Comprehensive BYOD Management at SDSU

With 34,000 students, 9,600 faculty and staff, and guests on its 300-acre campus, California’s San Diego State University (SDSU), a nationally ranked research university renowned for academic excellence, must accommodate tens of thousands of wireless and mobile devices accessing its network each day, many of these personal devices. Given that volume of devices, SDSU needed a comprehensive access and policy management solution that could easily scale while improving the security of the wireless network.

SDSU 

San Diego State University’s deployment of the ClearPass Access Management System will provide robust, reliable and secure network access for all of their users — students, faculty, staff and guests.

SDSU selected to deploy the Aruba ClearPass Access Management System, a new solution that will allow it to manage network policies, securely onboard and manage devices and admit guest users — all from one platform.

Combined with SDSU’s existing Aruba Networks Wireless LAN (WLAN), ClearPass will allow the university to address the challenges associated with the exponential growth in wireless and mobile devices resulting from the growing bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend on campus. The new solution will give SDSU’s IT department visibility into exactly which users and devices are registering onto the network, enabling SDSU to better manage, track and give appropriate access to the devices accessing the network, which will ensure a more secure, consistent network experience for all of the university’s users.

“With our old access management system, we weren’t able to access the necessary information from devices to properly prioritize and manage traffic,” says Kent McKelvey, director, Telecomm and Network Services, SDSU. “With ClearPass, we will be able to view and manage all of that detailed information, and restrict or block access if necessary. ClearPass will provide us with the flexibility to manage a user base comprised of known and unknown users and will allow us to quickly and easily adjust how we determine levels of access.”

Aruba Networks
www.arubanetworks.com

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management August 2013 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Spaces4Learning Launches 2026 Education Design Showcase Awards

    Spaces4Learning has opened submissions for the 2026 Education Design Showcase! The awards program launched in 1999 with the goal of celebrating innovative, practical solutions in the planning, design, and construction of K–12 and higher-education facilities. EDS recognizes new developments that help achieve optimal learning environments, as well as the architecture firms that brought the ideas to life.

  • NWEA Report Recommends K–12 Natural Disaster Recovery Strategies

    The Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), a K–12 assessment and research organization, recently announced the release of a new playbook for schools and communities recovering from extreme weather events, according to a news release.

  • concentric silhouettes of a human head

    How Physical Space Shapes the Mind: Designing for Better Learning Outcomes

    Research in environmental psychology and neuroscience increasingly suggests that the way a room is designed can influence memory, focus, or even a student's sense of belonging.

  • California K–12 District Completes Elementary School Campus Replacement

    The West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) in Richmond, Calif., recently announced the completion of a replacement campus for Lake Elementary School, according to a news release. The school has capacity for 470 students between Transitional Kindergarten (TK) and sixth grade.