Case Study: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) achieves a secure, high-performance mobile campus network with Extreme Networks

Enabling Mobile Learning, Teaching and Working with Secure, High Performance Network from Extreme Networks

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) Affiliated Colleges at Hafar-Al-Batin — serving about 600 students and 170 staff across five colleges — needed a secure, identity-based wired and wireless network to deliver campus and remote access to email, ERP, library and multimedia on a wide range of mobile devices while keeping costs low and providing scalability and resilience. After evaluating seven vendors, KFUPM selected Extreme Networks to provide a high-performance, low‑cost solution, including BlackDiamond X8 core switches, Summit X460 edge switches, Summit WM3600 wireless controllers and Altitude 4610/4620 access points.

Extreme Networks deployed two BlackDiamond X8 backbones, Summit edge switches, WM3600 controllers and roughly 70 Altitude APs to enable identity-based access, centralized management, VLAN segmentation and converged voice/video services. The Feb 2013 rollout improved application responsiveness (email, Internet, file transfers and ERP), simplified operations for a five‑person IT team, delivered the lowest total cost of ownership among competitors, achieved five‑nines (99.999%) availability and provided scalable capacity to support future campus growth.

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM)

Malik Taysir Hassan Al-Qdah

Director of IT