Nord Anglia Education Selects Xirrus for High Performance Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) Scheme

Xirrus, the leader in high-performance wireless networks, today announced that Nord Anglia Education has deployed Xirrus Wireless Arrays to deliver high capacity, BYOD connectivity across its family of 14 international schools throughout Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The deployment enables teachers to deliver more dynamic lessons using online learning resources as well as satisfying the growing demand for wireless connectivity.

Nord Anglia Education is the leader in the international provision of high quality, innovative education, training and guidance. It is committed to providing cutting edge learning resources. Regional IT Director for Europe, Mr. Bartlomeij Cezak said: "Many of our 10,000 students and 3,000 staff use their own laptops, tablets and smartphones whilst at school to access the growing volume of online educational tools. It is also becoming common practice for teachers to stream or download content in the classroom, leading to an increased demand for Wi-Fi coverage."

Nord Anglia Education has currently installed high performance Xirrus Wireless Arrays across its European schools, along with a Xirrus Management System and intends to do the same in Asia during 2013. The unique architecture of the Xirrus solution meets Nord Anglia Education's demand for capacity, providing four times the coverage and up to eight times the bandwidth and capacity of traditional access points. This is ideal for the high user density found in an educational environment.

"Xirrus was the obvious choice for us as they were able to offer the best in class for a wireless solution at a reasonable cost," said David Kibble, Group IT Director at Nord Anglia Education. "Using Xirrus also allows us to future proof our investment. Its arrays are designed to support the new 802.11ac standard, which will be Certified next year and so if we want to upgrade, we can add or swap 802.11ac modules into the existing chassis. A key selling point for me was to ensure that our wireless network evolves alongside new wireless standards."

Safe, Secure BYOD

While BYOD is a great enabler for interactive learning, it exposes the network to new devices and applications which need to be managed. Nord Anglia Education uses Xirrus Application Control to optimise the user experience by prioritising critical applications, restricting usage of bandwidth-heavy applications and blocking restricted applications. Using this feature, Nord Anglia Education can ensure a safe, Seamless network experience across its global family of schools.