Case Study: Appalachian State University achieves secure, policy-driven BYOD access and seamless user experience with Extreme Networks

Extreme Networks PolicyDriven Switching Provides Open, Secure Network Access from Any Device

Appalachian State University, a public university with about 17,838 students, 2,892 faculty/staff and a main campus across 75 buildings, needed to support mobility, BYOD and virtualization while protecting a campus that could see upwards of 50,000 devices. Appalachian selected Extreme Networks to deliver an open yet secure network using K‑Series and S‑Series switches, OneFabric Control Center and NetSight network management to provide consistent, easy-to-manage access from any device.

Extreme Networks implemented policy-driven distributed forwarding, Policy Manager and NetSight so IT could push policies to the edge within minutes, quarantine unknown devices for assessment, and authenticate multiple users per port (up to eight) for a seamless campus experience. The deployment let Appalachian quickly eliminate malicious traffic, centrally manage switches (saving IT significant troubleshooting time), secure BYOD access for tens of thousands of devices, and stabilize the network—enabling further K‑Series expansion and future stadium/analytics plans.

Appalachian State University

Dave Hayler

Director of IT Infrastructure & Systems