Utica College implemented a new network infrastructure provided by Extreme Networks to enhance connectivity across its campus and satellite locations. The new network allows over 4,000 users to access more than 50 applications through wired and wireless connectivity. It has provided significant cost savings and efficiencies for Utica College, allowing a single network engineer to manage what would typically require multiple engineers. This has helped Utica College achieve its goals of cutting costs and reducing tuition fees for students.

1. Utica College – Case Study 1
EXTREME NETWORKS CASE STUDY: UTICA COLLEGE
Introduction
Founded in the heart of Central New York in 1946, Utica College is an independent,
private residential institution that offers many of the advantages of a large
university, but with the high degree of personal attention and low teacher-to-
student ratio more closely associated with smaller colleges.
Combine a wide variety of challenging academic programs with plentiful social and
recreational opportunities, and the school’s lively “Never Stand Still” motto seems
particularly fitting. In short: it’s a vibrant, active community where students and
teachers are as likely to connect in the classroom as they are over a cup of coffee,
forming strong, lasting bonds.
Standing Out in a Crowd:
Differentiation Through Innovation
Given its size, target student profile and relatively modest endowment, Utica
College is challenged to compete with a number of far more prestigious and
well-known colleges and universities in the area — schools with bigger budgets
and far greater awareness on both a regional and national level.
In order to rise to that challenge and differentiate the school in this highly
competitive environment, Utica College leadership has committed to a broad
program of innovation that includes such initiatives as leveraging technology to
enhance student learning, boost staff productivity, lower the cost of education,
and improve instruction and retention rates.
For Utica College CIO Vijay Sonty, this has meant developing and implementing
a three-year, three-phase plan:
• Driving IT infrastructure efficiencies and consolidation by pushing as much as
possible to the cloud
• Transforming hundreds of applications and systems by standardizing on
common platforms and reducing the complexity and expense of maintaining
infrastructure through the use of open-source and cloud technologies
• Shifting his department’s traditional focus to implementing student-facing,
education-based technologies
And, of course, it has also meant finding technology partners who can help him
do more with less: less money and fewer resources.
Connecting a School
Whose Network
“Never Stands Still”
UTICA COLLEGE
ENVIRONMENT
• 4,000 Network Users
• 50+ Network Apps
• 128-Acre Campus, Plus Three
Remote Locations
TECHNOLOGY NEEDS
• e-Learning
• Cloud Migration
• Wired and Wireless
• Scalability/Consolidation
PRODUCTS UTILIZED
• ExtremeWireless
• C5210 and AP3825i
• ExtremeSwitching
• S-Series, X460-G2, and X670
• ExtremeControl
• Control Center
• Identity and Access Control
• ExtremeAnalytics
• Application Analytics

2. Utica College – Case Study 2
Helping Utica Connect Beyond the Network
In his search for a partner to help realize his ambitious plan, Sonty turned
to Extreme due to our innovative approach and deep experience in helping
higher education clients achieve similar goals.
Working closely with the Utica College team, we’ve been able to implement
wide–scale wired and wireless solutions that touch virtually every aspect of
campus life, further connecting students with teachers and each other while
also connecting the school’s main campus with its satellite locations.
“The gains in efficiency and simplicity alone have had true bottom-
line results. A perfect example is the fact that a single network
engineer can easily maintain a network that serves 4,000 users,
where the customary ratio is 1 engineer to 200 users. Overall,
Extreme built a robust network at a savings of close to $1 million
over their competitors. And they did it in less than half the time that
others were projecting.”
VIJAY SONTY
CIO, UTICA COLLEGE
More than 4,000 users. Four geographic locations. More than 50 network
applications spanning learning management, telepresence, security, online
payment collection and content management, to name just a few. Extreme
brought everything together on a single easy-to-use, easy-to-maintain
network, helping Sonty and the school achieve the efficiencies, simplification,
savings, and control it desired.
Pictured From Left to Right: Jeremy Gibbs, Network Manager and Vijay Sonty, Chief
Information Officer at Utica College
CONNECTING BEYOND
THE CLASSROOM
In the short time he’s been at
the school—less than one year—
Assistant Professor of Computer
Sciences, Ronny Bull has had
an opportunity to become fully
immersed in Utica College’s IT
networking environment, relying on
it for teaching students as well as
conducting research in virtualized
network security.
On a typical day, the students
in each of Bull’s Introduction to
Networking classes are similarly
immersed, examining packets,
conducting network audits and
“generally playing with the network,”
according to Bull. “The students
easily connect everywhere on
campus: wired in the labs, wirelessly
in the classrooms and student
center, with Wi-Fi between buildings
and across the campus, and with
both Wi-Fi and wired access in the
residence halls. And the Extreme
network provides full traffic visibility,
which I need to teach networking
fundamentals.”
As you’d expect from a professor
and seasoned networking expert,
Bull answers authoritatively when
asked what he values most about
the network Extreme built for
Utica College: “Uptime and lack
of congestion. A network has to
be available when needed and it
has to keep up with traffic while
still providing a solid experience.
It’s what I preach to my class and
it’s what we get from our Extreme
network 24/7.”

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Utica College – Case Study 3
THE BOTTOM LINE
Extreme’s execution of CIO Sonty’s vision has helped Utica College save
money, create efficiencies and generally do more with less. “With the
savings Extreme was able to provide over the competition and the fact
that we can now operate with a single network engineer, we finally have
a flexible network that meets our day-to-day needs while advancing our
long-term mission of cutting costs,” says Sonty.
And how serious is Utica College about cutting costs? The school recently
announced that it will REDUCE THE COST OF UNDERGRADUATE
TUITION AND FEES BY 42% starting in Fall 2016, making Utica College
one of the two recent colleges nationwide to do so. Now that’s extreme!
The Measure of Success
“I use three key metrics in evaluating the success of an IT initiative,” says Sonty.
“First, did we enable meaningful change? Second, were we able to enhance
integration across the various components of our system? And third, were we able
to save money? Thanks to our close working relationship with the people at
Extreme, we’ve been able to hit all three."
Tower Hall and Bell Hall at Utica College
“We’ve reduced the complexity of our network and made it easier
for people to access and use our systems. We’ve brought lots of
disparate infrastructure elements together into an integrated system
that we can easily monitor through a single pane. Finally, we’ve been
able to reduce our operating expenses and spend far less time and
money maintaining our systems. Extreme has been a true partner at
every step of the way.”
VIJAY SONTY
CIO, UTICA COLLEGE