Sharjah Institute of Technology improving access to educational resources with Nortel Solutions

The network migration to IP will provide secure mobility throughout the college campus and a wide range of communications capabilities to satisfy growing demand from 900 staff and technology career students.

Nortel solutions for education to be deployed at SIT in conjunction with Nortel's channel partner, Beta Information Technology, consolidates all campus communications into a single, reliable, easy-to-manage and secure IP network. The network also allows future flexibility to easily migrate to VoIP and other advanced services like multimedia communications without the cost of major network improvements.

'A converged campus network allows us to transform our teaching, research and administrative environment by providing a range of new services with easy access from anywhere on campus," said Khalid Khougali, Head of ICT at Sharjah Institute of Technology. "Nortel solutions deliver the high bandwidth and active resilience which are required to provide a cutting-edge learning experience in the future."

'Nortel believes that the future of education relies on a successful learning environment where multimedia communications improves collaboration, enables virtual learning and delivers unrestricted mobility. At the same time, communications must also reduce costs, simplify administration and operations to ensure valuable resources are dedicated to education and not to managing the network," said Ramin Attari, vice president Middle East Nortel.

"We have to create learning communities where everyone is connected to each other and to the latest resources and tools. Nortel's IP solutions are designed to meet those important educational objectives."

The solution deployed at SIT includes Nortel's Ethernet Routing Switches 8600 offering scalable resiliency through SMLT and Ethernet Routing Switches 5000 designed to provide high-density Gigabit desktop connectivity and Power over Ethernet (PoE) capability.

To ensure a highly secure solution, The Nortel VPN Router 2700 has also been deployed. Supporting up to 2000 tunnels, the Nortel VPN Router 2700 is ideal for large organizations that need to extend secure remote access to many users and small offices. VPN solutions increase the accessibility of SIT campus through secure remote access solutions. Enable distance learning solutions and extend the reach of campus network to anyone authorized, anywhere and anytime.