for their students.