Case Study: Cincinnati Public Schools reclaims 40% of Internet bandwidth with Exinda

Exinda helps Cincinnati public schools reclaim 40% of its internet access

Cincinnati Public Schools, which serves roughly 34,680 students across 58 schools, was struggling with chronic WAN congestion: peer-to-peer file sharing, automatic software updates and other nonessential traffic were saturating the district’s Internet and crippling VPN access for vendors and staff during school hours. Their legacy PacketShaper could not scale beyond 100 Mbps, and despite upgrades to the district pipe, peak usage still maxed out available bandwidth.

CPS trialed and deployed an Exinda 7700 (1 Gbps) appliance, using its detailed reporting to identify top bandwidth consumers and implement policies that prioritized VPN traffic and limited P2P/non-secure FTP during the day while scheduling updates for off-peak hours. The solution reclaimed about 40% of Internet bandwidth, restored reliable VPN access, improved overall network performance, and saved an estimated $12,000–$15,000 versus the next best alternative.

Cincinnati Public Schools

Paul Wright

Network Administrator, Cincinnati Public Schools