Case Study: Cumberland University achieves scalable, resilient campus mobility with Brocade ICX switches

Setting a Foundation for Open Mobility and Ultimate Flexibility

Cumberland University, a private school of about 1,500 students, needed to replace a seven‑year‑old unmanaged wireless network that couldn’t keep up with growing device use, streaming video, and online course requirements across four campus locations and five residence halls. IT leadership wanted a highly resilient, scalable solution that removed single points of failure, improved bandwidth and coverage, and simplified management and budgeting.

Cumberland deployed Brocade ICX 6610 switches as a stacked core and Brocade ICX 6430/6450 switches at the edge (including residence halls), and paired them with Aerohive controller‑less access points. The new architecture delivered reliable campus‑wide wireless, simplified administration through stacking and single‑address management, built‑in redundancy and hitless failover, 10 Gbps SAN connectivity, and the scalability to support future 802.11ac upgrades while lowering total cost and support overhead.

Cumberland University

William Lambert

Director of Information Technology